Thoughts on SteemiTron - Yes, I tend to take my time :-)
Wait - has it already been a week since the bomb dropped? Yes, it was a week ago when we were all REEEEE'ing on our beloved blockchain and Discord about the sudden sale of Steemit, Inc from the hands of @ned to @justinsunsteemit.
We all know what happened after that:
- We were really confused and starting our Power Downs because first signals were that STEEM would be turned into some Tron-based Steem shitcoin, and no-one was there to tell us otherwise
- We had a horrible AMA that was ill-prepared and cut short because who thinks to plug in his laptop for a live-stream - it seemed to be mostly timed to take place on the 14th in order to take away the attention from Voice
- We then had a very very pleasant 4-hour long 'aftertalk' on PALnet under the guidance of the always present @aggroed and a bunch of witnesses like @lukestokes, @drakos, @therealwolf and @crimsonclad who I think deserves your vote. Although I wish the talks had been focused more on positive solutions (like setting op communication channels instead of preparing for forks) I really felt positive after that - a huge list of attendees and quite a bunch of witnesses were present which showed everyone cared and was ready to fight for what we've built here so far
- The next day we got personal statements from some of the Steemit, Inc members like @andrarchy and @vandeberg (the latter being not super known but from what I understand one of the 'original' Steemit, Inc employees and hardcore blockchain devs, correct me if I'm wrong)
- And last but not least a statement on the @steemitblog, which tells us the sale means Steemit, Inc as a company is safe now that @justinsunsteemit's money is there, and that Tron and Steem are in talks to develop a joint roadmap that will explore which possibilities are there for both blockchains to profit from
Now, don't get me wrong, I was nervous on Friday, very frustrated on Saturday during the AMA that wasn't really answering any questions (both by not really addressing the important questions, but also by remaining vague and doing a lot of 'for now'), a bit calmer during the 'aftertalks' on PAL, and then a bit frustrated again because messaging from Justin on Twitter really didn't help and oh boy, did he just vote in two SuperRepresentatives on TRON because he felt that was what was best for the chain?
That action certainly is NOT a great look but as always I don't have very 'black and white' feelings about anything. I feel YES, some aspects of the 'Justin Sun Takeover' might pose some challenges for Steem, and I also feel we shouldn't be naive about them. There's mentions of a built-in option to basically prevent an account from voting witnesses, and if we want that, we should politely discuss with Justin that we want this, why we want this, and see how he reacts.
To me it just shows that we really need great communication channels: how do we get our questions to be discussed with @justinsunsteemit? Will he address us regularly, will we address him via the @steemitblog team, and how will they report back to us?
I don't however, feel that the challenge of heavy stake is a 'Justin Sun' problem (although, again, he has sort of just proven he is willing to use stake to get things done as he sees fit, I'm not ignoring that fact). This huge stake in the hands of Steemit, Inc has always been there, and we've also never been prepared to deal with a possible influencing of witness votes by Steemit, Inc's stake. It just has always been a risk for our chain, but we've started to get used to sort of trusting the 'old' Steemit, Inc CEO even though there never was a good reason to do so other than that we gave up on talking with him as did he with us.
We also, have basically forever, have accepted that the witness votes already are owned by a sole stakeholder who we don't even know the name of and therefore never can talk with.
(#frustration)
So there, communication with Justin, to me, is priority Number One.
Other than that? I feel we have huge potential here. We FINALLY have financial means to Get Things Done, and Market That Shit too. Communities arrived, and although it's weird to see @justinsunsteemit share the news as if that has something to do with him now owning Steemit, Inc, even though this really has been all done by @roadscape, he does get the word out and many more people now know about the Steemit Communities than would've been the case before Justin Sun 'was helping US shill US'.
The same will go for the further development and launch of SMT's and as far as I can see he rather sees things done 'NOW' than wait on them longer, so I suspect SMT's really will be launched sooner rather than later.
Future Steps
Now, I personally am going to wait for the Steemit-Tron (SteemiTron) roadmap before I am going to cancel the powerdown I started right after I heard the news. I want to see what the plans are for Steem with my own eyes. I want to see they are planning on building smart bridges between the two chains, have integrated wallets on both sides, have smart sign-ups where Tron users can easily start using Steem and vice-versa, and I want to see a roadmap where all of that is written out and there's no more mention of a Steem Swap of any sorts.
Now, I already don't believe that swap will be there but I just made that a check I want to do before I get some of my STEEM in liquid form.
In general I'm very very optimistic about the possibilities Justin's Get-The-Word-Out skills and the financial means can do for Steem and STEEM.
I saw someone (if you know who let me know) mention 'there's 4000 blockchain projects who are praying to get the chance that you just got handed' and I believe that person was right. Because if we zoom what happend to us is: We lost a burned out CEO and we gained a passionate one with a big wallet. I'd never thought I's sound so golddiger-like, but damn, do I like that we're married with a man with a big wallet, I'm not gonna lie.
I love how vigilant we are in order to protect our chain and I want us to stay vigilant. Rather be vigilant all the time than just when some emergency kicks in. Some questions I want to see answered are:
- How will we make sure the witnesses AND the 'normie' (loyal!) community members stay informed?
- How will we make sure that Steemit, Inc really knows what's on our minds and take our concerns with them in any meetings they have about the future of our chain?
- What will we do/can we do to cancel out the 'risk' (that has always been there) of HUGE stakeholders single-handedly picking our witnesses?
- And last but not least, how are we going to get TRONians love Steem as much as we do? ;-)
As I didn't have much time last week, which are the articles you think I should read about the Tron-Steem joint future? And what are your OWN thoughts a week after it all happened?
I'd love to hear in the comments :-)
Do you know if this been posted somewhere or was it only live?
Hey @preparedwombat, yes, @aggroed posted the recording: https://steemit.com/dtube/@aggroed/o5fkcc5chcr - he recorded the first 3 hours which was the 'official' part, the other hour was less moderated as anyone could come in who wanted to share something.
Thanks!
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As far as the witness selection goes, I don't think we, (the users), have a say in the matter at all. As you pint out currently there is one large stake holder than can heavily influence the top 20. So as a user I see the witness situation the same way I see the down vote issue, a broken system that for what ever reason people are not interested in seeing fixed.
Pumpkin or Justin, does it really matter which one picks the witnesses?
Well I think there is an answer but maybe it’s not realistic or practical. We all need to buy as much STEEM as possible. If all the really engaged people bought more STEEM from whales to minnows, we could potentially collectively hold more than the super whales. That’s the only sure fire way to negate that risk.
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As @midlet mentions, when we as a community can power up more than Steemit, Inc's stake we could always counter any witness voting they do. Another suggestion I like is lowering the amount of witness votes per Steemian to something like 10 votes, so in theory one stakeholder can 'only' decide 10 of the top witness spots while the community will decide the rest. I like the last option best as it seems like a permanent solution to the otherwise permanent threat of getting bought by one millionair/whale :D
Every time I have seen the lowering the numbers, people always say it won't work because they could always split their SP among a number of accounts, Yes they could do that, but it would still dilute their power, yet that point is always ignored. Perhaps the witnesses now that their positions could be in danger may try to do something. Another solution is a graduated scale vote. You still get your 30 votes, but each vote is lowered, a sliding downscale. example 1st witness vote is at 100%, 2nd witness vote is at 85% of total Sp available, and so on stepping down to where the last witness to be voted on by an account only gets 3% of the SP vote power.
One day a solution may be presented and accepted, until then there really is no change in the power of the users.
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Of course it matters.
Pumpkin is silent and votes reactionary. He doesnt place "demands" or "tries to get his way".
Justin poses a threat because he will most likely act proactively and get his way on things (if he indeed uses the stake).
There is a vast difference there. What Aggroed said is wholly misleading and hes salty Pumpkin (which you are apparently repeating) removed his vote.
The difference is enormous between Pumpkin and Justin.
In other words if you don't toe the line he pulls his support? Or if you say the wrong thing he pulls his support? How is this not trying to get your way? Being silent only means no one knows who he is or what agenda he has. Justin, at least we know who he is if not his agenda.
I did not mention Aggroed at all in my response, (which you are apparently repeating),The only names I mentioned were Pumpkin and Justin. I repeated nothing. The fact is that their are 3 accounts that control who can and can not make it into the top 20 witness. With out one or the other two's support the top 20 will not change.
The witness system as I said in my response is broken, and there has seemed to be no desire to fix it.
Because he doesnt demand anything nor can you be sure what is it that gets his vote removed.
He acts within steem and within community consensus.
Justin does not.
Whose consensus? the witnesses, or the users, or steemit interest? I remember the dPoll that steemitblog had up for all of 12 hours, closed it, then and called it an overwhelming support for what they wanted before half the steem block chain even had a chance to see it, and there was no complaints from a single witness about the poll not being allowed to run at minimum 24 hours so that steem block chain users in all parts of the world could view and vote on it.
In what way has he acted against community consensus at steemit? he said communities would be rolled out the following week after his and Ned's video chat, they were.
Will he continue to act in the best interest of steeemit/steem block chain users? only time will tell on that note.
I have not ever been a part of anything TRON, so I do not know how he is in supporting his business endeavors other than what appears to be disgruntled (FUD) post. I have done no research on him, and do not know what he is like as a business owner other than the simple fact he is rich and owns a lot of things, that people either like or hate him.
I can see we are not going to see eye to eye on this, I do enjoy FUD, and I do enjoy the semi debates. There is no difference between the Emperor of China and the President of the United states. One shouts out to the world, the other sits back and tells people quietly to fix it. They are both leaders doing what they think is best for their country.
You are exaggerating severely. Freedom and Justin are in no way comparable.
Im not about going to list you a 100 reasons why.
They are selfevident. Their stakes. Their history. Their actions.
They are incomparable.
Feel free to disagree.
Hi @soyrosa, I liked the analysis that you do of the whole panorama of steem, I have tried to read as much as possible of all this scenario and my doubts grow more and more, but as I am optimistic I believe in a better future and I maintain that Faith.
I will read the comments that you make and hopefully they will answer your doubts which are those of many. Thank you for creating this post. Greetings.
Hi @soyunasantacruz, thanks for stopping by and sharing your doubts. It's certainly good to stay informed and know where we stand as a community and how we can protect ourselves in the future :-) I tend to believe in the 'good' of people and I do think if some thinks are discussed and worked out will in a roadmap we can come out of this collaboration better than before :-)
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🤣👏
It's interesting how polarizing these events have been - same with anything these days, perhaps.
Personally, it may just be the optimist in me speaking, though I see the 'takeover' as something that can only be beneficial. Yeah, there'll be speedbumps and hiccups, but like you've expressed brilliantly in metaphor here, there are undeniable advantages to Sun's taking control.
And take a look at the results...
We've been waiting on communities for two years. Ned's team never delivered. Sun steps in, and bam... in five days, there are communities.
And of course, the team's been working on them for a long time, testing them out, etc, etc. Though it does say alot about the differences in organizational culture whereby the old had consistently been unable to deliver on their promises, yet the new gets it DONE within week one.
Time shall tell. Though IMO, considering how ineffective & inefficient the old team had been, and in consideration of the significant resources and competent capabilities to deliver that have already been proven by Sun - including his factoring in the opinion of the Steemit community in the days following the announcement, regarding a token-swap strategy - I'd say there are valid reasons for optimism...