🎥 Hard Fork

Source 1 + Source 2 + Photoshop

Having read a post by an angry fraudster who still believes that a Steemit vulnerability that was fixed in Hard Fork 0.9 is still present (for a rough time reference, the HIVE fork was 0.23), I ended up being consumed by content written around May 2020 both on and off chain.

Whilst 2020 doesn't seem like a long time ago, the UK (and pretty much global) population were locked in their homes at risk of being fined if they dared to venture out into the real world.

👆 My Photo from when I ventured out into the real world

Pre-COVID, stages in life could be defined by music - Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers being my first cassette (and still a favourite of mine), Big Fun's "Blame it on the boogie" and New Kids On The Block's "Happy Birthday" at friends' (primary school) parties, the entire Smash hits '93 album (with hit after hit after hit - another album which I'll always cherish), Meatloaf doing anything for love and Coolio's "Gansta's Paradise" whilst studying for my GCSE's along with my introduction to The Prodigy. So many periods of my life that music instantly takes me back to.

That's not the case from 2020 though. Rockstar's "Da Baby" topped the UK charts back in May that year and I could look through the top 100 and struggle to find a tune that I recognise.

That's not what this post was supposed to be about though, I've been distracted by my nostalgia again... Back to May 2020 and the fallout from Justin Sun purchasing Steemit's Ninja stake...

Various authors at the time commented that "They'll make a movie out of this one day" and I eventually stumbled across this article on decrypt.co. Ignoring my perception that there's a HIVE bias to this piece, it certainly reads like a story that would be beyond the imagination of many Hollywood screen writers - not least because it's original and not a rehashed version of something released 20 years ago. They wouldn't need to "base it upon real life events" and make shit up because it's "actual, real life events".

Source. It's remarkable to think that Steemit was created in this (👆) room and in time went on to be sold for $8m.

When I read that "story" and some of the posts by "the antagonisers" at the time, it's difficult not to think about what some of the witnesses on "Steemit's side" of things must have been thinking and feeling. @justyy, @steemchiller and @dlike were 3 names that cropped up time and again as targets for many of the threats, always accompanied by Justin Sun's name of course (and occasionally the entire Korean community). Having not been around Steemit at the time and looking back at it now, their staying power is nothing short of remarkable and I wonder if Steemit would even be here if it weren't for their efforts (apologies to anybody whose names should also be appearing here).

No matter how much I read about it all though and no matter how many opinions I see supporting the Hard Fork 0.23 to create HIVE, it all looks so completely unnecessary and I can't help but wonder where Steemit would be today with so much knowledge and immense financial backing fuelling the growth that was already underway. Instead, there's Steemit and Hive continuing to compete against each other. Those that try to venture onto both chains will only succeed on one - Either through Steemit's #steemexclusive or eventually through Hive's unrelinquishing anger. Whilst I admire some of the content on Hive, I've made so many friends on Steemit and it'll always feel like home.

As usual, I've started writing with an idea and ended up completely losing my trail of thought and not knowing where to go next. The only thing on my mind now is that it really would make a great movie.