I'm sad to say this post will end with more questions than with answers. You may not have noticed, but about 3 months ago Steemit got a new whale. In terms of whaleballz there's only 1 account that beats it; @steemit. Literally 3% of all the steem that exists today is in this account. This is the biggest whale in the ocean, and we know so little about them. There isn't one post or even anything in the account headings.
the central challenge for my search
It matters to me as a witness because the account is witness voting. This one account without a single post is practically hand picking the top witnesses. @freedom proxies it's vote to @pumpkin, another account where it's unclear who it is. For some of the witnesses it amounts to over 30% of the power behind them. I've asked no less than 20 whales on here and not one of them has said "I know who it is." The two most common responses are "It's Dan" and "I don't know, but I know it's not Dan." Whales appear to be fairly certain that @pumpkin is Dan (possibly actually Dan's wife). I've had it suggested to me by people that I sthink would know.
Presumably I could pay for a Doxx or some shit like that, but I respect privacy that isn't built on the block. So, let's just see what we can figure out, and maybe that will share with us some clues as to who it might be, but to be clear I'm only offering questions and publicly available info on the block.
digging in
Let's start with what's publicly available on the block. We'll start at steemd.com/@freedom.
@freedom is account 499. So, one of the things we know is that this person was one of the first members around. It's entirely possible that they are or were a Steemit Inc employee, but nothing shows me that they have to be. They are however likely friends with the founders and first devs at the very least. Not only are they rich which makes a founder want to say hi, but being the 500th person on a platform still has that "friends and family" appeal. It's also worth noting that @steem was made on 3/24/16. This account was made on 3/31/16. So, within the first week that this place existed. Hard to suggest anything other than they at least knew the founders. So, probably a bitshares hound.
Ok, well, my first thought was let's go check the wallet. There are probably some yuuuuuuuge transactions there. Turns out there isn't shit. Not a single transfer going in that could account for any of the size of this account. So, that got me thinking... how tf can you get 7Million steem into an account without a transfer. These days you can't. So, I was trying to figure that out. I moved from steemit.com/@freedom/transfers to checking out what I could find on steemdb.com.
Epic powerdowns
Here's what I found-
I didn't even know the command existed, but apparently when you powerdown you can powerdown from one account into another. So, when I looked I found that there were 18 accounts that were created back between 3/30/16-4/1/16 roughly all in one night that all started powering down into the one freedom account all at once. Here are the accounts and here are their account numbers (ie test drive was the 461st account to be created on the block).
The accounts were made 3/31/16 and 4/1/16.
@testdrive 461
@skywalker 455
@simpson 458
@paladin 519
@moment 569
@microsoft 469
@klm 557
@galaxy 553
@firstclass 468
@fantasy 473
@excalibur 467
@eternity 477
@disney 564
@diaphanous 504
@butterfly 577
@books 566
@commedy 592
@bmw 566
@blackjack 476
@apple
@alphabet
@bitcoin2016
All of the accounts use pumpkin as a proxy, and there's evidence to me that Pumpkin is another one of the accounts tied to this rather than a separate person being proxied.
So, then I started wondering how the fuck did they get those funds. Again. I started at the wallet, but as you may guess there wasn't a single transaction. So, the best info I found was at steemd.com/accountname. I started looking at each one of these. They all have several pages that look like this.
They're MINERS!!!
I wasn't thinking about mining first because mining was gotten rid of months ago. But these are original accounts. These are some of the first people. And mining had a cue system such that you couldn't just mine with 1 account. You had to have several accounts or you'd miss your next step in line. So, all these accounts were created to ensure they would keep getting back in the loop, but they are all the same person doing it. That's especially obvious when you check how they collectively decided to powerdown and the information for like 15 accounts is in consecutive blocks.
My leading assumption is that @dan is @pumpkin and @freedom and all these other accounts. I'm not sure about that by any means, but it's my leading theory. I've had people tell me who seem pretty certain that pumpkin is Dan, and I'm pretty certain that freedom and all the minis are pumpkin, which leads me to believe that they are all Dan.
If that's true it means Dan owns 7.2M steem through @freedom, 4.2M steem through @dan, and an extra 1M liquid steem as @dantheman. That's 5% of all the steem that exists. Who knows if he has rights to steem with @steemit account to which owns like 40% of all the steem. It would certainly stand as an ongoing challenge contributing to a very unequal distribution on the platform.
what if it isn't Dan?
I started looking at some of the other accounts to figure out if they might be the mega miner. Here are some of my leading suspects if it isn't Dan.
@blocktrades 440
@val-a 494
@mottler 102
@ben 491
@michael-a 491
@michael-b 492
@smooth 234 was mining
@batel 134 was mining
@bob 241 was mining
@alice 240 was mining
In my brain you have to be a very early adopter, possibly a Steemit Inc employee, knowledgeable about mining, a decent programmer to get the accounts to all work at the same time. Freedom is likely an old BTS hound. You also have to have a great vocabulary if you're dropping diaphanous on a name. You are also probably 40ish if you're referencing Disney and Excaliber at the same time. Those are my current thoughts on the kind of person Freedom is.
@berniesanders was a potential, but at one point they are in a flag war, so I'm pretty sure it's not the same person.
It's also possible there are still more mining smurfs that weren't tapped. So, maybe there a few other accounts that have 500,000SP that have yet to appear.
I'm just starting to poke around. It's like a little mystery to me. I think there are some good details in account history. It seems as though the miner checked in occasionally from each of the accounts. Maybe once a month or so, and I think there might be clues in there too.
Tough and personally dangerous thoughts to share
I have conflicting feelings if it is Dan. He's the founder and really the braintrust behind this. I get that he gets a phat stake in it. It makes me nervous that on the one hand he's basically left the platform except to pitch for another one (EOS), but is potentially controlling who the top witnesses are. I mean it's his stake, right. so he gets to do whatever with it, but my challenge is that I'm pretty invested here and now I have about 5 other minnows coming out of the Minnow Support Project that have put together witnesses that are focusing on this project (steemit).
It's a little daunting to think that even if we got all 2600 people that are part of the minnow support project aligned and voting that at this stage it wouldn't account for just one of his previous smurfs. So, it's hard to come to terms with the stake weighted nature that I love so much with the distribution that plagues this place and Dan may be contributing to that distribution more heavily than anyone else.
How can I get my minnows to have any stake in this place when they couldn't have taken part in mining or the vast inflationary period? How can I get my minnows into witness spots when they have to compete with 14GV upvotes at a time? How can we find an avenue for new people to have any say?
More questions than when I started
The ethics are gray to me and I'm not even sure @freedom is him... As I said, I have more questions ethically and factually than anything else at this point.
Steem is crypto currency and tech based. Early startups are people connection based. Currency is exchangable from other wealth and tech is talent, experience, and education.
Dan or the unknown whale has more wealth outside of steem, likely more steem related tech, and likly tighter startup connections. Of course they will have 3% or 5% of the wealth. The only way they wouldn't, is of someone bigger kept them from it, or if they were so disinterested that they gave it away, or were interested in giving it away. Even gifts come with strings.
If the question is who, then great job. You have a good start in finding that out. If the complaint is that its not 'fair', then you are wrong. The 3% is fair and the hidden identity is fair. If its not fair, then try and prove it and make it fair. Think how this compares to all the other things in this world that you can't set right, and the few you can.
I upvote you because your expose and question and even your complaint are fair. I upvote the whale because they are also fair on both counts of steem share and annonomnity.
Way to go. I will favorite you. Keep up the good work.
Who are YOU? This is an excellent first comment on a new account. And @dan is the first person you follow? Maybe. But within 1 minute of making your account? Maybe. Interesting though. I have my eye on you :D . Oh, btw.....like the 100 on your name.
You can search the web for raymetz100. Facebook and linkedin accounts are also raymetz100. 44yo living in seattle. Owned steem on bittrex, 48 shares for a couple months. Just now getting around to learning of the product and making myself an account. I own 130 other cryptocurrencues, most of them purchased for $10 each by trading away my btc and eth profits I earned in the last 3 years. I've invested $50 per month in crypto currencies for last three years and own $15,000 of it now. Just exploring what I can do with it here. Im a new fan of Dan, BitShares, and EOS. A month ago I didn't know of Dan or that BitShares, EOS, and Steem are connected. I didnt know the founder of ETH or what satoshi meant either the first couple years I owned the coins. Im a tech geek and programmer for last 33 years and learning this crypto stuff fast now. Nice to meet you. -raymetz100
Let me follow you then :D Curious about what you will post here, you have a nice style.
If you truely want to know who Freedom is, look back into the history of Anonymous the hacktivist group. In the early day's of Myspace Anonymous members would id there comment with anonymous.random-name. One of the most infamous trollers on MySpace was know as anonymous.freedom, just saying the person writes in the same way.
Nice. Just having a little conspiracy fun, going with the theme of the post (sort of). Good to have another knowledgeable crypto-tech geek in the mix. Welcome!
IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU! IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY!!!
Holy shit. $12 million.
Steemit mysteries are the reason I wake up in the morning.
#steemitconspiracy
Nice post, but you've missed some evidence that is publicly available. And either you talked to the wrong whales or some of them are not telling you everything they know. (wink, wink)
Yup, the strongest candidates didn't even make the list... but I'm saying nuttin...
Oh boy, the mystery grows ever stronger
Lucky the person that hacks Dan's computer...passwords to millions . My guess is that the folder is probably in (hobbies) from looking at the accounts names. lol
Lucky 🍀
in the gallery.
I didnt know dan was involved with EOS?
Lol, he's the creator of EOS man.
what if Dan was a part of Satoshi Nakamoto ..? how about that ?
Now that is a very interesting question! Perhaps Dan is the brain behind all blockchain.
behind Blockchain creation yes its possible but then we have Ethereum and that is Vitalik
and Vitalik and Dan they are not working together - are they?
Just based off bitcointalk archives, I'd say no.
I would have to think @freedom is an investor or something and just doesn't want his identity known.
I was just reading a similar article by @steemit-stats that I Upvoted...I will do the same for yours mate....Keep it up
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemit-stats/steemit-stats-report-for-july-9-2017
I still wonder who the fuck is freedom.
But a tip to anyone who happens to read this 7 month old post, watch for when freedom converts converts SBD to Steem and vice versa, those are generally the most profitable times to do so.
The identity of the person who controls the @freedom steemit account is none of our business. There is nothing morally wrong with (a) owning 3% of the STEEM, nor (b) voting for whatever content or witness one wants to with that Steem Power.
What about openness and transparency and the core principle of the BlockChain?.. Decentralization.. we see here instances of hand picking and selecting witnesses, similar to centralized institutions.. abuse of power, no but centralized power, yes..
Go invest and create an open blockchain then. Donate your hard work to wonderful people like me to enjoy. Thank you and I hope you dont keep 3%
But in the end an investor is free to do as he/she will.
This is an interesting point, Steem is unique for blockchain tech. If somebody owns 3% or 20% of Bitcoin they actually have no more power than the guy with 1 bitcoin nor the guy with 0.1 bitcoin. This is because the only thing you do with bitcoin is hodl and spend. For Bitcoin the centralization challenges are about miners and devs, not coin owners.
However, Steem is very different. How much STEEM you own results in how much SP you can have, which is very accurately called Steem power because it does make you powerful and famous on the network. The ability to flag means you even can control future rewards if you have enough SP, effectively muting another person's voice and ability to financially gain on the platform. Additionally, you can influence who can and cannot become a witness, putting the witnesses in your control.
The other issue we face is that Steem draws in people of incredible differences in view. While Bitcoin and Ethereum tend to draw in the libertarian-capitalists and the economic speculators, Steem has those guys but the defining camps are more like: 1. Meritocrats, 2. Techno-Tea Party. These ideologies are absolutely in conflict with each other, as one group wants the blockchain to maintain a status of content purity and the other seeks an economic revolution.
The best suggestion I've heard is that the oracle idea should be a sidechain that allows absolute purity from spam and other junk for global archiving of human knowledge, while Steem as the main chain is allowed to be more flexible.
There's nothing morally wrong with it. I just don't like to fight for breadcrumbs while the rich are eating cake. So this is a factor in deciding whether to invest my time in Steem.
I have now 200 questions...😁👍🏼
1st one: are you human?...
What if 90% of Steemit is just bots and we're part of the few human ones here? DUN DUN DUNNN
🏁👌👀
Ummm, I thought that was common knowledge...
Soon we will have Steemit conspiracy theories in PDF. I really don't care about all those accounts as long as they are not disturbing the community and manipulating the market. If that happens, we'll, there won't be anything we could do, which is sad since this community has a great spirit. Upvotr. @aggroed
What a great research. That makes me wonder how many of 250k accounts are real accounts. Everybody making alternate accounts. Would it be accurate to say we have 50k unique users and probably 10k active users?
Which makes me doubt steem becoming mainstream anytime soon. Am I wasting time here?
If steemit alone owns 40%, makes steem very centralized.
I guess I am just having pessimistic day.
Probably not, this just isn't all that different from its alternatives as it purports to be, most likely. And it's not pessimistic in the least to consider it.
The Steemit beta allowed its founders to demonstrate a new model of blockchain function, technological form and mass adoption, and gave its content contributors an opportunity to get more than what they would have gained elsewhere in terms of return on their sweat equity.
It just isn't the second coming, that's all.
Plenty of opportunity here still to be had, especially for those who branch out beyond just blog posting and into some of the other creative endeavors I've seen lately. And especially most especially for those who find ways of capitalising on Steemit's community that don't exclusively rely on Steemit itself.
That is an interesting thought. The value of your connections on Steemit may not end up related to Steemit itself
I think most of the cryptos will be "centralised" very soon. If all the big whales or miners just keep the coins they can influence/manipulate the market like they want. It can only be a revolution if everyone in the world would have some coins..but it can´t be like that, people need a leader and strict rules, or they will live like animals...
mystery unsolved
This comment has received a sweet gift of Dank Amps in the flavor of 7.58 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @pastzam. Vote for Aggroed!
This comment got a
2.35% upvote thanks to @pastzam - Hail Eris !For you what you have accomplished may the future be more successful. I also feel happy .. actually i also want to like percapai that you can kan.oo ya can you help me ...? If you are willing to help me how happy I am.hidup This should help each other and achieve a success ...
Hi @aggroed I read this article with great interest and at the end of it all that came out of my head was "WHAT?" - what is a witness and why does it matter who @pumkin @steemit @dan or whomever is? What am I missing??? I've only been here less than 2 weeks 😳
Witnesses are people/teams/companies that produce blocks on the blockchain. This is a means of securing the information stored on the network and verifying that it is actually there and actually happened. This is especially important for information related to buying/selling and trading, however, it is also very important for some people in the use case of free speech being permanent and not capable of being censored or deleted: immutable.
Talk to us @freedom
A very enlightening post. I will be following this going forward.
I would say that based on these revelations, 99% of Steemit users would estimate that they have little or no control over the direction of the platform. Regardless of how much work is done by the 99%, the 1% could pull the plug at any time and walk away with whatever profit has been accumulated on the platform. Not that this is likely to happen, as the premise of this cryptocurrency holds good in the minds of most of the 90%, and people will keep putting time and money into it. IMO, not worth wasting a lot of time for a few cents on each post, particularly if the next hardfork continues the downwards trend in earnings for most users.
Hey @freedom how about some free steem for everybody, please please!! : )
Very interesting post @aggroed I do agree with your assumption, those 3 accounts are probably controlled by the same person.
great post, straight to the point. I hop hf20 will distribute the power more. hf19 distributed some of it and it was met with positive reviews
#19 BTS witness https://cryptofresh.com/u/delegate.freedom
And a new job is born: The crypto detective or crypto forensic lol
Wow that's a loooooot of Steem for a single individual. You really dig deep into this Mayor. Really intrigued how this will unfold.
Wild west man. Nothing is what it seems and what something seems that it could be might be nothing at all.
Wild wild world.
In an interview with Dan I once seen on YouTube, he mentioned that an anonymous third party put up the funding for development of either steem or steemit (I don't recall which one).
My guess, is that the at @freedom account is held by this same entity.
One would think that, if this is accurate, the choice of username would speak to the financer's good intentions in regards to the conception of Steemit.
However, in this world, things are often the exact opposite of what they claim to be, so I am forced to remain skeptical about Steemit's intended function in society until I know more.
I'm still enjoying the fact that there are so many like-minded people in the same place that I can support and converse with... But, perhaps all of those who are a bit more awakened congregating in the same place isn't so wise...
Good investigation. I'd love to know if you ever find out what's going on there..
Well damn, that's some top notch investigative work, and you've just gotten started @aggroed. Not quite "the Steemit Papers" over here, but veerrry innneresting to say the least...
That's really the only thing that bothers me about all this, if it is Dan or some earliest adopter via friends and/or family. A lot of the contributors on here seem to have a level of Whale worship and Steemit naïveté that I'm just not comfortable with, and touting the platform as being some "work hard earn hard" scheme to the average joes, whilst simultaneously using an otherwise unachievable level of control to manipulate who will be the witnesses you're purporting to be part of an equalisation method, smacks of hypocrisy to me.
Steemit and Steem are great concepts and revolutionary developments, and Dan is a genius, but none of this is worth shit without its contributors irrespective of whatever he built, and however long ago he built it. I just wish people would consider that more often.
The whale worship that I've see so far is pretty much all avarice based, as far as I can tell. Everybody's trying to attract the attention of someone who will plop a big fat upvote on their post. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to be getting more rewards for my posts also, but I don't expect it to be handed to me by someone with whale power. Hell, I don't even have a clue to how to convert steem to usd, so for me, this is as much a challenge as anything else. For me, it's like, how much steempower can I get, and how long will it take to get to 500 sp? Meanwhile, I just try to put out reasonably good content...
Wow. Just wow. That is a hellavuh rabbit hole you've found yourself in this time 😁
I hope you find the bottom, and figure out what exactly is going on, and who's doing what.
Upvoted for your effort but as far as viability of platform I don't think it matters. I am no personal fan of Facebook but Zuckerberg controlling 51 percent of the company doesn't seem to cause any problems.
Well, the fakebook platform doesn't let him mine likes that he can sell for dollars on an exchange, as SP lets one mine the rewards pool. However, @freedom isn't mining rewards. Doesn't even post.
Does it matter who they are, as long as the witnesses they are voting for arn't horrible?
Also, Steem was announced via a thread on Bitcointalk on March 24th 2016:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1410943.0
Any of the people in that thread could be your miner (and there are a lot of them)
That's a great lead.
i agree with you these accounts are probably controlled by 1 person, great post!
It is interesting indeed. I recently read this post: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@dragosroua/be-careful-with-your-bitcoin-after-august-1st-or-why-proof-of-work-is-an-awful-governance-idea that was talking about the superiority of the Steemit style of governance.
But, it looks like this style governance is still subject to a massive centralization of power...
Good stuff, thank you
The plot thickens ;)
Straight Dollars... WOW!
This is very interesting article that's rising some real questions that probably wont be answered! it's so good you noticed something weird on the Steemit blockchain.
You are doing great with the research and spying, I hope you will get the answers soon and we will get to know who Freedom is actually.
Very interesting observation. Conspiracy or not, I like the way you laid out your assumptions, backed up with information your could sort and laid your findings in a question format, rather than, conclusive all knowing god (like conspiracy theorists do)...kudos.
Upvoted and followed
You have done a lot of research. But still have no clue what any of this means, however I loved reading it. Very interesting.
Thanks for standing up for the minnows. This really is pretty scary if your theory is true.
Very depressing for someone like me who is not talented to blog or connected to curate or get curated. I think my account will never exceed the 50 dollars it had and still have for a long time now
A fantastic post @aggroed! I have been following you for a while and am aware of your role in the#minnowsupportproject but haven't read your posts for a long time I'm sad to say. To be honest I'm not really technically minded and since a lot of your posts deal with the workings of the platform, I don't tend to read them but this one grabbed my attention in the feed and I am very glad to have read such a well written piece. You have gone to a lot of effort in researching this.
You are clearly very passionate about seeing steemit succeed and keeping things fair around here and it is very much appreciated by myself and I am sure many, many others.
Hope your day is going well and thanks again!
Thanks Tony this place can build abundance. That's the dream. I'll keep looking out for it.
Gw8PKHviWnlLdAdSXIJ0
Everywhere it comes with some kind of difficulty to enter into an established community. Everywhere you need to work for your returns and STEEM is no free lunch either. Post, make yourself known, be true and upright, and your success will come over TIME. Some people have a head start now, as they were working on their reputation since many months, but that does not mean, that new people have no chance. In 1 year you are the one with a head start and still new people are coming. And so on and so on. Way of life.
Are you not buying silver, because you say, nah, 10 years ago it was $5 and only then it was worthy to invest in it, because now it is too expensive? Are you not buying Bitcoin, because there is a rich-list of wealthy accounts? For sure not.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@bless/thoughts-on-the-twelve-million-dollar-miner-who-is-freedom-201779t12222345z
@aggroed You know this is very interesting, a few reasons you touched on. When you have a few with majority control we lose the security of the platform itself - it goes against the point of the masses voting for the witnesses to maintain balance and stability.
A friend an I were just talking the other night about how in time governments, or their agencies, could infiltrate crypos in this very same way. If you become the biggest miners, setting up multiple operations, which a government can afford to do, to get a majority of the confirmation stakes, pushing out your competition, you can almost hijack a blockchain and then inject or track data in at will. Anything is possible when you report to nobody.
Hopefully this new account has good intentions. :-)
Well it's been here from the first week. Just all pooled now.
Oh I see, it's just a blind account with no posts or community interactions. Interesting though.
I was going to ask if the account is listed in steemwhales, when I realized that bit I can do myself. It´s actually number 4 in the ranking by value, with about $ 11 million. I think that would be dollars, or an estimate of dollar value.
Thank you for this interesting post. I keep learning and understanding a little bit more every time. This is a complicated environment, I must say.
It's a conspiracy.
Are you absolutely certain this isn't a crypto-punk spy thriller?
@freedom controls 6 of the top 50 spots in the witness pool. If they removed their vote, those 6 would not have enough other votes to be in the top 50. So yeah, if @freedom is a group which includes the original developers, who are the same ones making the changes as Steemit Inc., and include those who are in the top 20 Witnesses raking in $2 Million per year just for that (assuming they pull their money out before crypto crashes), then it's government of the geeks, by the geeks, and for the geeks, and the rest of us are just getting tossed bones, and they have little incentive to change what works for THEM.
Alright @aggroed, your hard work has impressed me sufficiently to let you know.
But, let's just keep this between the 2 of us, OK?
That's e pretty good and deep research and theory, do you know if is that possible for normal humans like me to do some mining here too ? or this is the kind of things only the friends of the Steemit CEO knows about ?
Mining is gone for now. Maybe HF20.
Thanks! I'll keep an eye on it
First time I hear about mining.. if you have witnesses then what is mining good for? Also what is
?
After reading this, I understand the big picture. History Lesson! Followed.