Comparison and Analysis of PoS Public Chain Projects: ETH2.0, Tezos, and Cosmos

In 2020, the issuance of PoS public chains became one of the hottest topics in the market. This article will analyze and compare the three major star PoS projects: ETH2.0, Tezos, and Cosmos, based on on-chain data, to analyze the number of wallet addresses and the amount of holdings on these three networks according to current data.

ETH2.0 is a major upgrade that Ethereum will undergo, transitioning from a PoW mining model to a PoS mining model. This means that the new issuance rate of ETH will decrease from nearly 10% to less than 2%, lower than the inflation rate of traditional currencies, proving the scarcity of ETH.

Tezos is a high-performance underlying public chain that benchmarks against Ethereum, with the highlight being its self-amending feature. XTZ token holders can stake to become nodes themselves or delegate their tokens to "bakers" to participate in governance indirectly.

Cosmos is a decentralized network that provides scalability and interoperability, built on the Tendermint consensus algorithm. The Tendermint Core and the inter-blockchain communication (IBC) protocol form a universal architecture that allows various cryptocurrency main chains to interoperate.

The PoS consensus mechanism has become a mainstream trend for the new generation of public chains. Staking participates in network security management by pledging tokens, preventing the tokens of holders from being diluted by inflation. Compared to PoW mining, PoS is more beneficial for ordinary users to participate.

But PoS is not perfect either. Some projects lock users' tokens on one hand, while offering newly minted tokens as rewards on the other. However, if the project's value is insufficient to support the token price, users may experience a situation where "they earn tokens but lose money."

Token Distribution Status

As of June 17, 2020, there are 101 million ETH accounts, but most do not hold tokens. The top 10 addresses hold 15.93% of the tokens, the top 100 addresses hold 35.32%, and the top 1000 addresses hold 64.87%.

There are a total of 31,358 addresses for ATOM, with 125 validators. The top 10 addresses hold 88.82% of the tokens, the top 100 hold 98.62%, and the top 1000 hold 99.94%.

Tezos has a total of 546,382 addresses and 494 bakers. The top 10 addresses hold 20.71% of the tokens, the top 100 hold 53.24%, and the top 1000 hold 81.23%.

Comparatively, ETH performs the best in terms of decentralization. As a new public chain, Tezos also has a decent token distribution among the top 10 and top 100 addresses. Considering that bakers will attract external staking, ordinary users of Tezos still hold a significant proportion of tokens, giving it a certain advantage in terms of decentralization.

Overall, ETH is difficult to surpass in terms of user numbers and decentralization in the short term. However, Tezos is currently the most likely to compete with ETH.

Staking Situation Comparison

As of June 18, 2020, the dynamic staking rate of ATOM is 93.88%, with an annualized return of 9.26%. The total market capitalization is $511 million, while the non-staked circulating market value is only $31.3 million. Based on the current staking rate and yield, 16.58 million ATOMs are issued annually, which is 1.42 times the non-staked circulating tokens.

The dynamic staking rate of XTZ is 79.93%, with an annual yield of 6.94% and a total market capitalization of $1.94 billion. Every year, 40.68 million XTZ are issued, worth $10.7 million, which is 27% of the non-staked circulating tokens.

In comparison, the inflation rate of ATOM is too high, which may put considerable pressure on holders. The inflation rate of XTZ is relatively reasonable.

Holders' Address Activity

38% of ETH addresses were active in the past year, involving 76.01% of circulating tokens.

56.2% of XTZ addresses have been active in the past year, involving 95.17% of circulating tokens. The trading proportion of the top 1000 addresses has been very high in the past 30 days.

44.25% of ATOM addresses have been active in the past month, and 95.5% of addresses have been active in 2020.

The overall activity levels of addresses on Tezos and Cosmos are both quite high, with Tezos showing even higher activity recently, as over 60% of addresses remained active in the past month.

This is related to the short launch time of the two projects, where early supporters are more actively involved in the consensus. At the same time, the support from infrastructure such as exchanges and wallets has also promoted the activity of the tokens.

In the future, decentralized governance and ecological improvement of public chains will be key. Tezos and Cosmos are both exploring innovative applications such as interoperability to enhance project visibility and user participation.

Overall, ETH is leading in terms of decentralization, but Tezos also performs well in this regard. Both Tezos and Cosmos have high staking rates, but Tezos has a more reasonable economic model. In terms of activity, both maintain a high level, but Tezos has a slight edge. Therefore, Tezos is expected to become a dark horse in the PoS race, competing with ETH 2.0.

The competitiveness of future PoS public chains lies in establishing a strong developer community, finding innovative development paths and differentiated advantages, as well as optimizing governance structures.