LONDON (Bywire News) - Helios has reiterated its commitment to the EOS ecosystem with an ambitious program including Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) and the continuation of its incubator program. It’s a welcome development which dispels some uncertainty around the fund’s future and will be seen as a significant boost for the network.
There had been some uncertainty about the future of Helios after the top 21 block producers voted to stop the vesting of tokens to B1. At a stroke this put the bulk of the funding for Brock Pierce’s landmark new venture in jeopardy. The news led to a heated discussion between Pierce and ENF Founder Yves La Rose with the former said to have made a number of threats.
Whatever was or was not said, Pierce had found himself in an uncomfortable position stuck in the middle of a tug of war between B1 and the EOS community. Barely had Helios launched than its future already seemed to hang in the balance.
However, in an announcement on Christmas Day Helios reiterated its belief in EOS.
“We expect #EOS to gain momentum as the community, its founders, & investors re-establish trust in #DPOS. Pareto is a shared concern that @bytemaster7 warned of. We are optimistic that Decentralized Fractal Governance will be properly utilized with the new #Eden model whitepaper,” They Tweeted. “Together we embark on a course correction we share the same goal to continually evolve into a more fair system that better expresses our intentions for progress with all facets of the #EOS family being represented in consensus.”
As part of this and additional tweets, Helios announced a number of new initiatives and news including:
- ETPs: With a unified response to ETP proposals under their belt Helios plan to move ahead with the plan to ‘materialise an EU ETP on EOS into reality’. An ETP is a financial instrument which replicates the performance of another asset. The move is designed to give new investors familiar structures which will make it easier to invest.
- Incubator: They have confirmed they will be pressing ahead with their incubator program in January and will be sending out the syllabus to all approved applicants. The high number of applications they have received, they say, “shows how much interest there is for founders to build on #EOS & #EOSIO.”
- Launch: Launching their first Incubator “Light Program” is now full for wave 1. The program is said to offer founders across EOS and EOSIO the chance for funding and mentorship. EOSSTARTER is one of the initial ten participants.
- Development: They have also announced they will aim to operate a block producer on ‘all major consenting EOSIO chains.’
The future, therefore, looks bright as Helios looks set to take its place alongside the ENF, Eden and Pomelo in promoting a more constructive 2022 for EOS news.
The positivity appeared to be shared in many of the comments online. One user Tweeted: “Wow as a day one EOS community member I have to get used to all this positive news again. I’m loving it.”
Others were less sure, particularly about the prospect of Pierce becoming a block producer. The CTO of EOS Amsterdam was sceptical for a couple of reasons:
Running a BP requires engineering workforce. All skilled EOSIO engineers are already busy, and mostly at a BP,” he explained. “Having any significant votes requires a lot of effort, and a recognizable value for each network. We've seen a few attempts to just show up with a nice name and failing because they didn't actually bring anything. Creating a value needs even more engineering effort.”
Helios, he added, is a financial company with a professional investor at its head. Virtually all of the leading block producers are technology companies. There are, he explains, plenty of other ways in which they could bring value, aside from being a block producer.
Ultimately much of it drills down to perceptions of Brock Pierce, his intentions and what the best role will be for him in the EOS community. Despite some excitement about Helios, his previous history with B1 means that many still view him with some suspicion in the EOS ecosystem. However, his recent efforts may start to win over some of those sceptical hearts and minds.
One thing, though, is for sure. For a community which has suffered through its fair share of setbacks, 2022 is looking a whole lot more promising for EOS news and Helios is a big part of the reason why.
(Writing Tom Cropper, editing by Michael O’Sullivan)