Block.one’s Public Blockchain Engagement Expands; Plans to Begin EOS Voting in May 2020

Block.one created the Public Blockchain Engagement (PBE) division to act as the first point of contact between the company and public blockchain communities. We are focused on outlining processes and best practices that will deepen Block.one’s community engagement and represent the company’s interests as a holder of digital assets of various chains. 

The EOS network is one of the most developed of these networks and is the most widely adopted, performant, and decentralized public blockchain network leveraging delegated proof of stake. Based on the EOSIO open-source software framework, it was launched in 2018 by thousands of enterprising individuals distributed across the globe, and it has operated autonomously ever since. To date, Block.one has been a relatively silent minority token holder, having abstained from operating nodes on the network and exercising its voting capacity. We’ve been focused on observing and learning.

Recently, EOS has scaled to over 100 million operations per day, more than any other major public network and their aggregation. Such scalability has pushed the boundaries of not only blockchain innovation, but also the tools that interface with blockchain transactions when processing such velocity and throughput. This achievement highlights the vast utility and raw capability of EOS and the technical prowess of collective collaboration.

Stakeholder Alignment

EOS governance exists today as a highly balanced economic and technical ecosystem. Block Producer (BP) and Standby Block Producer (SBP) candidates make an ongoing bid for votes to participate in consensus, and as a reward they receive EOS tokens. In many cases, these rewards are passed on to the token holders who supported them as a way to lower the network operation costs in a manner that directly benefits token holders who engage with the network. Such non-dilutive inflation has become a common best practice and exists in other major networks including Bitcoin and Ethereum, where mining pools reward for hash power allocation, as well as in other chains based on Dan Larimer’s DPoS consensus inventions, such as the Tezos baking model.

A token holder can change the BPs they support at any time with little friction, creating a highly competitive marketplace that is continuously controlled and dictated by the token holders themselves. EOS’ free-market system aligns all network participants in a simple yet powerful way that prioritizes token holder interest through aligned incentives. 

As an EOS token holder, Block.one believes staking systems will be a critical component of the future tokenized economy, and to ensure maximum network security and constructive participation, Block.one will begin staking and voting its EOS token position.

First Steps: Recognizing Current Network Operators

Since the EOS public blockchain was launched by the public and its founding BPs, hundreds of BPs and SBPs have contributed a tremendous amount of code, knowledge, and leadership. Initially, in the coming weeks, we plan to use our voting stake to begin highlighting and voting for many of these candidates, potentially even in rotation, to showcase these organizations’ achievements, values, and network contributions.

Our voting approach will evolve over time, and criteria will be added to ensure that the recipients of our votes adhere to the standards we wish to see network wide. We anticipate staking rewards may become a core component of our approach with the rewards allocated toward the research, formation and funding of EOS- centric initiatives. During this first voting period Block.one will not participate in a staking reward program.

The EOS Foundation

The Public Blockchain Engagement division is actively researching and developing a model for a potential EOS foundation, in conjunction with other organizations and ecosystem participants, to support the advancement of the EOS public blockchain.

Any EOS foundation would be designed to foster decentralized collaboration, network security and uptime, high performance, and token holder alignment. At its heart would be the goal of promoting transparency, communication, collaboration, and opportunity.

To build this initiative successfully in compliance with all relevant regulations and ensure effective decentralization, we will listen to, and work with, other members of the community for their input and insight. 

For now, we’d like to invite network participants interested in Block.one’s voting support to engage with us, as well as the public, by contributing thoughts, ideas, questions, proposals, collaboration opportunities, and more. Feel free to reach out to us at pbe@block.one.

If you are a member of the media, please send your query to media@block.one.

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