On June 17, 2018, the 21 block producers or nodes that run the EOS network chose to freeze seven accounts that were allegedly stolen from EOS community members. According to reports, all 21 block producers unanimously decided to freeze the compromised assets but the decision was met with controversy from the EOS community, and possibly some second thoughts from the block producer EOS New York.
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EOS Block Producers Unanimously Decide to Freeze Accounts
The decision made by EOS block producers brings a lot of questions to the table again in regard to whether or not a public blockchain that has centralized nodes with freezing powers can truly be considered a permissionless blockchain. On June 17, the 21 EOS block producers (BP) had agreed unanimously to freeze several accounts on the EOS blockchain that were allegedly stolen. According to the BP members and the EOS911 (a system that shows if EOS keys were compromised), malicious actors using phishing attacks and other forms of social engineering were able to steal people’s keys. Seven accounts have been frozen even though there seems to be more complaints of compromised keys to hand.
EOS New York Shows Reluctance
Even though all 21 BPs chose to unanimously vote to freeze these accounts, EOS New York has written that even though they voted on enacting the account blacklist, the organization wavered on the decision.
“EOS New York chose to enact this freeze because we believed that we were following the spirit of the governance system we as a community seek to create, despite it being formally absent. EOS is a platform meant to enable solutions which protect life, liberty, and property and that’s what
