When I first read today's Block One announcement of transferring 45 million EOS tokens to EOS Helios, my immediate reaction was, “How many people in the cryptocurrency community will view this as the last phase of the Block One multi-billion dollar rug pull?”
I've been vocal about my criticisms of Block One (see Has the EOS Community Finally Reached a Breaking Point?). I've seen friends of mine lose a lot of money in opportunity costs and wasted effort building tools and applications with little to no support from the B1 treasury. In many ways, they were directly hindered by Block One and the promise of VC and support that never materialized.
From the announcement:
direct investments and partner funds, we’ve invested in over 140 projects
I'd like to see some examples of those projects. How many are successful? How many have become household names? How many are improving peoples' lives? How many look like they were effectively backed by a multi-billion dollar company?
This approach has worked
Has it though? Has the EOS and EOSIO community thrived compared to other protocols? Can we point to significant successful examples?
Unfortunately no. And I won't even talk about the EOS token price compared to other projects other than to say this tweet from 2019 did not age well:
https://twitter.com/lukestokes/status/1109800049389780992
- lukestokes
As I've said before, those who are still involved with EOS really are in it for the technology.
There is one thing Block One accomplished which is to deliver EOSIO technology in an open-source way and an EOS mainnet that has been one of the highest performing blockchains (from a technical perspective) in the space since 2018. FIO Protocol, for example, was built on EOSIO because nothing else came close to the performance required for a usability layer like FIO.
They also did this:
promoting compliance and decentralization to ensure EOS and other EOSIO-based assets remain accurately classified as decentralized commodities.
What if there is a new hope? Does EOS have a new chance to rise as a truly decentralized ecosystem, now that Block One is no longer holding so much EOS?
How many other blockchains (and the cryptocurrencies that secure them) are sufficiently decentralized and compliant with US regulations? Bitcoin, Ethereum, and... EOS? Is that it? If that's true, how much is that worth to EOS holders? How important is that now, considering the legislation the house passed yesterday that Cointelegraph describes as:
the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill which, if signed into law by President Joe Biden, would enforce new provisions in relation to crypto-tax reporting for all citizens.
This battle for cryptocurrency freedom is getting hot. Yes, the private currencies like Monero and the fully anonymous DACs and DEXes of the world will continue to explore and innovate without the oversight and suppression of government (a monopoly on the initiation of force in a geographic region). Agorism will continue to be key to effective regulation of human behavior:
Agorism is a social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics,
And yet... if we don't also work from within the system, we will get run out of town on a rail. See how quickly people complied with "papers please" in terms of Covid passports for a vaccine that barely even works anymore?
Governments are powerful because of the myth of authority and because humans are comfortable with predictable things they are used to. They have an adolescent desire for some mommy and daddy figure to be in control and keep them safe. They either don't understand the word Anarchy, thinking it means without rules instead of without rulers, or they want to be ruled.
Therefore, we need people in government who will help create rules which work for us instead of against us. Brock Pierce might be one of those people.
Also from the announcement:
Led by Brock Pierce, Helios takes aim at serving the EOS community through several high ambitions, including creating an EOS Venture Capital fund, facilitating the creation of institutional-grade EOS financial products, supporting the creation of infrastructure, tooling and documentation for developers, and organizing community events around education, networking, and use case development.
The EOS Foundation will have 2% inflation which will go a long way towards developing a thriving ecosystem, something EOS has never had before. Brock Pierce was at NYC NFT last week talking about how EdenOS might demonstrate a new system of governance (which might make government less reliant on threats of force) for the future:
https://twitter.com/lukestokes/status/1455975107373981706
- lukestokes
If you're confused about Brock and think he's a villain, you don't know him like I do. I've now been with him on delegations to El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama. I've spent time with him here in Puerto Rico. I know he has committed his life to bringing freedom and liberty to the world.
With Brock and the community building Helios with significant funding, EOS has a chance it has never had before.
So back to our question, did Block One really rug pull EOS investors? The audit they promised was released with "no evidence that B1 purchased tokens by any means." Can we honestly say the same for any other recently launched project? Do you know for sure if the founders of your favorite project were buying up their own token, artificially inflating the price? Do you think regulators won't eventually come around to going after these projects?
Block One delivered a token and a technology which is potentially on par with the regulatory clarity that Bitcoin and Ethereum enjoy. If the government starts to seriously crack down on every other cryptocurrency project, Block One may have delivered something few other projects can. Yes, they were well-rewarded for doing so and for fighting with the SEC and regulators with their army of lawyers, but that doesn't mean they pulled any rugs.
I strongly believe the game theory dynamics of cryptocurrency from a prisoner's dilemma perspective ensure governments can not ultimately stop the inevitable democratization of money, separating it from the state, but I also think losing the United States as a symbol of freedom in the world will have serious consequences everywhere. We have to stand our ground, create our own legislation, and work within the frameworks available to us. EOS is one of those frameworks and EdenOS is a governance example we can build on.
Full disclosure, I am an EOS bag holder. I bought more back in April and tweeted about it here:
https://twitter.com/lukestokes/status/1386084712645529602
- lukestokes
Maybe after this announcement I'll buy more.
This is not financial advice because you have to think for yourself. Are you here for a quick buck or for creating a better future tomorrow, next year, and a hundred years from now?
Do you want to help create a world we all want to live in? What tools will you use to do it?