Author Introduction: Zhang Zhongzhong, master of The Chinese Academy of Sciences, serial entrepreneur, founder of Lejia App, co-founder of Huayaomaowen, co-founder of Lianbao Technology, focuses on the ecological development of EOS public chain, and is committed to the application practice and product research of EOS based DAPP.
Many have questioned the centralization of EOS’s DPOS consensus mechanism and the 21 supernodes.
With the launch of EOS mainnet, infighting began around who would launch the mainnet and which chain would be activated as the mainnet, and there even appeared public opinion panic that EOS would face a bifurcation crisis before it was launched. These messages really touch the hearts of every SUPPORTER of the EOS community.
Why 21 nodes in the first place and not more, like bitcoin has tens of thousands of nodes. Technically speaking, the more nodes there are, the longer the block speed and transaction confirmation time will be, which will greatly reduce the performance of the public chain. So bitcoin takes 10 minutes to generate a block, ethereum takes 15 seconds to generate a block, which is not realistic in a large-scale commercial scenario. You can’t execute a contract and wait 15 seconds to execute the next action. In fact, according to incomplete statistics, more than 51 percent of bitcoin’s computing power is controlled by Bitmain and its affiliates. If Bitmain wanted to force a hard fork or destroy the bitcoin network by force, it would be very easy. EOS has only 21 master nodes, but these 21 master nodes are equal, and there are 49 standby nodes. Therefore, the number of nodes does not represent the safety of the main chain, but the existence of centralized monopoly between nodes is the most important consideration to determine the safety of the chain.
Secondly, I think it’s not necessarily a bad thing that there are so many discordant voices. The more they fight, the more they show that the competition is full and fierce, and it is only profit that drives them to put down their manners and engage in fierce competition. This is consistent with the logic of Austrian economics, all actions are purposeful. If these nodes are not fighting each other, but acting amiably. that’s the real danger, because it means there could be one of the following reasons: 1. This means that the EOS public chain is not valued, there is no profit to be made, and it is not worth the tension between the election nodes; 2. It is easy for these election nodes to form alliances and conspire; 3. Oligarchs appear in EOS ecosystem. Other competitors have no ability to fight against oligarchs and can only enjoy the shade under the tree.
Sufficient competition can ensure that there is some kind of prisoner’s dilemma among EOS nodes, which conforms to the hypothesis of non-zero-sum game, and this is an important basis for the safe and sound development of DPOS consensus mechanism. This is also fully reflected in bitcoin’s POW algorithm, where miners compete for blocks through hashing algorithms to ensure the robust development of the Bitcoin network. Without this underlying algorithm, the entire network would quickly fall apart, and this is the beauty of consensus algorithms. However, THERE are many differences between DPOS and POW. POW, as an algorithm that has been running steadily for 9 years, has fully proved itself, while DPOS, as a new consensus algorithm, has explored the way of BTS and STEEM, but it still needs to be further tested and fully accepted by the market.
Finally, when I discovered that Although Blockone claims to launch EOSIO software, it does not start the main chain, but leaves it up to the community to decide, but that Blockone holds 100 million EOS and can vote 30 at a time, I realized that Blockone is the real oligarchy, theoretically speaking, Blockone can vote for any host that is satisfactory and kick out any host that is not. But the good news is that Blockone itself is not involved in the block, so from this perspective, Blockone is more of an arbiter, just like the owners behind the NBA. NBA owners are responsible for making NBA games more and more popular and exciting. Driven by interests, Blockone will play the same role, ensuring the healthy development and ecological prosperity of EOS through the invisible hand of 100 million EOS. But it should be clear that the 21 master nodes and Blockone are both fighting and cooperating, because everyone owns EOS. In the past, such rule could only be achieved through negotiation and intrigue. With the emergence of token mechanism, Blockone can achieve the purpose of exercising wisdom and community autonomy through token, the consensus algorithm behind it and the EOS Constitution.
Even if the above analysis logic is self-consistent, many people still believe that EOS deviates from the original intention and essence of blockchain decentralization. I’ve had a lot of thought and discussion about this. I think decentralization has always been a human utopia, a sort of utopia for cypherpunks and ultra-Austrian economics. Since the beginning of recorded human civilization, there has never been a large decentralized community with completely equal autonomy. Where there are interests, there are politics. In human history, meritocracy, or centralized governance, has been tested by history for tens of thousands of years. Therefore, we must accept the imperfection of the world and bear the loss of the deviation between the ideal of equal rights and reality, which is also a performance of individual political maturity. Bitcoin based on POW algorithm seems to practice the ultimate ideal of decentralization, but in fact it is monopolized by mining bullies like Bitland. However, EOS, which uses DPOS algorithm, has achieved a certain degree of equality and weak centralization. There are many political examples of weak centralization, such as the separation of powers and the house of Representatives and senate system represented by the United States. This “decentralization” of Bitcoin is basically equivalent to political negotiation under the rule of one party. Political ideal is always romantic and ethereal, while political practice is always realistic and boring.
Therefore, we can only expect that under the weakly centralized governance of EOS, with the intervention of Blockone, the game between block-producing nodes and the joint participation of EOS community, a community that can quickly reach effective consensus and constantly upgrade and sublimate itself can be formed. Hatched more and more mature Dapp and build based on the prosperity of the next generation of EOS block ecological chain, like the United States in a parliamentary system under the rule of the elite political practice, healthy and prosperous development of more than 200 years, and created a series of miracles – although it suffered many setbacks, but I think the EOS will encounter many setbacks and has risen in a spiral. At the same time, from the perspective of the free market, I believe that many communities without adequate competition, if stretched long enough, have a good chance of becoming a game of drumbeat and flowers, which eventually lose their intrinsic value and go to zero.
Related articles and videos recommended
[Xu Xiaodi] Five missions of EOS Super Node
Yuan Yuan Institute brings together a large number of blockchain masters to create high-quality blockchain technology courses. There are high quality free public courses on all major platforms for a long time, welcome to sign up and watch. Open course address: ke.qq.com/course/3451…