EOSAmericas announces its BP candidacy

EOSAmericas is an EOS DApp developer and BP candidate seeking to bring network security, stability, and reliability to the EOS network throughout the Americas.

EOS is a bold experiment in technology and economics. We believe it is the platform that will empower the broad acceptance and use of smart contracts. As DApp developers, we are already working on potentially world-changing applications. However, as a DPoS network operated by just 21 delegate block producers, we must be constantly vigilant for many threats. These include geographic, corporate, and server centralization, in addition to the more obvious network attacks, government actions, and the ignorance of general populations about the tremendous benefits that EOS offers to society.

EOSAmericas will provide a secure, robust, technically advanced network throughout North, Central, and South America. Equally important, we offer protection against three specific centralization threats:

Geographic Centralization
China, the US and Western Europe currently represent a majority of the potential EOS BP network. We will add robust, secure professionally managed servers throughout North, Central and South America.

Corporate Centralization
Large corporations and special interests that already control large parts of the blockchain ecosystem are vying to become EOS BPs. We will add an independent voice representing real EOS developers and users.

Cloud Server Centralization
Four companies dominate the cloud server business (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba Cloud). If a majority of EOS BPs use these providers the EOS network becomes centralized and at risk. We will use only secure, on-premises servers and cloud servers that are not part of the “Big Four” providers.

Cooperation not Collusion
The EOS network could not be considered a success without participation from industry leaders such as Antpool, Bitfinex and Huobi, however it’s crucial that smaller DApp developers and everyday users have equal voices. We will work with larger company block producers for the good of the network . We will also closely monitor them for the good of the users. A delegated Proof of Stake network with just 21 block producers is at high risk of attacks. The most dangerous involve collusion by just a few BPs to slow or rewrite the blockchain. Blockchain titans who already control key components of the crypto economy are both valuable participants and potential vectors for attacks. We will watch for all risks and share this information with the community. DPoS requires a high level of transparency to succeed. We are actively developing EOS monitoring tools.

It’s not widely known that if less than 1/3 of the EOS block producers (6 of the 21) go offline or fork, the entire blockchain must pause to preserve network security. This is because EOS network’s DPoS is based on a “2/3+1” model. It’s one reason why EOSAmericas puts importance on robust, redundant, geographically diverse nodes and collusion monitoring.

TECHNOLOGY AND SCALING

We will employ a hybrid/redundant system comprised of secure, on-premises, professionally managed 8-core servers plus a series of DDoS-protected cloud servers outside of the “Big Four” system. This system of listening servers and node servers will ensure maximum up-time, redundancy, and minimum latency throughout the Americas. The multiple redundancies of vast geographic diversity and multiple service providers guarantee us high reliability.

We will expand our server count and presence throughout the Americas to meet user needs and provide additional redundancy and security.

Active EOS BP servers currently reside in:
Seattle, WA, USA (secure on-premises)
Recife, Brazil (secure on-premises)
Montreal, Canada (bare metal Core i7-7700K v3, 4.2GHz 4 cores) in non-Big-4 Tier-1 datacenter.
Mexico City, Mexico (bare metal Xeon ES-2620 v3, 2.4GHz 6 cores) in non-Big-4 Tier-1 datacenter.
Bogota, Colombia (bare metal Xeon ES-2630 v3, 2.4GHz 8 cores) in non-Big-4 Tier-1 datacenter.
Santiago, Chile (bare metal Xeon ES-2620 v4, 2GHz 8 cores) in non-Big 4, Tier-1 datacenter.

COMMUNITY

Our goal: To expand EOS throughout ALL the Americas

As an EOS network representative throughout the Americas, we will dedicate 10% of our revenue to EOS evangelism and technical education. We will promote native language classes and meetups throughout the regions we serve. We will send local representatives to key blockchain conferences to promote the EOS network.

We are a team of active, full-time DApp developers made up of programmers and IT administrators dedicated to the EOS BP project. We will dedicate a further 10% of EOS revenues to developing tools and DApps that will benefit the entire EOS community.

The Rosetta Stone of the EOS Network

When the network is in jeopardy, every second counts and BPs from around the world must work together closely to protect and restore the network. There is a real risk that language difficulties will slow our progress at key moments. Cultural diversity is a core virtue of the American continents and EOSAmericas reflects this with the broad diversity of languages spoken by our team. With team members who speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, EOSAmericas would be in a position to serve as the nerve center of the EOS network to rapidly facilitate worldwide consensus among block producers to solve any problem. Within 4 months of being voted an EOS network BP we will commit to adding fluent Hindi, Korean, Canton Chinese, and additional Mandarin Chinese language-speaking engineers to our team.

ETHICS AND POSITIONS

We fully support the EOS BP Constitution.

EOSAmericas pledges to abide by the EOS BP Constitution. We will never pay for BP votes. Vote buying is against the core values of EOS.

We place network decentralization and security as our highest values. We favor low inflation to preserve investors’ value. We are frugal in our own spending in the belief that lowering our cost of providing BP service allows for lower inflation overall.

We will swiftly inform the EOS community of our positions in upcoming voting issues and these will be guided by the principals of preserving security and decentralization, maximizing EOS utility, and limiting inflation.

INDEPENDENCE AND STABILITY

EOSAmericas is adequately funded by private capital without any secret funding arrangements. The organization currently has three active revenue streams apart from the EOS network: DApp development; ~5 PH/s mining operation; and multiple masternode PoS holdings. As evidence of sufficient funding, we offer links to signed messages from two current DASH masternodes (value 2,000+ Dash) we have run for several years, proving that EOSAmericas controls these assets. To be clear, this is only a small portion of our financial reserve, but this is an easily verifiable way to prove our contingency funds.

By decentralizing our operation across multiple countries we insulate our BP node from the demands of any particular government or institution. EOSAmericas operates in several countries and therefore is more insulated from the whims of any single country. We can provide a reliable, low-latency network throughout the Americas, even in countries not currently friendly to cryptocurrencies. If the political winds shift to make one country less accommodating, we will already have resources in other countries to carry on our BP duties without any lapse.

Our primary entity (Horn of the Moon, LLC – established 2015) is legally domiciled in the United States in the tech leading city of Seattle, in Washington State a US state with forward thinking regulation of cryptocurrencies. We have fully reported our cryptocurrency assets for tax purposes and have solid banking relationships with financial institutions that are aware of our involvement with blockchain and cryptocurrency, so there will be no interruption of services. We have secured top quality accounting and legal firms in the United States and will secure the same as necessary in each country we operate in.

(Signed mastenode messages available on our website at https://eosamericas.com/#finances)

Use of Revenues

We intend to apply revenues generated through block production as follows:
• 45% Network operation and expansion
• 10% EOS DApp development
• 10% Evangelism and Community-building
• 5% Legal, Accounting, Reporting and Audits
• 20% Taxes
• 10% Contingency Fund and Profit

Our initial spend is US $2,000-3,500 per month for servers, 1 dedicated EOS network developer and 24/7 monitoring of network, listening servers and nodes.

ROADMAP

Q1 2018
• Assemble team
• Experiment with private testnet installations
• Assess and build technical capacity
• Extend network through 5-6 nations
• Server count: 3 countries, 2 cloud servers, 1 on-premises server
• Language capabilities: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese

Q2 2018
• Announce BP candidacy
• Achieve reliable uptimes
• Load balance network
• Stress-test servers and redundancies
• Engage with other block producers and candidates to build relationships with direct contacts for times of trouble.
• Attend Blockchain NW conference
• EOS Mainnet Launch
• Launch English language social media campaign to promote EOS (Videos, tutorials, Tweets)
• Server count: 6 countries, 4 cloud servers, 2 on-premises servers
• Language capabilities: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese

Q3 2018
• Launch EOS network monitoring and reporting site covering actions and revenues of all BPs
• Expand computer network
• Launch EOS Spanish and Portuguese-language social media campaign (Videos, tutorials, tweets)
• Present at 1 Brazilian, 1 Mexican blockchain conference
• Engage personally with all 21 BPs with native language individual point of contact where possible.
• Server count: 7 countries, 6 cloud servers, 4 on-premises servers
• Language capabilities: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, French, Hindi

Q4 2018
• Expand EOS network monitoring and reporting web site to improve functionality and UX
• Organize and Sponsor 1 North American, 1 South American EOS Hackathon
• Provide year-end third-party transparency report on EOSAmericas activities and expendatures
• Server count: 10 countries, 13 cloud servers, 5 on-premises servers
• Language capabilities: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, French, Hindi, Canton Chinese, Korean

2019
• Continue evangelism by establishing/sponsoring meetups, education opportunities
• Partner with local organizations in service area to promote EOS network more efficiently
• Maintain and expand BP individual relationships to include at least 2 contacts in each elected BP to foster cooperation and understanding in times of network crisis
• Engage with Provisional/Backup BPs to have a point of contact in case they are serving during a crisis
• Provide Year 2 financial disclosures for transparency

TEAM MEMBERS

Douglas Horn
Project Leader
https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglashorn/

A blockchain technologist and Gen3 network proponent who expanded a single bitcoin node and GPU miner into a ~5 PH/s mining operation that also maintains Full Nodes and Masternodes for over a dozen crypto networks including early support for Dash, PIVX, ZCoin, Waltonchain and VeChain/Thor networks. In founding Horn of the Moon, he built a talented and innovative team for smart contract-based DApp development. Douglas Horn is also a founder of the successful live-stream disrupter company Wonderstream. He graduated from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA) and Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) He currently lives in Seattle, USA and is grateful to enjoy the famous cheap hydroelectric power of Washington State.

James Davis
Director of Development
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-davis-csm-73b4ba7/

An accomplished product manager with over 20 years experience developing products from brainstorming and ideation to release to market and user analysis. James has designed and produced products for large brands such as Disney, Warner Bros, and Microsoft. He has an array of technical skills including programming, web development, design, marketing, analytics, and is a certified scrum master.

Beth Farnham
Director of Operations

Experienced Operation Director and Project Manager, with a demonstrated history of working in corporate, marketing, nonprofit and production related industries. Beth has worked in operations and marketing for a diversity of organizations, leading every stage from daily business to strategic planning. Beth studied nonprofit management at the University of Washington, and has over 20 years experience producing projects for high profile clients including Amazon, Microsoft and T-Mobile. Beth is an international working professional, currently based on the West Coast of the US.

Ed Silva
Software Engineer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eedsilva/

Ed Silva is a blockchain enthusiast and passionate software engineer with over 6 years of industry experience in building and designing software for desktop, web, mobile and blockchain platforms. He earned a BS in Computer Science at Catholic University of Pernambuco in Recife. In Brazil he has worked for companies such as Microsoft and Samsung using a variety of technologies and programming languages. Ed built the first wallet for the RChain project. He is currently building DApps and blockchain monitoring tools for EOSAmericas.

Peter Bue
Software Engineer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-bue/

Peter Bue is an full-stack applications developer with extensive experience building DApps, mobile products, and data driven web applications. In addition to his experience as a developer, Peter also has over 5 years of systems administration and IT experience. Peter is fluent in C#, Javascript, NodeJS, Python, PHP, Java, and Solidity. He is developing node integration and network monitoring tools for EOSAmericas.

Filipe Batista
Software Engineer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lipsebatista/

Filipe has been working as a software engineer for years, building web, desktop and mobile applications. Strong background in Microsoft development (C#.NET for desktop and web platforms), Scrum practitioner, open source adopter and crypto (digital coins, blockchains) enthusiast. Previous blockchain experience includes: small contributions in open source projects (Brazilian Linux distros, like Kurumin and Dizinha) and development of corporate systems.

Edmund Shern
Business Manager – Asia
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-shern-7522001/

Edmund has over 20 years experience working with game companies all over the world including USA, Southeast Asia and China. He was previously in charge of developing new business areas for Razer. In addition he was previously creative director at OgilvyInteractive, and a director at MTV. His past clients include Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, IBM, Nokia, GSK, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, CMGE, Skymoons.

Josh Manderville
UI/UX Designer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshmanderville/

Josh Manderville is a UI/UX designer and art director who has worked on worldwide mass-market products for Disney, Universal, and The Pokémon Company. He has 20 years of experience designing for brand identities, advertising, trade shows and software products.

Nathan Horn
Network Monitoring

Nathan Horn is pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. He has studied abroad in Seoul and Gangjin Korea. Nathan is experienced at monitoring and maintaining blockchain PoW, PoS, and DPoS networks.

Please Support EOSAmericas

EOSAmericas is deeply honored by the opportunity to serve the EOS community as a BP and to play such a pivotal role in the success of the EOS network. We are convinced that the technological and economic benefits of the EOS Gen3 network will quickly grow to dominate the smart contract landscape.

To achieve this exciting future, we must work to preserve decentralization of the network against many threats. We must also ensure that large geographic regions like Latin America are participating and being served by the EOS network. We will serve all of the Americas with reliable, professional network services, evangelism and technological leadership, and we’ll serve the entire EOS network with protection from corporate domination and as a multilingual nerve center to coordinate among worldwide BPs with diverse languages and cultures in times of crisis.

Please vote for EOSAmericas to serve as a Block Producer. We will serve the network with pride and honor.

We look forward to speaking with you more about how we can all build a robust, reliable, secure EOS network. Please connect!

Website: https://eosamericas.com
Steemit: @eosamericas
Telegram channel: https://t.me/EOSAmericas
Twitter: @EOSAmericas
Email: [email protected]