"The conversation should start from one basic notion and then move from there."
GAAP. Wherever the least crack in accountability can be found, thieves will break in. Good people are incapable of grasping the mental processes psychopaths run on, and often are naive and gullible, believing others to have the same principles and motivations they do.
Psychopaths don't.
For this reason, contracts and not handshakes are necessary to business, and GAAP, not trust, are the foundation of accountability. $M's are vanishing into a black hole of unaccountable disbursements, and direct allegations of theft by fraud have been made. It is past time that the fundamental requirements of functional business be required for funding from the DHF.
"If we now make the assertion that Blocktrade's actions prove once and for all that this blockchain belongs to one man, and thus is centralized, then you are failing to understand the concept."
When Steem was born ~36 whales (besides the Founders) had mined up massive stakes that completely controlled governance by controlling the witnesses through stake weighted voting. Today Hive is controlled by ~36 whales... An oligarchy is no less centralization than is an Autarch. An oligarchy that prevents distribution of stake by DV's is utterly preventing decentralization from proceeding as is necessary for Hive to thrive. Excess users are driven from the platform because the oligarchy can maintain their majority control of stake at our currrent 3-5k users, and more causes distribution, while less evaporates token value.
That's why Hive is where it is.
Thanks!
Point taken, but would the 36 whales not benefit from finding a way to grow the valuation of the token, and don't they know the only way is through mass adoption?
I have argued that long and hard,earlier in my presence here, particularly. The reality is that maintenance of governance is a bird in the hand, a guarantee of ROI. Cash is king. Prudence actually argues against taking risks when you can profit from your capital without adding risks, and that's the situation that DV's enable the well staked to maintain.
To enable distribution that is how the token can gain popularity and therefore rise in price, the whales have to part with their majority possession of the stake on the platform. To gamble on the moon they have to discard their control of governance, and that's simply imprudent.