Author: Marco González

Editor: Randall Roland

January 20, 2023, was an exciting day. It was when the community learned about the last major update to EOS EVM (prior to the mainnet launch). Also, the ENF announced EOS as the native token for the EVM. Below you’ll find a bit of a chronology of how EOS EVM came to be and its future impact.

The EOS EVM story begins late in December 2021, not long after the founding of the ENF. ENF CEO Yves La Rose tweeted about its importance on December 15:

“One of the first priorities the #ENF highlighted was EVM compatibility. Announcing the 5th WG, EVM+!”

Soon after, the ENF published its first EVM-dedicated blog post entitled EVM+: Bringing the Ethereum Virtual Machine to EOS. Another five dedicated posts would arrive over the next year.

EVM applications have firmly supplanted themselves in Web3. The EVM recently tweeted about this topic:

“EVM niche is one of the most active parts of the #Web3 industry 💻 With the launch of #EOS EVM, the EOS ecosystem will soon see massive growth in this area 📈…”

The need for connecting EOS with Ethereum was recognized by Block.one back in 2020. Instead of tapping the billions entrusted by the community, Block.one (now B1) passed the bag in the form of a community challenge. $200,000 was awarded to one person (Syed Jafri) to accomplish the task- a weak effort at best.

The EVM working group (WG+) was introduced in that first blog post. Its mission involves creating an optimal solution for compatibility on several fronts:

EOS Argentina leads EVM development. Syed Jafri still makes contributions in an advisory role. Inspiration for the early design was found in the Telos EVM implementation.

April 19, 2022, also marks the preliminary launch (testing) event and AMA. Details about the first testing event can be found on the ENF’s second major EVM post, EOS EVM Launches on Jungle Testnet with Full Ethereum and RPC Compatibility.

The following weeks saw more information released about EOS EVM:

The EVM Name Service (EVMNS) project by EVMNS Labs is an exciting addition. The EVMNS uses the ERC721 standard to deliver a .evm domain suffix. The naming system is distributed, open, and multi-chain. EVMNS’ combined performance, reliability, and security bring EOS functionality to:

The ENF announced ‘Trust Network’ as the official name for EOS EVM during the preliminary launch, on April 19, 2022. The foundation would walk that naming decision back. The reason was to increase the transparency of how EOS connects to Ethereum.

Later in August, the ENF published EVMxIdeathon: Dream It, Build It! The part hackathon, part ideathon was hosted by the ENF and Helios. Its chief aim was to inspire new developers to leverage the new EOS/Ethereum connection. EVM is integral to the ENF marketing team plans.

On April 20, 2022, ENF co-founder Zack Gall announced a dual yield structure on Fireside Chat. EOS would then become the native token for the EVM. Thus producing an incentive to lock up EOS and increase TVL (total value locked).

The plan for an initial working solution was Q2 of 2022. Q2 was never a hard release date. With an EVMxIdeathon planned, EOS EVM undergoes rigorous testing. EOS EVM won’t just be the fastest available. It will also be the best.

Delaying the launch allows for an even better product:

“performance optimization and an extra feature regarding the block time”

Improvements were well received. Unlike past leadership, the ENF has already amassed confidence throughout the community. Such is the case when an entity is as productive (not merely promissory) as the ENF.

As promised, the ENF delivered a ready-to-go product in Q1 of 2023. EOS EVM is ready to “drive value and utility to EOS”. EOS EVM expects to go live on the mainnet as early as March (latest April). All that’s needed is some final testing.

So, what’s next? Consider a few things:

EOS EVM offers unparalleled opportunities even beyond speed and functionality. Nextgen scalability via IBC is in itself profound. Native EOS developers incorporate blockchain deeper into their projects. Very soon EOS EVM will demonstrate that competitive Web3 is ready today on EOS.