LONDON (Bywire News) - To say that the last few months have been turbulent for EOS would be something of an understatement. From Pomelo to the ENF and Eden, new projects have been popping up or coming of age. Meanwhile, a civil war appears to be breaking out over control of the network.
Into this strides child star, turned crypto entrepreneur, turned senatorial hopeful, Brock Pierce. His new project Helios received eight million of those vested tokens from B1. He states that he’ll use those to support projects in the EOS ecosystem, but in doing so he’s right in the middle of a controversy surrounding the legitimacy of those tokens, the role of B1 and the future of EOS. He sat down with Bywire’s Michael O’Sullivan to talk about the controversy and why, despite all that’s happened he’s going ‘all in on EOS’.
The B1 problem
The criticism of B1 has been ferocious. EOS Network Foundation founder echoed the sentiments of many in the community when he accused them of having acted fraudulently and misleading the network. Early optimism and bold promises failed to materialise. Optimism turned to disillusionment. Hope turned to anger, as the company was hauled over the coals by the SEC over its world beating token offering.
However, while quickly reminding everyone that he stepped from B1 away before things went wrong, Pierce is still keen to defend the company he helped to found.
B1, he said, was a “victim of its own success.” Perhaps sensing the sceptical response of the community, he added: “B1 did build and release the open-source code that enabled all of this, so this is a pretty significant contribution. They did attempt to build EOS VC to put capital in the hands of autonomous groups giving them the authority to invest.”
To the future
Rather than pick over the past, he’s keen to talk about the future, and it’s one in which he sees plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
“I’m at a point where I’m more excited now than at any time other than at the beginning of this project,” he enthuses.
Many others will share that excitement. The launch of the EOS Network Foundation by Yves La Rose, the inaugural elections of Eden, Pomelo, Pierce’s own project Helios as well as the upcoming launch of Bullish have created an enormous amount of buzz around an ecosystem which earlier in the year was being written off.
It’s a turn of events which has coincided with the diminishing authority of B1, a move that he says is positive.
From the start, B1’s role has been controversial – not just for their actions, but the centralised nature of their involvement. To the wider ecosystem B1 was EOS and EOS was B1. Now though things are beginning to change.
“What has me excited about EOS and why I’m jumping back all in with a seven-year commitment which in the world of crypto is an eternity, is because Dan Larimer isn’t at B1,” he says, “that Dan Larimer has the autonomy and freedom to build things like Eden and whatever other wonderful ideas he comes up with. He has these moments of genius, and he whips out some of the most extraordinary things our industry has ever seen. The fact that the ENF exists, the fact that it was created outside of B1 that we have the first foundation of any layer one chain that was born out of the community. B1’s authority is now diminished, and they are now just one in a constellation of stars.”
It is a much more decentralised environment with different organisations working on their ‘separate competencies’. This, he believes, can only be good.
EOS Civil War
Even within this newfound era of optimism storm clouds are brewing. As Bywire exclusively revealed last week, La Rose met with Pierce and Brendan Blumer to discuss concerns over B1’s vested tokens.
As the founder of the network B1 allocated itself 10% of EOS’ total supply of one billion vested over a period of ten years. However, years of underperformance in the network has soured relations between B1 and the EOS community. Calls have been mounting for the community to take back the token allocation with La Rose stating that: “the network could remove the vesting code, and the network believes it is within their rights to do so.”
Pierce tries to separate himself from the dispute arguing that he is no longer part of B1 and has nothing to gain either way. That stance is made a little difficult given that B1 have agreed to transfer 45million EOS to his newly formed VC, Helios.
This project, he says, will be used to support the EOS ecosystem, but many in the community are unimpressed. One user condemned B1 as a ‘scam for going against their publicly stated commitments & breaking the social contract with the community.”
That social contract is something Pierce says he takes very seriously. With Helios, he says, he’s taking a great risk and staking a considerable portion of his own wealth. In going ‘all in on EOS’ he says, he’s doing his bit to fulfil the social contract many in the community believe his fellow founders broke.
A couple of things are clear. Pierce feels B1 have been unfairly scapegoated for the disappointing performance of EOS, and that he’s excited about the future. It’s easy to see why. With the ENF, Pomelo, Bullish, Eden and Helios in place, EOS appears to have many of the things people have been demanding. What’s not clear, though, is if all that will be enough to move beyond the negativity of the past and transform EOS into the network everyone – from the founders to the token holders – believe it can be.
(Writing by Tom Cropper, editing by Michael O'Sullivan)