I believe something about the world. I believe a significant number of people exist today who are tired of corruption, collusion, greed, and the opaque "back room deals" and deal makers who "run the world." Some of us actually want to know how the sausage is made before we decide to eat it. As inflation continues to ravage our global purchasing power (80% of all base money dollars ever in existence came into existence over the last two years), we have to get serious about building something better.
I've been working with EOS since before the network launch as a block producer through eosDAC. I learned some hard lessons about decentralization there and about the importance of governance token distribution. Long story short, essentially a lot of people bought up the governance token who had no interest in being a community-owned block producer and DAC enabler and froze payments to the DAC members for about a year. There were also technical design disagreements which led to fractions within the team and disagreements on the vision of what we were ultimately building. I've also learned many lessons as a consensus witness during the Steem to Hive transition.
I've been at the sausage factories of the future, watching governance experiments be born, live, die, and be born again. EOS and Block One have their fair share of drama, and I've showed up as I was invited to help. 6 to 9 months were spent part time, working with Brock Pierce and others to create a DAO which would be funded by Block One and enable the community to be self-directed. The timing wasn't right, and we ultimately failed to deliver. Since then, I've stayed engaged on the outside looking in, providing my opinions and perspectives along the way which are sometimes unique given my personal relationship to Brock who also lives here in Puerto Rico. If you're interested in the back story as it relates to my perspective:
- November 2019: Does EOS need a Foundation? (Also presented directly here in higher quality)
- December 2019: EOS Community Foundation video playlist by EOS RIO.
- July 2020: How Do You Define a Villain? Do You Think Brock Pierce Is One?
- May 2, 2021: Has the EOS Community Finally Reached a Breaking Point?
- November 7th, 2021: Did Block One Just Rug Pull EOS?
That brings us to today and the recently published fully transparent interview by Bywire News and Brock Pierce:
This interview is an hour and sixteen minutes which I just finished watching this morning. It tells much of the story that hasn't previously been discussed. Brock explains the behind-the-scenes negotiations that were going on between the EOS Network and Block One. He addresses his own failures with being emotionally charged and reacting to feeling betrayed. He discusses his concern about delegated proof of stake while at the same time sharing hope and optimism about the future and us working together to build better governance solutions through experiments like Eden on EOS.
I was there at that party Saturday night at El Marqueta and Brock told me after the interview he was as transparent as he was because of many conversations I've had with him about the need for transparency and to tell the whole story of what's really going on behind the scenes. Brock often borrows language he hears such as my often repeated comment that we have to "take off the bandaid and let the wound heal." The EOS community has been through a lot and has a number of wounds.
I think this interview is the start of some really important healing. If you're involved in EOS in any way, I hope you get a chance to watch it. It's also a masterful example of how we can be transparent while also honoring our relationships and our commitment to privacy.
I was also at the Waterfall Limitless dinner at STK the night before on Friday night where Brock sat at the end of the table across from my brother Tod, myself, and my wife. Yes, he was shedding tears at the emotional impact of whether or not to remove the EOS Logo from his amazing drone presentation after what just happened to him the night before, feeling betrayed and questioning if the EOS block producers can be trusted to follow through on their word. I was there at the NFT Gallery opening, hearing him talk about what he was going through, voice hoarse and almost lost, running around to multiple events he was hosting. I was also there earlier in the week during the Helios community meeting on Tuesday, the 7th where it seemed like everything was worked out:
Note the date of this event was December 7th, not September 7th. Multiple times Brock looked at me during the event with a shared understanding of what we'd like to see for the EOS community and what we've all been through together.
I'm so very excited to see this new wave of transparency, and I'm grateful to Brock for taking the risk to be open about what is going on. And to be clear, there are risks. As I've been asking for more transparency for the community, I've also learned some tough lessons that sometimes transparency at the wrong time can seriously derail important negotiations, as Brock discussed in the interview related to Dan's negotiations and the blog post he put out at the time. I remember very clearly how that killed negotiations that were going well. I may be wrong about the importance of transparency and about the character of the community within EOS, cryptocurrency, and the world at large to handle this information as adults. I keep finding myself back at the crossroads of figuring out exactly how privacy, transparency, identity, and reputation play together to create a world we all want to live in.
I'll edit this post and add the Bywire News interview with Yves and Dan so all sides are represented. Maybe some day Block One and Brendan will be open and transparent also. In the mean time, subscribe to Bywire on YouTube and follow them on Twitter.
If I'm right about the future world we all want to live in, then it also requires some leveling up to take on the full responsibility of transparency for systems and organizations while still respecting the individual privacy and trust we all cherish. I don't know if we can all rise up to this expectation, but I do see the importance of clear-seeing and signal over noise. In order to make good decisions about our collective future, we need accurate information, even if it's a bit messy at times.
Thank you for everyone who is playing their part and working hard to create new systems of governance (like Dan's moreequalanimals). Evolution requires adaptation as we face new challenges in our environment. Government over-reach and constant money-printer-go-brrrr inflation require us to take action. I'm hopeful cryptocurrency will be part of the solution so we can direct our own outcomes together with voluntary association throughout.
Edit: As promised, here’s part 1 of Yves interview:
Key takeaways:
- Brock did say the things he doesn’t recall saying. He did apologize for them, and they were sincerely terrifying for Yves because of the power and influence Brock has (and continually reminds people he has). Yves forgave him and made the point that what is most important is that we work together to move forward and this drama isn’t as important.
- From the network consensus perspective (and some BPs and/or the ENF are apparently working on a lawyerly supporting opinion for his) the tokens do not legally belong to Block One. They sold property that isn’t there’s. (Personal opinion: as someone who was there from the beginning, I’m not sure I share this view as I always thought of them as “block one’s tokens” but I do think Yves makes the argument how that was not the case. Still, as I’ve argued on Twitter, without a clear contract in place, the “social contract” isn’t enforceable as to what was clearly expected of Block One, as it would be in a real employment vesting contract).
- BPs don’t really care about the IP or think it’s as valuable as B1 does, it’s just the only thing B1 brought to the table to negotiate with (the irony being it’s not even really there’s to negotiate with as it actually belongs to Bullish).
- If Brock or Helios wants those tokens, they should consider and OTC trade with the network. As is, the network (which, in the opinion stated in the interview) owns the tokens and the B1 sale to Brock means the network got nothing for what they own.
Those were key takeaways I had. I’m looking forward to the rest of the interview.