EOS' Blockchain Arbitrator Orders Freeze of 27 Accounts

EOS, the blockchain network that has been live for just over a week, is raising eyebrows for its unconventional approach to governance - again.

In an "Emergency Measure of Protection Order" dated June 22, the EOS Core Arbitration Forum - a body set up to resolve disputes in the community - directed the block producers that maintain the EOS ledger to not process transactions from 27 different wallet addresses.

"It is hereby ordered that the EOS Block Producers refuse. to process transactions for the following accounts and keys indefinitely."

The order has attracted a wave of criticism from within and outside the EOS community, although it also has its defenders.

For critics, the order demonstrates that EOS is not a decentralized network, but subject to control by something akin to a government.

Supporters of the move pointed out that the frozen addresses are likely involved in phishing scams that targeted investors during the occasionally chaotic migration from the ethereum blockchain to the freestanding EOS blockchain.

Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital, a fund that has invested in EOS, told CoinDesk that "The 27 accounts were doing spam attacks like the people who impersonate me on Twitter."

Similar attempts at theft were behind the unanimous decision by EOS' 21 block producers to lock seven accounts implicated in the thefts on June 17, when EOS had only been live for a matter of days.

EOS' approach to governance is new for a major blockchain project and, for now, largely untested.

Delegated proof of stake, as the consensus mechanism is called, gives the 21 elected "Block producers" the responsibility to maintain the EOS blockchain - meaning they also have the power to censor transactions.