EOS BP Candidates Should Prove, Not Just Promise Financial Solvency

Douglas Horn
Team Leader
EOSAmericas

Maintaining the equipment, services, and staff necessary to deliver a robust and reliable EOS BP node is an expensive endeavor. The EOS community deserves strong assurances that each BP candidate has the liquid resources available to quickly deploy additional servers, add enhanced services such as DDoS protection, pay overtime to teams maintaining the network, or any other surprise costs that can—and almost certainly will—arise. However, while BP candidates readily proclaim their financial solvency and independence in their candidacy announcements, very few offer any verifiable proof.

In the crypto world, we like proof. And fortunately, crypto makes proving funds very easy. Any BP candidate can simply fund an address in any major currency with a reserve fund and then submit a signed message from that address to the EOS community. This would allow the community to easily authenticate the fact that the BP candidate actually controls the address in question. Additionally, anyone could check the address to ensure that the BP candidate is maintaining its reserve.

Equally important, this reserve would give each BP a ready financial resource to draw from at any time to rapidly address crucial network problems. After all, it’s unlikely that network challenges will occur only during convenient banking hours.

Because this solvency pool is likely to be used occasionally, I would suggest that tapping it would not be instantly disqualifying. I can imagine many situations where a BP’s temporary use of these funds would be proof of their commitment to network security. In such cases, the BP can simply explain their temporary drawdown of the address and it will be fairly easy for the community to determine whether the BP is, in fact, adding new capacity or addressing an emergency need. At the same time, BP candidates who deplete their reserves without explanation or restoration could be viewed as less reliable and possibly not worthy of the community’s trust with network security.

This should not become a financial arms race. I leave it to the community to determine what amount would be considered sufficient proof of “financial resources of last resort.” I would suggest 10 BTC or the equivalent in any major currency. This should be enough to get a BP through a crisis, while still being a low enough hurdle to allow small, independent BP candidates to remain viable. The last thing I want to see is a situation where only the mega-companies can participate as BPs. However, becoming an EOS BP is an expensive endeavor and money is critical to proper service.

EOSAmericas has provided signed messages from two Dash masternode addresses that we maintain as part of our web site and candidacy announcement. It is repeated below. At present, the 2,000+ Dash in these addresses are worth about 85 BTC. Anyone can monitor these addresses at any time to verify that the funds are there and controlled by us. These are not funds that we ever intend to use in supporting our BP responsibilities, but they are there and instantly accessible to us, should a crisis occur.

Acting as an EOS BP is an enormous responsibility. EOS is the smart contract and financial platform for the future and the network security is in the hands of a very small number of block producers. The community deserves the assurance they these BPs are financially viable and ready to commit the funds necessary to maintain the network no matter what.

I invite you to join me in the call for BP candidates to provide evidence of their ongoing financial solvency to the community.

Message: Support EOSAmericas.com for EOS BP. Go EOS!
Address: Xej7v51ZQdoHaemsr8dTTAB1996VfjjhZK
Signature: ILJFWPZXcwlaDJHPIc7ms72Rql2k/jrDMN0LoZZMUh1LTc/BjjwnqxdQI+S/N/o5x+so5CpxZB1UmSwwNuvJZJ4=

Message: Support EOSAmericas.com for EOS BP. Go EOS!
Address: Xc5Ha2HxyQS8PVUnJsJ3hVj7Eost4TSdz6
Signature: H91k5s2nB+gxbUsQxP8w96GnOkC01Zw8Rym6S6Ds7rEJC6+JdcT9YqvfmT1CTgzS6ApR/5jkwpBM9SWd/30I9UM=