With Nearly $200 Million on the Line, EOS Is Building A Voting System

There's an account on the EOS blockchain with $35 million worth of tokens in it that no one can touch – and its balance is growing constantly.

At the end of EOS' first 12 months as a live blockchain, this account (called eosio.saving) will be worth close to $192 million, assuming the recent EOS market price of $4.79.

In theory, that money is being set aside to fund all sorts of initiatives that might be beneficial to the EOS community: building out new tech features, conducting security audits, sponsoring meetups, hiring lawyers and lobbyists.

But there's one problem: there's currently no system in place to actually allocate the funds.

The EOS blockchain network was incomplete when it went live in June, with much of the functionality stipulated in the network's "constitution" and white paper remaining unbuilt. A key aspect of the EOS protocol was, according to the white paper, "a defined governance process" which avoided other blockchains' "ad hoc, informal, and often controversial governance processes that result in unpredictable outcomes."

That governance process included the ability for token holders to vote in referenda based on the number of tokens they held. But that process of voting doesn't exist yet, and as such, EOS' governance system has been in flux since launch.

The referendum system, as the voting mechanism is known, seems to be at the heart of the question about where the eosio.saving money will eventually go.

While the white paper doesn't mention referendum voting, the EOS constitution explicitly requires the process for making decisions that affect the entire network, like setting up a system to spend the eosio.savings account funds. Also, in a twist of circular logic, a referendum is needed to ratify the still-provisional constitution itself.

More info here: https://www.coindesk.com/with-nearly-200-million-on-the-line-eos-is-building-a-voting-system/