@gladness
EIP-9 just went live on Ethos and I think it’s one of the most meaningful changes so far.
Until now there was a loophole: if you vouched for someone and they later got slashed, you could simply remove your review to avoid the penalty. That made it too easy to farm reputation by casually vouching for others without any real knowledge of who they were. People built circles of endorsements that didn’t reflect genuine trust.
With EIP-9 that loophole is gone. If you vouch for someone and they break trust, the penalty applies to you regardless of whether you try to back out later. It means every review and every vouch carries real weight.
For me, this feels like a necessary step. Reputation is supposed to mean more than a number. If a vouch is costless, then it doesn’t really tell anyone anything. By making endorsements stick, Ethos is pushing us all to slow down, think twice, and only back those we truly know and trust.
I like that it shifts the focus from farming to authenticity. Yes, it might make people more cautious about giving reviews, but maybe that’s exactly what’s needed. Trust should grow step by step, not through inflated networks of empty approvals.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice.