Yesterday on Twitter, block.one’s CEO, Brendan Blumer, shared some interesting thoughts about the governance of the EOS blockchain and the behaviour of Block Producers (BP).
Sometimes “stepping up” means stepping down.
I disagree with your definition of democracy, and strongly support voter rebates. It allows block producers to compete on costs and exemplifies EOS’s allegiance to token holders by driving concrete and measurable value to them
— Brendan Blumer (@BrendanBlumer) September 15, 2019
The debate was triggered by the disclosure made by a famous user on the EOS blockchain, Colin T Crypto, who wrote on Twitter that a BP tried to buy his proxy to allow other Block Producers to rise in the top 21.
Following this revelation, the CEO congratulated the user on transparency.
“This is what decentralised governance looks like. It’s great to see you representing transparency and integrity on behalf of those supporting your proxy”.
In response, Rami James, one of the designers of Scatter, the leading wallet for EOS, expressed his disappointment regarding BPs, which according to him have an ambiguous behaviour.
“Okay. And what is your stance on those that do not? There is a serious problem that the top BPs have bribed and bought their way to the top. It isn’t democratic, and it isn’t transparent. When is @block_one_ going to step up?”.
Brendan Blumer then explained that the position of Block.one is not to intervene abruptly so as to allow more competition on costs for BPs, allowing them to optimise resources and optimise their systems, which can lead to advantages for the entire EOS blockchain.
In addition, Blumer points out that paying BPs more would not guarantee that they would use resources to improve the network:
“Should Bitcoin add extra transaction fees if the miners promise to do “community good?”, asked ironically Blumer, adding:
No, they are both inflation paid by the network, at the expense of token holders, to confirm transactions
I think that BP pricing should be free-market, driven by rebates that incentivise voter participation and token lockup, and drive measurable value back to EOS holders
— Brendan Blumer (@BrendanBlumer) September 15, 2019
