And tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that …

Are you aware of the means to steer your favorite blockchains in the right direction?

There are many ways to vote. Basically, each transaction you do on a blockchain is a form of voting. You choose to use that specific blockchain (or fork) over others, you may stake tokens, vote for a proxy or for a specific set of block producers/witnesses, delegate resources to others, participate in referendums, etc.

Are you in a position to do the job adequately?

Personally, I am not. It took me some courage to admit it over the years. Information is growing at an exponential rate, FUD is being spread by bad actors or by ignorance faster than we can refute it, and very few have the extremely diverse knowledge (technological, mathematical, political, financial, etc.) required to make informed decisions. The crypto space is evolving at the speed of light as layers of abstraction are adding up to the stack, resulting in massive platforms (ecosystems) having kind of a life by themselves.

EOS

Let’s be honest here, our personal decision space is limited when it comes to voting for block producers and few individuals have access to enough quality information to identify the “good” BPs that should secure the EOS mainnet. Sure, you can delegate your votes to a proxy, but how will you select (vote for) the proxy that will best represent your intentions? Voting for a proxy becomes as difficult as voting for a set of BP. This problem is often referred as “Voter Apathy” in the space. However I believe that it is a misnomer and I would call it “Voter Paralysis” or “Voter Overload”.

Can AI help?

I would answer: Yes, it will eventually. I have been following a project called Tauchain (http://www.idni.org/) since early 2017. It relies heavily on the brain of a genius called Ohad Asor and targets, among other challenges, the previously described “Voter Overload” syndrome. To give a brief overview, the first component is TML (Tau Meta Langage) in which you can create (compile) computer languages able to reason on data. Along the Agoras Knowledge Network (to be written as a TML sub language), there will eventually exist a plethora of TML solutions to help an individual vote for thousands of ballot questions just by describing his/her intention. The Tauchain project is progressing quickly and may be a potential solution to most DPOS voting challenges in the future. But in the meantime, we must continue voting to secure the mainnet.

Proxy4nation

EOS Nation, an internationally well-known block producer, has recently come up with a dynamic proxy concept that I like a lot. At first glance, I had mixed feelings about a BP managing a proxy (see my previous blog post on concentration of powers). Then I started to do some reverse engineering on the proxy4nation selected BPs and realized the choices were, for the most part, in line with my values and intentions (including voting for EOS Nation). What I like the most about it is the fact it aims to become a fast and dynamic (agile I would say) proxy managed by a technically solid and renown team. IMO, securing EOS Mainnet is a very technical and collaborative task. I totally agree with EOS Weekly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C30kJ7p33wg) that, eventually, DSPs (Dapp Service Providers) will be better positioned to elect BPs than EOS holders and most proxies. EOS Nation being already the 2nd biggest DSP in terms of staked tokens, it makes sense for them to begin to act in this direction using a transparent and accountable proxy.

Conclusion

There is something very special and unique about the EOS community: friendship, collaboration, enthusiasm and talent, lots of talent. This motivates me to continue to follow solutions to DPOS voting challenges, including the interNATIONal proxy (proxy4nation) from EOS Nation. Your comments are welcome.