Bitmain's Antpool is running for 1 of 21 EOS Block Producer spots

Dear Steemit Friends,

In the past week, we have seen most cryptocurrencies rally in a positive direction signaling a reverse from a challenged Q1 performance. EOS by far outpaced most currencies by jumping more than 30 percent and at one point in time even replaced Litecoin as the 5th largest ranking currency on coinmarketcap.com. EOS continues to gain traction as the airdrop of eosDAC tokens on April 15 draws closer.

What also might be contributing to the price increase is a recent announcement by Bitmain that their Antpool is running for a Block Producer position. For those who are technically challenged in this area, like myself, it is similar to Steemit's Witness voting. with the top 21 spots solving blocks and earning a substantial reward followed by 100 backup spots.

It is thought that Bitmain who holds millions of EOS, may have a helping hand to pump the price of EOS as they accumulate more in favor of this BP announcement.

There have been mixed emotions about this announcement with many people against voting for Bitmain and a few people who are for voting for Antpool. Many of those who are for voting for Bitmain are doing so because of the ASIC manufacturers popularity and size which they assume will bolster and increase visibility and adoption for EOS and possibly help bring in additional investors.

Those largely against Antpool becoming a block producer feel that Bitmain may have questionable intentions for securing one of the illustrious spots based on past business practices. The thought is that if they secure one of the BP spots not only will they increase their EOS holdings and dominate yet another blockchain technology and currency, but also use their position to influence or help elect their business partners and investors into the other remaining 20 BP spots. This would take an assertive effort, however, is a slight possibility.

With many cryptocurrencies moving toward POS, opponents argue that Antpool as a Block Producer is nothing but trouble and is just trying to monopolize another blockchain which they can't mine into.

One Reddit poster outlined some of their previous tactics and shady practices and warns investors to not vote them in for fear that "once Bitmain is in, they are very difficult to get out." I can somewhat agree given that Steemit has a large number of inactive witnesses that are almost impossible to remove from the top 100 list taking up spots that more worthy witnesses could occupy.

Below are some points outlined by the Reddit user to consider:

• Antpool (2nd most powerful pool in Bitcoin) is operated by Bitmain, which also operates BTC.com (most powerful pool in Bitcoin), they invest in ViaBTC (4rd most powerful pool), and they're heavily suspected for colluding with BTC.top and Bitcoin.com . Overall, it is believed that they may have direct or indirect control of more than 50% of the hashrate. They also control 50%+ of Bitcoin Cash hashrate.

• Bitmain creates Antminer and they backdoored it with a "turn off" switch, so they were capable to turn off any miner at any time (Antbleed)

• Bitmain patented ASICBoost to give themselves a mining advantage over other miners, and they opposed SegWit as it would not allow using ASICBoost covertly

• Despite Monero being explicitly against ASICS, Bitmain made an ASIC for Monero. When Monero announced they will change the hash function to make those ASICs useless, Bitmain started trying to sell them to naive people

• Bitmain is known to mine with their ASICs before selling them, sell user information, bribe their miners, and every other bad business practice imaginable.

Of course the above can be considered FUD, but are somewhat legitimate concerns. Several investors have responded saying they won't vote for Antpool until Bitmain outlines their motives for becoming a Block Producer. Some feel that Bitmain is just trying to get as big and profitable as they can, as quickly as possible. They feel Bitmain has no real interest in EOS and will not contribute at all to the project and that this move is simply based on greed and the potential to make a quick buck which in turn will just harm the entire ecosystem.

In the end, those who oppose Bitmain want EOS to be controlled by members of the community rather than entities that are already large, wealthy, powerful, and in Bitmain's case already have a monopoly over a number of other blockchains.

What are my thoughts

I am on the fence. I hold a number of EOS tokens in my portfolio of investments. I am excited about things to come and will hopefully make out well with the incoming airdrop of eosDAC tokens. When it comes to Antpool becoming a block producer, I'd say it's too early to tell. I am skeptical about their intentions given their historical business tactics. I feel they are simply in it for the money and will probably do very little for the community. I do think though, that they will help bring some additional publicity and could potentially help with mainstream adoption, but I'm not sure if it is truly needed given EOS' already growing popularity.

I'll withhold my judgment and vote until I hear more, but will probably reserve my initial votes for those who I think will bring positive contributions and support to the ecosystem.

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Off Topic - If you would like to invest in EOS and potentially get included for the airdrop happening on April 15, you should buy in now and watch the video below:

Below are some more details from the Coinsutra:

eosDAC is an ERC20 token for now but will migrate to EOS once the EOS platform is launched.

Note: The airdrop of eosDAC tokens is strictly for EOS HODLers and 75% of eosDAC, which is 900,000,000 tokens, will be distributed to EOS holders based on following break up:

100 or more EOS Token Holders
All EOS token holders holding 100 or more EOS tokens at the end of Day 300 of the EOS crowdsale (i.e. April 15th, 2018, 01:00:00 UTC) will receive 1 eosDAC token for each EOS token. These tokens will be transferred automatically into their Ethereum (ERC20 compatible) wallet where they control their private keys. Examples of such wallets are Ledger Nano S, Trezor or MyEtherWallet.

Less than 100 Token Holders
Any accounts with less than 100 tokens will not receive the airdrop automatically but will be eligible (until 15th May 2018) to apply through a manual method that will be explained further in time in their newsletter, so do sign up to the newsletter for updates.

EOS Token Holders on Exchanges
Holders of EOS who have their EOS on exchanges need to confirm from the exchanges if they are supporting the eosDAC airdrop. If not, you would need to withdraw your EOS tokens from exchanges to a self-hosted wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or MyEtherWallet before the snapshot.

Here is the list of exchanges supporting eosDAC.

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What are your thought's about Antpool becoming a block producer? Are you for or against it? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Image Sources: [1] [2] [3]

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