Hindsight is 20/20. If we could back up to an event and apply hindsight, imagine how things could be better.
image from Pixabay
Nowhere could the wonder of hindsight be applied better than the current situation with the hostile takeover by Justin Sun and the Tron Foundation at Steem.
Before I proceed, I need to be totally clear: the comments made in this article are mine and represent no one but me.
My Perspective on What Has Happened
When I first heard about the soft fork my initial reaction was, well okay, that is one way to be sure Steemit Inc doesn’t vote witnesses. And then I read the full details. The witness voting was just one of several actions the Steemit Inc accounts were restricted from taking. Most importantly, they were not able to power down or move their funds.
At the time I was in a voice chat with other Steemians. I wasn’t impressed and said so. To me, stopping them from witness voting was provocative but could likely be lived with. The other items, was a step too far and was going to be inflammatory.
The root of the issue was the ninjamined stake IMO.
The Ninjamined Stake — A Ticking Timebomb
The ticking timebomb that has been sitting waiting to detonate for as long as the chain has been. While many point to the ninjamining of the stake as the root problem, I don’t believe it is. Others participated in that early mining and some have very large stake because of it.
The difference is, others didn’t make promises about what they were going to do with the stake beyond being a large whale on Steem. People might have grumbled but they made no claims on the stake.
Ned Scott, the cofounder of Steemit Inc, made multiple promises during the last four years. He had most of those who cared about the platform believing the funds were to be used for growth and development of the chain. They believed there was a social contract with Steemians.
Steemit Inc coded into the chain the ability to decline voting rights for accounts like Steemit Inc. It has been there since August 2016 but never triggered. Ned halted any witness voting with Steemit stake on his own and the witnesses at the time never pushed it.
The stakebomb ticked
At one point when he started to power down there was a threat from a Github pull request by one person. If the code put up there had been supported by the consensus witnesses the Steemit stake would have been forked off the chain.
It wasn’t supported by the witnesses. Debate over not only the Steemit stake but the concept of removing anyone’s stake blew up on the chain. Several of the witnesses posted statements they would not interfere with anyone’s stake.
Ned moved some of the stake to hide it out of fear the unsupported pull request would somehow become enacted. As usual Ned was not paying attention to the community and how they felt. As much as they didn’t trust him, they didn’t support the idea of removing stake.
The stakebomb ticks on.
The bear market hit the ability for Steemit Inc to operate. They implemented layoffs, cost cutting and regular selling of stake to keep going. I saw the selling as what was needed to keep their developers working on the chain. The promise of the stake was being kept but not necessarily the way people had envisioned.
The stakebomb ticks more.
That stake had always been a bone of contention. The major source of anger and distrust directed at Ned Scott and by extension Steemit Inc.
Ned Scott selling that stake to Justin Sun, followed by the fiasco of an announcement of the sale was a detonator just waiting for the spark. The lack of communication and the initially unexplained token swap was packed around the detonator.
The Stake Bomb Explodes
The long delayed detonation went off with the soft fork.
From the perspective of the Witnesses, they were securing the chain and protecting the stake until more could be known of the buyer’s intentions. From Justin Sun’s perspective, his stake aka asset was taken from him.
The stage was set for what followed. Although I am not sure anyone could have foreseen the actual path this has taken. The witnesses apparently considered the possibility of the exchanges getting involved and decided they would never do it.
I don’t think anyone except Justin Sun and Ned Scott could have seen deception being used to draw the exchanges into this. They created that part. I have zero doubt that Ned Scott has been nursing his sense of having been wronged in the past and has been advising Justin to do what he never had the resources or the nerve to carry out.
But Wait, Ned is Gone
No, he’s not. He showed up not only on Twitter busy blocking those who rebuked him but also in his own discord and later in another member’s discord. I listened to the recordings of both of his ‘talks’ with the community. Those are more, Ned saying what he wanted and responding only to softball questions while pushing his agenda type talks, than actual conversation.
Ned Scott is and always has been a lousy communicator. By listening to what he said it didn’t take much to figure out he’s been involved in this conflict from the outset. I also didn’t miss him stopping just short of telling those listening he was aware he’d been making promises he never ever intended to keep.
He referred to his very explicit statements recorded in different places as ‘vague statements’. I got the distinct impression of someone holding back a derisive laugh over how he had snowed the community for years. And is continuing to try to do so.
So yes, add Ned Scott to the list of those responsible for this impasse.
Justin Sun Doesn’t Get A Pass
Justin reacted to the soft fork in a very human, very emotional manner. I think on a much smaller scale, anyone who has received a downvote on their posts get the sensation. You feel robbed. Now scale that up to 70+ million Steem and you might come close to the feelings he had.
I get that and I understand it. I really didn’t expect his response would be… oh, okay what would you like?... I did expect what he would do would be at least in the realm of honesty. Instead, he engaged in deceiving three exchanges into believing Steem was under attack by hackers.
Then to make matters worse, he publicly announced that hackers had attacked Steem and their criminal actions had been beaten off by the community. Every last bit of that was lies. He knew the witnesses had taken the actions and that they had been properly elected by the community. The same community which had not been part of his takeover.
The community has, more than once in his short time at the head of Steemit Inc, seen Justin Sun say one thing one day and something else the next. The usual pattern is something conciliatory like “this has been a miscommunication and we need to sit down to talk”, followed by an explosion of lies and distortions. Often just hours later.
Justin, that is no way to start a relationship nor to repair one that has got off on the wrong foot. I like Roy Liu’s comment about going forward holding hands. Too bad we’d have to be watching your other hand and your feet while holding hands with you at this point.
Justin Sun could change that by acting right now. By offering an olive branch like stating the witnesses are not hackers and he’s sorry he called them that in the heat of the moment. Then sit down and have some discussions where your word could be counted on.
The Community Debates
The debate within the community has been loud and prolonged. There are literally people on all sides of the matter. I think for the most part, other than being able to votes for witnesses there is not much that an individual community member can actually do.
Me writing this post likely wont do much other than let others know how I feel about the situation. Maybe they agree, maybe they don’t. It wont change anything.
Two things that are totally clear
The Steem community, the people who make up the community, are passionate and committed. When 200 or more show up day after day to voice chat town halls. To talk and debate about not only what has happened, but how to make sure it doesn’t happen again, that’s passion.
The days of ‘stake rules’ needs to be seriously limited. A situation where someone can buy enough stake to decide who the top 20 witnesses are needs to be gone. This should never ever happen again. If it does, it’s on all of us for not holding the witnesses and blockchain developers to account.
The larger stake holders have had a rude awakening to the fact they can be passed by someone with deeper pockets. It’s in their interest to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
My View on That Stake
I’ve been listening to the discussion over the last week. I hear a lot people still passionately attached to the stake as belonging to the community. The stake is needed to grow the chain as promised.
I’ve also heard discussions about a sister fork happening which would fork off that stake. The question comes to my mind: If a new fork could run without that stake, why are we not willing to consider the current fork running without it?
Beginning to feel a bit like not being able to get our hand out of the cookie jar because we wont release the cookie.
Ned may have had a social contract through his empty promises but that doesn’t mean it transfers to Justin Sun. I know some argue it does because Ned represented Steemit Inc and the obligation transfers with them.
That is for a court of law to decide. And for those with the will and the dollars to take it there. I wouldn’t mind seeing Ned being held accountable. Like most lawsuits though, it will likely make some lawyers richer and be a lot of frustration.
Meanwhile, we need some peace on the chain. So, if we can have a new chain without the stake, then maybe we need to let it go on this one.
Yeah, it will leave a pretty bad taste in a lot of mouths. It might help if Justin stops his immature bullshit and becomes a businessman who makes his word his bond when he makes promises. I know, that's not looking promising.
Don’t just say you want to do investment in growing the chain. Get down to it. Make it happen. I hear business people do that.
The original top 20 Witnesses need to discuss and come to a unified position. If you managed to do it for a soft fork, then draw up a list of agreed upon points of negotiation with Justin Sun and get them on the table.
It takes two to make a problem and two to fix it. You don’t do it sitting stubbornly in your corners.
Some Suggestions From My Perspective (in no particular order of action):
Steem Witnesses
- concede the stake ownership
- give assurances in writing that no move will be made to hinder the funds moving off the platform — - that means anyone’s funds moving
- commit to building a working relationship with Steemit and Justin Sun
- commit to working with the whole community to come up with a plan on how to make the platform truly trustless.
Justin Sun & Tron
- admit publicly there were no hackers. The witnesses took actions they felt appropriate even if you disagreed.
- remove the sock puppet witnesses and let the chain be properly secured again
- commit to actual amounts you are willing to invest and by when.
- commit to the ongoing development of Steem as a sister chain to Tron and Atomic swaps.
- commit to not voting with Steemit stake at least until the platform is truly trustless
I’d say then kiss and make up, but COVID-19 means you can nod respectfully to each other.
I’d really love to see efforts made to get the Steemit team back together but that is up to Justin to deal with employee relations. Maybe some funding for their wages for the community to employ them might be good middle ground for everyone?
Justin, you have/had a team of Steemit people who have worked very hard these last few months for the benefit of Steemit and Steem. You’d be well served to see them continuing to do that work with proper financial supports and respect.
To quote @artemisnorth, let’s “go forth and Steemiate”.
Want to know when shows are on in The Ramble? Sign up here
Receive daily content prompts. Subscribe to Prompt A Day
Upvoted for a well rounded, fair picture in the various positions.
Still hoping for resolution, and prepared for forks, takeovers and whatever else might come.
thanks @whatsup ... I agree.. we can hope but we need to be ready for just about anything at this point. Then roll with it and see where it takes us.
Thank you for sharing your views and insights regarding the current status of the STEEM blockchain. Sounds legit to me. So many factors. There is no black and white in this entire debacle. Hindsight indeed is 20/20.
Arbitration, as a number of folks in the community have mentioned, is the only way forward from my perspective as a STEEM user. Laying blame, silly memes, cussing, name-calling? This will accomplish nothing and has not accomplished anything up to this point in resolving the current impasse.
Of course, I will side with the community on restoring elected consensus witnesses. A large portion of Steemians have demonstrated they will do the same.
There is no sense beating a dead horse.
Note: This post has been shared on my personal Twitter™ feed using the Alt-Yes Browser Plugin
We indeed live in interesting times... dead flogged horse and all.
Really well written and considered, my friend.
The ninja stake hasn't just become a problem since Justin bought Steemit. It has been a huge drag on the ecosystem from day one.
There is plenty of blame to go around for everybody: Ned (and SteemitInc), Justin, the witnesses past and present, and all of us. Me particularly if I'm being entirely honest.
What to do? I like your program. I might add limiting witness voting to 5 per account. I realize that sock puppets could still be possible under that restriction but it would make it much harder. Plus I think it would tend to make witness selection much more representative for and to the community. While we are at it we should make voting (all voting) be limited to members that have logged in during the last 3 months. The endless votes of some stakes that are no longer active in any way are poisonous, too.
It is interesting to say the least.
I agree with both of those suggestions and would hope they would be explored under the commit to make the system trustless part. I know there are a lot of ideas out there .. the umbrella is really fix it by considering ideas seriously not just knee-jerk rejecting
I’d say then kiss and make up, but COVID-19 means you can nod respectfully to each other.
My favorite line of all!!!
Good to know one line caught your fancy LOL
I rarely can resist at least a little humour
Great post. I, too, think we need to let the stake go. If ned and Sun promise to go with it.
Well Ned for sure. As for Justin, with some education on what the Steem chain is, he could bring some much needed investment. He'll have a steep hill to climb to gain any trust from the community. He made the comment in the meeting with the Korean community the other morning 'trust has to be earned'. He needs to remember that is a two way street. He's burned a lot of potential good will.
If anyone is new, and hasn't been here for years to have seen this unfolding as it happened ..... THIS is the post to read to explain exactly what happened!
Excellent post @shadowspub!
Both sides have been taken to task in a firm, respectful, and even comical (the nod to COVID-19 and kissing lol) way.
I truly wish that someone was listening to this.
It's never too late to start making amends (until everything is dead.)
I still see a real potential for wins all around, but like you said... It requires people to get out of their corners and be willing to talk calmly.
Funny...when two sides are at an impasse, often a third side (mediating team) that can see where both need to change is helpful.
Sounds like a novel idea that those sides should consider. Lol
thank you @dreemsteem .. yes a somewhat neutral third party might help but we'll see.
Good thorough post. Hoping that Tron and Steemit can get past these rough waters and mutually benefit from each other
thank you.. that would be the best case outcome. We'll see.
Hi @shadowspub, a modest tip of appreciation:
$trendotoken and !trendovoter .
Also, please check out my Fourth Nonsense Writing Contest.
Thanks!
A member bonus $trendotoken tip and !trendovoter from MAXUV!
These bonuses are for members, selected at random when @MAXUV posts, and last for a few days.
Thanks for being a member of MAXUV.
Congratulations @maxuvv, you successfuly trended the post shared by @shadowspub!
@shadowspub will receive 4.03653375 TRDO & @maxuvv will get 2.69102250 TRDO curation in 3 Days from Post Created Date!
"Call TRDO, Your Comment Worth Something!"
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site
Sorry, @rycharde you’ve reach daily limit of summon the trendo curation bot!
Support @trendotoken projects by delegating : 100SP , 200SP , 500SP , 1000SP , 2000SP
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 0/15 - need recharge?)
I agree that the witnesses should get together and do the things you suggest ASAP and then hopefully Justin/TRON will come to the table and negotiate. Your suggestions for the witnesses I believe are necessary going forward in any case for the communities benefit.
I love this post Shadowspub it does sum a lot of what I'm thinking. Thanks for sharing it!
It all comes down to "two wrongs don't make a right" and there's plenty of blame to go around.
Fact- Justin now owns the stake and using it to improve Steem or not is his choice. The witnesses either start to work with him or come up with a way forward without the stake.
Either way, they will not be dictating how the stake is spent, for improvements or not. They need to come to terms with that.
A good start is to drop the petty demands, like "apologize for calling them 'hackers'". There's been plenty of name calling from all directions.
The impass needs to end soon, for the sake of the community. Ppl are not posting because of the drama and if the lower quality ill intended articles keep clogging the trending feed and earning more of the pool than they deserve, then more will stop.
The only thing we CANNOT give Justin is letting the exchanges off with a slap on the wrist. 13 weeks to powerdown is what we must endure, then so should they.
I hope to see more posts like this and less like those currently trending. When that happens, it should mean we are starting to move forward.
It's time for idea's to lead us forward, instead of egos holding us back.
That needs to be a driving force behind every step ... but sadly egos and self-serving seems to get a bigger foothold than not.
Hi @shadowspub!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.761 which ranks you at #283 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has dropped 1 places in the last three days (old rank 282).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 57 contributions, your post is ranked at #1. Congratulations!
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @solominer.
@helpie is a Community Witness.
Congratulations @shadowspub, your post successfully recieved 4.03653375 TRDO from below listed TRENDO callers:
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site