EOS as a Living Organism
The origin of EOS is as storied as any other blockchain. Guided by a developer’s brilliant vision and fueled by ingenious dapp developers, EOS took development to the next level. It encourages dapps to think across chains. No wonder why community discussions so often soar.
USER PERSPECTIVES
Living organisms grow, aspire, and need. As a sort of life form, EOS is among the most active blockchains. It’s incredibly nimble, expansionist, and user friendly. While impressive as its launch was, EOS had its share of challenges. Still, in just a few short years, the ecosystem grew into something magnificent.
If you are a regular EOS user, it must seem like a lifetime ago since the release of version 1.8. Much has taken place in that year and a half- culminating in a sort of rebirth.
Developers and users both called for a fundamental shift in the operation of the public network. The key issue driving change is a new resource system.
GRACEFUL GROWING PAINS
‘Fast’ and ‘efficient’, these are terms associated with the original EOS resource model. Unfortunately, these same qualities led to network spamming. EOS was so easy to use that tokens were issued with internal system resources. While easy to do and fair to distribute, minting cheap tokens came at the cost of a healthy system. A now strained system made it clear that a new resources model was needed.
By the end of 2019, Block.one put forth a new model for the community to review. Up to that point, EOS had become the most active and developer friendly blockchain, all within just a couple of years. Now, the speed of, and mechanism for, instituting a new resource system is demonstrating the amazing nimbleness of EOS. The final model (PowerUp) is less than 2 months away.
FLIPPING THROUGH EOS HISTORY
Dawn (the birth of EOS) was released on January 31, 2018. It was updated a couple of times before “Super Dawn” came to play.
By the time 1.1 was released in July of 2018, EOS was steadily rolling along. It already experienced mad price swings from around $18 USD in January 2018 to under $5 USD in March to over $20 USD in April of the same year. By July, prices started to slide.
The “release tags” on github illustrate the successive steps for deploying versions 1.1…, 1.2…, 1.3…, 1.4…, 1.5…, 1.6…, 1.7… and 1.8… Development is a constant within the community. And yet, as previously mentioned, it’s been over a year since 1.8.0 was released.
So why the extended period following the release of 1.8.0?
It’s worth noting that the last 1.8 update was just this past June 2020 (1.8.14). The community should find comfort knowing that release candidate 2.1 followed within half a year. Still, there seems an uncharacteristic development lag for those who keep EOS-time. For a more detailed, or technical inspection, visit https://github.com/EOSIO/eos/tags
A YEAR OF CODE REVIEW AND DISCUSSION
While regular EOS users are aware of resource distribution concerns, they might be feeling a bit exhausted at this point. Discussions have shifted from finding creative solutions to moving on with the future. Developing a new model was so challenging because there needs to be a balance between developers and users.
The new model favors developers (e.g. wallets). This is a natural EOS characteristic. It also seems the wisest decision since many users operate at a level where staking is inefficient. For onboarding and reaching mass adoption, easing developer resources costs is the obvious choice. The PowerUp model is at the final hurdle of community consensus and ultimately block producers' votes.
Publishing Details of the Ecosystem. Block.one maintained a resource objective while developing release candidates (RC) for EOSIO 2. Below is a tentative timeline of EOSIO 2.0, changes to token-staking/REX, and a highly respected code review. Skip to the overview section for links to more complete, stable logic. Though, the following should provide insight into the development process accompanying the New Resource Model (NRM).
The fourth RC for EOSIO version 1.9 (EOSIOv1.9.0-rc4) arrived on December 16, 2019.
Soon to follow were release notes for 1.9.2 (New Resource System) by blockone-develops and an initial review by EOS Authority.
The third RC for EOSIO version 2 (EOSIOv2.0.0-rc3) arrived on December 17, 2019.
EOS Authority recognized the first NRM version for review four days later.
Release notes for 2.0.0 were published on January 10, 2020 by blockone-develops.
Results of EOS Authority’s full NRM code review were published on October 21, 2020.
Version 2.1 would be presented at the end of 2020.
Key Overviews. Reviewing and discussing the NRM have made this past year an enduring one. Debates were often heated with new ideas quickly rising and falling amidst mainstream discourse. Alongside multiple RCs has been the introduction of broader applications like private blockchain deployment for business. Block.one provided overviews for EOSIOv2.0.0 (January 2020), EOSIOv2.1.0-rc2 (December 2020) and the PowerUp NRM (December 2020).
NOW
Currently, the status of the new PowerUp Model is at the block producer approval stage. Taking past blockchain development into account, the rationale behind needing to wait a couple of months enables block producers to prepare for the new system.
15 out 21 block producers will need to vote for the change to take place.
If EOS were a living organism, one might only now be glimpsing wings finding lift from its cocoon.
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