Introducing Telos Zero

7 min readMay 26, 2023

May 26, 202

Introduction

Telos and its entire ecosystem and global community are set to embark on a new era.

Following last week’s 99.46% landslide approval of the TEDP4 proposal, which saw a total of 61.8 million vote tokens utilized, the Telos Foundation and Telos Core Developers will now begin work on moving forward all of the project updates and deliverables set forth through this landmark event.

TEDP4 was initially conceived and brought forward in order to ensure that all the pieces are in place for Telos’ progression to the next level of the Web3 space. There are currently thousands of blockchain and crypto projects vying for attention and new users, but most do not have the required determination and technology to truly succeed in the long run — Telos has both. However, while Telos’ tech infrastructure is already reliable enough, fast enough and secure enough to become the blockchain of choice for a global decentralized world, the innovations outlined in TEDP4 will enable the project to make the groundbreaking strides still required in terms of user adoption, interoperability and scalability.

The passing of TEDP4 now sets the stage for the next phase of the Telos project, which is the introduction of Telos Zero. Today’s blog post will examine the catalysts for Telos Zero and explore what its development will ultimately mean for everyone that’s part of the global Telos community and sharing in its collective vision for a more fair and equitable world underpinned by best-in-class technology.

TEDP4 Growth Pillars

Before diving into the factors that led to the ideation of Telos Zero, it’s important to take a moment to reiterate the growth pillars laid out in TEDP4, which form the basis for what’s driving Telos’ strategy, actions and goals. As a reminder, the growth pillars outlined in TEDP4 were as follows:

User Growth:

The Telos Network aims to capture a significant share of the 100 million new gamers expected to come to the blockchain space in the next two years.
Partnership identified with a leading global player in traditional gaming to attract new users to the Web3 space.

Infinite Scalability:

The Telos Zero plan includes adding necessary cryptographic host functions, identifying a trustless cross-chain strategy, integrating IBC and zK privacy features, building a Telos Zero SDK, and releasing a Telos Zero Wallet that supports all Telos Zero chains.
The Telos Zero ecosystem expansion envisions a robust multi-chain universe with Telos Native, Telos EVM, Telos One, GameFi Chain, App Chains, and On-Demand Chains serving different purposes within the Network.
The introduction of additional chains, such as TelosOne, will further enhance the Telos ecosystem’s capabilities, and the $TLOS token will be used as the system/utility token across all chains for increased synergies and network effects.

To summarize, in order to achieve mass adoption of the Telos Network over time, TEDP4 identified the need to become an industry leader in Web3 gaming and a pioneer in terms of scalability and interoperability as the project’s two most important growth drivers moving forward. This is an important piece of context while looking at how the introduction of Telos Zero aims to achieve these goals. But first, let’s look at the driving industry forces that have ultimately led to the need for a solution such as Telos Zero.

The Trilemma

The “Blockchain Trilemma” has long theorized that when it comes to decentralization, security and scalability, blockchains can only accomplish a maximum of two of these benefits at one time. But in today’s evolving tech landscape, this theory is quickly becoming antiquated as the world’s leading projects increasingly seek to do all three.

Delivering a blockchain that is completely secure across a widely decentralized network while being able to handle mass-scale transactional throughput is the ultimate objective across the sector. Any project that is able to do this while simultaneously securing widespread adoption through mass awareness coupled with growing on-chain utility will win, plain and simple.

Telos has all the tools to finally solve the Blockchain Trilemma — tech built for wide scale adoption, a team focused on facilitating complete decentralization and a developer community adept at building with speed and security in mind — but in order to truly reach the holy grail of blockchain tech, new innovation and progression is required. Enter, Telos Zero.

Telos Zero as a Solution

We already know that the future is multi-chain. Blockchains that are not focused on developing cross-chain functionality leading to greater levels of interoperability and scalability risk being left behind in a flash in a space that is continually and rapidly evolving.

Telos Zero signals the project’s transformation into a Layer 0 network. It’s time to embrace multi-chain.

The framework for Telos Zero was laid out in early May in the TEDP4 proposal and details around its goal of driving infinite scalability were also highlighted in last week’s blog announcing the voting results.

Telos’ current blockchain structure offers many strengths, including high performance, multi-platform support, IBC technology integration for seamless connectivity, self-regulated software stacks (Antelope, OBE, Teloscan, Telos Wallet), engaged and supportive communities and a strong governance structures. However, Telos continues to face intense competition from alternative blockchains and does not currently enjoy the same level of recognition as other networks that are better-resourced but less feature rich.

So, where is the opportunity?

There is a growing demand for scalable, high-throughput blockchain solutions. Naturally, technological advancements in these areas can also lead Telos to new opportunities in exciting categories like GameFi, DeFi and NFTs as users seek out robust and versatile platforms that carry low usage costs. Meanwhile, increasing privacy-focused solutions for businesses and individuals will also open the door to new strategic partnerships and user growth.

Telos has an opportunity to get ahead of the growth curve during the current bear market in order to be uniquely positioned for success during the next bull cycle. Through the recently developed trustless Antelope IBC Protocol, Telos is also adeptly positioned to become an industry leader in interconnected blockchains. And, as Telos sharpens its focus on Web3 gaming and the 100 million potential new blockchain users that come along with it, there couldn’t be a better time to implement a Layer 0 solution to bolster the project’s future outlook.

Telos Zero has the potential to solve the Blockchain Trilemma once and for all. The integration of a layer 0 network on top of Telos’ already dynamic tech stack can lead to industry-leading soltions across all three categories outlined in the trilemma:

Scalability — Enabling seamless cross-chain interoparability through Telos Zero will not only position Telos Native as a leading blockchain in the space from a tech perspective, but it will also lead to crucial new strategic partnerships and can open the door to the onboarding of tens if not hundreds of millions of new users across different chains in need of scaling solutions. Additional traction will also be secured through the project’s soon-to-be-announced GameFi partnership, leading to greater user adoption and scaling potential.

Security — Telos Zero will inherit security features and solutions from the existing Telos blockchain ecosystem, which has never experienced an unplanned outage or fallen victim to a signifcant malicious hack or attack.

Decentralization — With the greater adoption and user base facilitated by Telos Zero, the Telos Foundation will continue to implement solutions that lead to far greater levels of decentralization, buoyed by an increasingly larger, more versatile and diverse global community.

Conclusion

While the exciting unity and conviction displayed through TEDP4 was a major step forward for Telos and its global community, a great deal of planning and work now begins towards making Telos Zero a reality. From the exciting new Web3 gaming partnership going live shortly to all of the other existing momentum and recent development across the project (check out the Telos April 2023 Recap for the latest), Telos is positioning itself as one of the industry’s strongest projects and communities heading towards the next bull cycle.

While the framework for Telos Zero, as well as the industry forces that motivated its ideation have now been clearly outlined, a comprehensive roadmap detailing all of its development timelines and goals will also be going live within the next month. Watch out for its upcoming release, which will represent yet another step towards realizing the boundless potential that introducing a layer 0 network like Telos Zero can offer the project’s community and, eventually, the world as a whole.