EOS Emergency: Community Develops a Solution to Deadlocking

A member of Reddit’s EOS community has built a tool to prevent EOS stakers from being locked out of their account when the network is suffering from high loads.

EOS runs on a delegated proof-of-stake (DPOS) mechanism, which means that users who hold EOS tokens can vote for delegates. These delegates produce blocks, but also provide the computational power behind the blockchain. By staking EOS, you can make use of the network’s CPU power.

Unfortunately, accounts sometimes become deadlocked because the network becomes overloaded or is spammed. According to the user who publicized the tool, this problem can “effectively freeze your ability to process any transactions for up to three days while your account ‘refreshes’.”

The problem can be solved if another user delegates some EOS to the locked account for a short time—just enough to let them perform a transaction that exits the deadlock.

When users announce the problem, other users sometimes offer to help. The new tool, which is called CPU Emergency, simply automates this by delegating a small amount of EOS to the deadlocked account.

CPU Emergency prevents abuse by limiting the conditions in which it can be used: the EOS is delegated for just four hours, your account must have less than 10ms of CPU allocated to it, and the tool can only be used once every three days.

Not Giving Away EOS

Users were somewhat wary of CPU Emergency: one user noted that the website “is absolutely not what I would have expected from the domain name,” probably referring to the fact that malware websites often tell you that there is something wrong with your computer. The creator responded:

“Yea, we may reconsider the domain name. My main focus has been on getting the site up and running since many people are experiencing this issue. Thanks for the feedback.”

Nor is the tool posing as a giveaway scam: the tool is clearly meant as a last resort. It’s not asking for you to send crypto and promising to send more crypto back, which is a common cryptocurrency scam. The tool is free to use, but it’s not giving away free money. (Though if you wish to support the project, you can donate to it.)

The tool seems to be legitimate, and the account is doing what the creator claims it is doing. Commenters have suggested extending the project via donors who delegate EOS, which could then be re-delegated to users who need it.