EOSio, the blockchain created by Block.One announced in early October that it had partnered with Google Cloud to onboard them as one of EOS’s block producers, marking the first time a non-crypto organization has been brought in as a named block producer. As Google Cloud becomes an EOS block producer, this marks a giant step for the integration of crypto and outside worlds.
Block producers in the EOS network are the equivalent of miners in other blockchains; they serve to validate transactions and secure the blockchain network. In the case of EOS, they appoint 21 block producers to be candidates for EOS holders to vote and act in governance decisions. This pseudo-decentralized approach means that EOS can be faster than competing blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin, without sacrificing functionality such as smart contracts.
With its notable “war chest” of 4 billion dollars in funding from their ICO, held on Ethereum, it’s no surprise that many have pointed out that it is highly likely that Google’s participation was beyond just altruism in wanting to secure the EOS network.
Nonetheless, Google Cloud’s involvement means that EOS has been elevated from being in the shadows of Ethereum’s current DeFi movement and becoming a potential strong competitor for future blockchain implementations. The heavy traffic bogging down Ethereum’s network has resulted in significant problems for many non-DeFi applications looking to build on top of it, as the high fees chase away potential users and make smart contracts unreasonably expensive to operate on Ethereum.
EOS as a blockchain already offers a comprehensive dApp community and ecosystem; after Ethereum, it is notably the second most used dApp blockchain, with plenty of gambling-style applications and even DeFi copies from Ethereum.
Google Cloud’s Technical Involvement
As Google Cloud becomes an EOS block producer, this means that it can provide significant resources to power the EOS blockchain. With a low-latency global infrastructure, strong security and next-generation computing technology, it would be the most appropriate partnership a blockchain could get (if not for the fact most blockchains tend to be more decentralized in nature).
Google Cloud’s involvement will likely advance Block.One’s efforts to build a public blockchain significantly — not only does their name as a block producer candidate lend credibility to the network, it also serves as a signal that Google believes EOS to be a legitimate way to build a public blockchain — something that supporters of decentralization have been quick to attack since EOS’s founding.
Is There A Conflict Of Interest Or Profit Motive?
With Google Cloud, which is owned and operated by Alphabet Inc (Google’s parent company) taking such a public stance in EOS, there may be a conflict of interest in how Google Cloud could stand to profit from its position as a block producer. However, Google Cloud has publicly stated to Coindesk that they are not becoming a block producer in the position of a miner, although they have not explicitly denied that they were paid to “join the EOS community”.
Speculators will likely point towards Google Cloud being profit-driven, and likely to profit from becoming a block producer. Google Cloud does not deny this, saying that providing cloud infrastructure to Block.One provides a source of revenue (although not clarifying further on the exact amount and nature of the partnership).
How Does An Organization Become An EOS Block Producer?
Under normal circumstances, including for most of the candidates on the public EOS block producer rankings, candidacy for a block producer will need an organization to gain significant supporters, then create a unique EOS producer account. They will then need to run EOS nodes, which can be both physical or virtual computer systems. Thereafter, their rankings in the block producer list will determine if they are one of the 21 block producers that validate transactions on the EOS network; to gain increased ranking, EOS holders will have to stake their tokens in support of their chosen validator in a continuous election. Votes can be cast for up to 30 block producer candidates this way.
Google Cloud however appears to have been greenlighted to be directly onboarded and supported by Block.One, and the process of having Google Cloud set up with block producer candidacy appears to be in the works. With their name and reputation, it is likely that they will be instantly voted to the top of the block producer rankings once they are available to be elected.
Block.One’s co-founder, Dan Larimer, believes that Google Cloud joining the list of block producers would improve the perception of EOS and lead to other companies looking to do the same. This paradigm shift is likely to lead to improved optics of the pseudo-decentralized model used by EOS.
Learn More About EOS
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Originally published at https://www.oobit.com on October 21, 2020.
