Since our introduction to the community, transparency has been a guiding value that we take seriously.
EOS New York Values
In the spirit of that transparency, we have compiled our Roadmap so that all token-holders can understand and provide feedback on what EOS New York is planning in the coming months to years. We’ve provided a brief description of each milestone and separated each item into three distinct categories: Operations, Technology, and Community & Education.
Q1 2018
Block Producer Candidacy Announced (Complete)
We were one of the first Block Producer’s to introduce ourselves to the community. With no prior benchmarks or references, we sought to set a tone of professionalism, positive values, and dedication to the EOS network. Read more about our introduction here
Q2 2018
Incorporation & Legal Structure
As informed token holders, it will be imperative for you to educate yourselves on the legal organization of EOS Block Producers. It will become increasingly important for Block Producers to be transparent on who owns their entity, the type of entity selected, and what the incorporating documents state are its mission. We are already observing controversy arise as a result of unclear legal boundaries and ownership structures. EOS New York’s mission is first and foremost to serve the EOS community by always adding value into the EOS network. We plan to demonstrate that commitment with a unique legal arrangement; one that allows the organization to remain private and for profit while elevating the community’s interests on par with the fiduciary responsibilities typically observed in for profit companies. We are very close to finalizing this structure and, once complete, we will outline our incorporating documents and structure so that the EOS community can provide feedback. Block Producers, should they choose to follow a similar route, can take advantage of similarly designed legal structures in their own jurisdictions.
Initial Technical Specifications Announced
As we await Block.one’s minimum technical specification requirements, we plan plan to publish our initial technical specifications in the beginning of April. These specifications are being designed in a way that can rapidly scale the network vertically and horizontally. However, as we learn more about the network needs, participate in go-live drills beginning in April, and run our own tests, these specifications are subject to change. That said, all of our plans have the launch in mind, so rest assured we will be ready to launch the network come June and will update the community each step of the way. In the meantime, we continue to operate nodes on the community test net and private test nets we operate internally.
Community dApp Project Deployed
We’ve identified a community dApp opportunity that is simple and direct. We are outlining the development needs and timeline now and will release the idea to the community to encourage participation. Ultimately, we will be responsible for its successful deployment which we expect to coincide with network launch.
Configuration & Security White Paper
We have been working with security and IT professionals to research best practices for securing and configuring a block producing system, and will be providing a white paper regarding these practices. While we cannot disclose all of our security practices and procedures, we want to ensure that the network remains secure in all facets and it is our hope that this paper will help lay the groundwork for a maximally secure mainnet.
EOS Mainnet Launch & EOS New York Elected as Block Producer
We will be exercising go-live drills in an environment that is close to or identical to our launch specifications. We will be conducting these drills in concert with approximately 20 other promising Block Producer candidates and together we will publish the results of the go-live drills.
1st dApp Partnership Announced
dApp incubation, development, and deployment is one of our top priorities as it directly increases the value of the EOS network. We are in the process of firming up our advisory role with a promising EOS dApp. As the dApp is in stealth mode, we are unable to reveal the dApp or its team at this time. We will plan a formal announcement when our partner is ready.
New York Hackathon Event
Prior to the official announcement of the EOS Global Hackathon, we had been coordinating with candidates across the globe to launch our own hackathon event. Once EOS announced the global event it only made sense to cease planning our own and support the official Block.one event. We are currently on our third meetup in as many months and will use our event production experience to ensure that the EOS New York community is an active contributor to the global hackathon.
EOS Content Production Begins
EOS evangelization is partly the responsibility of every Block Producer. Kevin Rose, our co-founder, has an extensive background in concepting, producing, launching, and measuring integrated campaigns. Part of what we will use our block rewards for will be to produce educational and promotional materials for EOS. We will target blockchain enthusiasts, technology enthusiasts, and other early adopter audiences with an efficiently planned campaign with a single goal: converting non-token holders into token holders. We have identified a production agency with whom we will partner to ensure that the materials produced are of the utmost quality. In addition, EOS New York will properly measure the success of these campaigns so that we can accurately report the performance back to the community.
Q3 2018
Software, Finance, and Other Roles Hired for Team Expansion
We currently have a team of seven (full and part-time) which includes: Head of Community, Head of Strategy & Operations, Lead Systems Engineer, Senior Front End Developer, 2x Foreign Community Managers (Chinese and Korean), and a Designer. As we scale out our operation, we will be filling technical staff positions located across the globe to ensure 24/7 network monitoring. Additional internal disciplines such as community management or finance will continue to grow as well.
Update: Datacenter Specifications, Facility Buildout, Cloud, and/or Colocation
As stated previously, we will be publishing our initial launch specifications over the next few weeks. In the beginning weeks to months of the EOS network, it is unlikely that there will be overwhelming bandwidth demand on the network. However, as time goes on there will be a greater need to establish hardware locations around the region and the world. In Q3 of 2018 we will provide a community update on our distributed infrastructure strategy.
Q4 2018
EOS Blockchain Economic Research Project Proposed/Funded
In our block reward priorities framework we listed Understanding the EOS Blockchain. We are entering a new world where cross-disciplines of behavioral economics, psychology, and technology are coming together in ways that we haven’t previously been able to observe empirically. Further, we expect the nature of value exchange to develop in new unseen ways (e.g. Decentralized Autonomous Companies). We’re in early discussions with a prominent economist and have begun to explore how a report could be produced for the benefit of the community and others who seek to understand distributed ledger technologies and their economics.
Q1 2019
EOS Global Block Producer and Token Holder Summit
We are asking the Block Producer community to come together to coordinate a summit for the community’s benefit. The purpose of this summit would be to invite token-holders of all types from all over the world to showcase their ideas, attend educational workshops, listen to guest speakers, discuss future network upgrades, and more.
Block Producer Lessons Learned White Paper
Likely to be made into an annual report, we plan to share what we’ve done well, where we have opportunity to improve, and what we’ve learned. This paper will be open sourced so that we can all learn from one another to make us more efficient and to lower the barriers to entry in becoming a Block Producer.
The Future...Can Be Difficult to Predict
We wish we could tell you with certainty what that the future will bring. We will work hard to anticipate the challenges ahead and plan for the success of the EOS network. However, the future holds many unknown events so our plans may be subject to change.
There are many things we are actively working on that are not listed here as milestones. Our communication with the community will be never-ending and all of our activities will be public. It would be inaccurate to say with confidence that this list of priorities encompasses all that we wish to achieve. We welcome your feedback, ideas, and suggestions so that EOS New York can better serve the EOS network in a way that reflects the community’s will. We look forward to the opportunity. If you have an idea that could positively impact the EOS community, what we've presented in our roadmap, or the network itself then please don’t hesitate to reach out to us - community@eosnewyork.io.
EOS New York is a block producer candidate for the EOS.IO Blockchain