EOS Referendum - the change that EOS needs
Referendum is around the corner; within a month EOS holders will be able to stake their tokens for proposals that are up for approval.
This is a pivotal moment for the EOS community, and the reason is simple; It will tell us if we can make meaningful decisions as a community.
Currently, we have an interim constitution for the EOS mainnet. As many of you probably already know, the interim constitution has its fair share of critics. As planned, the interim constitution will be up for approval via referendum. There are also planned alternative constitutions to the interim constitution, two popular ones being Dan Larimer's V2 and EOS New York's user agreement (EOS NY has stated they are not putting up their user agreement for referendum, just providing a template others can build on our propose as is). In order for one of these constitutions to pass it will have to garner 15% participation of tokens and 10% more yes than no votes sustained for 30 days within a 120 day period. That is a big order to fill.
We currently have 28 percent of voting tokens staked for BPs. The community has signaled (at least on Telegram and in Wechat) that governance issues are exhausting, and of overall little interest to them. This is a problem.
If none of these proposals pass, that means that the interim constitution will stay in effect as an interim constitution! This means that all of the disagreements the community has had about what is right and wrong, what works, and what doesn't will be for not. On top of that, the interim constitution has ECAF baked in as the base layer arbitration forum, and many BPs have disavowed ECAF and refused to support them and their rulings. So in effect, if the interim constitution stays interim, the EOS mainnet will remain a system outsiders will have a hard time understanding.
And, do not kid yourselves, the block producers you vote for matters, and right now voter turnout is below 50 percent (at time of this writing 28 percent). This is a prudent issue not only block producer infrastructure secures the network, but because the EOS community counts on block producers to enforce constitutional issues. So not only should you vote for referendum measures you want to pass, but you should vote for block producers that align well with those measures to ensure that referendum is implemented correctly and wholeheartedly. Remember, the clearer the rules of the EOS mainnet, the more confidence developers and investors will have in the chain.
A SPECIAL HAT TIP: A community initiative to create a non-branded, neutral place to learn about voting and be able to vote was created by several block producers to bring us voting on chain: EOSVotes. EOSVotes is a great resource for all information regarding EOS voting and is also a tool you can use to vote! Go check it out now!
A special thank you to Daniel Keyes (@chillsauce on Telegram) of EOS NATION for answering the following questions on referendum for EOS GO. EOS NATION, along with EOS Tribe (and Steve and Anna formerly of Tribe), Greymass, generEOS, and EOS Canada for all of their work on bringing the EOS community this referendum tool.
Q&A with Daniel Keyes on Referendum
edited for clarity
EOS GO: When do you think referendum will go live?
D. KEYES:
It depends on 15/21 consensus from the top BPs. They've already approved the creation of an eosio.forum system account to host the smart contract. The next step is to deploy the smart contract to that account. EOS Canada is working with some of the BPs through some feedback they had on the Ricardian Contracts and should be submitting the proposal to deploy the contract any day now. Once that's live, it'll just take a few days for all the UIs to get updated to use the new contract and we're good to go. Just need someone from the community to propose something.
I know that there are already a number of separate groups working on submitting proposals for REX, WPS, and new constitution.
EOS GO: What are the percentages needed for a referendum to pass?
D. KEYES:
As outlined in article XI of the constitution, we need 15% participation of tokens and 10% more yes than no votes sustained for 30 days within a 120 day period
Those are at least the rules for changing the constitution. It's really up to BPs to accept a proposal. I assume they'll hold other types of referenda to the same bar.
EOS GO: OK, so it will take 15/21 (block producers) to implement?
D. KEYES:
Exactly. As is the case when making any change to the network. So the referendum is really just a way for token holders to signal to BPs what they want.
EOS GO: I like that. So it makes sense to vote for bps that will support your referendum wholeheartedly?
D. KEYES:
Exactly.
EOS GO: Is there anything else token holders should know about referendum in your opinion? Important pieces that people seem unaware of or glossing over?
D. KEYES:
They're welcome to learn more at eosvotes.io - we've got some educational content posted there. You can also vote there and already start playing with test proposals. Most wallets will support Referendum voting, though - so token holders can participate using the tools they're already comfortable with.
Proxies are supported too.
EOS GO: How will the proxy system on referendum work?
D. KEYES:
If you've proxied your votes for BP voting, that proxy can also use the weight of your vote to vote on referenda.
You can override that vote by voting on that proposal yourself.
Again, thank you to Daniel Keyes of EOS NATION for answering our questions.
So don't wait. Cast a vote now, or propose something to pass via referendum. Currently many voting portals such as Greymass, Bloks and EOSX support referendum voting, and the beta launch is live. Click here to read our tutorial on how to vote using EOSX!
And as always, if you have any questions about referendum, or EOS in general, please join us in our Telegram group https://t.me/eosgo.
GO EOS!
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