Recent Whiteblock Inc. research report suggests that EOS does not possess the basic blockchain characteristics and is really just a glorified distributed database. Whiteblock is a firm that tests blockchain protocols and decentralized applications, simulating mining and testing throughput speeds. Their latest EOS research experiment has raised some major questions about the blockchain’s validity.
Whiteblock’s findings highlight EOS’s lack of immutability (a key blockchain attribute) and point out that the alleged blockchain really more like a centralized cloud service. Meanwhile, EOS has already fundraised $4 billion this past May 2018 under the guise of being a decentralized blockchain project.
The research firm’s research could prove to be quite damaging to EOS’s reputation in an already difficult bear market. Whiteblock summed up their findings to TNW stating:
“EOS is not a blockchain, rather a distributed homogeneous database management system, a clear distinction in that their transactions are not cryptographically validated.”
The report is titled “EOS: An Architectural, Performance and Economic Analysis,” and it thoroughly discusses all points of the EOS protocol from a third-party perspective. Other than the lack of immutability and cryptographic transaction validation the network also has remedial security issues to work through like repeated consensus failure and lack of Byzantine Fault Tolerance.
Whether the report is truly unbiased remains questionable considering this was a commissioned investigation. The research was originally put into motion at the request of ConsenSys, an Ethereum-based group focused on bolstering the Ether eco-system.
Despite the possible bias motivations on the part of Whiteblock Inc. and ConsenSys, EOS has overreported their network’s throughput capability. The actual network conditions as replicated at Whiteblock for testing is much lower than EOS’s marketing content claims.
Will Whiteblock’s conclusion be the nail in EOS coffin?
“The research results prove the inaccuracies in performance claims and concluded that the foundation of the EOS system is built on a flawed model that is not truly decentralized.”
EOS has had issues since its mainnet launch in June and while these new reports seem to be a PR disaster, EOS supporters who are more interested in functionality than a truly decentralized blockchain-based network and cryptographic transaction validation might find a way to move past the writing on the wall. Whiteblock has set the release of the EOS benchmark tests for later this month.
