EOS is the native cryptocurrency that powers the blockchain protocol EOSIO, a network, and platform for the deployment of decentralized applications built on Ethereum. Unofficially EOS stands for ‘Ethereum Operating System’.

The protocol is a sidechain solution developed on top of the Ethereum network to overcome scalability issues. Sidechains allow developers to process transactions off-chain, only adding to the public ledger as needed, thereby avoiding the process bottlenecks. The smart contract platform claims to eliminate transaction fees and is capable of conducting millions of transactions per second.

EOSIO was developed by the private company block.one, which is registered in the Cayman Islands. Its first whitepaper was published in 2017, and its open-source software was released on June 1, 2018. It aims to be the first decentralized operating system that provides a development environment for decentralized applications (dApps) like BitShares, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX), and Steemit, a social network with monetary incentives.