Welcome back all to the second edition of the GenPool Spotlight blog series where we touch base with various Block Producers, proxies, and dApps in an effort to open an avenue in the lines of communication between the various facets of the EOS community.
For the second guest of the series GenPool Spotlight welcomes none other than Colin of the ColinTalksCrypto channel as well as the largest GenPool.io public proxy colinrewards. Known for both his love of EOS and critical eye to which he holds all in the space to a high standard, Colin has agreed to dive deep in an effort to uphold all his proxy holds dear in ‘doing what is best for the EOS holders and the ecosystem, while giving back to the community and voters’ as best he can.
Without further ado, welcome Colin and thank you for joining us here on GenPool Spotlight.
My pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
I want to preface this interview with the fact that, unlike some other content creators, I share not only bullish enthusiastic optimism, but also a pragmatic and realistic view, as I see it, of the truth. As such, I am completely willing to explore both the positive side and the shortcomings of blockchains. Some individuals do not appreciate me speaking in such a free manner, or they simply disagree with what I say. That’s fine because I am only sharing my view of things and anyone is free to disagree with me if they want.
I pride myself in my ability to look truthfully at a blockchain and an investment. I don’t hold my head in the sand or allow my crypto holdings to bias my opinion of something. Some people simply don’t like to hear anything negative about their holdings. I feel that is a very dangerous stance for any investor to have. It’s also dangerous for the community.
So, thank you for being open-minded while you listen to my responses!
Knowing your stance and why you do what you do, we wouldn’t have it any other way. First off, we would like to go way back and inquire as to what brought you to EOS and how long have you been interested in Blockchain technology?
I first heard of Bitcoin in late 2012, but I didn’t understand it right away, and I didn’t look into it further. (Don’t feel bad if you or anyone around you doesn’t understand Bitcoin at first– it’s quite a paradigm change from legacy financial systems!)
I really got into Blockchain technology starting in 2013 when a friend transferred 1 bitcoin to my wallet. I sent him some cash with PayPal in exchange for this Bitcoin. This was around $100 at the time.
After a bit of research, suddenly the whole “public key / private key” thing clicked and I realized I was looking at something more amazing than I first had thought.
As for EOS, I remember watching Dan Larimer’s whiteboard presentation in 2017 (his first-ever video presenting his idea for EOS). This was long before EOS materialized and long before the ICO began.
I had already been aware of the scaling issues and bottlenecks for existing blockchains (Bitcoin and Ethereum). EOS seemed to be the answer to this– basically taking all the best aspects of its predecessors and improving upon them in every way. It seemed genius, and Dan had made blockchains before so it wasn’t too far-fetched of an idea that he could pull it off.
Great. And what then motivated you to start a proxy on EOS?
I was motivated to start a proxy on EOS because I felt I could help mold and shape the future of EOS in the right direction by utilizing good leadership and trust of community votes. I saw it as a way I could be involved in a bigger way, to benefit token holders. Being a token holder myself, it was a way to ensure the future of my own holdings as well. I don’t like leaving things up to fate when I can help guide them in the right direction. Starting a proxy was a way to accomplish this.
However, I didn’t realize at the time how out of control governance would get, and how little impact a proxy’s votes would end up having. We now have 3 Exchange-BPs controlling over 120M tokens (more than 25% of the entire voting token supply). Even though my proxy is the second largest on EOS (next to the newly-formed DFS proxy), my proxy sadly makes but a small dent in the overall voting situation. Top 21 BPs can essentially ignore even the largest proxy’s desires because Exchange-BPs control far more tokens themselves—voting with user funds on exchanges as they do. This is a violation of DPoS as I see it. Dan Larimer, the creator of EOS, acknowledges this issue, and B1 is working on ways to improve this, but I fear with their slow speed of progression in this direction it may be too little, too late. They also may not have enough influence on the chain to make any significant changes.
By the way, I’ve never received a single dime for my endless hours and days spent building up my proxies.
Despite what EOS’s creators, block.one, will tell you, EOS’s governance today is not determined by regular token holders– it is currently dominated by Exchange BPs voting with custodial funds held by those exchanges. This is multiplied by 30 votes per token, and that’s how you have a self-propagating cartel upholding the EOS blockchain. This needs to change.
What is the top criteria you look for in electing Block Producers for your proxy?
This is described in this short 3 minute video I made on the subject found here:
What does a healthy EOS ecosystem look like to you?
A healthy EOS ecosystem looks like one that is decided by token holders and not by exchanges voting on behalf of token holders with user funds.
The entire principal of delegated proof of stake is that one’s investment into EOS tokens determines one’s say in governance. This is defined as a plutocracy: the more stake one holds, the bigger one’s voice. However, Exchanges violate this because they never purchased the EOS tokens they are voting with, and thus the flaw. They are able to vote with, and control the entire governance structure of EOS using an enormous number of tokens that aren’t theirs and that they never bought.
As such I coined the system DEPOS (Delegated EXCHANGE Proof Of Stake), as this describes the system as it actually works today.
This could have been avoided if various changes were made before the cartel became too large to remove. I now fear it may be too late.
In the end, some say it doesn’t matter if exchanges vote with user funds. I heartily disagree as that is what caused the downfall of STEEM and the fork into the HIVE blockchain. I believe that anyone saying it doesn’t matter simply isn’t looking at a long enough time frame of repercussions of what can happen if centralization of governance decision-making is left unchecked.
Which projects are you most excited about in EOS today?
LiquidApps is my number one favorite EOS project, period. This is for several reasons. I strongly believe the future of blockchain technology consists of an interconnected web of many blockchains, fluidly exchanges resources and volume between each other. LiquidApps offers a suite of tools that dApp developers can use to easily harness these cross-chain resources. As such, I feel it is a bet on the future of where blockchain is heading.
As far as the tokenomics, its total token supply is the same across all blockchains. This means that even if EOS drops out of relevance or loses a lot of market cap, LiquidApps can still live on, flourishing and bridging different blockchains (such as Ethereum and others), and not dependent on EOS alone for the utility and value that it brings.
Defibox is another great DeFi platform on EOS. It offers a suite of dApps including token swapping, stablecoin, loans and staking. It seems like a quality project, with good leaders behind it (NewDex and Whaleex). It is like Uniswap from Ethereum but is built on EOS main-net instead, taking advantage of feeless transactions and has a much faster user experience because its using the EOS blockchain.
I hold both DAPP tokens and BOX tokens, for openness and transparency.
There are other good projects on EOS, such as Bancor (https://app.bancor.network/eos/data), VIGOR (https://vigor.ai/), Equilibrium (https://eosdt.com/dashboard/en), pTokens (https://p.network/), and many more to be honest, it is kind of hard to list them all.
Understandable. And where do you see EOS in 5 years and 10 years time?
I see EOS as being a powerful player in the DeFi landscape due to its high transaction speed and fee-less transactions. Price-wise, I see EOS climbing a lot during the coming bull run and achieving over $50 per token, possibly well over that price.
With that in mind, if you could force Block One’s hand on any issue when it comes to the primary EOS chain, what would it be and in which direction?
The #1 thing I want from block.one is financial investment back into the EOS main-net, instead of the generality of EOSIO or other blockchains entirely. EOS main-net token holders are the ones who funded block.one’s existence and they should not be financially ignored and given so little back.
Financial investment from block.one should take the form of VC funding of EOS main-net projects (not Ethereum projects, and not other EOSIO projects).
Also, there should be an effective and long-term marketing strategy put forth for the EOS main-net (not just EOSIO).
I actually have quite a lot to say in answer to this question and I made a video explaining my full answer to this question:
https://youtu.be/JUo85lk2QA8
Also, please read this article on what I feel it will take to get EOS back into the top 10:
https://www.facebook.com/colintalkscrypto/posts/385903649315291
Thanks so much for all that Colin. It will surely give our readers something to ponder. On that note do you have any final thoughts that you would like to leave with our audience today?
Well, first off thank you once again for taking the time to interview me. And for those out there reading this, if anyone has not already seen my latest EOS video, I would highly recommend it to gain an understanding of what hurdles I believe need overcoming in EOS’s future:
https://youtu.be/JUo85lk2QA8
And also, please read this article on what I feel it will take to get EOS back into the top 10:
https://www.facebook.com/colintalkscrypto/posts/385903649315291
And of course if these are ideas that resonate with you, if you haven’t already please consider registering for the colinrewards proxy on GenPool.io.
To learn more about Colinrewards proxy or connect with him directly for any inquires you may have, you can do by following the links below:
Token Holder Voting Instructions: https://www.colintalkscrypto.com/rewardsproxy/
Colinrewards Block Producer Sign-up Instructions: https://www.colintalkscrypto.com/rewardsproxy/
ColinRewards GenerEOS Article: https://medium.com/@generEOS/voter-rewards-ctc-rewards-proxy-smart-contract-e66a3a721b79
Thanks for joining us here on GenPool Spotlight and don’t forget to check back soon for our next installment where we will continue peering under the hood of some of the great people and projects that helps keep EOS and EOSIO continuing to tick.
About GenerEOS
GenerEOS is a social enterprise Block Producer with a mission of promoting and supporting scalable and highly reliable block production whilst giving back to social causes and the wider community. Based out of Sydney, Australia, GenerEOS is founded by a team of like-minded blockchain enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds and a passion to make a difference in the world and fostering the spirit of generosity by giving back.
GenerEOS: The Future of Giving!
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