Early in the week, EOS enthusiasts saw their excitement over the new digital currency turn to frustration as many were seemingly locked out of voting. A report by trustnodes.com reveals individuals experiencing emotions ranging from sarcastic bitterness to general anger: One member of the EOS community said, "I'm confused now, did they raise $4 billion Zimbabwe dollars or U.S. dollars?" Another tried to pass the situation off as unimportant, suggesting that "I haven't voted yet because I have a life and other responsibilities."

2% Have Voted

Roughly 24 hours after EOS went live, only about 2% of eligible voters had exercised that right. For one user, it was better to "take the risk and vote (potentially losing [his] EOS) than to sit on the sidelines" and be stuck with "useless EOS tokens." For that user, the process involved voting for EOS block producers, entering his private key manually, and then submitting the information; in the process, the user shared publicly the most important and private information any cryptocurrency investor has, the access code to his wallet.

For other EOS holders, the prospect of having to submit a private key in order to vote was too much to ask. One said that "security of my private key is important and I am fully aware of the risks associated with the online tools. I don't even trust my well-protected personal computer and they are offering online voting tools. No way!" Another likened the process to "a game of Saw, where we have to risk losing our tokens in order to save them."

Developers Leave Voting Tool Design to Community

Block.one, the development team behind EOS, has indicated that the community aspect of the ecosystem's launch means that the community itself is responsible for designing the voting tools. There are currently 155 supernode candidates, with 150 of them having received at least some votes from the larger EOS community. With most of the identities of the candidates obscured, voters are largely uninformed. Analysts have pointed to the risks of broad collusion among node operators that might place others' investments at risk.

As one EOS holder suggested, "I am active, excited and heavily invested, but leaving the voting protocol and mechanisms to the community was a big mistake."

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