If you thought the U.S. elections were heated, wait until you see the battle between EOS Block Producer candidates in the coming weeks. It is one of the hottest topics in the cryptocurrency space as the voting for the 21 Block Producers will start in early June.
Korea is even getting into it as currently there are 5 Block Producer Candidates in EOSYS, EOS Seoul, Coinone Inc., PAYGATE, and EOS Asia. There are even EOS communities in Korea like KOREOS.IO and EOS Korea.
Block producers are decentralized entities that operate and govern the EOS blockchain on behalf of the EOS Stakeholders. These Block Producers are elected by the EOS stakeholders, kind of like a presidential election. Candidates will have to give their best pitch to the EOS community to get their votes.
Once elected these 21 Block producers will take turns to produce the blocks in the EOS Blockchain. Those that don’t make the cut will not produce blocks, however, they will still be incentivized to be replacements in case a Block Producer cannot fulfill their duties. Think of it as a bench player in basketball.
They are not playing but should be ready to play once called upon. While Block Producers can do what they want, if the community feels they are doing a bad job, they will be kicked out. This is why it is crucial for Block Producers to give back to the EOS network. The community will police itself so there needs to re replacements lined up and ready to go.
How does the voting work?
Every EOS Token held will have 30 votes each. This does not mean those 30 votes can go to ONE Block Producer. Each token cannot vote for the same node twice. Since there are 1 billion EOS Tokens, there could be a max of 30 billion votes received by all candidate block producers. For example, the most votes a single Block Producer can get is 1 billion.
Block Producers will have to promote themselves heavily to qualify for the top 21 list. If they don’t make the top 21 they will be benched and put on the standby list. This is why the competition is so fierce among EOS Block Producer Candidates. EOS New York is one of the favorites in the United States, EOS London is one of the favorites in Europe, and EOS Asia is one of the favorites in China.
While most of the EOS token holders might reside in China, Korea is still heavily involved in the cryptocurrency space. They could be the deciding factor and should NOT be ignored. If you take a look at Steemit, you can already see the strong Korean Steemit community. This is why there is a fight to see who will be the leading Block Producer coming out of Korea.
So why become a Block Producer?
Block producers will work for and be incentivized by the Blockchain and earn their share of block rewards (EOS Tokens). With these EOS tokens, the Block Producers will reinvest it into the EOS ecosystem to help it grow.
For example, EOS Asia a Block Producer Candidate plans to develop EOS-based dApps (decentralized apps), an EOS online code training Academy, and EOS Hackathons. They already have a EOS Asia Portal for EOS Go already up and ready.
Remember there will be 21 Block Producers, so there will be a lot of these activities that will help increase the EOS ecosystem’s value. This is why Block Producers are so crucial to the EOS.IO network. Not only do they have to provide services to the blockchain in the form of hardware for Block confirmations but also help grow the EOS community.
What makes a Great Block Producer?
A lot of Block Producers promise a lot and might even have a great vision but to be a great Block Producer, the team needs to know the technical side. This is because no one knows exactly what technical requirements will be needed. This is why the team needs to have a world-class technical team and seasoned Blockchain dApp developers that can adapt to any technical situation.
Will Big Corporates Dominate the BP Space?
Being a BP will not be cheap, which is why many feel the top 21 will be dominated by corporations that hold a lot of EOS tokens. Over 70% of the EOS tokens are held by 100 accounts. This shows just how much power those accounts holders have in determining who will be the 21 Block Producers. The threat of colluding is very high. Imagine if big exchanges like Binance, Bitfinex, Huobi, Kraken, YoBit, etc get in the game.
Same goes for Korea, if Bithumb or Upbit decide to try to become BPs…what chance do BPs like EOSYS have against those giants?
