EOS' 4 Terabyte 'Blockchain Bloat': Analysts Claim EOS Has Critical Design Flaws

• EOS is suffering from "blockchain bloat" as the total size of its blockchain data has already surpassed 4 Terabytes in 8 months since launch of its mainnet.
• EOS has critical design flaws, analysts claim.

EOS Weekly, a “Crypto Twitter” account supporting the ongoing development of EOS, published a video earlier this week in which it expressed concerns regarding the relatively large size of data stored on the EOS blockchain.

How did the greatest strength of EOS (its speed) turn into its greatest vulnerability?For the answer, follow the white rabbit: https://t.co/PxgRWeeo7K#EOS #EOSIO@greymass @EosSweden @EOS_CryptoLions @EOSTribe @EOS_Canada @eosriobrazil @EOS42io— EOS Weekly (@EOSWeekly) February 15, 2019

In response to various criticisms of the design of the EOS network, Tim Sweeney, the founder of the main company behind Fortnite, a popular online video game developed by Epic Games, remarked: 

What’s wrong with 4TB for a global transaction ledger? That fits on a $200 hard drive.— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) February 22, 2019

According to an independent crypto researcher and Twitter user Hasu:

The absurd growth rate of the EOS blockchain shows again why networks need TX fees. When transaction costs are socialized on full nodes, demand to transact is infinite (e.g. for spam or fake activity.) The resulting blockchain bloat soon becomes a hugely centralizing force.

As crypto enthusiasts know, there are no costs associated with conducting transactions on the EOS network. Expressing his concerns regarding EOS’ “blockchain bloat”, Christian Antkow, a “gaming geek” and “bitcoin nerd”, said that EOS has “an unsustainable long-term growth model for such a young project.”

"Foundation Can't Hold What's Being Built On Top Of It"

Antkow compared the relatively large size of the EOS blockchain (data) to that of the Bitcoin network, noting: “Bitcoin, that has been around for over 10 years, can still comfortably run on a 500 GB hard drive for a many more years, still.”

Meanwhile, Guy Swann, a Bitcoin advocate, argued via Twitter:

There is no solution for [EOS’] fundamental design flaw. If the foundation can't hold what is being built on top of it, realistically the only "solution" is to start over with a new foundation.

When CryptoGlobe asked Swann to clarify what he meant by “design flaw” and why EOS’ highly experienced group of developers, led by Block.one CTO Dan Larimer and Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer, may not have anticipated such an issue, Swann remarked: 

Maybe they didn't hold this belief [storing large amounts of data on a blockchain is acceptable] specifically, but a 4TB blockchain in 8 months is essentially all the evidence necessary to prove they didn't have an accurate/sustainable understanding of what blockchain is useful for.

New EOS Client Software To Be Released

Despite issues raised about allegedly poor data management practices by EOS’ developers, the multi-billion dollar blockchain network’s development team is set to introduce EOS version 1.0. Commenting on the highly anticipated release of a new version of EOS’ client software, Luke Fitzpatrick, a Forbes contributor and self-proclaimed “tech geek”, wrote that the EOS referendum system had entered its public beta state a few months back.

Presumably the testing phase has been successful - as EOS’ developers will be releasing version 1.0 - which allows “anybody with EOS tokens to propose, comment on, and vote for code updates along with other new developments for the EOS blockchain”, Fitzpatrick explained.

Elaborating on version 1.0’s current state of development, Fitzpatrick noted that the new EOS client version is stable enough to support most real-world projects, however it might not yet be prepared to handle “mission-critical operations.”