Mob Mentality On Display And Bitshares Loses A Good Man: Good Job People

For those of you who are involved in Bitshares, the community lost a strong advocate yesterday and it is all due to the mob mentality.

There was a situation with AriseBank, self-touted as the world's first decentralized bank, being raided by the government and shut down. This was an entity that was supposedly "partnering" with Bitshares to create a decentralized financial warehouse of sorts. Obviously, this is not going to happen since AriseBank is basically no more.

Of course, this led to the posts and attack that AriseBank is nothing but a scam and the founder is fraud. That might well be the case, I cannot say. What I can tell you is that I am not going to believe they are a fraud because of government action.

What is scary is how many people all over the social media world do. My head is spinning at all the people who suddenly trust the government. People are claim to be anti-establishment are railing against this "scam" believing the government's actions. Do you know who runs the government? Banksters. Do you know who could be obliterated by the a decentralized bank? Bankster.

And suddenly they are trustworthy?

Sadly, one of Bitshares biggest advocates was the target of many of these attacks. I, myself, saw some of these posts on here where he was called out by name and answers demanded. Of course, this wasn't just the result of one or two people but an entire mob. The troubling part is I am certain 90% of the people have no idea what is going on. Simply more piling on that we see in some other instances.

Anyway, people asked @stan for his views, so he gave them. Here is what he had to say about AriseBank:

On that brave little team of entrepreneurs at Arise. I'm quite appalled at the treatment of them by the community and others. I'm shocked at the current feeding frenzy that was, and is, being so carefully engineered during the single month that I was trying to get to know them. No doubt, Arise made many mistakes, but I don't believe they were a scam. That word has become like the word "racist". You always know that the true scammers and racists are those who indiscriminately apply those terms to others.

From my limited perspective, it appeared that they had the resources, ability, and intent to deliver on everything they described in the Vision they painted on their web site. Like the Wright Brothers, their plans were ambitious. Maybe unrealistically ambitious. But that was for their supporters to decide.

Arise stakeholders were gravely and universally harmed by the authorities, not by Arise. Any harm by the Arise team remains a theoretical potential, permanently rendered unprovable at this point. It was a mere possibility, not even a probability. The probability of harm caused by the government, however, was 100%. Arise is dead. With no chance to demonstrate whether they could or could not deliver. Now supporters will have to sit out from participating in the industry for years waiting to get their money back. The opportunity cost for them is staggering! If the government had quietly investigated, maybe even asking for a briefing on what Arise was doing, supporters from around the world would have remained fully liquid, able to ask for refunds or sell their positions in the open market. Now they can't. Is that the kind of "protection" we want?

Notice @stan said "From my limited perspective...". I am certain he is closer to the situation than 90% of the people who were popping off at their keyboards. They have absolutely no perspective. Certainly, there are some out there who researched the topic and concluded that is was a fraud. I am also sure there are those who delved into it just as thoroughly who have a different conclusion. As for me, I cannot say one way or another since I didn't study the company.

What I can say is I was not calling out @stan for answers. I also was not engaging in a mob lynching of a company I know little about. And finally, I am not going to draw any conclusions based upon the actions of the government.

In fact, please tell me how often the government goes full Rambo on white collar criminals:

"I got woke up with guns pointed at me. So, you know, put your hands where we can see 'em, so obviously we did. It was pretty weird. At first, we didn't even know why they were here. They bought us outside, handcuffed us."

He goes on to say that the agents who arrived were all armed, one even carrying a shield. In the interview, he states that it was overkill.

"... they showed up, wanting to know where everything was. We gave them everything they asked for. They asked for passwords to accounts. We gave it to them."

You would think from reading that it was a raid on a Cartel drug lord. Instead, this is how the government raided AriseBank.

Here is a write up about that:

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@holoz0r/arise-bank-raided-by-sec-interview-with-j-rice-snr-confirms

As I said, I have no idea if AriseBank was a total hoax and this Jared Rice a snakeoil salesman. What I do know is that neither do many who posted their attacks online.

Getting back to @stan, he also shared this:

Anyhow, I've concluded this is not the environment in which I want to continue to practice open transparency and exercise free speech, sharing my hopes and dreams and visions and plans.

This is Stan Larimer, signing off,
"from the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie."

Here is his full article:

https://steemit.com/bitshares/@stan/bitshares-enterprise-alliance-part-12-the-godfather-shrugged

That is right. @stan has decided to exit the world of cryptocurrency, at least in his role as ambassador and promoter.

And this all happened because the emotionalism of the mob. People jump onto one side or the other and start screaming. I am not on other social media sites but I can just imagine what was being tossed back and forth about Bitshares and AriseBank. It is evident @stan's name was dragged into it. Hell, I saw that on here a few times.

So here are some facts:

1. Bitshares price did not rise simply based upon the AriseBank announcement.
2. Bitshares price did not fall based upon the AriseBank issue.
3. Bitshares pricing, throughout the month of January, followed the cryptomarket in general. It took off the early part of the month, pulled back, waffled up and down, and then took a plunge this week.
4. @stan worked tirelessly at promoting Bitshares even embracing being the face tied to the blockchain.
5. I do not know him but he seems like a decent man who had big aspirations for BTS.

So what got people so up in arms?

Did the AriseBank deal going bad cause people to lose money? I guess for those who invested in AriseBank it did. But the Bitshares hodlers are doing just fine. Yet they were the ones screaming from the rooftop. As I type this, BTS is at $.45, up 17% in the last 24 hours.

Fortunately, this is blockchain and Bitshares, like other blockchains, is not just one person. There is an entire community that is responsible for the direction of that blockchain. That is one of the strengths of decentralization.

However, it does sadden me to see @stan leave. It isn't because I fear that BTS will suffer, I do not think it will. It is the circumstances that led to his decision which is painful. Naturally, I am not surprised at this behavior on the likes of Twitter or Facebook. Those people are cyber bullies who engage in behavior that is borderline barbaric. What is surprising is to see some of the same behavior on here. People who profess to be operating on a different plane yet still grabbing a megaphone and condemning. And for what reason?

Because they are afraid. Fear is at the core once again.

I hope @stan enjoys his the next phase of his life. He did a lot for Bitshares and the community should be thankful. I only hope we all use this as an opportunity to do some serious soul searching. Does our behavior match what we post or talk about with others?

It is easy to profess to be elevated, enlightened, spiritual, cultured, advanced, independent, strong, and a free-thinker. Yet the proof is in our actions. When we call for people's heads or starting engaging in toxic behavior, especially without the facts, how are we exhibiting any of those characteristics? Even worse, how are we any different than Facebook, Twitter, or The President of the United States.

AriseBank most certainly will go down in flames and, maybe, rightly so. Unfortunately, a casualty of this is @stan and that is a shame, at least the manner in which it occurred.

I think Steemians are better served if they ponder the Rumi's Three Gates of Speech:

Before speaking (or typing) ask:

Is it true?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?

If the answer is no to any of the three, then practice "silence is golden".

Restraint of keyboard and tongue is very difficult...something we all need to be mindful of.

To change the world, we must first change ourselves.

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