Time is Running Out: Why You Need To Register Your EOS Address Right Now.

Failing to do so before June 2nd could lead to the loss of all your EOS tokens.

The purpose of this article is to drive awareness within the community that there are still many unknowns surrounding the future of the EOS network. The most important takeaway, however, is to REGISTER YOUR EOS ADDRESS (click here for instructions) so you don’t miss out on what may come.

Before we go any further, let it be clear: failing to register your address could likely result in the loss of all funds held in EOS.

We’ve also been receiving many questions about the EOS blockchain launch, and exactly what you will need to do to be prepared on June 2nd at 21:59:59 UTC. https://block.one/news/important-notice-for-address-registration/

We do not know the answers to all of these questions. There is a lack of clarity as to what exactly will occur on launch day, and who will initiate the launch of one or more EOS blockchains. Therefore, this will be a living article, and we will be updating it consistently over the next week and a half as more information is made available to us.

At Exodus, we care not only about our community — but the crypto community as a whole. The last thing we want to see is people lose their investment because they forgot to REGISTER THEIR EOS ADDRESS.

Why Do I Need To Register?

The EOS tokens you currently hold in your Ethereum address are ERC-20 tokens, which means that they are held and sent along the Ethereum blockchain. This is why your Ethereum and EOS receiving addresses are currently identical. However, the EOS community will soon be launching their own blockchain known as the EOS Mainnet.

The EOS Mainnet blockchain will be completely separate from the Ethereum blockchain.

You might be wondering how you will get your current EOS tokens from where they are in your Ethereum address on the Ethereum blockchain into your EOS address onto the EOS blockchain. While the exact method for how this swap will happen is still unclear, what is clear is that the EOS blockchain will be able to credit your EOS ERC-20 tokens for EOS Mainnet assets, but only if you hold your EOS ERC-20 tokens on a registered Ethereum address.

It is best to think of your current EOS ERC-20 tokens you can see in your Exodus wallet as vouchers. For every one EOS ERC-20 token you currently hold in your Ethereum address, the EOS blockchain will credit one EOS Mainnet coin to your EOS Mainnet address.

Remember that every blockchain address, including your current Ethereum address, has both a public key and private key. The public key is the address that you share with people when you would like them to pay you and copy/paste when you want to send funds from another wallet or exchange. The private key is what allows the blockchain to verify that it is indeed you who owns your blockchain address, and you can think of it as the key which allows you to unlock your funds and send them wherever you may like!

What Are Private Keys?

Please take note: In Exodus, you control your private keys, so we have no way of doing this registration for you. See more here: https://www.exodus.io/terms

The EOS blockchain will use public and private key pairs for all EOS addresses, just like any other blockchain, when it is launched on June 2nd.

You may be wondering where you get an EOS Mainnet address, and this is exactly why you need to register your Ethereum wallet before June 2nd! When you register your Ethereum wallet in Exodus, your wallet automatically generates this EOS Mainnet public key/private key pair and assigns it to your Ethereum wallet address. This EOS address will be attached to your Ethereum address, and any EOS ERC-20 tokens you send to your Ethereum address from there on out will be linked to the EOS address.

Block.One, the company distributing EOS ERC-20 tokens, and the EOS community have devised a tool that they call the “snapshot”. When the EOS blockchain is launched, it will look through the entire Ethereum blockchain for Ethereum addresses that are registered, and then credit any EOS in a registered Ethereum wallet to the linked EOS address on the EOS blockchain.

Once this snapshot has occurred, all EOS ERC-20 tokens will be effectively frozen on the Ethereum blockchain and you will not be able to send or exchange them at all.

Everything That We Currently Know and Do Not Know About the EOS Mainnet Launch

What We Know

1. At the time of the snapshot, June 2nd 21:59:59 UTC any EOS ERC20 in an unregistered address will be frozen, essentially making them worthless. That’s right. If you didn’t know, now you know. Tokens held at unregistered addresses will become worthless, and frozen after the snapshot occurs. That is why we made this article… to ensure all readers register their addresses, whether through Exodus or not, we care about your crypto!
2. EOS Mainnet tokens are to be distributed in a 1:1 ratio to the ERC20 tokens held by registered addresses. The current ERC20 EOS tokens are simply placeholders. All tokens are said to be swapped for Mainnet EOS tokens after the launch of the Mainnet.
3. Block.One (the developer of EOS) will not be launching a Mainnet. They are creating software for block producers to launch their own blockchains. One of the most enigmatic parts of the EOS puzzle; block.one has created the software, but it will be left in the wild for someone to pick up and run with after the snapshot occurs.
4. Developers and teams have, and are deploying Dapps atop of EOS currently. There are many projects that have been working hard at building applications on the EOS beta networks. Many of you have reached out to us in regards to receiving these projects tokens such as eosDAC, eosCoffee, Evolution, and more.
5. Airdrops are planned by different development teams to registered EOS addresses. Outside of eosDAC and Evolution, the other airdrops have required address registration and/or KYC in order to receive their tokens.
6. Some exchanges will be handling the protocol migration for customers. Although we typically do not advise storing funds on an exchange, because you don’t control your keys as well as this voids swapping your eosDAC or other ERC20 EOS airdrops; a few exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, and Bitfinex have pledged to swap your ERC20 EOS for Mainnet tokens.. Bitfinex is taking it a step further and gunning for one of the 21 block producer spots!
7. 21 Block producers are needed for a blockchain on the EOS network. 20 are voted in and the 21st is chosen each block based on their proportional votes compared to the other producers.
8. 15% of the token-holders have to approve a blockchain before it goes live. This incentivises EOS holders to remain holding to participate in the governance of the network.
9. block.one controls 10% of the EOS supply. This may sound like a lot, but there are some MEGA Whales out there (you should check out the rich list).
10. The Constitution and protocol can be amended under specific circumstances.

• The change is proposed by the block producer who obtains a 15/21 approval rate.
• The 15/21 approval must be maintained for 30 straight days.
• All users are required to sign off their transaction using the hash of the new constitution.
• Block producers adopt changes to the source code to reflect the change in the constitution and propose it to the blockchain using the hash of a git commit.
• Block producers again need to maintain 17/21 approval for 30 consecutive days.
• After that, full nodes are given one whole week to adapt to the new changes.
• Any node that doesn’t follow the new protocol is automatically shut down.

Source: https://blockgeeks.com/guides/eos-blockchain/

11. The amount of addresses that have been registered can be viewed at https://eosauthority.com/genesis.

Additional information is also available on the EOS official FAQ Page: eos.io/faq/

What We Don’t Know

1. When will any Mainnet blockchains be created? EOS says June 3rd, but since block.one is not launching the chain this is still an unknown. In theory, there are 21 block-producers tasked with launching a Mainnet, however it is unclear who they are or how they were selected.
2. How many EOS Mainnets/competing chains will actually launch? It has been said by many BP’s that there will be only 1 mainnet, although some sources have stated there will still be many competing mainnets.
3. Is there a “fallback” registration scenario? There is supposedly a fallback mechanism that will automatically generate an EOS public address from your unregistered Ethereum address that is accessible with the corresponding Ethereum private key for that address. What disadvantages this method has over normal registration is unknown, and we have been given no details about this, nor were any parties willing to make this information clear or available to us. We were told that this should not be relied upon whatsoever, and that address registration was imperative.
4. How airdropped tokens will operate or be transferred to the Block Producer’s chain. A couple of the airdropped projects such as eosDAC which began as ERC20 airdrops have documented plans for distribution, while the rest are still largely unknown.
5. Are there planned EOS Mainnet compatible wallets? … At this time We’ve only heard about an integrated wallet with the EOS Chat DAPP, and a CLI wallet. So unless you are comfortable with command line… there are no wallets at this time.
6. How Secure the transactions are on the EOS network, and whether they can they be reversed or “double-spent”? Double spending transactions has always been a topic for debate, and supposedly, on the EOS network, this problem has a resolution.
7. How will EOS solve the issues with hacked account recovery, and user loss of funds to the network? This has been a selling point for EOS, fund recovery… but how?
8. Main-net wallet providers (who, if anyone, will be able to provide day-one support)? As touched on above, there are not any known wallet providers at this time, which means that there are also no wallets for any Mainnet EOS Dapp tokens.
9. What are the technical requirements to support the EOS Mainnet? We want to give our customers everything they desire in our wallet, but we have to know how to implement it. No information has currently been shared with us on the upcoming Mainnet.
10. How will ERC20 airdrop transitions work? Outside of eosDAC, where we know merely that tokens held in a registered address are “prepared” for an eventual Mainnet transition, the rest of the projects Mainnet distribution method are unknown.
11. Why has block.one chosen not to participate in the launch of the EOS platform? As the creators of such an anticipated, groundbreaking network, we don’t know why the block.one team has chosen to not launch the network themselves.
12. How do block producers on the EOS network work? Block producers, in theory, work in essence the way that mining pools work. These “producers” maintain the network. They are the miners. Unlike Bitcoin, where there are approximately 10 pools, EOS will have 21 block producers. Similar to how Steemit is maintained. This creates a more “decentralized” network when viewed as though a network is controlled by pools rather than individuals.

As is evident above, a long list of unknowns remain surrounding the EOS Mainnet launch. We hope that through this post, we can help promote discussion around each of these to help achieve a greater level of clarity within the community. Above all else, we hope this will serve as a call to action for those holding unregistered EOS tokens to complete the registration process, to ensure that when (or if) a Mainnet is launched, no funds will be lost.

Beware of EOS Scams and Phishing Attempts

The uncertainty of what will happen with the EOS Mainnet after June 2nd, and the significant amount of unregistered tokens, creates the perfect environment for scammers to take advantage of EOS token holders.

DO NOT GIVE YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION TO ANY UNTRUSTED SOURCES

If you do, it could result in the loss of funds from your wallet, this includes all your ETH and other ERC20 tokens if your ETH private key is used. Be extra diligent in researching any claims of converting your EOS tokens after June 2nd claiming EOS Airdrops, etc.

If you’re asked for your private keys, it’s more than likely a scam and should be treated as such.

Please reserve the Medium comments section for lively and honest discussion about the article! If you have technical issues with Exodus, our Community Support team will be happy to speedily assist you if you send a descriptive email to: support@exodus.io