Much discussion has taken place recently on methods by which “Eden on EOS” can become independently self-funded. Two of the most discussed (from what I have seen) are an Eden Proxy and an Eden Block Producer.
This is an attempt to formalize the conversation around an Eden proxy so that others who are looking for something to represent during future elections (e.g. the next trial Eden election on July 17th) can reference. Hopefully some will comment below to improve upon the suggestions I’ll make here as I am admittedly far from an expert on these matters.
Mohamed, an Eden member and owner of the EOS GOV Telegram channel, is one of those incredibly well spoken and thoughtful individuals that helps to make Eden’s case on it aggregating great people who want to see EOS thrive. He had the following comments on an Eden proxy:
What he’s suggested here might be the best-case scenario with B1 supporting the proxy and if a 3% APR is in fact what can be received with this.
Let’s consider a less ideal, but still worthwhile outcome. The following is from Tim with GenerEOS, another trusted and valued member of Eden:
This suggestion seems to be a much more reasonable goal to accomplish and doesn’t depend on a singular entity (B1) and instead would depend on the community itself to proxy their stake with the Eden Proxy.
Lastly Stephane from EOS Nation, yet again another great dude who is an Eden member, pointed out the following regarding the EOS Nation proxy:
Here we can see some confirmation on the APY from proxy rewards of 1.85%.
How to Make This Happen
In a perfect world the Eden proxy would be created by a member of Eden who was given this mandate through an election. I would propose that the next trial election on July 17th would count in this regard. Even though this is a trial election and won’t be exclusive to Eden members, it will still be heavily participated by current Eden membership and therefore should be somewhat representative of their views and the views of the general EOS community.
So first step is some of the Eden member participants of the upcoming trial election announce they will run for this initiative. Part of that proposal should include if funds are needed to accomplish this and how the proxy will select the BP’s it votes for.
How to Select BPs
There are many ways that BPs can be selected from personal preferences to something more algorithmic. Personally, I like the algorithmic method that isn’t dependant on the whims of the individuals charged with choosing the BPs. This algorithm would collect and aggregate various metrics and kpi that could be used to rank the BPs to be voted on. Part of this kpi set would include aspects around community interactions, engagement, and what are the BPs doing to give back to the community besides just stacking blocks. Some of course would prefer that BPs only stack blocks, while others would like to see more transparency and availability towards the community.
If an algorithmic approach, the algorithm would need to be written and hosted for public viewing. Additionally, someone would need to take the time to attempt to collect the “social” or “community centric” metrics. These are of course going to be subjective metrics so are much more challenging to settle on. With these points considered I don’t think the algorithmic approach is the lowest hanging fruit from this proposal to manifest into action.
The next best option is to have knowledgeable members of the Eden community select what BPs the Eden proxy should vote for. This can be done in a few ways, but perhaps the best would be to have some sort of on-chain vote that is tied to Eden membership. Easier still would be to have an Eden vote to delegate the decision of what BPs to vote for to a single Eden member or council of members who are given the mandate to choose.
Whatever the method to select BPs is, it would be the responsibility of the elected Eden member (from the July 17th election) to propose their solution and get voted into a position with a mandate to execute it. It will then be up to them to fulfill their promise of establishing the Proxy, selecting the BPs and engaging the community to move their stake to it.
How to Utilize Funds
In terms of the funding part. If the elected Eden member moving forward with this initiative has only received 10 EOS, then there’s really very little that can be practically done.
If they receive more funding (either through aggregation of some of these smaller 10 EOS recipients or moving to a higher level) there are a couple ways funds could be used:
- Put out a bounty for someone to create and host an algorithmic method to rank BPs.
- Commission someone from the Clarion team (or someone else) to produce an on-chain method for Eden members to vote for BPs or those to be on the Eden council to select BPs.
- Commission someone from the Clarion team (or someone else IE Ray from EnergEOS) to put up their own site or add a page to the current Eden on EOS website to list the BPs being selected by the Eden proxy and some details about why each BP is being selected. This would need to be updated in some sort of predefined period to adjust the BP votes based on real-time consideration of performance and community interactions.
- Commission the Eden members themselves who are expected to put in time to comb through and pick BPs to vote on.
- Help to subsidize the time of the individual putting all of this together. This will include trying to get an Eden account that the proxy can be set up under, either through the EOS Alliance or maybe just trusting Dan himself with this wallet or an msig on this account. Also it will take time to organize how the BPs are selected and so could be used to incentivize this work vs 100% volunteered.
At a minimum I hope this post starts a more formal conversation where those can comment below if this is a good or bad idea, how BPs could be selected, and what metrics/kpi should be considered.
Bottom line, those in Eden will all surely agree that the closer Eden on EOS gets to being self-funded the more likely it will succeed. Lets collaborate to see if we can make an Eden proxy a reality.
Go EOS!!!