Author: Marco Gonzalez

Editor: Randall Roland

The mainnet revolution to take control of EOSIO development began in the minds of common community members. For clarification, EOS is the mainnet token rewarded for block production. Rewards are measures of inflation, the primary incentive.

The base code upon which the mainnet has been built up until this time was termed EOSIO. That changes with the deployment of third generation technology. The new base software will hence be known as Antelope. Note that new versions will have unique names.

In the case of the current version, 3.1, the name chosen was Leap. Note that ‘Leap’ refers to the C++ iteration. Associative names specific to programming languages (e.g. Rust) avoids confusion identified by developers of past versions of EOSIO.

While the revolution was initiated by core mainnet developers, their successful efforts awoke developers of EOSIO sister chains:

Formed as the EOSIO+ Coalition a few months ago, these three independent chains teamed with the EOS Network Foundation to expand upon the plan for Mandel 3.0. From the very beginning, the ENF planned to rebrand away from Block.one’s early influence.

The Coalition drafted its statement of purpose less than six months following the ENF’s rise to power. It reads, in part:

“…The purpose of the ENF EOSIO+ Working Group is to define and create a functional and efficient entity that does the following:

Each of the eleven objectives above are defined within the ENF’s (eosio-plus) Statement of Purpose on Github. Within a week of this publication, four chains (EOS, Telos, WAX, and UX Network) had agreed to join. No longer was the movement about taking back the EOS mainnet. It became about so much more.

With the revolution won, the ENF and its partners worked diligently to secure a bright future. Never was the mission merely for power. Mining inflationary rewards alone could never have given rise to such action. The new reality was evident in the stream of Blue Papers released by (ENF) working group after WG+.

On August 17, the ENF announced Antelope to replace Mandel (EOSIO). Details about Antelope can be found in the announcement.

As a placeholder name, Mandel 3.1 is in fact Antelope Leap v3.1 in the making. New details flow directly from Mandel publications. Note the following clarification and definition by the ENF:

“The main C++ implementation of the prior EOSIO protocol was never given a distinct name which led to confusion regarding whether one was discussing the protocol itself or a particular implementation of the protocol. This ambiguity is resolved by the first community-run implementation of the Antelope protocol: Leap v3.1.”

Antelope is a true effort to move away from a broken past left in the wake of B1. It’s not in any way the thin coat of paint some likened to second generation EOSIO updates. The ENF makes clear that Antelope represents a new beginning- even a second Dawn. On that note, below you’ll find condensed definitions stated at the end of the Antelope announcement:

September will be a time to look back as when EOS began to mature. It may prove historically significant for the blockchain space overall. Fueled by multi-chain collaboration, Antelope underscores impacts that cross philosophical approaches to blockchains. The question remains, not if Antelope will cause ripples throughout the blockchain space, but rather, to what degree.