LONDON (Bywire News) - In a move which they say will hand power back to the community, Block.one is throwing 10% of its EOS supply behind its own voting proxy.
The new proxy “sub2.b1” will enable it to vote for specific block producers who will govern the EOS blockchain. Users will also be able to support their voting choices directly.
Block.one has put enormous resources behind this. In total, 10% of the entire token supply (85 million EOS or $259 million-plus almost all of Block.one’s 100 million EOS holdings will go behind the move which will make it the largest voting proxy on the network.
However, despite all these resources, Block.one has not decided which block producers it will vote for and only six accounts have chosen sub2.b1 as their vote proxy.
The new proxy will give Block.one more influence over EOS voting than previously and could diver voters from smaller, community-run proxies such as those run by Brock Pierce.
In part, Block.one hopes to solve the issue of corruption. Collusion and so-called ‘sockpuppet’ accounts allow unscrupulous participants to become block producers and gain control over the network. To counter this, the company says, it will vote for those block producers who have a history of positive contributions to EOS and whose identities are known. This should ensure that only reputable, ethical and reliable block producers will be able to run the blockchain.
The decision will be a step towards centralisation and away from its stated goal of decentralising the platform. However, according to Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.one, its new proxy could be seen as giving control back to the community which will have input on whether it supports the company’s voting decisions.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited Klaudia Fior)