I work with the Telos blockchain, (a DPOS chain), which has a number of similarities to Steem:
- Telos had no ICO
- Telos is 100% bootstrapped.
- Telos has a functional Worker Proposal System
But there is one thing Steem could adopt from Telos and it is this: Telos doesn't allow exchanges to vote on anything in Telos. They have it written in their operating agreement which you can see here: https://www.tbnoa.org/details.html?docid=6§ion=21
This operating agreement was sent to all the exchanges. They all understand that they would be in serious breach of Telos governance if they used customer funds to vote on the Telos blockchain. That is why a Justin Sun takeover would not be possible on Telos. Telos also has rules about new block producers (witnesses). New block producers have to be active on a testnet for 7 days before they can go to the Telos mainnet. This is done so the existing BP's can observe the behaviour of any new BP's. For these reasons, a takeover would not be possible on Telos. Steem could adopt these rules to prevent such a takeover in the future. But now we gotta get Justin Sun out, as to save this chain.
Document: Telos Blockchain Network Operating Agreement
- Proxies
Members may delegate their votes to another Member as a voting proxy (“Proxy”) using the “proxy” contract included in the EOSIO software. Only a token’s true beneficial owner or a voting Proxy recorded on the blockchain may vote tokens. Any Member holding tokens in trust for another beneficial owner, such as a centralized exchange, may not cast votes for or assign to a Proxy such tokens.
As you can see on Telos, no one can vote using tokens if they don't belong to you. That's what the rules are made for: to stop exchanges from taking over governance. Telos created these rules after seeing what happened on the EOS mainnet, with exchanges and corrupt BP's taking over the chain. This document could be used to craft a similar one for Steem going forward (after Justin Sun leaves the Steem chain).
Would this apply to just exchanges? What about custodians in general? What about pools?
I think we should try to curb centralization but I don't necessarily like the idea of placing restrictions on proxy voting. What if instead people who choose to stake with an exchange have to "opt-in" to let the exchange vote on their behalf.
Exchanges cannot be involved in governance on Telos. We see how they act without consent of their users, and telos learned a lot from observing Eos slowly get taken over by exchanges...
there are not restrictions on proxies at all. anyone can set up a proxy, even exchanges. However no one may vote using tokens that do not belong to you. The telos system works well, and this entire takeover would not have occurred on Telos. Steem has serious flaws.
I agree, Steem has serious flaws.
It's the same reasoning why exchanges should forward any airdrops that happen to its users'.
I think this goes beyond exchanges and expands to any custodians. BitGo, Coinbase Custody, BlockFi etc. If they start offering Steem, they shouldn't be able to vote with the stake either.
That is needed. I have a feeling it's going be a sticking point despite what they have done in not wanting to do. There is in fact a commend they can issue on their end to revoke their own witness voting rights.
If anything this has made people realize the flaws in the system and it’s great to see so many proposals im not really keeping up to date but how is it going? I still see it’s a witness deadlock any progress on how to get Justin to just let go
i have been mixed. Eos burned me pretty bad, but I found great people in Telos and am working with Chirp too.
@stellabelle, any agreement on paper can be also ignored by a malevolent entity.
STEEM community could turn from DPOS protocol to REDPOS protocol.
For example, no user could be elected as witness unless his account has a certain minimum age. Any other parameter that constitutes a "reputation" could be used on such a Reputation Enhanced DPoS , minimizing the posibility of a Justin Sun type of chain attack.
The mere existence of the Telos Operating Rules will greatly minimize any malicious acts from exchanges. Exchanges generally want to follow existing rules because the fallout from customers would be too great. I think many things need to be fixed, like what you suggest also. but I am not familiar with REDPOS
REDPOS is just an idea for a new type of DPoS protocol that uses REPUTATION as part of the witness rank. That link is the only paper defining it, for the moment.
For example, this account:
Could be elected as witness, because the Reputation is higher than 60 and the acount age is older than 25 moons.
Now look at this other account:
That account could be a user on a REDPOS chain, but it can't be a witness (no matter how much voting power), because Reputation is lower than 60 and account age too young.
Of course, parameters are arbitrary (any parameter could be used), but the idea is that it acts as a barrier to new accounts without enough REP.
Since the chain is oriented to human communities it doesn't make sense that a newly created account can become a witness of a 4 year old chain. Doesn't make sense on the real world either.