Fantom is a proof-of-stake Layer-1 blockchain founded by computer scientist and ex-CEO Dr. Ahn Byung Ik in 2018 and launched on December 2019. Fantom is unique in that it runs on a single consensus layer known as the “Lachesis Protocol”. It serves as the core engine that also connects to Fantom’s EVM-compatible chain Opera (a wordplay on the popular musical “The Phantom Opera”).

Fantom’s goal is to create a smart-contract DeFi ecosystem that solves Ethereum’s existing problem of slow and expensive transactions, putting them in direct competition with Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Cardano, Solana and Terra. According to the Fantom Foundation, Fantom achieves an impressive time-to-finality of 1-2 seconds and a speed of 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), far ahead of Ethereum’s current 25 TPS.