1. What are block producers’ roles at a technical level?
- Build a server
- Install EOS. IO software
- Configure for block production
- Join a network
- Produce blocks (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018)
2. Why is self-governance (BP) important?
One block producer amongst twenty-one could decide to do something wrong and let through a bad transaction, which would then be followed by other block producers or not. So, we’ve seen one block producer to be pushing an invalid block, which will probably be rejected by the following block producers for something to go through. We need a two-thirds majority, which means we need quite a few block producers to consult and cohort or transpire and create a bad transaction. So, then we need a sense of block producer coming together and actually deciding because there’s going to be sometimes such code changes or Constitution changes or various other things where we do need the block producers to approve a message, which was not acceptable purely to the software. And for this purpose, they will run their own forum. Block producers will be chatting to each other and watching what’s going on. So, when something pops up and when a new change is needed, they can talk about that and reach that two-thirds majority and start to make it happen (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018).
But community is sitting there watching. Ultimately, the block producers are covered by the Constitution and they have to follow the rules. The Constitution will select and create or authorize a manual for the block producers, which will give them their precise documentation now to a large extent, they’ll be able to change their manual but to get the manual changed, they’ll then have to put it back to the community to vote it through, so they’re not entirely in control of destiny. But certainly at the detail level, they’ll be looked at to rewrite their manual as from time to time, they’ll also have to deal with rulings resolve any disputes. The rulings will tell them to do things like accepting a bad transaction in the network and occasionally law will pop up as well at the individual operation producer level (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018).
3. What are BP Exceptions?
- Emergencies – BP’s act as per best judgement
- Community – votes on a change to code
- Arbitration – rules to change values, accounts etc (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018)
4. BP incentives
Block producers get paid in rewards from the system. Each time they print a block, they get a small slice of rewards for that payment to stick. It must get through the two-thirds majority if it doesn’t get through a two-thirds majority and their block is kicked out then they don’t get paid, so there’s a good incentive to make sure you’re following the right recipe. The total amount of incentives paid out to the block producers is limited in the Constitution. There’ll be a line that says block producers get paid X percent per year divided across the field, we’ve talked about 5% in the past recently, there’s been a discussion about 1%. But it is so much money (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018).
So, we have a surplus. We are going to return the surplus the excess money back to the community which is going to propose worker proposals and these we voted in order and the block producers will be invited to share the extra with the worker proposals. Now we have to recall that the community can vote out the block producers at any time so we have this feedback loop whereby the community watches how much block producers are returning which they decide themselves but if block producers vote to keep too much money, the community will vote out them and put in some more efficient ones (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018).
In a word, the incentives or rewards of block producers should be compared to their cost bases.
5. Why is decentralization or independence significant?
There is assumption in depots and in proof of work and in all of these systems that it has to be decentralized. Decentralization is for a purpose that souls for lots of attacks if there is only one server or a few servers. There’s lots of ways to attack the system and there’s a list of them we don’t need to go through them. Most of these risks are solved by software and cryptography and careful design but every one of these designs today in a blockchain assumes decentralization and independence. It means that developers, arbitrators, block producers and any other important role should not be the same. The balance we are looking for is a sense that independence is required for important roles where all of our community, business and money is on the line (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018).
6. Why do we promote the diversity of block producers?
We’re looking for diversity in block producers, we need to diversify across internet connections and physical locations around the globe. We would like to diversify the jurisdictions so that we get fairness across the globe cultures. Different cultures can be also come into is because in practice what happens is opposing cultures will give us more strength than cultures that are completely aligned. Thus, there are 200 countries out there, lots of continents and different fashions of law which are competing and there’s also the sense of technologies, which brings possibility in the future of different code bases, different styles of machines (EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018, 2018).
REFERENCE
EOSIO Hong Kong Meetup Livestream 6 April 2018. (2018, 4 6). Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNudH5PxUNY