Ever since its then-record $232 million ICO (initial coin offering) back in 2017, Tezos (XTZ) has earned a justifiable amount of buzz in the crypto world. But does the Swiss-US joint venture have legs?

First off, it’s important to understand what makes Tezos stand out among the thousands of cryptocurrencies on the market. XTZ utilizes a proof-of-stake based consensus model, which, unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum’s proof-of-work models, isn’t dependent on mining for its blockchain protocol.

Instead, Tezos employs a more democratic model where all stakeholders have a hand in managing the protocol in what is known as a “self-amending blockchain.” One of the big takeaways from this model is that it avoids the issue of hard forking into two different blockchains. Hard forking is what caused bitcoin cash to break off from bitcoin and Ethereum to break off from Ethereum classic.

In comprehensive terms, Tezos uses a “formal, on-chain mechanism for proposing, selecting, testing, and activating protocol upgrades.” It results in a uniquely formalized process, in which users have control of what happens to updates, as long as it’s within the Tezos protocol.

It all adds up to some exciting potential for Tezos, which has generated some major public enthusiasm and investor interest. The Bank of France is testing out a Tezos node, and a tech investment firm called Silicon Valley Coin chose Tezos (noticeably over Ethereum) to tokenize its fund.

XTZ is also making a lot of noise on the STO (security token offering) market, with global investment banks like BTG Pactual, tZERO, and Alliance Investments contributing to a reported $2.6 billion-plus in STOs deployed on the Tezos blockchain.

So, will all this buzz and heightened interest result in Tezos being the next altcoin to go boom? Or is it all just hot air? Check out eToro’s video to find out more about Tezos and if it has what it takes to rival Ethereum as the no. 2 cryptocurrency on the market.