Hi All,
TLDR
My witness node is active again and running 22.444.
Longer Explanation
I shut my witness down at the time Tron took over the chain, as my view at the time was that it was not right to continue producing blocks on a chain that was 100% centrally controlled. The only path forward that I saw at the time was to create a new fork of Steem where everyone could continue on without Tron, and leave them behind with the blockchain that they controlled.
With the new push for the witnesses to regain control of the current chain, I have re-enabled my witness. I don't yet know where all of this will lead, but I am back to active on the current chain for now.
What is 22.444?
Version 22.444 is the same as version 22.1 (the pre-soft-fork code) and 22.5 (the Tron witness code) except for the version number. The version number is in symbolic protest of the Tron takeover, although it does not implement any soft-fork rules.
My position on the soft fork:
My position on the 22.2 fork that was implemented before the Tron takeover can be found here:
https://steemit.com/witness-category/@timcliff/witness-update-running-my-own-softfork-20-3
What's Next
Unfortunately, I do not personally see a path forward where Steemians and Tron can work together. Tron has violated boundaries and trust, and done permanent damage to the reputation of our blockchain + community. The damage that Tron has done cannot be undone, and in my mind - our relationship cannot be repaired.
I am going to push for:
- The community to re-elect community witnesses (witnesses not controlled by Tron) back into the top 20, so that we can prevent Tron from unilaterally pushing through hardfork changes that are opposed by the community.
- The community to create a fork of Steem, starting with the block just prior to the Tron takeover, and we all move on from there on a new chain (without Tron).
Uncertainty
I know there are going to be a LOT of questions about what this all means. I will try my best to clarify my views and position, although the truth is that in most cases I am not going to know the answers.
There are a lot of things that we as a community need to discuss and figure out over the coming days + weeks + months. Rather than get too caught up in the details, the important thing is for us to band together and figure out the best path for the community to take.
I am open to feedback and suggestions. My views are not set in stone.
Vote for witnesses
It is more important than ever that every one of you vote for witnesses now. Please go and vote for the witnesses that you support and help the community elected witnesses take back the top 20!
Tim, I revoted you when I saw you dropped from the top 20.
We definitely need someone bound by their integrity in those slots.
But, you can't roll back the chain without big consequences.
Transactions involving money transfers would be broken.
As long as we hold 5 slots stunc can't force through changes and the exchanges will have to buy steem to allow their customers to withdraw.
That is most excellent.
Many valuable lessons will be learned.
Glad to see you back.
If they fork them nothing will be broken because the new form will not have steem as it's currency. Steem will stay here I believe. It will be up to the new chain to establish listing on exchanges etc.
Of course, I might be wrong and it might be the other way about, lol
Tim will know!
Yes, I think we are OK.
Js was conciliatory in the witness chat.
https://steempeak.com/steem/@ura-soul/justin-sun-conversation-with-witnesses-is-online-ned-sold-out-the-community-failed-to-disclose
I saw that. I do hope we don't fork. I don't see much good coming from it. For all the talk of community, the community goes where the money is.
Right, most of those witnesses ran bid bots, they are lying when they say they care about us more than money.
Maybe if they gave all that stake they got from f'n the rest of us to the SPS, I might forgive them, might not, either.
All the witness stake, too.
I liked what was said, he sounded kowtowed to me.
He understands that not maintaining 17 witnesses means he lost his hostile take over.
He said Ned lied to him, too.
I believe him in those respects so hopefully we are able to get somewhere.
But yeah, it's easy forgotten how much of a state the platform got into by bid bot owners and delegators. A state that is still having to be actively fought off
Statements like that make me a bit nervous after having powered up 18k coins.
These coins would still continue to be yours on the current chain. There are alternate fork ideas being proposed as well which would not go back into the past. I am not locked into any one proposal or idea. Trying to find the right balance that is best for all Steemians. Appreciate the feedback.
I agree with your initial view re the soft fork, and understand, (while disagreeing) with the over reaction by tron.
That's a bit of an understatement, btw. lol
But we are where.
The fight is on that's for sure.
Maybe it's come at a good time, as it shows up the weakness in oligarchical DPOS.
Something 'new Steem' needs to look at after this has settled out.
One thing is for sure, if it continues in the same vein, this hostile takeover paradigm will repeat and repeat.
It's mathematically inevitable. 'Oligarchs are gonna oligarch'.
That's for later though...
I am very glad to have you back running your witness. I very much approve that you stuck to your beliefs re: soft fork 22.2 and/but are still willing to come back and work for a free.decentralized steem.
Welcome back. If STEEM is to have any future we need cool heads at the helm and yours will be needed.
Personally, I expect Binance to stand up their stake again to counter the community witness rally and when they do that again, it is the time to fork and take the community to a new chain. In the meantime we could dump as much stake on these exchanges as we can and then fork from the block you suggest (before takeover) and start anew.
That would be the equivalent of leaving a steaming turd on the doormat. If they are going to try and take the chain by force, it will end up worthless. Perhaps that is scorched earth policy but they probably deserve it at this point. I have zero interest in contributing to a centralised chain.
Welcome back Tim! We need our OG witnesses fighting this out together regardless of any differences in opinion.
It's difficult to utilize all 30 votes. Being on steem for 2+ years I know only a lttle about a handful of witnesses.
What is your point of view on Steem blockchain multivote security vulnerability
In the end it is going to be stake based, and if you have one entity that has 3x the stake of every other voter combined, they will still have 3x the control - regardless of how you force them to split their votes.
Your blurb still says "I love steemit" would love to see you update it to "I love STEEM"
It shouldn't.. I changed that a while back. If you are seeing that, it is being cached by whichever website you are viewing it on.
Here is what it currently says:
https://steemd.com/@timcliff
If you are not setting your witnesses, consider @leprechaun as your witness proxy
who would you vote for @leprechaun
There are many. I save my votes for those who support developers or are developers in themselves. This is how we get progress in Steem.
The Steem blockchain is currently being attacked by a central authority in order to take control of the witnesses. If you are not managing your witness votes, please consider setting @berniesanders as your witness voting proxy by clicking here to help restore the decentralization of Steem.
:)
its been centrally controlled from the beginning !
I just lost all the respect I had for you
I've just made a video about that. (in my usual, very subtle, style)
Uploading to threespeak as I type ( very slowly)
I agree with the first part, never wavered from that since the day I've been here.
The second part I've seen the name before but haven't followed.
Hi @timcliff!
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Why not just fork now? because both your suggestions will only fuel the hostilities even further, and this war can last for a long time. I think the primary thing should be to think about a hard fork that will remove things such as the ability to freeze stake and other limitations, in addition to revisiting the voting mechanism for witnesses (number of votes/how the vote value is defined/the number of consensus witnesses/decaying vote).
We need long term solutions so such events don't happen again in the future. If you remove the biggest guy in the room, then the one after him will become the next big guy. Hence why forking Tron out will only delay the inevitable, we should instead opt for a permanent solution.
It's all come down to this, doing the right thing to make the chain immune against ideology and change of mood. If we are going to start a war each time a community takes over, the chain will not thrive. We need to avoid a clash of civilization on the chain, we need changes that don't violate the property of users. It's a small price to pay, but it will play in our favor in the long run.
It is nice to see other thoughts on the depreciation of/decay of votes. My two cents on that I mentioned in a dragosroua post:
I have mentioned this or something similar a few times, and most often get the reply it won't work because they will just create more accounts. I am glad that more and more people are making suggestions on how to Fix the DPoS witness vote and still keep it as a DPoS system. If the peole/users of steem block change have the will they will find the way.
The reason I feel it's better to regain control of the chain first is to show that DPOS still works. Otherwise anyone with a big enough stake and powerful friends will pull this stunt again, on us or somebody else using DPOS.
That being said, I think a hard fork should already be prepared. Use it or not (probably the first option considering Steemit, Inc. is practically just a huge stake now, and no brains, since most of them left), it needs to be ready.
My preference would be to start the new fork asap. It is not just up to me though and takes a lot of coordination among the witnesses and stakeholders to pull off.
In terms of preventing witnesses from ignoring transactions in the blocks they produce, there is no way to control that at the code (i.e “hardfork”) level. Witnesses will always have the ability to choose what transactions to include in their blocks, as long as all the transactions they include follow the consensus rules.
@timcliff I propose a fork hat excludes Tron/Steemit holdings and airdrops an equivalent amount of STEEM to active witness supporters.
https://steemit.com/witness/@youarethewhale/proposal-reward-witnesses-victory-vote-with-steem-airdrop
Agree with the first part, but I'm generally going to be against any type of airdrop because there really isn't a good way to do it fairly.
Plus it feels a bit... plunderous...
It didn't take long for the witnesses to turn into central banking oligarchs.
Let me ask you a question lad. What's the difference between:
A bank with only 20 stakeholders controlling everything within the bank.
A Blockchain with 20 consensus witnesses controlling everything within the blockchain.
The only difference is, with being a stakeholder in a bank, you will get to keep your honor and think logically for growth.
Being a consensus witness makes you a politician and a demagogue, and thus, welcome ass-kissing and circle-jerking.
Well excluding Tron/Steemit holdings is in a sense an "act of war" (a final one), it can only be achieved if real witnesses are restored and that can only happen by active witness voters.
If Tron/Steemit holdings "evaporate" then the deflation benefits go both for inactive users and active witnesses supporters and that would be even more "unfair" as inactive users don't collaborate in overthrowing the tron dictator.