Dialogue with the EOS Network Foundation: With the EVM launch imminent, how will the new journey of EOS unfold?

On the morning of April 12, 2022, ChainCatcher, in collaboration with the EOS Network Foundation, held a unique live event on Twitter Space. The event featured in-depth discussions on EOS EVM, the functions of the EOS Network Foundation, and the future development of the EOS ecosystem. Yves La Rose, the leader of the EOS Network Foundation, was invited to attend and engaged in deep discussions on topics such as EOS EVM, the competitive landscape of public chains, and the future development of the EOS ecosystem.

Since the establishment of the EOS Network Foundation, the EOS ecosystem has seen significant movements. Under the leadership of Yves, the EOS Network Foundation condemned the inaction of its parent company, Block.one, and parted ways with it, embarking on a path of independent development for EOS. Subsequently, a series of measures were announced, including the establishment of core working groups and support for EVM compatibility. Block.one has become a thing of the past; how will the new journey of EOS unfold?

This article provides a review of the highlights from this AMA event, with some content edited.

Yves's Self-Introduction

Hello everyone, I am Yves La Rose, the CEO of the EOS Network Foundation. I would like to thank ChainCatcher for hosting this event and inviting me as a guest speaker, and I also appreciate everyone for participating in this event.

As the leader of the EOS Network Foundation, I have been leading the development of the ENF, which is the EOS Network Foundation, for the past seven months. Before this, I had been deeply involved in the EOS ecosystem for over four years and have nearly ten years of experience in the blockchain community.

Yves's Q&A Session

Question 1: On April 9, EOS, Telos, WAX, and others announced the formation of an alliance to take over the core code development of the EOSIO protocol. Does this mean that Block.one no longer has any responsibilities or relationships with EOS? Can the large assets held by Block.one still be used for the EOS ecosystem?

Yves: On April 8, 2022, we announced that four blockchains built on the EOSIO protocol—EOS, Telos, WAX, and UX Network—formed an alliance to take over the core code development of the EOSIO protocol, providing an annual budget of up to $8 million for the core development and promotion of developers in 2022.

Since the fall of 2021, the EOS Network Foundation has been seeking teams within the ecosystem that share our common goals and vision and are willing to contribute to the sustainable and healthy development of the EOS ecosystem, establishing partnerships with them.

It can be said that the components of this alliance are of great significance for the development of EOS. In the early stages, the code development work for EOS was carried out by Block.one, but the code development by Block.one has always been in a "black box" state. Initially, the quality of the code developed by Block.one was relatively high, and the update speed was very fast. However, in the past two years, we have clearly felt a decline in Block.one's code development work, not only in terms of speed but also in quality. More importantly, Block.one's code development focus has shifted away from serving the EOS community to benefiting Block.one's own products. Therefore, last summer, we decided to formally separate from Block.one and adopted a series of strategies to make our code development more sustainable and long-lasting.

So, does this mean that Block.one has no relationship with EOS anymore? Does Block.one have no responsibilities towards the EOS community? Of course not.

While the EOS Network Foundation has taken over certain responsibilities from Block.one, on one hand, Block.one is still a holder of EOS tokens, and on the other hand, the various promises made by Block.one during the EOS crowdfunding phase have caused substantial harm to the EOS ecosystem. Therefore, Block.one should not and cannot evade its responsibilities towards the EOS ecosystem.

Another question is whether the large assets held by Block.one can still be used for the construction of the EOS ecosystem. Block.one currently holds approximately $20 million worth of EOS tokens, making it one of the largest token holders of EOS. This substantial holding still has the opportunity to add value to EOS, and we hope Block.one can continue to add value to EOS. Of course, we cannot have very high expectations, as Block.one's historical performance has been unsatisfactory. However, they can actually leverage these assets and advantages, such as the exchange they recently launched, to provide liquidity for the entire ecosystem.

Another very important point is that, while we just mentioned that Block.one has the opportunity to add value to the entire ecosystem, we have summarized a very important concept over the past four years, especially recently: the community should be self-reliant and cannot completely depend on Block.one. Based on our historical experience, they are not a particularly trustworthy partner.

Since the establishment of the EOS Network Foundation, we have also seen some significant changes in the entire community, including resource allocation, resource configuration, and the overall development of the EOS ecosystem, which have all taken on a new look. So while we hope Block.one can continue to contribute value to the community, we do not hold high expectations for them.

Question 2: How should we understand the relationship between the EOS public chain and the EOSIO protocol? What kind of organization is the ENF? Can you introduce the functions of the ENF?

Yves: The EOS Network Foundation is actually an organization built on a decentralized protocol. The EOS system can be understood as some token holders/teams/projects becoming BPs and competing to become block producers. We realized that there was a missing element in the entire system; we lacked a core organization to coordinate resources from various parties in the ecosystem and work towards common goals and development directions. This led to the birth of the EOS Network Foundation.

Compared to other public chain foundations, the EOS Network Foundation has a particularly unique aspect: it was established after the EOS network had been operating for a long time. Other public chain foundations are often approved by the founders of the protocol and have 15%-40% of the token issuance as an operational fund pool. However, the EOS Network Foundation did not acquire a large number of tokens at its establishment; we were established as a decentralized organization. Therefore, we need to obtain certain financial support from token holders and use our capabilities and efforts to deploy sufficient resources for EOS, promoting the value growth of the entire ecosystem, thereby rewarding token holders and ensuring continuous funding support for the operation of the EOS Network Foundation.

Additionally, the EOS Network Foundation is a non-profit organization, which actually has certain advantages. First, the EOS Network Foundation is established in Canada, which is a country with relatively friendly laws towards blockchain or cryptocurrency. Secondly, as a member of the G7, Canada has a very good industrial foundation. Traditional foundations often choose places like Ireland or the Caribbean, so establishing the ENF in Canada fills a gap in this regard.

As a non-profit organization, the ENF can legally provide grant assistance to EOS projects, ensuring that the funds deployed in the EOS ecosystem can directly benefit developers and individuals, allowing them to better develop their projects within the EOS ecosystem. Previously, we also mentioned that the funding for the EOS Network Foundation comes from token holders, so the EOS Network Foundation needs to ensure that its investments can indeed create value for the ecosystem, thus forming a virtuous cycle within the EOS ecosystem.

You might wonder why this is important. What exactly is the relationship between the ENF and EOS? In fact, at the very beginning, EOS raised a large amount of funds through token sales to Block.one. After obtaining these funds, Block.one should have continuously explored high-quality projects in the ecosystem to empower ecosystem construction, but they did not do so, leading to a significant lack of funding for the entire system, despite the large amount of funds raised. Therefore, as a decentralized entity of the EOS ecosystem, the ENF takes over this responsibility from Block.one and deploys funds to the areas that the EOS system truly needs for development. This is also the biggest difference we have seen in EOS compared to the past few years, especially in the last six months.

The responsibilities, goals, and focus of the ENF are to operate EOS like a business or a commercial model, hoping to see more individuals and developers enter EOS and contribute to its development. We hope to deploy funds, implement multiple measures in parallel, and promote the rapid and sustainable development of the EOS ecosystem.

Question 3: EOS once planned to support EVM. What is the current progress? What are the characteristics of this EVM? What impact will it have on the EOS ecosystem?

Yves: EVM is an innovation that EOS urgently needs, and this is a consensus reached among various members of the EOS ecosystem. Therefore, the priority of achieving EVM compatibility is very high. The EVM+ working group will quickly advance work in this direction and will soon meet with everyone. As the host mentioned, many blockchains have already achieved EVM compatibility, which is easy to understand because Ethereum indeed has many advantages:

Ethereum and other EVM-based public chains have higher network effects and token liquidity; developers on Ethereum can earn high returns by creating modular, reusable, and secure open-source smart contracts written in Solidity; Ethereum developers can access a wealth of development tools and tutorials through code libraries, and the developer tools, code libraries, and open-source code available for dApp developers in the EVM ecosystem have been rapidly growing.

So why is this important? Because EVM compatibility can be said to open a big door for the EOS ecosystem: developers from other public chains can deploy, migrate, or clone projects to EOS through a simple and efficient process. The EOS ecosystem will gain more developers and users, and project parties can leverage EOS's high performance for larger-scale expansion.

One of EOS's major advantages is its strong liquidity. Although EOS's ranking has dropped recently or its market value has decreased, and although supporting EVM compatibility is not considered early, developers and project parties absorbing EOS's strong liquidity will inevitably achieve better development. We hope to open more doors for everyone, release EOS liquidity, and attract more people to build projects in the EOS ecosystem.

Another advantage of EOS is its excellent performance, which has been tested through four years of practical operation. This is unmatched by other chains and represents the enormous potential of EOS.

Finally, I want to say that EVM has now been deployed on our test network, and many functions are already available for use, with most of the data currently aimed at developers. Just last week, very few people knew that EOS was about to support EVM, but as more people learn about this news, the long-suppressed demand in the EOS ecosystem is about to explode, and it will gain a new round of media attention and ecosystem explosion.

So, friends participating in our Twitter event today should consider themselves quite lucky because after we see these opportunities, more and more chances will pour in, and everyone is likely to see very strong performance in terms of token prices.

Question 4: In the face of the current public chain wars, what specific measures has the ENF taken to help EOS stand out? What competitive advantages does EOS have? What highlights are there in recent developments?

Yves: First of all, in the early days of its establishment, the EOS Network Foundation lacked a lot of support in marketing or brand promotion. Brand promotion has always been a significant issue for EOS because many people always associate EOS with Block.one, and many people do not have a good impression of Block.one. Therefore, the first thing we did was to choose to separate from Block.one for independent development after negotiations failed. In December of last year, the EOS Network Foundation, together with BPs, stopped releasing tokens to Block.one.

So why is all this very important? I believe everyone has heard of the concept of Web 3.0. We have noticed that there is currently a phenomenon where a large amount of wealth is concentrated in a small number of people, and this phenomenon has also occurred with Block.one in recent years. Last year, we initiated a lawsuit against Block.one in collaboration with the community and BPs. This decentralized process allows community members and token holders to take responsibility for themselves rather than having their fate controlled by others. This can be seen as a highlight moment in the development of Web 3.0.

Additionally, the EOS Network Foundation has done something very important: establishing a clear development blueprint for the EOS ecosystem, so that all parties in the ecosystem know what we are going to do in the future. This is something Block.one has never done before.

Thus, the EOS Network Foundation has initiated the writing of a white paper, selecting ecosystem experts to study the current state of EOS development and propose improvements, while providing certain incentives. In the past two months, we have published four white papers that clearly outline the roadmap for future development, and anyone can review and provide feedback. On one hand, this can help build confidence in the community, and on the other hand, it allows developers to better understand what roles they can play in the ecosystem and what rewards they can receive.

Finally, EOS itself is an excellent technology that has been stably operating for four years and has a very solid foundation for development. Currently, EOS is like a sleeping volcano, ready to ignite. With such strong underlying functionality and architecture, we will see a series of chain reactions triggered by this small fuse called EVM, allowing EOS to release its own energy. In the future, we may also see an increase in EOS's market value, potentially returning to the top ten in blockchain.

Question 5: At the end of last year, the EOS community had a conflict with Block.one and voted to suspend the release of tokens to Block.one. What specific manifestations do you think Block.one's inaction has? Has Block.one made any new statements so far? In the future, what actions will you take?

Yves: First of all, the most obvious manifestation is that Block.one has stopped the development of the core code for EOS. From June to July of last year, you could see on GitHub that there were almost no updates. This can be said to be one of the reasons for our complete disappointment with Block.one, as Block.one had promised to continue developing the EOS code and received a large amount of funding for it, but they did not deliver.

Additionally, since the negotiations, Block.one has not made any new moves or statements. Their official social media accounts have also been very inactive.

We have always hoped that Block.one would take responsibility for its past inaction: Block.one once stated that it would build the EOS network, and EOS community members took investment actions based on their trust in Block.one's promises. When Block.one failed to follow through on those promises, the members of the EOS community were the direct victims.

Therefore, we have taken legal action to investigate Block.one's past improper behavior and failure to fulfill its promises to the EOS community and EOS investors. In the investigation, the EOS Network Foundation will work with lawyers to review all legal means available, including but not limited to formally filing legal proceedings against Block.one. This announcement of legal action not only represents the voice of the EOS community and aligns with the best interests of the ecosystem but also marks an important milestone in the complete split and independent development of EOS and Block.one. As the investigation progresses, we will keep the public updated on the latest developments, so please stay tuned.

Question 6: Nowadays, public chains generally face issues of poor performance, frequent congestion, and even downtime, but the EOS public chain has years of stable operation experience that other public chains can learn from. What do you think are EOS's technical advantages?

Yves: For the EOS public chain, besides high performance, I would say our greatest advantage lies in the strong and complete underlying functionality and pricing of the EOS network. Since the mainnet launched in 2018, many hackers have attempted to attack our chain, but we have many developers and BPs continuously updating the codebase, making our software stronger and stronger. We have been operating stably for four years without any major incidents, which is very valuable for the development of a public chain.

We often say that the Bitcoin network has been tested for 10 years, and people gradually recognize the security of the PoW consensus before they are willing to use Bitcoin for large transactions on the BTC chain. EOS has already undergone four years of testing, and we have further convinced everyone with our four-year performance. As a representative of blockchain 3.0, EOS can be said to be a very safe and excellent choice.

Additionally, we are also collaborating with other blockchains to develop our code, further strengthening our code through features like IBC, making it the first choice for more users.

Question 7: What is the roadmap for EOS's future development? This includes aspects like EVM compatibility and ecosystem construction.

Yves: As we mentioned earlier, the EOS Network Foundation has established several core working groups to assess the current state of EOS and write white papers proposing solutions, reporting results to the community, and accepting feedback from the community to clarify the development roadmap. Additionally, we have formed an alliance with Telos, WAX, and UX Network to take over the core code development of the EOSIO protocol.

Everything we are doing is aimed at helping EOS establish a larger and more detailed ecological development roadmap, so that everyone within the EOS ecosystem can clearly understand where our future path lies.

Of course, we also need to coordinate the strengths of various parties in the ecosystem to ensure that these ecological development plans can be implemented in an orderly manner.

You can follow the EOS Network Foundation's release of the Q1 2022 work report, which contains very clear descriptions.

Conclusion

Exciting sharing always makes time fly, and before we know it, this AMA event is coming to an end. Thanks to Yves for his wonderful speech, thanks to everyone for their active participation tonight, and thanks to the cooperating media for their strong support.

In the future, the work related to the EOS Network Foundation will continue to advance at a high speed. We look forward to the EOS ecosystem opening a new chapter of vigorous development under the leadership of the EOS Network Foundation.