Shadow's View From The Ramble

Community matters, no matter who tries to attack it. No matter how much it splits.

What a turbulent time we are living in. It’s not bad enough we’re all facing the relentlessness of a virus sweeping the globe, we struggle to find peace here in our blockchain world.

Since I found Steem in August 2016, the platform has been a place to learn and grow. To make connections and build community in sort of an oasis of its own sort of world.

Valentines Will Never Be the Same

Then Ned made the fateful decision to sell Steemit Inc, steemit.com and the Steemit stake to Justin Sun of Tron. Valentines Day will take on a new meaning for most of us. What a roller coaster we’ve been taken on since then.

Initially there was a lot of confusion, then there was some optimism. Tron’s initial announcements were that the Steem d’apps would be migrated to the Tron chain and there would be a token swap. Both announcements were red flags for the rest of the platform. Steemit is not Steem and Justin had not bought Steem.

After the initial AMA there were some who expressed some optimism. Justin Sun after all is a business man and a clever marketer was some of the terms used. He would bring badly needed marketing to the platform, this could be good for Steem.

Uncertainty followed as very little information came out from sources like Steemit Inc while the initial statements from Tron kept being repeated, and then deleted.

Next Came the Soft Fork

The consensus Witnesses implemented a soft fork to freeze the Steemit stake. I was comfortable with triggering the non-voting mechanism which had been sitting unused in the code for years. I wasn’t happy about freezing their stake. To a large degree I believe that is what drove what ensued.

However, hindsight is always 20/20 and after observing what has taken place, how it has taken place and then listening to some more background information over the weekend coming from a credible source — I have a better understanding of the actions of the Witnesses. I also think that even if all the Witnesses had done was trigger the non-voting, Justin Sun still would have behaved as he has.

The Hardfork Brings HIVE to Life

The hardfork creating Hive was inevitable the moment Ned made the decision to sell to Justin Sun. It was set in stone the moment Sun decided to listen to Ned and his poor decision making over staff who knew and understood not only Steem but the community attached to it.

The only real question was how long was it going to take.

This past Thursday I posted about the last Steem centered Pimp Your Post Thursday taking place. I expressed the desire to see both Hive and Steem thrive. I wanted to see the community be the community no matter which chain members of the community chose to use.

I still hold most of those sentiments. What has changed is I don’t believe that Justin Sun will allow Steem to thrive even if the ability to do so was present. I believe his intention from the beginning was to not care about Steem like we have. It literally is nothing to him.

Moving From Belief in Mutual Thriving to Not Believing Steem Can Thrive

When Justin Sun carried out his hostile takeover of the chain and installed his sock puppets into the top 20 he made it very clear, he cared nothing for the security of the chain. It wasn’t just about getting control to release his Steem holdings. If it was, he would have immediately started power downs on the accounts and started moving it to exchanges.

He claimed he didn’t want to be involved in governance yet he continued to build his holdings through his various sock accounts to solidify his hold on the top 20. He didn’t engage in any serious discussions on how to resolve the situation. When his staff engaged and tried to work out resolutions, he blew up their progress with temper tantrums.

His actions around the hardfork has set the tone for how I believe he is going to go forward with the blockchain he didn’t buy but has taken control of.

• he moved to block posts on steemit.com about Hive
• he moved to block accounts of people involved in Hive on steemit.com
• he changed the Terms of Service to effectively put a strangle hold on the mention of any third party platform without his written permission

Yes, as the owner of steemit.com he’s within his rights to do all of those things. And censoring steemit.com doesn’t censor the whole platform. Those are both true. However, when the person censoring one frontend has the control over doing the hardforks that control the rest of the chain, just how far will he go?

I'm Powering Down on Steem

I’ve started a power down. I’ll be moving my holdings off the platform as they become available. Over the course of the next thirteen weeks I may post on Steem, I’m not sure yet. I do know my attention will be mostly on HIVE.

That doesn’t change my belief in welcoming people who choose to focus on Steem, or both, to The Ramble. Posts from either chain will be welcome at Pimp Your Post Thursday.

I don’t wish ill for Steem and the community remaining on it. I just fear for what Justin Sun is going to do to Steem. He’s the problem, the community is still important.

The Future of SHADE

@aggroed has announced there will be a Hive Engine and the Steem Engine tokens will remain available to Steem. As long as that remains valid, SHADE will be available on both Hive and Steem.

The monthly witness chats will be focused on the Hive Witnesses. When I get a chance the Witness role in The Ramble will be updated to reflect that decision.

I’ve also learned the TokenBB where I’ve been housing the list of links shared on PYPT will be closing down. Unless someone else takes on developing it, I’ll have to find another way to share the list of links. I’m thinking a post into The Ramble community is the most logical way of handling this.

Looking Forward

I think once the thirteen weeks have passed and I’ve safely moved my Steem away from Justin Sun’s influence that I’m going to be looking forward to no longer wondering what insanity he’s going to pull next and enjoy being able to watch Hive develop. Sort of like I have done with Steem since I arrived.

Onward to new beginnings.