EOS - To Vote or Not To Vote

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Current Voting Status

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Percent Required	15%
Current Value	8.97
Date Time	13th July 17:50 CST

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Preface

Let's cut to the chase, if you have invested in EOS (yes I know that Block One has stated that EOS is not an investment) then you surely want the price to go up. If the price is to rise, then we need the network to go active otherwise your pile/stack of tokens are no more than a proverbial paperweight, albeit a digital paperweight; this is 2018 after all.

Once we have reached the required amount of votes (counted in tokens) which is approximately 150 million or 15% of the total circulating supply, then the network will become active and allow transactions to flow, moreover, allow dApps to be deployed and become usable.

Why do we need 15% of tokens to vote I hear you say? Great Question.

The EOS blockchain was designed to be run by the community and the power to run the network (produce blocks) is delegated to entities that we vote in and out, in this case, 'we' or 'the royal we' refers to the token holders.

During the initial boot of the network, there could have been and most likely still are more than one network that wants the illustrious title of 'The Mainnet'. The mainnet will be the network that dApp developers will deploy their applications on, which in turn generates transactions, which in turn allows block producers to do some work and get paid. This 15% minimum limit is built into the code and is not a requirement put forward by the block producer. It is designed to make sure that the network that reaches this level of voting has the backing from a good portion of the community, in essence giving the nod that we (the token holders) believe this is the network we want to use.

Reasons I see that people are not voting

The multiple sources I am monitoring glean various reasons with one major outlier, fear of entering their private key into third-party software. I spent a few days hitting up as many block producer candidates as I could on Steemit relaying the concern and suggested that maybe @dan could give one for the open source tools his nod of approval to give the community the 'warm and fuzzies' so they desperately need. I mean no condescendence with that last statement, to the contrary, I think it is great that people are exercising caution with their private keys, it is commendable for sure.

I got a few replies from BP's as noted below:

@eos-asia

We absolutely agree on this, that's why we will never ask private keys! Beware of any portal that asks for private keys and inform us. Our telegram group is: t.me/EOSAsia

@eosgo ( not a block producer but a critical cog in the community)

Probably won't see an endorsement from Dan, as he and block.one are taking a hands-off approach to the launch. However, many of the block producer candidates are endorsing the Greymass wallet and voting tool, see this pinned post on Reddit for the links and info - https://www.reddit.com/r/eos/comments/8q34pp/lets_vote/

@eosnewyork

Unfortunately, as a group, we could only recommend cleos. Individually, however, is another story. EOS New York recommends Greymass or EOSPortal.io/Scatter https://steemit.com/eos/@eosnewyork/your-vote-matters-4-how-to-vote-on-the-eos-mainnet

@sheos

In place of an official endorsement, the EOS Mainnet Launch Group has a group of volunteer block producers doing audits of voting tools. Those results will be releasing soon!

These responses were before the fact that now multiple block producers have given their seal of approval to the tool written by @greymass . I must say I used Scatter and eosportal.io the minute it went live and it was slightly problematic. There were some issues with importing keys and accessing multiple networks which nsjames has now fixed. If you use Scatter, be sure to download the latest update nsjames released today (June 13th 2018).

Another thing that confuses me is that we entrust our crypto currency portfolios to wallet devlopers such as Jaxx and Exodus without batting an eye lip. I hope that the endorsements from the BP's alleivates some of the concerns people have.

The next issue stopping people from voting with their tokens is that they left them on exchanges and now have no control until the mainnet is active. This means that they will now have to leave it up to whichever exchange they are on to make the decision for them. Bitfinex is the only exchange I currently know of who have come forward and offered their users a way to opt into voting now or wait until the network goes live at which point, Butfinex will simply vote for the top 30 block producers for them.

The process for completing this op-in is not a simple process, the link to there support documentation is here. It really is not a user-friendly experience and for an exchange the demands at a $10,000 portfolio limit to use their platform, they really could have done better.

So, if you have voted, great work, if you have not, let us know why and if we can help?