Thoughts and Questions about THE Fork

There has been a lot of chatter about Steem on the internet lately. Twitter is littered with tweets pointing fingers at Ned and Justin Sun's underhanded approach in dealing with the precarious situation that the community is currently embroiled in. Recent events that include removing delegations from @dtube, @oracle-d and other relevant projects has raised eyebrows, and further dented whatever little regard a large section of the Steem community has of him.

Before the aforementioned event, there have been mooted talks in PAL discord server and beyond about the possibility of a Hard Fork that will effectively dissociate everyone from Sun's tyranny. One of the top witnesses and believer in Steem project, @blocktrades explained why they won't compromise with Justin Sun and suggested a fork that has gotten a lot of people excited.

The excitement has spread across the platform and beyond, with tweets and Steem posts all raving about the decision. At this point, Forking seems like the only way to go, however, I'm holding back my excitement until I see a detailed approach to how this goal will be achieved.

Forks happen all the time in crypto, and they occur for different reasons that include; internal dispute, economic reasons and Governance, the latter of which we're contending with. Platforms like Whaleshares, bearshares and Weku are a few examples of forks of Steem blockchain.

Why are we forking?

In simple terms, we're forking because of terrible communication and lack of trust in Justin Sun. There are also a bunch of misconceptions between himself and Ned, coupled with his awful method of communicating with the general community, blatant lies and then that little old collusion fiasco with exchanges that thicken the plot.

What does the Fork Mean?

Steem is open-source and 'decentralised; while I do have reservations about the second part, the answer to the question above lies in the first point. Steem Blockchain is basically thousands of lines of codes, and because it is open-source, people can simply copy them and then modify to their preferred look. As earlier mentioned, platforms like Whaleshares, Bearshares and Weku did just that and did some remodelling to create their own platforms.

Creating Hive blockchain will entail a similar process to the creation of the earlier mentioned platforms, however, as detailed in @blocktrades post, this fork will also ensure that all user data remains the same. In theory, this means all your posts, comments, replies and wallet activities will be transferred to this new Chain that is going to basically be a clone of Steem blockchain.

I'm not privy to have the technical knowledge about how this transaction will proceed, so it leads me to a question; considering this is a new blockchain, will we need new keys or will our steem wallet keys work in the way front ends like @steemleo and @palnet work?

What happens to all my Steem?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around what this means for the Steem in my wallet because a new chain means a new coin, thus making this one effectively useless, at least to the new chain.

Here are a couple of scenarios I thought of;

• Steem tokens are swapped for new Hive tokens that will presumably be listed when the market sees the community's enthusiasm.
• Steem tokens remain in Steem blockchain while hive tokens are airdropped as stipulated here.
• A completely different scenario from the first two, probably technical and way over my head.

What about Front Ends?

While a vocal part of the community seems to be on board with this potential switch, there are still a few front ends that may not be on board with the switch. Platforms like @steemleo, @threespeak, @dtube and @palnet are most likely going with the switch, while @triplea may be staying.

The point I'm trying to make is that while we're all excited about the potential of living freely away from Sun, there will be a few that won't mind staying back with the Chinese dictator. This means that a reasonable population of the userbase may end up staying back.

What about casual users?

It is important to be empathetic and consider multiple perspectives of a dicey situation before making a decision. From the standpoint of a casual user who comes online to interact with people and express themselves through their blogs, I think it makes no difference to them, for as long as Steem still offers the free speech. These guys who represent the real value of the platform may not want to go through the "gruelling" process of moving to a new chain. I reckon incentives and proper marketing will be needed to ensure these users see the value of moving to the Hive.

Will there be collateral damage?

Well, definitely. The casual users mentioned above, who don't particularly give a rats ass about the politics will take a real beating at the end of the day. If the fork goes through, I reckon it may have an impact on the value of Steem tokens, considering people moving to the Hive may sell of Steem and just start over.

Investors that aren't particularly paying attention may also find themselves taking a beating. Well, in this case, it is mostly their fault for not paying attention to their investment, Steem is a token and a calculated investment risk after all..

What does it mean to the community?

Technically speaking, this is a split but not in the literal sense. Like I said earlier, Steem blockchain is basically lines of codes that can be copied and modified. A large part of the community seems to approve the move. However, it is important to apply caution with these things, because there's no telling where things will spin,

We're all caught up in the euphoria of "leaving Steem for Sun" but remember that there will be bumps along the way, people changing their minds and paranoia.

If you've ever had to relocate then I'm sure you know that moving out of one house to another is a very tedious task. You have to check, cross-check, make preliminary and post plans, all in a bid to ensure that you can move successfully. If we're going to move to a new chain, we need to apply cautious optimism and take EVERY necessary step to ensure we don't look like idiots at the end of the day; because now more than ever, we simply can't afford any slip ups. The World is watching.