The EOS mainnet was activated only on June 14. Within 48 hours of the blockchain’s launch, the first significant fault emerged. According to several block producers reporting on Twitter, the EOS blockchain “froze,” causing transactions across the entire network to halt.
EOS Authority reported via Twitter that developers were alerted yesterday at 11:56 a.m. German time to an issue that caused all transactions on the network to freeze. As a result, a block producer conference call was convened to identify the bug in the code.
At 09:56 UTC (1 hour ago) we had an alert with transactions frozen on the EOS network globally. All the BPs are aware. We are all on a call with the other BPs to identify and resolve this issue. No timelines yet. #eosio #mainnet
— EOS Authority (@EOSauthority) June 16, 2018
Within less than five hours the development team released an update that resolved the problem. Current information indicates the root cause was the handling of deferred transactions. The 21 block producers agreed on a solution to “unfreeze” the transactions. The patch was released as part of EOS software version 1.0.5. After upgrading to the patched software, the 21 block producers updated their nodes and synchronized with one another, restoring public access to the EOS blockchain.
Our automated notifications alerted us to the issue at 10:00 UTC. We responded within 5 minutes and mobilized with most of the top 21 BPs. Within 5 hours the issue was identified and fixed. Our API nodes are resyncing over the next 45 min. Our producing node is fully synced. #eos
— Kevin Rose (@kroseranger) June 16, 2018
Debate Over Decentralization
The bug and the way it was resolved sparked renewed debate on social media and in forums about whether the EOS blockchain—with its Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) model and block producer system—is truly decentralized.
Under the delegated Proof-of-Stake system, governance functions similarly to a representative democracy governed by 21 block producers (BPs). Block producers were elected before the mainnet launch and can be voted out if they fail to act in the community’s interest. The initial vote required participation by 15% of EOS token holders to trigger the mainnet launch, which occurred on June 14. Since then, the BPs have been validating transactions and forming consensus for the network.
Many EOS critics pointed to the limited number of nodes run by block producers as evidence that the network lacks sufficient decentralization. The fact that the BPs held a conference call with 21 participants to debug the issue reinforced that perception for some observers: the chain’s maintenance was handled by a small, centralized group.
News of the bug and the temporary freeze caused EOS’s price to dip as much as five percent at one point yesterday. The price has since recovered somewhat. At the time of writing (09:15), EOS was down roughly one percent over the previous 24 hours.
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