Block.One, the company leading the recently beleaguered EOS blockchain has begun using its 10% token stake to vote on block producers. This news has raised many eyebrows in confusion, and perhaps even more fists in fury. This is perhaps because while Block.One should act has a largely neutral third-party, their involvement in selecting block producers essentially gives them a huge degree of control over the network and who is able to produce blocks.
Block.One’s 90 Million EOS Tokens
According to Twitter user @econoar, currently it only takes somwhere between 29 and 49 million tokens worth of votes to elect a block producer. Seeing that Block.One holds 90 million tokens, this means that at current voter turnout rates, they can effectively choose every block producer with each vote.
https://t.co/kmUGs5fPnh (@EOS_io) has decided to take over BP voting by using their 10% stack: https://t.co/2xF9eZYlX5
They have 90mn tokens. The current winning range of votes for BPs is 29-49mn.
So, https://t.co/V4kffbuHTm can now singlehandedly pick the BP list for #EOS.
— eric.eth (@econoar) June 28, 2018
The company released a statement on June 28 in regards to their decision to participate in this process. According to the statement, Block.One considers itself an “active minority voting member” and that their approach to their participation has been “carefully considered”.
As for who they will vote for, they claim that they will be focusing on which block producer will follow a number of values and considerations that they have outlined. Most of them are fairly boilerplate, and include “honesty, integrity, and fairness” as well as a total “alignment on the EOS Constitution”.
Specifically, the list is:
- Honesty, integrity, and fairness.
- Transparency of identity, activities, and decision-making.
- Abides by smart contracts and programming of network participants, in the absence of proven systemic bugs.
- 24/7 timeliness in processing transactions, upgrading the network, and emergency response.
- Compliance with the Ricardian Contracts entered into when becoming a block producer.
- Alignment on the EOS Constitution, the latest of which can be found here.
Finally the post gives a recommendation that in order to “facilitate maximum community choice”, the system contract should be updated to “support approval of 50 producers per account compared to the 30 currently allowed”.
Read Also: Beginners Guide to EOS
Accusations of centralization and manipulation
Since EOS began its rocky launch, many members of the cryptocurrency community have expressed doubt and distaste for the way in which EOS is handling itself. From its draconian constitution to its seeming censorship of accounts, to outright threats of lawsuits to block producers, the scandals seem to be appearing on a daily basis.
Users on Reddit commenting on the announcement were also quick to express their displeasure with the announcement, with one user calling it a “daily shitshow” and others comparing EOS to BitConnect, the infamous cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.
Others began to doubt the concept of delegated proof-of-stake entirely, saying that other projects like Lisk and Ark have also suffered from a number of issues relating to the way that block producers are voted for and how these systems can be manipulated.
A Downward Trend
EOS tokens have been on a steady decline since the launch of the main net.
Currently, they are trading for $7.37 which is more than 60% down from where the token stood at their peak of $21 in late April of this year. While crypto markets in general have been on the decline in recent months, EOS seems to be suffering in a very unique way.
Most other currencies have dropped somewhere between 20% and 30%. EOS has dropped more than double that amount.
Will Things Turn Around?
The only question left is, how much patience does the cryptocurrency community have left for EOS?
The company running the project seems to be incurring wrath from its investors and the general public on a near daily basis with apparently no end in sight. It is also raising additional fury because the EOS ICO infamously was able to collect an estimated $4 billion over its 18-month collection.
Many users are asking, what did they do with all that money? All that’s left to see is if EOS is able to pull things together and recover the lost goodwill and trust that they will need in order to become a major contender in the crypto world of tomorrow.
