EOS is the first blockchain using explicit governance on a large scale. We’re paving the way to a new kind of social contract — where a global community can govern itself without the use of violence.
We are approaching one year since Mainnet launch on 9 June 2018, and over those months, views on governance have significantly evolved. The Referendum tool is a great advancement and shows token holders opinions on many subjects. The community stance on governance can now be signaled on-chain, but voter engagement is a challenge on EOS as in most voting systems.
EOS Rio position on governance was also maturing through discussion. Multiple community initiatives, like EOS Alliance Constitution Series, EOS Town Hall, and ISSDG, are presenting, in our opinion, palpable advancements in the understanding of how to better explore the unique capabilities of EOS for more liberal approaches to individual liberties, including the freedom to choose different governance systems to abide.
Our view on account governance is that we should build technical solutions to protect users. There are multiple ways to do that, be it by secure delayed transactions, different permissions and multi-signature wallets for account recovery.
On 7 February 2019, EOS New York placed the EOS User Agreement (EUA) on referendum to be voted as a governing document on EOS Mainnet. This proposal is already the 4th most voted ‘yes’, gathering a total of 15MM EOS.
Along with that, there is the DECAF proposal, 2nd most voted ‘yes’ with 21.9MM EOS. Despite having low participation when compared to total outstanding EOS, it is the voice of those who bother to participate, and EUA support is outstanding among those with 99% approval.
After more than 1 month on referendum, EOS New York decided to place the multisig proposal on chain, to replace the Interim Constitution with the EOS User Agreement, to be approved by 15/21, valid until April 13th.
Despite our understanding that this was not a timely manner to present the multisig for the EUA, decisions must be made when they are presented. As block producers, we work with whatever we have to deliver the most value for the EOS Community.
Right from the start, we at EOS Rio were contemplating the weight of a DPoS consensus decision, and what process to use if we were in a place to sign a proposal on non-technical issues. We are building a model that can take into account token holders, EOS Rio voters and our own beliefs, creating a transparent process to arrive at decisions that reflect the community’s desires and values.
Since the demand for decision came, we followed an ad hoc framework that involved analyzing referendum results, community discussion and developing our understanding of the outcomes for EOS community in each scenario.
Considering the landslide majority achieved by “yes” voting for EUA and DECAF, the general sentiment of uncertainty and insecurity regarding ECAF’s actions, and our understanding that approving the EUA at this point is an important signal that the chain is moving towards a more liberal, immutable and decentralized structure, EOS Rio decided to sign the multisig proposal for the EUA.
It is important to note that governing documents should continue to evolve, accompanied by the ever-changing community perception. Signing the EUA does not remove our vision of automated technical solutions for account protection and recovery. Both views are complementary and we'll continue working on solutions that provide this extra layer of security and freedom to our community.
