Best I can figger is that @dan is flagging @berniesanders, so @berniesanders flagged you in order to force @dan to counter the flag, and wear out his VP.
You, and your post, are but collateral damage to @berniesanders. IMHO.
He's, I believe, trying to use you as a weapon against @dan. More than that I neither know, nor can conjecture.
Yeh if that is the strategy he must really misread the situation (lol)
Not sure how I am used as a weapon against Dan. The guy is sitting here calling me a nobody shill while at the very same time he considers me a weapon against Dan? Purest of insanity if this is the case, but can't rule it out (obviously) :P
If you're really the block-police I know some serious abuses you can investigate....
Hmmmmm....
Will do...
when Dan flagged Bernie? Please, give a link.
@akrid is on it ^
Just look at @berniesander's profile, and you will see many flags from @dan.
What I see when I look at his profile... is a LOT of accounts upvoting by 10% - many with the 'nextgencrypto' or similar monicker.
Is this what a Sybil attack (or does this count as defense?) looks like?
(P.S. I will get around to 'it' - I just want to do it right. ^_^)
Did you not see the flags from @dan? I assure you I am not making it up!
Many of those accounts you note upvotes from are likely the same person, or his bots, as @berniesanders.
Yes, and yes. @berniesanders is able to extract rewards from the pool to increase his own holdings of SP through selfvotes. I consider this a 'Slowride' Sybil attack, as it slowly builds SP by extracting it from the rewards pool (it is an attack on Steemit as it decreases the rewards available through nominal curation). Since he has spread his SP into various accounts, he does so from those accounts as well, however, I am unaware that in normal circumstances he does so.
In this case, he is countering the flags @dan has thrown at him, so it is defensive.
@berniesanders does not hold enough SP to control the majority of the witnesses, which would be a 'true' Sybil attack on Steemit. His stake would be likely to be necessary to such an attack, though, so Sybil attacker(s) would seek to buy his, @dan's, @ned's, and etc., in the attempt to acquire enough SP to control the witnesses, and thus the code that Steemit runs.
I hope to demonstrate nominal patience so that 'it' is properly done. I far prefer things well done, if rare, to things common, and cheap. Data Flowers FTW!
Edit: added exposition of 'Slowride' Sybil attack.
You need not assure me @valued-customer. I could see that the up-votes were closely grouped and that they pushed whatever votes prior to them further back in history.
I am surprised that such can occur and be gotten away with in broad daylight. It gives me cause to pause and think.
Let us suppose that a sybil-conducive mass-multi-account situation comes about and is detected.
Then what?
If there is no consensus on what is to be done about such accounts (such as an ultimatum to transfer their SP to another account by a certain date as the account is to be suspended(with an agreed process of appeal for legitimate accounts mistaken for such (having an unfortunately similar name for instance)))...
...then detection will be simply like knowing you are going to get burgled but have been told that you cannot interfere.
Thank you for your patience @valued-customer. It shall be rewarded in quality.
StInc is itself a highly coordinated Sybil attack.... It's a scam and always been a scam... I have a detailed timeline I'm working on that I will be posting on the new chain that's in creation and probably on this one as well though I'm sure they'll bury it with downvotes in the first few minutes.... so much for "censorship resistant". That can't be true when the premine was manipulated to ensure that there was centralized control... https://decentralize.today/the-ugly-truth-behind-steemit-1a525f5e156
I reckon that simply having the SP to conduct the attack is no crime. There is no rule or prior sentiment against it. As most of the Steem that exists was mined before Steemit was opened to the public, the holders of it would become quite wealthy by purveying it to the purchaser(s).
Also, since they would have, at that point, sold off the majority (at least) of their Steem, they would no longer be whales, or even on Steemit, so may no longer care.
It is not necessary that a single party undertake control in order for that control to occur. Conspiracies and collusion are practically the order of business when hostile takeovers are conducted, and pooling of capital is no novel technique. The fact is that the control IS presently undertaken through holdings of SP by voters for witnesses. Since, by and large, the accounts holding that SP are the founders of Steem and Steemit, that isn't an attack at all, but management. Also, despite a certain congruence of belief and interests, there is no little divergence of views amongst those account holders (as the mutual flaggotry shows).
So, the only real means the rest of us might have to ascertain that a Sybil attack has been conducted is a) the sudden replacement of code by witnesses, most likely preceded by a wholesale replacement of witnesses by new witnesses, many likely to be new to Steemit, and b) the end of the powerdown period, which the attackers may find desirable so that they can immediately extract their Steem after making the changes to the code necessary to kill or neuter Steemit.
Those most likely to conduct such investment to harm Steemit are it's competitors with deep pockets, such as Zuckerberg, Schmidt, Soros, et al...
They will also probably make some changes that reflect their interests, such as ending free speech by making the blockchain less permanent, setting up some sort of centralized control over content insertion, etc., and may also not kill Steemit but seek to use it (it's success will be the only reason they'd find it beneficial to assume control of, IMHO).
It's likely we'd never know such an attack was being undertaken in advance, as there are many ways of xferring Steem surreptitiously. Perhaps the powering down of substantial SP would predate an attack, but accounts can be xferred, and simply convinced to vote as desired, too, so Steem might never even change hands in the conduct of such an attack.
There is but one way to defend against such an attack, and that is decentralization of VP. Presently concentrating wealth is the means of concentrating VP and this is what potentiates this attack vector. Concentrating wealth is perhaps the most singular feature of capitalism, so this is not some novel technology that would need to be developed to permit a Sybil attack on Steemit.
That one way I have long advocated, and it is to no longer weight VP by SP. The SEC may be able to conduct such a concentration of SP by means other than purchase, and the desecuritization of Steem would also preclude that attack vector.
Sorry if this is a bit obtuse. Up late and early, and the meds/coffee haven't really kicked in yet =p
You show a remarkable lack of knowledge of what's been happening on steemit.... The premine was manipulated to begin with to assure a centralized control that has been abused the whole time.
Good question
Let this be an addition.
That is the definition of a Sybil attack... StInc is rife with it... pretty much their business model... I'd be happy to elaborate if you like.
... and is precisely the reason many have left Steemit for greener pastures. The price of Steem is in the basement for good reason.
It is the equivalent of taking hostages, or terrorism, in RL, so we can see it's also a time-honored traditional means of dispute resolution.
LOL those account names. Apparently truth in advertising...
Sorry to see he is doing this to you.
I haven't really looked at his voting history, so remain unaware of other than the reports of others regarding it, except as I have related in comments on this post, and in others where I became aware of it through context there.
Its not what he is doing to me so much as an entire community im trying to build on steem
Isnt it crazy now that ned is creating steem media tokens but this community trying to build voltron and the eos community on top of steem is being downvoted?