Atomic Swaps Are Nice But...

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We received an update on Friday from Steemit Inc. Evidently they had a gathering with Tron and mapped out a path for the collaboration between the two blockchains. Or, at least, that is how they are trying to spin it.

Here is what they wrote:

After meeting with the team we all agreed that the best way to progress our missions and add value to one another’s stakeholders is to connect our two powerful blockchains through Cross-Chain Atomic Swaps!

https://steempeak.com/steemit/@steemitblog/update-townhall-and-witness-meeting

That is very nice although it should be a given. In fact, atomic swaps needs to be the goal of the entire industry.

At the present moment, the world of blockchain is fractured. Each chain operates in isolation. This is no different than the way networks were in the early days of the Internet. Some might be old enough to remember the time when to change networks online, you actually had to go to a different computer. Things advanced but it wasn't until the web browser came out which used a standard set of protocols that all sites were accessible.

Basically, an atomic swap is a method that allows for different blockchains to swap tokens directly without the use of a centralized entity like an exchange. This is something that is going to be required since exchanges are points of failure.

I would think this is a natural progression for the industry yet one that is not easy to solve. This is a complicated matter from a technical standpoint with only a few being done.

Thus, it is not a bad goal to bring atomic swaps into the picture between Steem and Tron.

The challenge is this does not solve the primary issue. Perhaps more details will come out in the discussion with the Witnesses but the core issue is keeping Steem sovereign. The Steemit Inc stake is the big question. Will Justin agree to use that as it was originally intended?

Obviously, we have no way of knowing this. Of course, from a logical standpoint, it would make sense for him not to. He was not the one making the promises and he acquired tens of millions of tokens that have value. He is not about to just hand that over simply because Witnesses are stating there was a different purpose for them.

We will see how all of this unfolds. Ultimately, it all comes down to trust. I can't speak for the rest of the community, but with what took place the last few weeks, I do not believe Sun operates in ways that endear a great deal of trust. I think his intentions are other than what was stated in the follow up tweets. My view is his original messages where how he truly feels.

I could be proven wrong but my take is he is intent on getting Steem applications and users over to Tron exclusively. That is what it seems he is truly after.

It is all a fascinating test of decentralization and authoritarian control.

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Posted via Steemleo