Steem blockchain just became a centralized database
This is my first post which is directly posted to the Project HOPE community. I think the Steem blockchain is going through some changes that I think the Project HOPE community should be aware.
So while I was away from Steem last week, not only was there turbulence in the stock markets, there was a significant development to the Steem blockchain. A softfork 22.2 was deployed to limit certain actions by some STINC controlled accounts.
The objective of the softfork as the announcement post indicated was to,
.. Soft Fork 0.22.2 has been deployed to allow for the entire community to discuss how best to achieve the original goals that this ninja-mined stake exists to support.
Unfortunately, this triggered a "counter-attack" from STINC with the support from a few major exchanges. As it stands, now STINC has control over the top 20 witnesses and effectively reversed the changes brought about in SF 22.2.
Regardless whether SF 22.2 was right or wrong, it represented decentralized consensus and governance. The witnesses who brought SF 22.2 were all voted by the community and they represent the voices from the community.
On the other hand, STINC did a hostile takeover of the top 20 witnesses spots and reversed the community decision. This is against the spirit of decentralization and a huge step back from what a blockchain should be. They have effectively centralized the Steem blockchain and can change it how ever they like.
What makes it worse is that these centralized exchanges might have used STEEM that are stored on the exchanges to fund this move. I won't be surprise to see some of them blocking STEEM withdrawals soon. If that is the case, it is a complete breach of trust.
For now, I will monitor what is going on. I have a sum of STEEM on Binance and I am going to withdraw them right now in case they get freeze. I urge everyone to withdraw their STEEM from all centralized exchanges for the time being while we wait for clear indications on where this is headed.
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This article is created on the Steem blockchain. Check this series of posts to learn more about writing on an immutable and censorship-resistant content platform:
- What is Steem? - My Interpretation
- Steem Thoughts - Traditional Apps vs Steem Apps
- Steem Thoughts - A Fat or Thin Protocol?
- Steem Thoughts - There is Inequitable Value Between Users and Apps
- Make my votes count! Use Dustsweeper!
- What caused STEEM to get dumped? Why I think the worst might be over
- Steem 2020 is about having a "SMART U"
what does it mean, I don't really get it, sorry. Will steem won't earn through posting now?
You will still get votes and earnings. It is just that there is now a tussle between the community elected witnesses and Steemit Inc. Steemit Inc, Justin Sun with the help from a few centralized exchanges have taken over the Steem blockchain by force.
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Very sad. I posted on Steem because it was decentralised and immutable. Now it seems far less so.
Same here. I am for here for immutability and censorship-resistance.
I wrote about how I fear that a split in the Steem community might be coming and now it is becoming true earlier than I predict...
I was positive about the Sun acquisition but he has destroyed trust and centralised the chain by this action.
Hi @apshamilton, @culgin
Many people keep saying that Justin destroyed trust because he escalated conflict with witnesses. However I would need to ask you: did you ever had a feeling that any of witnesses (with exception of 2-3) actually ever cared about supporting content creators and our communities?
I never did.
Also current situation reminds me of a problem: which one was first - egg or chicken?
In our situation: which one was first - hostile actions done by Justin or witnesses? Most people say that Justing 'started'. However 'soft fork' has been nothing but "bitchslap" - action that proved that there cannot be peace between Justin and current "steem rulers".
We're all very worried and unhappy with unfolding scenario. That's the fact. I would only like to know how many of us would react differently if we were in Justin shoes. After unexpected soft-fork I surely would come to conclusion than working together with current set of witnesses is not going to be possible.
In a way "we got what we worked for".
Yours, Piotr
Allow me to clarify. I did not say Justin Sun breached my trust, as I did not really give him my trust in the first place. The exchanges, that have custody of users' funds and used them without approval from the owners, are in breach of trust.
I won't comment on the tussle between the top witnesses and Justin. In a war, there is no right or wrong, the victor gets to write history. However, if I were to pick a side, I am with the community elected witnesses as I believe in the spirit of decentralization. Why? Because blockchains only makes sense when they are censorship-resistant, permissionless, open, immutable and etc, otherwise a centralized database works just fine.
Thank you for this clarification @culgin
And that is unfortunatelly just dream that will never happen. Avoiding censorship is not possible and probably never will be.
Ah.. it is dream that brought humanity so far. Call me a dreamer if you would :)
Never say never, there was also a time where the world thought currencies will never lose the gold peg. But here we are...
Oh..yeah those witnesses who created softwork, are kicked out just like that because they created the soft fork, I am sure their intentions was to protect that ninja stake...it looks like centralisation completely and it's not good a tall. They are branded as evil people trying to damage steem network, so awful, I am sure that's not true.
Sad...very sad. And what's happening, those exchanges including Binance that I use powered up using customer funds, and did all that removing 20 top talended witnesses and replacing with unknown accounts. Then hardforking and reclaiming that ninja stake...and voting for new witnesses... all centralised!!! ...): ... I knew it Justine Sun is not good for Steemit and anyway... I am very upseted by this news, but truth needs to be told.
Steemit is not decentralised, good witnesses that tried to protect Steem blockchain were removed in most undemocratic way...anyway.
So did you get your STEEM from Binance?
Yes I did, fortunately. Anyway, Binance had removed their vote on the dummy witnesses. CZ admits that it is a lapse on his end and he did not intend for this to happen
why is CZ?
Do you mean "who" is CZ? He is the CEO of Binance.
thx. didn't know that :)
Very mature and well thought through opinion @culgin
I fully agree that keeping steem on any centralized exchanges may be very risky at the moment. On one hand I understand that Justin was kind of pushed to escalate conflict. Amount of hostile and agressive behaviours towards him + this soft fork most likely made him realized, that a compromise with many current whales and witnesses is not possible.
I wonder how will it play out. Surely many businesses and projects build on steem will suffer. Steemauto has been switched off as a sign of protest. That will affect many users and curation trails.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts buddy
Piotr
It is a difficult time for the Steem community as a whole. I will be writing a separate post about how I am positioning myself for now.
looking forward to read it
Hi appreciated @culgin.
It would be a kind of "Overlap Centralization." Since we are still on a blockchain and the transactions are done in a distributed way. But it is clear the domain of a single person over the control of operations.
Maybe then we will be under the guidance of a CEO?
Could you give us some advice about where we could protect our steem in the best way?
Your friend, Juan.
Keeping your STEEM on your Steem account is the best. Not your keys, not your crypto, is the mantra. I will be writing a separate post on this shortly.
Great!
thank you friend.
naive much ?
nothing changed, they just showed true face and desperately try to keep the protectorate control ... i was hoping for disruption with Justin Sun coming in and here we go ...
the only thing they're protecting is their own top 20 control system ... have you seen much change over the years or are you new here ?
its the same people, always, just like real governments, exchanging seats but all stay on the prime-time tv
this just shows the true face of the beast ... if you didnt know this yet you werent paying attention. I don't see how Justin Sun would 'take over by force' something that's available on exchanges and is probably sold to him by the very people who are trying desperately to stay in control ...
it has been one big ball of shyte and 20 people in charge is not decentralized but
im breaking my only-speak-on-sunday-steem-day vow ...
more disruption please ! throw this whole thing upside down
be my guest , implore
Wouldn't want to debate on which is the lesser evil here. Regardless, an exchange using customer's funds to influence governance on a blockchain is a complete breach of trust.
The Crypto market was heading towards consolidation.
This can make Cryptos more relevant in "real world" acceptance.
By forming a strong front, Steemit, with its Social Media Platform & Token potential, could have drifted to nowhere once the bigger mainstream platforms stepped into the Crypto market.
Having other dynamic coins, some new entrepreneurial leadership and some drama/newsworthy excitement, may just be what Steemit requires to push it above the surface.
Also, it seemed with the suppressed prices (and staff being paid in Steem?), that those who were keeping everything together were being pushed to unreasonable limits, especially, since the staff purge.
The fact that the structure of Steem allowed for such a move to take it over, just answered the question I always had of "Who holds the keys to the castle?" - we are just tenants. Just some have bigger houses than others.
Keep Steeming!! Our content is our value. I hope the for positive changes & a step into the future.
Seriously amazing comment @jagged
I was wondering why didn't you post anything in over 3 weeks? Did you give up on creating content on Steemit?
ps. I'm managing project.hope hive and we're focusing on topics related to technology, AI, blockchain as well as economy, business, marketing etc. Consider posting within our hive. I upvote all valuable content with min 100k SP. Plus I actually read most publications within our hive.
Cheers, Piotr
Hey @crypto.piotr,
I've not given up on Steemit, I never have.
I've not been impressed with my potential content - I don't like any posts to feel forced- and my day to day has been a 180 flip from when I was working full time.
I had no time back then, in a depressed zombie trudge, and now, in my independent from corporate life, optimistic lifestyle, I've felt the need to correct some of my neglectful wrongs with my domestic life, fitness & entrepreneur endeavours - all whittling away time as well.
I read as many posts as possible on Steemit that I can, but again, I don't like it to be forced. There is so much information content in the real world, and online, that my capacity to filter them all is exhausted.
By the time it gets to evening, I am pooped, I've had to drop out of many real world groups I had joined too, as I couldn't justify spending the hours with an outcome that wasn't a benefit to my goals.
I'll keep an eye on project.hope hive
I'm always looking for a paradigm shift.
There is no right or wrong. It is a clash of idealist and realist. Most of the time the realists win.
I have described this in my recent post.
Thanks for the comment!
Never for once imagined that our decentralized home will be tempered with.
It's not too late to react. It's amazing to see how the community is regrouping. Since binance toke it's votes away, the difference between the top 20 and rank 21 has become very small.
This is very important because if we manage to put at least one old witness in the top 20, it won't be possible to perform the hard fork which wants to take power down to 1-3 days. Imagine that. This would simply break the content production on steem. Your post gets a payout after 7 days but it would be possible that the same stake could vote the same post several times!
Let's help the community and upvote all the former witnesses. We have 30 votes each.
Do we really need just one witness to avoid hard fork to take power down to 1-3 days?
ps. I couldn't find official information that such a power down will be introduced. Where can I read about it?
Yours, Piotr
According to @pharesim we need 4 or more witnesses to prevent the hard fork.
The power down 1-3 days comes directly from the last steemitblog post:
https://steempeak.com/tron/@steemitblog/an-open-letter-to-the-community-hf22-5
bummer bummer bummer.... mmmmm will anyone stick around to see how it goes? Steampeak was off yesterday with glitches? Steemfollower gone...mmmmmm uh?
Hi @culgin
Could you please remind me website where I could see all current witnesses?
https://steempeak.com/me/witnesses
@achim03 provided the exact link which I would, haha..