By Craig Murry
What many people may not realize about EOS is that it’s not just a platform for running applications. It’s a living ecosystem. It’s a sovereign space complete with a constitution, arbitration system, and voting system. It’s services have Ricardian Contracts that act as laws governing the intended use of the system. EOS is a world unto itself that is intended to be self-governing.
Being a sovereign requires that it have the ability to defend itself. In many cases, this duty may fall onto the shoulders of the Block Producers. Should that happen, we need a well armed, well fed, and well trained garrison to defend ourselves.
Well Armed / Infrastructure Redundancy
Imagine, for example, when a Dapp is discovered to contain content that some government finds objectionable. If that government cannot stop the Dapp because no one controls it, they may target the Block Producers that allow the Dapp to run.
What happens if a government suddenly shuts down BP nodes in its jurisdiction? In theory, the Standby Nodes fill in the spots. So how many Standbys do we need?
The answer is, we don’t know. It depends on how strong and well coordinated a multi-government attack to censor is. To BlockSmith, the more the better! If all the nodes on the network are capable of being block producers, that maximizes the readiness of our garrison.
Well Trained / Political Diversity and Redundancy
What happens if some powerful interests that have nefarious intentions get into high ranking BP positions? If the voters want to attempt to oust them, how many remaining BPs with shared values will there be to to elect? Will there be enough to choose from? Will there be enough political and cultural diversity to give the ecosystem options?
It’s BlockSmith’s opinion that we need as many political positions as we can get. To maximize options, we need 121 fully funded BPs that are ready to be a top 21 BPs at a moment’s notice. This will allow for political diversity and redundancy.
So if EOS is a sovereign, and the BPs are the knights who defend it, do we want to make sure all 121 knights are well equipped? Or should we only give the top 40 knights quality swords and plate armor, while the lower ranking must use pitchforks and clubs?
It is the position of BlockSmith that we must ensure that even Block Producer #121 is funded well enough to run proper infrastructure so that it is capable of being a top 21 BP if called upon. If Standby Node 100 (Block Producer 121) cannot actually produce blocks if called upon, then he’s not a standby at all, is he?
Since the authoring of this article news has come from Block.1 that the # of standby nodes is likely to decrease. We are deeply troubled by this news, and hope that in the end we end up with as large a Garrison as possible for the health of the network.