
Amidst all the chaos surrounding the EOS constitution, it seems Daniel Larimer, the cryptocurrencyās co-founder and technical architect, is giving up on its on-chain governance model.
In a conversation on EOSIO Gov Telegram channel today, Larimer proposed to scrap the existing constitution calling it āunwise.ā Indeed, he is working on proposing a new constitution.
Larimer said that he has ālearned a lot about human nature by watching the disputes, the witch hunts, the ābring everything before [EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF)]ā mindset.ā But he would now prefer to put an end to it.
The EOS governance model drew severe criticism earlier this month when EOS block producers ā who act as the āexecutive branchā on the EOS blockchain ā froze seven EOS accounts in violation of its own constitution.
The EOS constitution requires such decisions to be made by ECAF, the arbitration body of EOS. But the block producers froze the accounts without receiving any order.
This was followed by another controversy earlier this week, when a block producer EOS Store failed to comply with a different ECAF order, alleging miscommunication between the block producers and the arbitration body.
An unverified screenshot of a conversation between EOS Store representative and a Reddit user indicated that EOS Store is run by an individual, and he couldnāt comply with the order due to his private affairs ā raising further heat on the matter.
We didnāt get any response from EOS Store to confirm this in spite of repeated attempts. But clearly all these controversies have forced Larimer to change his mind about letting block producers have such excessive control over the network.
Larimer said on Telegram:
My official opinion on disputes regarding stolen keys is that no action should be taken. The producers should campaign on using some of their pay for donations to make the victim whole. Damage to community from ECAF is greater than funds we hope to restore to users.
It is worth noting that following Larimerās comments, ECAF has stopped taking complaints about lost funds. āLost Private keys claims will be rejected,ā the ECAF website displays in bold.
Most of the EOS community members are backing Larimerās proposal. But some are arguing that it takes away the very essence of EOS.
Larimerās comments are indeed surprising given that ā until as recently as last week ā he was hailing decentralized blockchain governance. In a blog post, he suggested that there is a need to make blockchain safer for users through governance, and that ācode is lawā is a myth.
Incidentally, under Larimerās new proposal, the governance will be limited to just ācorrection of intent of code.ā This is peculiar given Larimerās frequent criticism of Ethereum running a similar model.
Many critics on social media including Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp are arguing that Larimer and the EOS community should have seen this coming.
āThis has been a learning experienceā as if it wasnāt obvious that such positions of power wouldnāt be exploited?
ā Jameson Lopp (@lopp) June 27, 2018
But, say what you will ā I think backtracking is still better than letting a messed up constitution govern the EOS blockchain forever.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.