Aloha, friends!
In our previous guide on how to vote for EOS block producers, we covered how to use the eosc command line tool to securely vote from your local Linux, Mac or Windows computer. We still believe this to be one of the safest ways to vote, but we also realize command line tools are not very user friendly. In this article we offer a couple graphical options which we have vetted and endorse as secure alternatives.
Before voting, be sure to check out our EOS Block Producer Research Portal for information about which BPs to vote for. That link will shuffle the candidates, which we recommend for finding candidates you may not have heard of, but you can also sort by rank like other portals. Please keep in mind that voting for many candidates (up to 30) helps create a more secure EOS network than if you were to just vote for one or two.
That said, on to the voting tools....
eos-voter is a desktop EOS voting and wallet app by the block producer team at Greymass. If you aren’t familiar, Greymass is comprised of two reputable members of the Steem blockchain community who run Steem witness nodes. They have a track record of transparency and helpfulness in that community.
eos-voter can be downloaded here. Download the appropriate version for your operating system. After running it you will be presented with a series of screens, starting with the Connection screen:
You are welcome to use our API URL: https://api.main.alohaeos.com.
Next, enter your account information. You can get that by following the instructions in our first guide. It may look similar to the name in this image (12 characters):
You’ll need to authorize the tool with your private key which starts with a ‘5’ and is 51 characters long. Note, while we’ve cautioned against entering your private key into any tool, we believe that this tool is safe to use your private key (private keys are required to vote and to create a wallet).
After you compare the keys (and get a match), you’ll be presented with the EOS constitution of which you’ll need to accept the terms of:
Finally you’ll be at the wallet! It may look something similar to this:
You can vote by selecting BP candidates on the right then click the Submit button on the left. We would, of course, appreciate a vote! alohaeosprod is our block producer name.
We know, that name is confusingly similar to eos-voter, but the apps are very different. EOS Voter is a web based voting app by our friends at EOSphere in Australia. EOSphere is a trusted, professional block producer team with seasoned staff and a cofounder with a reputable history in the BitShares blockchain community.
Being a web app, we gave EOS Voter a lot of scrutiny because in general web apps have more wide sweeping attack vectors than desktop apps. We like that EOSphere has built EOS Voter from the ground up with security in mind, and they have taken extra security steps that other web apps have not.
To use EOS Voter go here in Chrome or FireFox. The first thing to pay attention to is your browser location bar, which should look similar to this:
Verify the URL is correct (https://eosvoter.eosphere.io) and that you see the green “EOSPHERE PTY LTD (AU)”. That is called an EV SSL certificate, which is a technical way of saying that EOSphere has jumped through extra hoops to prove they are a real organization doing business in Australia. You won’t see this on most voting websites, and it shows that EOSphere cares about security. Make it a habit to verify you see this text and green lock each time you visit the site to ensure it is them.
After verifying the URL, you will see the main voting page with a list of block producers:
EOS Voter uses a common browser plugin called Scatter to manager your EOS private key. This is a better option than a website which requires your private key directly (which we will never recommend!), because Scatter keeps your key encrypted on your local computer and it is never transmitted to a remote party.
If you don’t have Scatter installed, click the “Sign in with Scatter to vote” button and it will open a window with a link to download Scatter.
After installing Scatter, you should see a new Scatter button in your browser toolbar. Click it and Scatter will guide you through setting up an account and importing your EOS private key.
With Scatter setup, reload EOS Voter and it should change to show voting check marks where you can select your candidates:
Notice EOS Voter also warns about BP entries which they detect may be fake or spoofed.
After selecting your candidates, click Cast Vote up top, follow the prompts, and you are set!
We hope you find these tools useful. If you have any questions don't hesitate to swing by our Telegram channel.
Until next time, Aloha!
