Explain EOS super nodes in ten minutes

Super nodes in EOS refer to those nodes that collect transaction information and package it into blocks. These nodes are also called "Block Producers (BPs)" in the EOS white paper.

EOS has been a star project in the blockchain field since its release. This is because its white paper promises many attractive features, such as millions of TPS, no handling fees, etc. The DPOS algorithm is one of the foundations for realizing these features.

According to the plan in the EOS white paper, the implementation of the DPOS algorithm requires 21 super nodes and 100 backup nodes .

Super nodes are mainly responsible for the following matters:

1. Collect transactions in the network;

2. Verify transactions and package them into blocks;

3. Broadcast the block to other nodes, and add the block to their local blockchain after verification;

It can be seen that super nodes determine the stability of the entire EOS ecosystem. Although the number of super nodes is agreed upon in the white paper, it is not always constant.

EOS is a community-driven project, so when the number of super nodes cannot meet the development of the project, the community can initiate a vote to increase the number of nodes.

Different centralized systems are subject to DDOS threats. The “token as resource” strategy is adopted in the EOS network to prevent DDOS.

In the EOS network, using any network bandwidth resources requires payment of EOS tokens.

Therefore, an attacker who can launch a DDOS attack needs to hoard a large amount of EOS tokens, and attacking EOS nodes with a large amount of tokens will only harm their own interests. Attacking EOS nodes without considering their own interests is a low-probability event.

In addition, the teams operating EOS nodes have experienced operation and maintenance personnel, and will also adopt traffic cleaning, firewall strategies and other measures to defend against DDOS attacks.

The election process of super nodes is similar to the election process in reality, except that in the super node election process, each token has one vote instead of one person one vote.

Coin holders will complete voting in the voting system through smart contracts developed by EOS.

According to the voting system code in the EOS source code, some voting mechanisms can be seen.

eosio.system::okproducer is the function that selects the candidate. The function parameters are account: the account of the person who voted producer: the person who was elected, or the person who opposed vote: true means selected, false means opposed

eosio.system::stakevote is a function used to vote for candidates. The function parameters are account: the candidate's account amount: the number of tokens used for voting

eosio.system::etproxy sets an account proxy, which is to entrust another account to vote for you, and the influence of the delegate increases. account: the account to set the proxy proxy: the proxy account you set yourself

From this, it can be seen that coin holders can choose candidates to vote for, or they can entrust the tokens to others to vote on their behalf.

According to the community information, voting will be conducted in the wallet, and token holders can set the candidate account and the number of votes during the token lock period.

In this way, even though supernode elections are held every 63 seconds, token holders do not need to vote manually every time.

On March 18, Dan Larimer announced in the development group that the lock-up period for tokens participating in the election before each round of elections has been changed to 3 days instead of the original 6 months.

During the 3-day lock-up period, coin holders cannot increase or decrease the number of tokens participating in the election, but can adjust the number of tokens voted for each candidate node.

Currently, teams that meet the eligibility criteria can be found on the eosgo website. Friends who hold EOS can first learn about the strength and operation plans of each team.

Before each round of block generation, the EOS system will count the number of tokens obtained by each candidate node. The 21 nodes with the most tokens will be selected as super nodes, and the next 100 nodes will be selected as backup nodes.

A recent controversial issue is whether candidate nodes should provide dividends to coin holders in exchange for their votes?

The current official attitude is to strictly prohibit any form of dividend solicitation. Many people have mentioned the problem of low voter enthusiasm, but the EOS official believes that fewer voters are better than dividends in exchange for votes.

People who hold EOS have many options. They can lock their positions and wait for the right time, vote to participate in node construction, entrust tokens to projects on EOS as an investment to participate in the construction of the EOS ecosystem, and participate in EOS transactions.

EOS officials hope that coin holders will be good voters in order to participate in node construction, strictly review the information of candidates, and ultimately select truly qualified nodes, rather than voting because of promises of benefits such as dividends.

What are the benefits of super nodes?

The direct benefits of becoming a super node come from block production rewards.

Briefly introduce the process of block generation in EOS.

Super nodes can be understood as miners in the POW system.

The block production process of EOS is similar to that of the Bitcoin system, both of which collect transaction information in the network and package it into blocks.

The difference is that the super nodes in EOS do not need to complete the proof of work and can directly broadcast blocks to the network for other nodes to verify.

In the EOS system, every 126 blocks generated is a block cycle, that is, each super node should generate 6 blocks in one block cycle.

During the block cycle, the EOS system is set to generate a block every 0.5 seconds.

At the beginning of each block cycle, EOS will select 21 super nodes based on token voting results.

Then these 21 super nodes will agree on a block generation order, and these nodes will generate a block every 0.5 seconds according to this order.

If a node does not produce a block within the specified time, the block will be skipped and a timestamp gap will be left on the blockchain.

If a node has not produced any blocks in the last 24 hours, it will be removed from the super node candidate list.

Once a node completes block production and passes verification by other nodes, it can add the block to the blockchain and obtain new tokens as a block reward.

Interestingly, the white paper stipulates that the median of the expected rewards of all super nodes determines how many new tokens the system will ultimately generate.

Moreover, the EOS system has a hard condition that the number of new tokens generated each year cannot exceed 5% of the total tokens.

There are also comments that 50% of the newly generated tokens belong to 21 super nodes, and the other 50% belong to the remaining 100 candidate nodes.

The 50% figure has not been officially confirmed, but in the DAWN-446 proposal, Dan Larimer believes that the production reward should be divided into three parts, namely, super node block production rewards, backup node rewards and new proposal rewards. The specific proportion is still unclear.

More importantly, the value of the community reputation gained by becoming a super node is immeasurable.

As one big guy said:

Only by deeply participating in the construction of the project ecosystem and incubating a batch of killer applications can the future prosperity of EOS be guaranteed.

The following figure is the node revenue usage plan released by the eosnewyork team participating in the election, which covers almost all aspects of ecological construction.

EOS tokens represent the usage of bandwidth, computing power, storage space and other resources in the EOS ecosystem.

Build a good ecosystem, attract developers to develop high-quality applications, and have more and more businesses conducted on the EOS blockchain. Only then will the resources on EOS become a scarce commodity, thereby supporting the price of EOS tokens and allowing it to go to the moon.

It can be said that the value of the entire EOS system depends entirely on these 21 super nodes and 100 candidate nodes.

The battle for super nodes has just begun, and major campaign teams have already begun campaigning.

Only after the EOS mainnet goes online in June will we know who will become the 21 super nodes.

EOS’s journey to the moon has just begun, so stay tuned!