The events of the last few days have reached a new level. However, while they moved to the point of rather humorous, it does provide some insight into what we can be looking at.
Steem was taken over by someone who was able to assert total control. Thus, we see a decentralized blockchain operating as a totalitarian state.
Naturally, many dispute whether Steem was decentralized or not and that is valid. Certainly, the fact that the Steemit Inc ninja-mined stake was under a single entity's control made it vulnerable.
Recently, Sun decided that draining wallets was a good idea. Of course, he used the "security" line to try and sell the concept. Thus, a hard fork was implemented that wiped out the holdings of 64 accounts.
What we see here is a page taken out of the government's playbook. How often have we hear of policy and laws implement in the name of "security". We see politicians pointing to the fact they need to protect the country from some kind of evil that exists. After all, there are malicious actors out there who seek to do peaceful people enormous harm.
The most recent hard fork on Steem was designed to defend the blockchain against those malicious ex-Steem Witness who are saying bad things and seek to destroy it.
If Sun can figure it out, bet the ranch that governments are clued into the power of controlling a blockchain is.
There is no doubt blockchain offers a number of benefits over the existing system. Sadly, like any technology, the results depend upon how it is used. When it is applied in nefarious ways, the end result is not of benefit to most.
Governments are now openly discussing the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency as their currency. The politicos all tout the benefits of it while also telling us how they will be able to go after the bad actors.
Of course, they will not require a hard fork to make changes to accounts. We can surmise from the fact that control is their goal, the ability to "censor" accounts will exist from the start.
Presently, the banking system stands between the government and accounts. While this might not be the most consoling thought in the world, it does keep the government at bay a bit. With their own "digital currency" this is not the case. The banking system would be cast aside, giving the government a direct like to anyone's money.
Politicians promoting this idea talk about easy distribution in times like these. Imagine, being able to directing send stimulus money into individual accounts in a matter of seconds. As we know that is a great benefit. Unfortunately, with the government, if they can send it directly in, they can also take it out.
We saw the blowback that Facebook received when they introduced the idea of the Libra. Politicians all over the world came out against the project. Many companies that signed on initially ended up pulling out over the pressure received that put their other businesses at risk.
Why was this response so swift and harsh?
The simple answer is because governments hate competition. Introducing the Libra put the governments of the world on notice of how easy it is for a monetary system to be implemented that could instantly have more users that anything else out there. Facebook has over 2 billion users on all its platforms. This would instantly create more wallets than there are individuals using the banking system.
Life under Zuckerberg is no more appealing to any clear thinker than it is under governments.
Companies like Facebook and Google are showing how easy it is for them to censor individuals. Adding in cryptocurrency only gives them the same ability but over financial matters. Want to do research on something that goes against what Facebook wants? Instantly, all transactions to that account are blocked.
Censorship, thievery, and control are all parts of a world run on centralized blockchains. Those who are power hungry and seek to control large numbers of people are the cancers of the world. At this point, their actions are becoming very obvious.
We just got a very loud lesson in that.
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As much as we talk trash about the banking system, it is important to remember that it is not the same as the government. Digital money directly controlled by the government is a horrific prospect. While it wouldn't be the same as living under someone like Sun Yuchen or even Mark Zuckerberg and there would be more oversight regarding what the government does, the entire idea of having every single monetary transaction supervised in real time by the government and only happening if they allow it, would be a nightmare.
Every business or organization, be it a bank or something else entirely, has a governing body. It is not called "government", but it still governs the actions of the organization.
There is a hierarchy everywhere. Let's not be blind to that fact.
I think the context here is a monetary system controlled and managed entirely by a single entity as in a central bank. If there were no banking system and if every individual or corporation had accounts directly in a central bank, then that central bank would have direct, real-time monitoring and controlling capability over every transaction. In contrast, the banking system is decentralized because it consists of thousands of banks globally that can only see or are capable of blocking transactions within their own systems.
But in a way, what happened between the Steem witnesses and some guy called Justy or something like that was exactly what would happen when an entity, a person or a business and their account is under suspicion and investication by a governing central banking entity, which also happens to be our government, the witnesses.
In our defense those actions were more or less democratically chosen and put into use, as in decentralized. But it can still be considered an action by the government of the blockchain.
Now in a comparison, what this same man or business is doing now on the exact same blockchain to the investors therewithin is more akin to a dictator acting as the central bank and the government all in same entity with no democratic oversight. That's the opposite of decentralized. Now this can also be considered a governmental action of sorts, but this one is in the hands of one man. That is dictatorship in a nutshell.
Yes there are boundaries to what a government can and can't do, but a government can oversee banking whenever it is accepted and requested by those who in turn oversee the government, the voters.
In the case of the blockchain, we all have a direct, real-time monitoring (and controlling) capacity over every transaction. The blockchain is public and fully transparent. So we can act as a government, and a central bank at the same time.
You can do a centralized crypto, but then it's loses a main qualities that make crypto viable. So it has no real sense to do this
It loses the qualities that make if viable for the public. For governments, however, it is a windfall since they can control and monitor all transactions. Owe them taxes, they can just take it out of your account. Spending money where you shouldnt? They can simply erase that account.
Financial censorship will become part of our regular discussion.
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You're missing part of the story, the central banks. They have governments under their thumb and now they are out to destroy and subsume the retail banking industry. It is the central bank digital currencies to watch out for.
I wish there was some way to mix the privacy of Monero, The social interaction and ease of use of Facebook, and the governance of Hive.
Unfortunately, there's a give and take to some of those things. Same old story. The race between arms and armor. Hope I'm wrong about that.
What can't be done today might be possible tomorrow.
There is a lot of development taking place. We will see what the next layer of innovations brings us.
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Hahaha.. Government Cryptocurrencies... Current leaders don't understand too much technology. They will have to depend upon experts that will eventually lead to technocracy in the mainstream politics. I don't think it is a bad thing for now atleast.
Besides that, what option do they have besides wanting to release their own coin?
Do they have any option?
They understand that the entire banking industry is basically a tech industry. Technology moves faster than the governments and they need to adapt, no option.
The other option is to heavily support decentralizemaniacs, crypto weirdos like us..
hahaha.
No way.. They're power hangry..
So, time to release your own cryptocurrency that people will be legally bound to use and suspend the use of other cryptocurrencies that they don't like or come up with regulations or a fast-acting regulation body to kill or devalue the cryptocurrencies.
To have total control of all the accounts.. hahaha...
Go ahead.. Shoot yourself in the foot again.
i'm not even surprised this happened, whether it was steem or something else sooner or later it was going to happen, 2017 introduced so many new people to crypto that have ZERO understanding of the core values it represents; they simply do not give a shit about having CEOs or central authorities, they're here just for the money
i'm hoping this is a blessing in disguise, and that it truly opens up people's eyes to REAL decentralisation and staying the fuck away from a CEO coins
I am with you @namiks.
I hope it also alerts people to the true need to decentralize and keep pushing power further out from the center.
Ultimately, I see it being as a collective thing in the industry as opposed to just a single blockchain or ecosystem.
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Yes, but the real issue here was that there was a centralised controlling stake for STEEM right from the very beginning. It was set up via the ninja mine pre-2017 so you can't really blame the newbies.
What happens when a crypto is centralised but everyone thinks its decentralised? This is a can of worms...
Nice shots there. Certainly, every human wants to be in control and as ling as centralized systems are in place, they do anything to be. We have in Africa, presidents in their 80 and still gripping to power. This is because of the ill of centralized systems. Thanks to the imitators of decentralized systems and cryptocurrencies where the common man has a voice.
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Well not yet but it is a direction we all need to aspire towards. It is a race that is taking place and we need to keep pushing the ball forward in every way we can think of.
It is not an overnight process.
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Surely, Every little step counts.
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It will be worse, the government entities will be much more worse than this. Here we can choose the path but with Government there is no way to choose the path and thus you have to abide by the rule
Yep they have people locked in based upon geographic region.
And they make it very difficult to move elsewhere if one does not like what is taking place.
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That's true and thus we need to make sure that they cannot achieve it by any possible means.
Lest we not forget, we also have formed, and operate a government under Hive. We call it "Witnesses". We vote them in or out, and they do their best to steer and manage the blockchain.
That is true but with Hive you are here on a voluntary basis. If you do not like what is going on here, it is rather easy to exit and spend your time somewhere else.
With government, the same is not true.
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I am not discontent so I'm not about to leave anytime soon, but also for me, there is no "somewhere else".