Tezos was co-founded in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Arthur and Kathleen Breitman. Arthur previously worked as a quantitative analyst at Morgan Stanley and a research engineer at GoogleX. Kathleen holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and brings business development expertise. The project was initially proposed through papers released under the pseudonym L. M. Goodman.

Tezos was proposed in 2014 and conducted its ICO in 2017, raising approximately $232 million. The mainnet officially launched in September 2018 after a turbulent development period. By 2025, the network has undergone 19 successful protocol upgrades without any chain splits. In late 2024, Bitnomial launched the first US-regulated XTZ futures, marking a significant step toward institutional adoption.

Tezos operates using Liquid Proof-of-Stake consensus with a unique self-amendment capability. Smart contracts are primarily written in Michelson, a stack-based domain-specific language designed for formal verification. The network supports FA1.2 and FA2 token standards. Etherlink, its EVM-compatible Layer 2 solution, launched in May 2024, enhancing scalability and interoperability.

XTZ operates with an inflationary model and no hard supply cap. New tokens are minted annually as staking rewards for bakers and delegators, with an inflation rate of approximately 4-6% depending on network participation. Circulating supply stands at around 1.08 billion XTZ. The 18th protocol upgrade improved the baking and endorsement rewards mechanism while reducing validator token requirements.

Tezos implements an on-chain governance mechanism that allows token holders to directly vote on protocol upgrade proposals. The self-amendment process enables the network to propose, select, test, and activate upgrades without hard forks, avoiding the political divisions that have affected other blockchains. This has resulted in over 15 successful protocol upgrades demonstrating effective decentralized decision-making.

Tezos supports a diverse ecosystem including decentralized finance applications, non-fungible token platforms, and gaming. The network has partnered with Ubisoft for NFT initiatives and collaborates with institutional players for real-world asset tokenization. Hex Trust has integrated with Etherlink for tokenized uranium custody. The Tezos Foundation actively funds ecosystem development through grants and strategic partnerships.