EOS Accused Of Being Overly Centralized Again Due to Nature of How Votes are Conducted

Just last week, EOS network’s one of the most prominent block producers, EOS New York, was voted out, even though they had no complaints about over a year. Although they were voted back in, many fingers were pointed at EOS’s network for allowing some Chinese whales to collude and make this happen.

Shortly after tweeting this our unbroken streak ended. We produced blocks for 245,073 rounds or 357.4 consecutive days before we were voted out. Our world class infrastructure is sitting idle so go vote! Regardless, our work to improve #EOS continues! https://t.co/kNFi9JkR3n

— EOS New York (@eosnewyork) June 7, 2019

However, EOS New York’s spokesperson remained calm and showed his respect in EOS, saying:

“We are confident in the value we bring to the community and will work our way back. We reinvest back into EOS through open-source software, community leadership, governance.”

Although, not many on social media had the same view. Reddit user complaints:

“We need to stop the Chinese from colliding [sic]. And eossingapore [another popular block producer] is not run by Singaporeans…it’s run by China.”

Understanding EOS’s Voting Structure

Block Producers are decentralized entities that govern the EOS network. They are accountable for reaching consensus and adding blocks of transactions or data to the EOS blockchain. Unlike a regular democracy, in which elections are held every four or five years, votes on the EOS network are tallied every 60 seconds.

The top 21 entities that get the most votes are elected as Block Producers. Yet, because voting occurs on a relatively regular basis, and anyone can be voted in or out on a minute-by-minute basis, there is also a list of 101 Standby Block Producers voted for by EOS token holders, immediately ready to fill the gap if a top Block Producer gets voted out.

This can result in problems as seen earlier with EOS New York. It gives incentives to whales to collude and effectively take control of the blockchain.

Weiss Ratings Downgrades EOS

The United States-based financial research firm Weiss Ratings confirmed that they are downgrading its EOS cryptocurrency rating following blockchain’s ‘serious problems’ with centralization.

EOS DOWNGRADE: #EOS has serious problems with centralization, and their event last week did anything to alleviate that, so we’ve severely downgraded its technology score. It’s now up to #ADA to launch a truly decentralized #PoS #blockchain. No pressure.#crypto #Cardano #BTC

— Weiss Crypto Ratings (@WeissCrypto) June 7, 2019

In March, Weiss had put ripple and bitcoin beside EOS in its emerging crypto markets trends report. EOS was at that time given accolades for attempting to become the ‘backbone of the new internet.’

CEO Brendan Blumer was earlier forced to comment on this problem. He said:

“We are aware of some unverified claims regarding irregular block producer voting, and the subsequent denials of those claims. We believe it is important to ensure a free and democratic election process within EOS and may, as we deem appropriate, vote with other holders to reinforce the integrity of this process.”

It’s become increasingly evident that the “unverified claims” that Blumer had previously stated are objectively verifiable. He and his team should look at the centralization problem, otherwise, the crypto ecosystem will slowly start losing trust int heir system.