As I write this blurb I'm watching over Bangkok... High above in the sky, hot and humid in the Pratunam center. Our last evening here, back to Europe-in-lockdown tomorrow with one of the last flights, so it seems.
I'm reminiscing 5 months ago, SteemFest 4, with a big group of friends. It felt like a family. A true community. Users from all over the world. With so many different backgrounds yet only this blockchain in common, had great fun, mixed, discussed, and worked on new plans.
With all the negativity and centralisation attacks on this place we call our home, it can be difficult to keep your head up. Pour in the "real world" problems facing us globally, these chain struggles might seem unimportant.
But I do think this place we call our home, and many of us have been living in for quite a while together, should not be given up. This home might need some fixing...
I will not give up on this unpolished gem, with its unique features:
- freedom of speech
- decentralised content distribution
- 3 second block times
- named wallet accounts
- mega fast transfers
- stake based voting
- communities
- an active ecosystem of dapps
- a place for fund raising
- ...
... but most of all I will not give up on the people. The people that make our chain, YOU! As I said in a Coindesk interview recently: This is not a blockchain of bots, this is a blockchain of real people.
And I won't give up now. Seeing the massive response in the "voting wars". The battle against the "non-voting"-designated Steemit Inc stake which is trying to centralise the governance model. It is humbling and spectacular and especially energy igniting, hope-bringing to see the community, you, the real power of the chain over-ruling this malice. For now.
Here we are. It came to somewhat of an impasse, or a standoff if you will. Both parties still gain votes. The status quo of 8-10 community witnesses in the top 20 is ongoing for a bit. Binance enabled withdrawing again a couple of hours ago... the 🤡Sockpuppets got extra votes already and most probably will keep on getting more stake as more of Steemit's hidden stake on exchanges gets powered up into the 🤡Sockpuppet-voting proxy-account.
The future seems bleak. But I won't give up. Let's not give up. Not now. It was in one of the gazillion chat programs I'm currently residing in, where I read a beautiful one-liner: "It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn".
On that note, I close my laptop, 👋wave goodbye to the Bangkok night, get some sleep and fly into Covid-EU in the morning.
See you on chain!
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fork him the fuck out then and be done with it.
Only way out of this clusterfuck.
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And if you did something the community disagreed with, you'd be okay with being forked out?
When it comes to blockchains and their claim on immutability, I think it's important to consider what has become a set of norms. You can create your own fork, bring all the value with you and leave the bad actor behind, if you so choose. But removing them directly, well that destroys the value proposition for everyone. That's why I didn't support a hard fork to null keys last year and I won't support it now. There are other options to consider.
Also, keep in mind, it wasn't the Steemit stake that took over the chain. It was the exchange stake. Would you fork them out too? Where does it end? Who decides?
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Exchanges did that per request of Steemic Inc. To the outside world (including exchanges) Steem looks like a proprietary blockchain, owned by Steemic Inc, no matter how many times you tell them that Steem is not Steemit.
Just fork Steemit out, give it a new name. Steemit and it's stake have always been a source of discussion since day 1. But it has been tolerated long enough. They have had 4 years to prove been able to do something useful for the Steem community. They failed to do so. Instead the owners bailed, selling the company for some money.
The new owner has shown his intentions and hostility towards the eco-system. If I was responsible for the team of HQ decs quitting, for iniatiating a governance take-over by lying to my friends, for attacking long standing and appreciated members and more..
I vote for you as witness, because I believe you have the best interest for the chain at heart. I expect you to mitigate attacks on our community and security with swift but responsible measures.
Who decides? The community decides in the long term by voting witnesses. In the short term the top20 decide. Choose your decisions carefully.
Personally, at the moment it seems like the @blocktrades project is something I would be behind.
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Yep. I've been (loosely) involved with the group working towards a new chain for a little while now. I would prefer all those conversations be open and fully transparent, but organizing such a large community of diverse opinions is very difficult so there's a smaller group of witnesses, stake holders, developers, and app owners that are moving things forward to new possibilities and everyone will be free to choose if they'd like to come along using their airdropped tokens. Everyone but the ninja-mined Steemit stake, of course.
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Damnit Luke stop making sense and let me rage at centralization of wealth pls.
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Hahah.
Rage on!
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You make a really valid and reasoned point man, but honestly, if it was me and I made a backroom deal to purchase a controlling stake in something that I don't control with the intent of taking it over and steering it wherever I wanted, I'd be damn ready for the other stake holders to kick up a storm, and I'd expect them to fight back. I'd honestly even assume that at some point the crazy bastards might just use the nuclear option fork me out. If you throw a sucker punch you better expect to get hit. When you start any fight, especially in a sneaky an underhanded way, you have to assume that you might lose. Justin should know that people who are invested in the crypto space take decentralisation seriously, and if he didn't expect it to come to something similar to this, he actually is a fool. I'm not trying to start a fight or anything here, I honestly agree with your points, but I also think that he didn't simply do something the community disagreed with, he tried to take over and become the de-facto controller of the community.
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This. Forking out users is a bad precedent. Forking out the community to an alternative sphere is the best option.
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safe travels back. Sad your world trip had to end like this. thanks for your work for the steemchain!
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Love to you and the family @roelandp
Travel safe and wishing you all health.
I completely agree with your sentiment.
It is worth fighting for, worth trying to find compromise, worth standing tall with our expectations of a decentralized steem block chain.
Thanks for being a voice of reason all the while fighting for the correct things.
Forking off must be the absolute last choice when there is certainty of no hope... until then we should fight for our chain with dignity.
A Butts 2 cents
😎
Posted using Partiko iOS
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Have a safe trip!
I am in The Netherlands at the moment. Was visiting from Portugal ( and my timing wasn't ideal ) and am now considering if I want to return or perhaps stay, lock myself up and focus on writing / editing the book that I've been working on for months now. Although, I agree with your thoughts:
Notice the word "seems". That's exactly it.
Things can only get better. 2020 has been off to a rough start but it can still become an awesome year.
The world needed a wake up call.
Groetjes uit Utrecht,
Vincent
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Yes, even though the outcome seems kind bleak for the community right now even with about 10 witnesses in the top 20, it would be a shame if we aborted battlefield now.
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Giving up is indeed no option!
Have a good flight and stay safe!!!
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Who knows in another four years time we might be on another fork with 'SocialSteem' mooning and Justin's ShitSteem in tatters, along with his reputation.
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Safe travels ...
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Safe travels and thanks for this nice joyful piece. So much needed these days...
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Safe travels and thanks
For nice nice joyful piece. So
Much needed these days...
- phortun
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
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Sheet this Corona viruse! It also affected my life. Tomorrow Canada will be lockdown. I was waiting for my university admission offer letter. Since, it's lockdown condition, Corona fuck my future scope. 😑 Someone kill this virus asap!
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never on here for the steem , i am here for the people and there story's . Always was and will be till the bitter end , so indeed , don't give up . Good luck on re-entering the madness going on in he EU .
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you have motivate someone with this
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Stay well!
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Well said @roelandp. I just came back from a ten day hiatus from the platform myself. I was getting so frustrated with the bickering and what Steemit felt like it was becoming, it was bringing me down and I just had to step away for a while. What I found was it hard to stay away. So many people on this platform feel like family to me after these four years. Safe travels back to AMS, tell the family Raymi and I said hello!
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Safe trip mate. See you on chain. Bring this positivity with ya eh? We need you here
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Nice words.
See you on chain, @roelandp.
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I stand by our community witnesses and don't trust Justin. This community means a lot to me, which is why I went to Steemfest twice and lots of other events to meet them. The potential of Steem is too important to waste for the sake of one guy's ego.
Long live the New Steem!
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hope they let you in, we are closing borders everywhere currently!
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Stay safe and keep healthy Roeland <3 It's a mess all over the world, both on and off-chain. I hope you made a lot of 'onbetaalbare herinneringen' with your family - no-one will ever take those away from you and they're the most important thing in the world.
Times are interesting.
Buy some paaseitjes when you're back home and don't forget to wash your hands <3
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Never give up
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Good trip back home, for the Hive.
Let's hive and decentralize.
And in one year we have Hive Fest 1. :)
My father is explaining me what is going on Steem.
He says you are one of the best persons for the Hive.
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Yes, instead of getting out to find new home, why not just kick some asses of invader. It's a war like Hitler versus the world.
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I'm glad to hear one of the bigger names like yourself say you're not giving up, however, can I ask you your thoughts on this "Hive" situation? It seems like a large percentage of the community wants to create a new chain, yet... Much of that planning and process has been done in secret including picking the name and it just feels really weird that we couldn't all decide together as a community in the spirit of true decentralization?
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I doubt you'll ever respond or even read this since I'm responding to my own comment especially, but... I see you answered my question with your new post saying your new home is Hive. Wow. Quite the mixed signals. Sounded like you weren't giving up on steem, then next post 2 days later... Bye steem!
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Hey safe travels back to Europe. Where you heading? My wife and I are currently on lock down in Barcelona, it sucks. Hope your country is doing better than ours!
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