July EOS BP Meeting Recap

Introduction

The monthly EOS Block Producer (BP) meetings are intended to establish regular communications between the top 30 EOS BPs and the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), to foster an open dialogue between network operators and custodians in support of the mutual development of the EOS ecosystem.

Meeting Overview

The meeting began at 1:00 UTC on July 19th, 2023. Twenty-three BPs attended the call, and a total of twenty-seven people participated in the discussions, which ran for one hour. The Interprefy tool was used in the call for synchronous translation to facilitate the free flow of information across multiple languages in real-time.

Beatrice Wang, Communications Manager for ENF, opened the meeting by welcoming the attendees and gave a brief overview of the topics to be discussed.

ENF Founder and CEO Yves La Rose then presented on several key issues.

First off, Yves thanked the BPs for their quick response in deploying an emergency patch due to a potential vulnerability that had been discovered by ENF engineers. The ENF released the emergency patch on the morning of Monday July 10th, and in less than 24 hours we had more than 15/21 active BPs updated. In 36 hours all 21 had updated. This was the first such security patch deployed since the ENF was created. There was no financial risk to the potential exploit.  

ENF Re-Structure

Yves updated the BPs on the internal restructuring which recently occurred in which the ENF let 20+ staff members go, explaining that the foundation was driven to make cuts due to market conditions and the need to continue supporting a wide variety of external funding programs.

Multichain

Less than three months after the EOS EVM was launched, the main bridge that served the EOS EVM suspended service due to an apparent exploit. At that time the ENF issued this statement. After temporarily restoring service, Multichain bridge once again became unavailable, and Multichain subsequently issued a comprehensive statement explaining that due to actions beyond their control the bridge was down indefinitely. About USD$400k of EOS EVM funds are presently locked in the bridge. EOS was not impacted as much as other blockchains, but as this was our only bridge, and this is a significant impact to us.

Multiple alternative 3rd party bridging services such as Nerve Network, and ChainPort, are on their way and support for native $USDT (EOS) is also a top priority for the trustless $EOS EVM bridge. 

EOS EVM Incentive Program (EEIP)

To further advance development on the EOS EVM, the ENF has introduced a new milestone based incentive program for EVM-based applications. This initiative aims to provide up to $50,000 per qualifying dApp deploying on the EOS EVM based on their ability to meet certain KPIs. Over fifteen applications to the EEIP have deployed on the EVM and the team is finalizing another 5 or 6. New projects include bridges, wallets, games and DeFi. 

The Upcoming Antelope Leap 5 Consensus Upgrade

A significant consensus upgrade, Antelope Leap 5.0, is on track for launch in Q4 2023, and we are aiming to make the upgrade by the end of November / beginning of December after the release candidates are thoroughly tested. 

This upgrade will include: Instant Finality, which will bring the last irreversible block from 180 seconds to a few seconds (~1-3 seconds). Integration of the HotStuff consensus algorithm which offers the network an opportunity to replace DPoS with an alternative consensus mechanism that brings the possibility for block production to be broken down into additional roles. And lastly, significant peer-to-peer protocol enhancements. Together, these upgrades open up a whole new set of features for EOS and other Antelope based chains.

This is a hard fork with breaking changes and we’re going to need everyone’s help and coordination to ensure there is a smooth consensus upgrade. We will continue ramping up communications and sharing additional details over the next several weeks.

For more information, see the ENF’s official announcement of the Antelope Leap 5.0 Consensus Upgrade.

BP Sustainability Survey

The ENF is circulating a voluntary survey to help calculate energy consumption for EOS’ 2023 carbon offsets. The numbers previously being used were from 2018. The survey information will also help drive sustainability marketing materials for EOS. BPs are encouraged to participate by filling out the Block Producer Survey.

Legal Update

The ENF has been working with multiple legal teams to explore all possible avenues, and also discussing the case with financial litigators who are interested in bringing the case. The ENF is looking at what we can do to support the token holders and is preparing a suit against B1 for failure to follow through on its $1B commitment. At the same time, B1 is attempting to settle a separate lawsuit for $22M. The ENF is in communications with the legal teams leading that class-action.

The ENF encourages interested parties to email legal@eosnetwork.com for updates.

*Since the BP meeting, an additional legal update was presented. Review this document for more information about the class action lawsuits against B1.

EOS Labs

Huaqiang Wen (current ENF board member) presented a proposal for EOS Labs, an incubator aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the EOS ecosystem within the intensely challenging Web3 landscape. EOS Labs would serve as an independent organization designed to facilitate ecosystem development while collaborating with existing entities such as ENF (Antelope and Infrastructure Development) and ENV (Venture Capital), to achieve its objectives.

Objectives:

1. Data-Driven Approach: Utilizing a data-driven approach, EOS Labs would monitor critical metrics such as Total Value Locked (TVL), daily transactions, daily active addresses, and daily active users to make informed decisions and integrate this data effectively across the ecosystem.
2. Ecosystem Coordination: EOS Labs will act as a dedicated team to provide guidance for ecosystem development. This would include conducting market and investment research to identify valuable opportunities within DeFi and the broader Web3 industry.

Roles and Responsibilities:

1. Research & Incubation: EOS Labs will conduct extensive research on industry trends, DeFi protocols, and niche markets within the Web3 space to identify potential projects and investment opportunities beneficial to EOS.
2. Collaboration: EOS Labs will collaborate with projects in the pipeline, including those under the EOS Grant Framework, to assess their value in terms of data, traffic, and their potential contribution to the EOS ecosystem.
3. Business Development: By taking on the business development roles currently managed by ENF, EOS Labs aims to further insulate the network from potential securities concerns, ensuring a more secure and robust ecosystem.

Benefits and Justification:

1. Maintaining Competitive Edge: In the highly competitive industry, the dedicated efforts of EOS Labs will help EOS to maintain its competitive edge by proactively improving the ecosystem.
2. Independent Entity: EOS Labs’ independent status provides the flexibility to focus solely on ecosystem development without any conflicts of interest.
3. Enhanced Collaboration: Working alongside ENF and ENV, EOS Labs would help facilitate a seamless flow of information, resources, and funding for the growth of the EOS ecosystem.

Q&A

Who would lead EOS Labs? What resources are required?

Huaqiang would lead the EOS Labs, along with a team of about five people, plus researchers, specialists, welcoming referrals of those who are familiar with DeFi and GameFi.

Will there be a focus on EOS EVM or EOS Native development?

EOS Labs will focus on the EOS EVM since as we all know the development of DeFi is built around the EVM. While we will focus on the EOS EVM we will not reject any native application. With EOS we have the trustless bridge, and we can connect seamlessly between EOS and EOS EVM, so the choice is on the customer, but we will incubate EOS EVM first.

Will Labs tend to develop a comprehensive ecology or is it more inclined to develop a certain sector first, such as NFT, DeFi, or GameFi?

Overall development is our target for the long run but currently we’re focusing on  DEX. Trading is the most important application and we want to develop the data for DEXs. For GameFi, we will continue developing this as well. 

I assumed all of what’s being described would be done by the ENV (the incubation/investment), is the ENV no longer going to be doing this?

EOS Labs is more focused on incubation and research where the ENV is more focused on making investments. This is a compliance design, in the future we will attract LPs, the ENV cannot do everything, such as business development, and so forth. Some tasks such as market research overlaps with the ENF, so Labs can take on some of those areas of overlap.

Are there plans for KPIs to be tied to funding of the EOS Labs to assess the value add?

Right now the ENF is doing a lot of this work but is limited in what it can do and how it can do it because of its structure, similar to how the ENV is limited to investments. EOS Labs would be the bridge between, taking over many of the functions of business development from ENF. KPIs would be similar to how the ENF tracks them. We believe there would be better efficiency in budget, in the way that we’re running these programs, by separating out the roles. EOS Labs would, as an independent organization, be accountable to the Block Producers, in the same way that the ENF is. 

For the labs we have KPIs internally, TVL is a very important indicator. The daily user number and daily trade amount are also critical for us to track. We mainly focus on the metrics tracking overall ecosystem growth.

How much budget is EOS Labs requesting?

We are still discussing the details. We will invest funds in the incubation of the project team, and let the community and BP continue to supervise. Of note, this would be a reduction of funding to the ENF, towards Labs, so no additional funding is being contemplated. 

What is your background Huaqiang? Can you explain why you are the right leader for EOS Labs?

I joined the EOS ecosystem as a member of a block producer during the EOS super campaign in 2018, responsible for node operations and voting agents, and later launched Kylin Testnet and BOScore (EOS side chain). I have many years of experience in the blockchain industry and am familiar with the exchange and mining pool business. Since 2020, I have been deeply involved in the development of ETH DeFi and the public chain ecology of an exchange, and launched a variety of DeFi products. I am definitely qualified for this job. At the same time, I still hope that more people who love EOS and have rich experience in the development of the Defi ecosystem come to join us, because I may not be able to solve all problems. We need a strong team.

Upcoming Events

Yves will be attending Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul. Yves also has previously mentioned the possibility of heading to Hong Kong after the event in Seoul, prior to attending Token 2049 in Singapore. Yves is also still planning to attend the UpBit developer conference in November. Travel plans are still subject to change and updates will be provided in advance, considering the availability of attendees in different regions to potentially arrange meetings.

Block Producer Attendee List

• GenerEOS
• Newdex
• OKX
• EOS Nation
• EOSeoul
• Big.ONE
• EOSFlytoMARS
• StartEOS
• Blockpool
• EOS SG
• Hashfin
• Defibox
• EOSinfstones
• EOSUSA
• EOS Asia
• EOSlambdacom
• EOSLaoMao
• EOSphere
• Moreisfuture
• Greymass
• EOS WIKI
• Slowmist
• EOS Titan

EOS Network

The EOS Network is a 3rd generation blockchain platform powered by the EOS VM, a low-latency, highly performant, and extensible WebAssembly engine for deterministic execution of near feeless transactions; purpose-built for enabling optimal Web3 user and developer experiences. EOS is the flagship blockchain and financial center of the Antelope framework, serving as the driving force behind multi-chain collaboration and public goods funding for tools and infrastructure through the EOS Network Foundation (ENF).

EOS EVM

The EOS EVM is an emulation of the Ethereum EVM, housed within an EOS smart contract. It offers feature parity to other EVMs in the space but with unmatched speed, performance and compatibility. EOS EVM connects the EOS ecosystem to the Ethereum ecosystem by allowing developers to deploy a wide array of Solidity-based digital assets and innovative dApps on EOS. Developers can use EOS EVM to take advantage of Ethereum’s battle-tested open source code, tooling, libraries and SDKs, while leveraging the superior performance of EOS.

EOS Network Foundation

The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) was forged through a vision for a prosperous and decentralized future. Through our key stakeholder engagement, community programs, ecosystem funding, and support of an open technology ecosystem, the ENF is transforming Web3. Founded in 2021, the ENF is the hub for EOS Network, a leading open source platform with a suite of stable frameworks, tools, and libraries for blockchain deployments. Together, we are bringing innovations that our community builds and are committed to a stronger future for all.