I know this question has a lot of people concerned. I don't think he's publicly discussed it, but as the Steem blockchain is public then anyone can see what is happening.
I saw it discussed in this article by @icoexaminer. Note that they haven't posted to Steemit recently. As they say he maybe using the funds for new ventures on Steem rather than withdrawing from the project. He also has to pay for his travels to promote it.
Of you look at his wallet you can see transfers to non-posting account @brixtonogg
That passes it on to others.
I'm tempted to write some code to see where the money ends up, but I expect someone has already done this. My suspicion is that it's too reward some projects built on Steem and possibly developers who have contributed to the core project. I just wonder why he uses such convoluted transfers when they can't hide much.
I think it's important that his stake gets distributed and used for voting as he rarely votes on anything. I think Ned tries to stay neutral to avoid starting fights. He has voted in the past and some of that was controversial. He's got a large delegation to others. If he completes this power down he won't have much voting power, but he will still control a lot of Steem.
I'm interested if anyone has investigated this further.
I still believe in Steem
Just a random thought...... has anyone bothered to ask @ned about this?
...... and one that thought as well..... this is supposed to be decentralized, no-one owns it, no-one controls it, so why would @ned's behavior matter?
He could abandon Steemit all together and it should just carry on under its own (ahem) steam.
Perhaps it's the 'cult of celebrity' that is the centralizing factory here, more than the technical implementation.
e.g. if @ned leaves, we all leave.
That's a scary thought huh?
I expect someone has asked him, but I've not looked for a response. As the boss of this thing his actions will be carefully watched. I'm sure some will worry when he's reducing his stake.
Thanks for this post, it is great that you are keeping everyone informed and getting others thoughts. You know more about this than me.
However, he is a smart man and possibly has advisors directing him. Like you said he still has funds in other accounts. This must be the smart thing for him to do.
Also, he probably wants to keep some of his business private and that is best done with the funds elsewhere. Just my thoughts on it. :)
I traced where some of the Steem goes. There's a network of accounts, but a lot of it gets distributed to a lot of different users. He delegates to Utopian, Spaminator and Surpassinggoogle. It's all there to be seen.
You are my main source to what happens with Steemit :) There could be many reasons for the powerdown, but I doubt that it should signify much for steemit, but probably for the price of Steem. The bubble economy aspect of crypto is the most annoying part. I always preferred stability in such matters.
Why would this be the case @steevc? Don't they go hand in hand?
He had delegated a lot of sp and he can't power that down. He can take it back at any time if he needs more funds
Ah. I see. Thanks @steevc. So it's to do with the delegation rather than the powering down. Got it! 😁
I think if you go back and look @exyle has posted a couple of posts on this. His last one about it seemed to alleviate some of the fears people were having, but I don't remember exactly what he said. Lots of stuff going through my head on Steemit every day :P Might be worth checking out if you get some free time though.
Is it possible to know where the money lands up after it hits an exchange? Having been in crypto for a long enough time, i dount he is selling out during a bear trend. May be he is tired of the vol and wants steem in hand to cash out when prices go up. Or may be he wants go buy a 'lambo'.
I think he should clarify. Its a big thing if the founder sell his stake.
Once it hits an exchange you can't track it. I may look at the flow around Steem anyway
It is all very questionable as if Ned wants to support SMT development why the need to filter all the payments out through new accounts? Generates a lot of questions!
All of the transfers have bounced through brixtongg and then onto exchanges.. hardly something that would be required to fund SMT development.
I just hope its not to buy a villa in Barbados, with a pair of speedos and to lie in the sun every day from now to eternity.
The rewards projects are coming though, look at Steemhunt and Tasteem.. they are great incentives to write but are they really interesting to read? I say that about my own tasteem posts too.
Perhaps he sold it to a GORG (govmint organization)
Perhaps @ned is thinking his so much SP as burden. What is the use of so much SP if he don't upvote others. I think he should send just 10k Steem to me or at least delegate only 10k SP to me. I can use those Steem to make this platform better.
I think there are lots of people who can make good use of that sp. Delegating it would be the best option, but it looks like he's giving it away instead
Humm
i also have 'chased the money'
and seen blocks of 100k hit the exchanges, with a slight pump before a large drop.
just not sure how to release the data i have collected.
im still 6 months from a full set.
hard to collect on an old system, as ram is limited, and it starts to get buggy by the 3rd hour down 'the rabbithole'
I had no idea about this idea but i got this information from you hope it will be helpful in the future.
steemit is a great platform
It is, but this comment adds nothing of value
LOL!
lol man lol!!.,,,.....