What's a Block Producer and why does EOS need them in the first place?
EOS Block Producers are a key example of the community-driven, decentralized design philosophy that guided the development of EOS's core infrastructure. Now as the main-net phase of the ecosystem launches, the entire world will watch as Block Producers complete the verification and transaction process on EOS's native blockchain. This article describes how Block Producers play an integral role in both the self-sustainability of EOS's blockchain as well as the future of EOS's community's development.
While reflecting on the current state of the global economy, Dan Larimer began to question the darker attributes of free markets. As a decision to act against the violence perpetuated by contemporary financial systems, Larimer set out on a mission to create a more sustainable economy that delivers freedom to participants instead of a system that promulgates enslavement. Larimer envisioned a decentralized, open-source blockchain that is scalable and can compete against today's centralised, interconnected markets. From that root philosophy, EOS was born.
These guiding principles are ubiquitous in the EOS blockchain's design.
Freedom, decentralization, and sustainability-through-community are especially present in the role of Block Producers. Block Producer teams are tasked with delivering a decentralized method of block production that replaces the role that miners have fulfilled previously in other systems. Block producers fulfil several key functions within the EOS ecosystem that aim to enable the system to run without centralised leadership.
What is a Block Producer?
A Block Producer is a an entity that operates and governs the EOS blockchain on behalf of stakeholders. Elected by the EOS stakeholder community, these entities take turns producing the blocks in the EOS blockchain and waiting on standby to assist as needed. Block Producers support the scalability needs of EOS by providing datacenter infrastructure.
There will be 21 indepedently-operating Block Producer teams spread across the world once the main net is active. Although each team operates independently from the other, they share the same responsibilities. In addition to replacing the similar role of miners and nodes, Block Producers are also expected to reinvest rewards (EOS tokens) back into the blockchain. How and where rewards are reinvested is completely up to Block Producers, but it's in their interest to do all they can to support EOS and the community.
Block Producers may dedicate revenue to do things like strengthen preexisting infrastructure, provide community support and engagement, and design further resources to support EOS app development. These tasks perpetuate a cycle of community involvement and engagement, which will earn dividends by building dedication within the community. Larimer said that a sign of a good decentralized blockchain is that it can operate when the creator is no longer the person steering the wheel.
Why Does EOS Need Block Producers?
In Bitcoin and other blockchains, nodes are a key component of decentralized network governance because nodes validate network transactions on the immutable ledger. With EOS, the responsibility of the nodes is placed in the hands of the 21 Block Producers. Each BP produces individual blocks-where the block verifications and transactions take place.
Given the level of difficulty and importance that accompanies the task of block production, the 21 Block Producers remain accountable to the stakeholder community to ensure transparency and unrelenting, high quality effort. Community members can vote on which Block Producer maintains the best vision for the future of the EOS blockchain. Engineers of EOS consider Block Producers as the central brain of the ecosystem. BPs generate the chain that the rest of the network can see and independently validate, verify, and build dApps on.
The vision that each Block Producer maintains for the blockchain varies from one BP to the next. There are many factors that will drive the success and resonance that each BP has with the EOS community of stakeholders.
How Do Block Producers differ from one another?
You may be wondering about the differences that make each Block Producer unique. Block Producers need to be voted in, so what are some of the differences that become deciding factors in the voting process?
BPs can differ across a number of categories, from geographical location to level of or type of experience. Each candidate and BP team provides a value statement and roadmap to layout their unique vision for the future of the EOS ecosystem. Voters look for BP teams with a vision that aligns with their own person image for what the EOS blockchain should look like.
Now that the EOS Blockchain is moving into the MainNet phase, the Block Producers will be validating blocks on EOS's native blockchain.
EOS MainNet vs. EOS TestNet
Earlier this week, the Block Producers came together to reach a consensus to launch the EOS MainNet. In the MainNet phase, the top 21 Block Producers as voted on by the community as well as an additional list of BPs on a standby will do all of the verification, as opposed to verification being done on another blockchain. The launch of MainNet means that EOS will be self-sufficient in so far as the Block Producers will take on the role of mining and verification that took place outside of the EOS ecosystem in the past.
Moving forward, many blockchains will begin launching MainNets in the coming months, moving away from ERC-20 and other standard tokens that are typically used during TestNet phases.
As virtual currency nears mass adoption, blockchains that run on MainNets will continue to differentiate themselves as the stronger blockchains compared to others that never make it out of the TestNet phase. Yet, even more important than the computer code and blockchain itself, investors and developers are looking for an ecosystem that is community driven and decentralized. As blockchain and cryptocurrency moves the world away from the darker, "free" markets of today, EOS will be a leading voice in that movement.
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