Interview: Joe Fanelli, Co-Founder of Top 21 Block Producer EOS Asia
Since going live a couple of months ago, EOS has generated a lot of column inches for good or for bad. One man who knows a things or two about the cryptocurrency, fifth-largest by market cap, is Joseph Fanelli.
He is the co-founder of EOS Asia, which is an active block producer on the EOS network, and he is also an EOS Go key contributor, a guest writer for NEO City of Zion, and a co-founder of WeBao, an advertising agency.
He has seen first-hand how community cooperation can push adoption and innovation forward, and hescribes himself as passionate about bridging the gap in the EOS community between the East and the West.
I caught up with Joseph recently to ask a few questions about the EOS launch and the success of his company’s product, MyEOSKit.
CCN.com: Before anything else, I’d like to know your thoughts on EOS. Is it really going to be the ‘Ethereum Killer’ and if so, what exactly will it do that no other blockchain has done before it?
If we’re talking about pure technology, EOS has already killed Ethereum. The fact is that Ethereum and EOS are two different blockchain platforms for two different kind of users. To understand why EOS is so innovative, we just need to look at what users and developers are already doing with EOS, and how many transactions per second EOS can handle (thousands of transactions per second to Ethereum’s 30 transactions per second).
The team at EOS Asia believes EOS is the only decentralized platform that can take DApps mainstream. That’s the goal we need to reach with blockchain technology. A blockchain can be the best in the world but if it doesn’t have a strong community and intuitive DApps, it will fail. Only EOS has the potential to be the first blockchain that can reach mainstream adoption.
CCN.com: EOS experienced a fair bit of turbulence around its launch period. What caused this in your opinion, and what do you think needs to happen for EOS to start achieving its full potential?
Many news outlets and crypto community members often state EOS is a “centralized” blockchain because of its 21 Block Producers . If this was the case, we wouldn’t have the turbulence we’re seeing today. Launch timing, platform updates and development decisions would be deployed and enacted much faster than they are currently. Turbulence is proof of how decentralized a system is.
The reality is Block Producers contribute to a three-party system that composes the EOS governance architecture. EOS token holders are the second element of the EOS ecosystem, while the EOS Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF) function as arbitrators.
During the launch period, there were other issues related to the EOS governance layer. This is to be expected as we’re experimenting with new theories that have never been used before. The system is still bootstrapped, and we are making fast improvements and learning from everything that happens. Block Producers are confident EOS is going to achieve its full potential once we optimize the governance layer and introduce features like the Referendum, the Worker Proposal System and Inter-Blockchain Communication.
CCN.com: Let’s talk a bit about MyEOSKit. What useful functionality does it have for Block Explorers and what will it offer to users as EOS gets bigger?
We’re excited to share MyEOSKit is the fastest and most efficient Block Explorer available in the EOS ecosystem. We achieve that by automatically selecting the fastest API endpoint to your location. Everything added in MyEOSKit needs to have the best implementation available in the space.
When we talk about MyEOSKit to new EOS users, we like to compare it to MyEtherWallet. MyEtherWallet is an interface that allows users to generate Ethereum wallets and interact with their tokens. With MyEOSKit, we not only allow users to create wallets and manage their digital assets, we also give users the chance to utilize all of the functions available on EOS. This is one of the many reasons we didn’t call it “MyEOSWallet” — it’s way more than that.
In the future EOS will have a wide range of features like the Referendum. At EOS Asia, we intend to continue updating MyEOSKit so it supports the latest tools, while keeping it the most valuable portal available to interact with EOS.
CCN.com: What has been the response of the EOS community to MyEOSKit so far? What are your projections or aspirations for it in terms of uptake?
MyEOSKit has been live for over a month now. We’ve already received so many suggestions and valuable feedback from the community — it’s been overwhelming to see how much our audience appreciates and cares about the tool we’ve created.
In just the last month, MyEOSKit has already changed a lot. In response to the community, we added many new features and account tools on top of what we launched with including account creation via exchange, easy transfers, more complete transaction explorer, and much more. We care deeply about our users and with MyEOSKit, users voices are heard. We will continue to evolve and improve the website according to their feedback. We believe MyEOSKit will be one of the most used portals of EOS.
CCN.com: You founded EOS Asia earlier this year and you have already achieved tremendous growth with a team from 3 different continents. Going forward, where do you see EOS Asia over the next couple of years?
The last few months have been really busy for us here at EOS Asia. We’re happy to have such a strong and engaged community supporting us, and that the greater EOS community at large has recognized the effort we have put forth.
Going forward, EOS Asia is going to focus on community building, on development and on incubation of new DApps. In the next few years, we see ourselves as not only one of the most influential Block Producers, but as one of the main entities in the crypto space that will deliver the best DApps with the most widespread usage.
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