My brain is spinning. It's like a post-apocalyptic world outside and a post-apocalyptic world on Steemit! I'm glad to have found some familiar faces over here 😁
I took time out from Steemit in early December, after my mum was rushed to hospital with a stroke. She sadly died on Christmas Eve. A massively busy time followed, as me and my sister informed all my mum's friends, arranged the funeral and contacted the family lawyer about her will and estate.
I had been living in Mum's flat, as her main carer. I needed to get my own flat on the market, then start clearing out Mum's flat, with a view to selling it and finding somewhere else to live.
It took me weeks to move everything from my flat into storage - everything except for the bulky furniture. There were just a few items to move, most needing to be dumped. But I could not get anyone to move them. The removal companies I contacted did not return my calls. The council told me there was a 6-8 week waiting list for picking up unwanted items.
Then the coronavirus crisis happened.
When I finally found a moment, I went onto Steemit. It looked pretty unrecognisable (although it usually looks unrecognisable when you've been away for a while!). I didn't have a Feed any more. I couldn't get it to work on my desktop computer.
I gave up, as I still had lots of other things to do.
A few days later I was on Twitter for the first time in ages, and I noticed that @andrarchy had resigned from Steemit. I read that Steemit Inc had been acquired by someone called Justin Sun.
I went back to Steemit, and this time I managed to find a familiar account: @urasoul. I read all the posts he'd made documenting the buyout saga.
After I'd read the first post, where @andrarchy was announcing the buyout, and trying to paint a rosy picture of it, and explaining why @ned had decided to sell, I did an online search for "Justin Sun".
The first thing that stood out for me was that he was extremely wealthy and suspiciously young! I have a theory (and a suspicious mind) that enormous wealth usually indicates either dodgy dealings or a well-connected leg-up (or both). Very few people acquire enormous wealth at a young age without being very well-connected - OR unless they are an actual genius, like Vitalik Buterin.
When I read more about Justin Sun, and learned that he'd been selected by Jack Ma to attend "Hupan University" at age 26, I had a very big "Ooft" moment. That would be Jack Ma of Alibaba fame, also connected with the development of creepy social credit systems.
I won't go into too much detail here, as I think all this will have been discussed on this platform Italicad nauseum.Italic But as I read further, it was a joy to learn how the Steemit blockchain and witnesses were able to resist the corporate takeover attempt. And discovering Hive is even more joyous.
Massive credit to the developers.
But I'm on a huge learning curve. I seem to be on a platform called Peakd, which looks great, but every now and then it disappears, and in order to get it back, I have to go via busy.org and then steemconnect.
I have so many questions. Is Hive an actual hardfork of Steemit, or is it totally new? Can I trade in my Steem and SBD for HIVE without having to use Bittrex?
Is the meaning of life still 42?
If anyone can point me to a post or a tweet or a Discord group that could answer these types of questions (especially the one about the meaning of life) I woukd be eternally grateful!
I'm very keen on decentralisation, and I was always a bit concerned that Steemit Inc could sell out to a big corporate player. But I thought it would be a Silicon Valley player!
From what I've seen of Hive, it looks like something really good and probably much improved is coming out of all this.
The future looks exciting!
I'm sorry to hear about your mum. The world is a bit crazy right now 😔
Welcome to Hive
So much has happened and is still happening with the war between steem and hive. Were you 9n the Pal discord server? If so, go visit and with the steem/hive questions you will get some answers
As for life. I think we all need help right now and we all want answers. Stay strong stay safe
Thanks Paula. That's a great suggestion - I am on the PAL server.
Welcome back @natubat, first of all, I'm so sorry to hear about your mum, and for her to pass away on Christmas eve. Christmas will never be the same again, but perhaps, it will become an even more special time for you to remember her.
Yes, a lot has happened in less than 2 months since Sun bought Steem. Tldr, on 20 March there was a fork which created Hive. Everything on Steem as of the fork was copied over to Hive, and from then onwards it became two separate platforms. There are various exchanges where you can sell you Steem for Hive, such as Blocktrades, Bittrex and a few others.... BUT half a day ago Steemit did another fork which froze the assets of some major stakeholders who did not agree with Sun. They included Blocktrades so I understand BT have stopped trading Hive/Steem for the time being.
Pretty much all the ex top Steem witnesses are now on Hive as are those who support decentralisation. Likewise, many dapps have moved over. Basically, you won't find that much difference between Hive and Steem. Nearly everyone who is here wholeheartedly supports the community and decentralisation, and that what matters on Hive.
Hope this helps. And good to have you back, you have been missed!
Thanks for your kind thoughts @livinguktaiwan. Christmas was a very difficult time, although I did do a lovely hillwalk! I didn't feel like being at home on Christmas Day.
I started powering down today, before I managed to get onto Hive. I was really upset to see that Blocktrades had gone, and Bittrex was the only way to trade. I tried to open an account with Bittrex, but I couldn't get the verification to work on my computer or tablet - maybe just as well! I didn't realise that Blocktrades had their assets frozen. That is just awful.
It's great to be back, and in touch with old friends! 😊
Hopefully blocktrades will be back soon, imagine having all your stake suddenly frozen by a spoilt brat.
Good to hear you're still doing walks, I missed reading them. Btw, the map is now rebranded as @pinmapple, hopefully you'll like Mr Pinmapple 🍍
https://pinmapple.com
I made my first switch from steem token to Hive token using Ionomy, this link was the instructions I followed, https://peakd.com/hive/@clayboyn/a-quick-guide-to-how-to-use-ionomy-the-new-exchange-on-the-block Look through the comments, for additional info on them. For a very first time trader I found it to be pretty easy.
PeakD community page: https://peakd.com/c/hive-163399/created has a lot of information and post on howto, and as was mentioned it is steempeak transferred and updated for Hive. Another community page I have found helpful during the transition is HiveDevs https://peakd.com/c/hive-139531/trending Community, a lot of pretty technical talk, but also some post on how to or steem items/apps being imported.
Week two only just finished up, so you are not to far behind people.
That is such good news @bashadow. Thanks for those links. I was struggling to try and create an account with Bittrex today, but I couldn't get the verification to work. Just as well! I'll try ionomy instead, and the other links for info on Hive.
Whenever people try to crush or control this decentralisation, it comes back in a stronger form 😁
I am completely new to crypto trading. I still have not created an account anywhere that I can buy any crypto with fiat dollars. I ahve no clue how to do that at all and am jsut not interested in doing that, but to change my steem into hive I was interested in, and that post made it real eay to do. Don't forget to verify your account through the email, and an withdrawals you make via email. Oh and it seems 5 steem is the smallest you can convert.
Great advice - thanks.
Good to see you back Nat, lots has happened. STEEM was forked and you will have as much HIVE as you had STEEM. Essentially a double-stake.
Peakd is the HIVE equiv. of Steempeak., as hive.blog is similar to steemit.com.
Too much to explain but many of the content creators have switched to HIVE (me inc.).
It's best to google about. There's a lot to take in.
It's great to be back! It was weird finally going back to Steemit and finding that everyone had left! Hive feels like the real Steemit, with some improvements. Hive is a better name and I'm loving the Peakd interface. And my account seems to have increased in value 😀
First of all YES, the meaning of life is still 42 :)
As for Justin Sun, I don't know if he is a genius but I do know that he is an arrogant and dangerously ignorant speculator.
I see in the comments that you have some good answers to your questions, if it isn't enough let me know. I am not an expert but I'll be glad to help!
It seems that 2020 came hard on you, I hope it will get more gentile from now on.
Stay calm, stay safe, hive on!
Thanks @fotostef.
Yes, I think "dangerously ignorant" is the right description.