In Good Hands: A Thank You Letter For The Steemit Community

So my account was hacked five days ago. Back then I felt naked, insecure. What have I done? Who's messing with my Steem? I could not log into my account and there was no way of stopping it.

But I was calm enough, knowing that it takes 2 years to completely liquidate all my Steem Power. Time is on my side. Plus, the blockchain is like a glasshouse. You get to see everything that happens inside.

It would be foolish for thieves to sneak around, especially with a vigilant community in town.

But a good measure of fear crept in anyway. All my heart’s work may not see the light of day. So I went into Steemit’s Slack. Better report the hack.

I was immediately taken care of the moment I voiced my concern. This place is like clockwork. And so reassuring. Special thanks to @chitty, @pharesim, and @pfunk for attending to me. I didn’t feel so naked and insecure anymore.

There was nothing much for me to do until the case is solved. So I decided to lurk around the battlestation. One day after another, while waiting to be able to get into my account again.

Me for the past few days looking at posts on Steemit

The account retrieval process took much longer than I expected. But it turned out to be some kind of blessing in disguise. I spent much more time chatting up with the Steemit community, getting to know how all of this works. And getting to see the custodians at work.

Turns out to be a damn special place. First of all, these “admins” are really just volunteers with their own stake in Steemit. In fact, every user has a stake. Even you.

Everyone is here to steer their own ship. To the same destination. To the promised land. It's unspoken, but we all know it -

We're here for a better tomorrow.

Truth be told, I’ve never felt like I belong in any online community before this. Not since the Geocities days back in the 90s. While the “old world” is hell-bent on rewarding ruthlessness and selfishness, this place proved to be quite the opposite. Well, maybe not entirely the opposite. But at least it's not one sided.

There were even some private Slack messages sent by kind souls, expressing their concerns over my loss. And I've never even met them before. Just strangers who had in the past exchanged meaningful conversations on Steemit.

The diversity of personalities here amuses the hell out of a keen people-observer like me. There is a great sense that everyone here is empowered to help themselves and others.

Gotta say that the folks in the battlestation handled the case pretty damn well. They just sprung up and got to work. Like what you see on Star Trek. Or Spaceballs. It’s pretty refreshing knowing that no one is blindly following orders. In fact, there seemed to be no orders. Only requests.

Reminds me of 12 Angry Men

Differences in opinions were always expressed. Laid out on the table for all, without reservations. And I think that’s beautiful. It’s stays true to the heart of decentralization. Finding common grounds in non-uniformity.

That’s when I know that I’m in good hands. The hands of good and responsible people. All sorts of personalities banding together, empowering others over the Internet. That's something pretty revolutionary in itself.

A stranger in strangeland is here thinking, maybe this is where he can belong. If the world is to be truly open-border, built on the love and care for other beings, perhaps we can start out by being our best selves here. On Steemit.

I just want to express that I appreciate everyone’s friendship and honesty. The community is becoming livelier and stronger with each passing day. It truly feels like I've entered a truly global social network.

Finally, I don’t want to namedrop too much, but thank you. All of you.

PS: Your account security is extremely important. Keep your keys safe.

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Follow me @kevinwong

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