3 Years Later Cryptogee Proved Right By Tron's Acquisition Of Steemit

There is an old cliche; I hate to say I told you so but..., however I don't subscribe to this little saying, because mainly it's a lie. People love saying I told you so, because everyone enjoys being right, and I am no different; I'm just one of the few whom admits it.

Three years ago I wrote an article called Steemit.com Is Not The Decentralized Platform You Think It Is, in which I pointed out that even though Steem was a cryptocurrency existing over a distributed ledger, the company Steemit inc. was owned by private individuals.

I also went on to state that because Steemit inc. owned the IP (intellectual property) rights to the Steem currency, then that also meant that Steem wasn't really decentralised.

Many people disagreed with me, some even flagged me because they were so furious that I dared point out the giant pink elephant in the room.

Fast Forward To Tron

Recently I learned that Justin Sun CEO of the Tron platform has acquired Steemit inc and Chairman Ned Scott's Steem stake, thus completely taking over the Steem ecosystem.

Of course there are still people saying that Steem and Steemit are different, which of course technically they are. However that is missing the point, that Steemit ultimately decides the fate of Steem. Sure there are witness votes that go to deciding which direction Steem goes in, but that misses the point that the @freedom witness (owned by Steemit inc.) has the biggest clout of all the witnesses, and can therefore decide which witness are in the top 19, and can oppose or support any initiative it sees fit.

In other words; Steemit and Steem are different, however Steemit owns Steem.

Reality Bites

"But Cryptogee, if the community come together we can fork out Justin if he tries anything we don't like!"

LOL.

No you can't, because that would require the top 19 witness votes, which can be vetoed by the @freedom witness (now owned by Justin), and of course he can use that very same account to vote in his own witnesses.

So you see; Steemit, nor Steem never was truly decentralised, if it was, it would have been impossible to take over in this way. Anything that is under the control of a single entity, cannot be claimed to be decentralised. Simple.

What The Future Holds

Some people are calling this a merger, it isn't, it is a takeover, Tron now owns Steemit, and therefore the rights to the Steem crypto. So the question is; is that a bad thing or not?

Answer: who knows?

I personally doubt it, Justin is a businessman, he's into making profits by building an empire, thus it will probably be a good thing for the website of Steemit, and the cryptocurrency of Steem. Eventually we'll get a name change to Tronsteem or something similar, and things will probably go on as normal.

I would hope that the Tron team can make some positive changes to the site. There are many things that can be changed to enhance the user experience, and also to actually market the site beyond the limits of crypto enthusiasts. However that is just pure guesswork.

Reflections

I'll end by revealing my thoughts on the takeover.

On the whole I think it could be a good thing, the Tron community has grown at an exponential rate, and the partnerships they've got in place with people like Samsung are very interesting indeed. Justin has shown that he's capable of dealing with the big corporates beyond the world of Crypto, and he is bringing that experience and drive to the Steemit ecosystem.

Of course there will still be detractors and delusionists, people who think any kind of change is bad and that things should always stay the way they are. To those people I would probably say something along the lines of, from an organisational perspective, things can't really get any worse.

SMTs were first mentioned in 2017, Communities in 2016, we have only just got a beta version of Communites, and SMTs are still tantalisingly round the corner. In addition to that, Steemit has roughly (last time I heard) about 30,000 active accounts. Whereas Tron immediately started making partnerships with companies like Samsung and have around 4 million users on their network.

I think Justin Sun is a go-getter, someone who will drive Steemit inc into the future and will make things happen quickly and for the betterment of us all.

Let's hope in 3 years time, I'm doing another one of these; I told you so posts about this issue!

I don't see any change coming anytime soon, and in my honest opinion, I feel this is just another reason why Steemit will ultimately be replaced by something that takes the basic principles of the site, and improves it.

Cryptogee - 2017

Steemit.com Is Not The Decentralized Platform You Think It Is

WHAT DO YOU THINK; IS THE TRON TAKEOVER A GOOD THING FOR STEEMIT, BAD, OR JUST NEUTRAL? WILL JUSTIN SUN EVENTUALLY GET HIS OWN WITNESSES IN PLACE? OR WILL HE JUST LEAVE THINGS AS THEY ARE?

AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!!