Where am I???
Well... this last week has been a bit of a whirlwind, with the HIVE/STEEM split and the ongoing Coronavirus soft lockdown in The Netherlands. It really feels like the world has been turned upside down!
On the Corona-virus front, The Netherlands is in a restricted mode... and there is lots of work from home sort of things going on. On a personal front, all my concerts were cancelled, and we are hunkering down for a bit of a low income period, luckily our expenses are also a bit on the low side of things.
It has been interesting to see what has been selling out at our local supermarket. Potatoes, Flour, lemons, Greek Yoghurt, Milk, Cereal, butter and eggs. I guess people are planning to make a gigantic cake every day! Still, most of it is pretty benign... in a few days the shelves should restock anyway, as far as I understand it, it is a demand spike, not a crisis of supply! Although, these things are changing pretty quickly... just last week, everything was normal here!
The daily death counter due to Corona is about 30 per day, with 500 new declared infections each day (testing is still quite low here)... it's still in hand, but we will see if we head down the path of Italy or Madrid. Hopefully not!
There has been a proposal to help out self-employed people (like us...) with a monthly minimum wage supplement. This was after the initial reaction of "screw you, you should have saved up money for adverse situations...)... If I hear another salaried person say that, I'm going to kill them!
All in all... we have had a week of homeschooling and the recommendations to work from home and less travelling around (and no work...), it isn't that bad... I guess it could be much worse! What I will find interesting is how many people will come to the realisation that their work which takes up so much of their time... possibly isn't that fulfilling and worthwhile?! This could lead to quite big changes in society if it continues for quite a long time... That could be quite interesting!
This morning we took the chance to have a nice walk in the part with the scooters... it's nice to be able to get out of the house whilst we aren't in a hard lockdown (even if it is deceptively sunny... it was FREEZING!). Apparently it will drop back down to minus temperatures next week...
I am trying to keep away from Facebook and Twitter as it is full of public health experts and "on the ground" reports! Which are hilariously terrible... Local anecdotes are interesting and eye-catching... but not what you need for long-term and widespread planning!
Hive and Steem has been a interesting event... I'm a bit split on the whole thing. I want Hive to succeed, but it really does rely on the old witnesses coming through and really making it something... rather than a return to the status quo of being kings/queens in a small corner of the cryptosphere! This is of course matched against the might of the SUN juggernaut... I disagree with much of what he has done... but it isn't always the good people or the best technology that ends up winning! Speaking of which, I should review my witness votes again now that we are out of the emergency vote for NOT-TRON situation.
There was something a little sad that I saw in the blacklist... that @remlaps (and his alts) and @cmp2020 were blacklisted. I don't know why that happened, I think it was because they cast votes for steemhunt and others. They are decent people with really intelligent comments/posts from early in the STEEM chain... and they started the #classical-music niche community and have been good supporters of many people here. I worry that the righteous zeal to begin HIVE was taken a little bit too far, which is not a good thing...
At the moment, both chains are a bit janky for me... so, I think I will just sit back and do some thinking... maybe write an article or two for the normal sort of payments (not votes on reward distrubution, but good old fashioned one to one transaction!)
Account banner by jimramones
Thanks for the mention and the kind words!
From my perspective, what happened is that I fundamentally disagreed with both the action to freeze Steemit's stake, and also the use of exchange funds to retake the chain, so I voted for enough witnesses in both camps to enable either faction to "veto" hostile actions by the other. In point of fact, I was voting for decentralization/diversity by including witnesses from both camps and hoping that each would act as check and balance against the other. But the #hive squad evidently doesn't tolerate any challenge to their ability to control the chain.
@cmp2020 used me as a proxy, so his accounts were largely just caught up in the sieve.
Of course I can't claim to be objective, but IMO the mere existence of the blacklist should be a clear indication to all that #hive is simply a matter of Sierra squared Delta squared. ; -)
It is ironic that their announcement frames dissent as voting for centralization, when it's exactly the opposite. Instead of winding up with one decentralized chain, we got two that are both operating under centralized control (although competition between the two chains might still act as a decentralizing force).
At any rate, before I saw the blacklist I was torn about whether to migrate over or not, so at least they made that decision easy for me.
I still have no idea what will prevail and will hedge... I think you might be right about your observations... but we will see if they continue without any lessons learnt about governance and how to accomodate large accounts in a reasonable way. After the zeal of triumph wanes, there needs to be real work done to fix the glaring issues... if there is a will!
Thank you for your support @bengy!
First of all, in regards to the coronavirus, I was thinking the other day about how this is a musician's worst nightmare (in terms of gigs. Not in terms of practice). The Pennsylvania All State conference has been cancelled meaning that all of those kids (many of whom are prospective musicians) are missing a huge opportunity to perform, build experience, and build a portfolio for college. In addition, my quartet (Arthur) was supposed to be performed at the conference, so I am a little sad. In addition, all of the Philadelphia Orchestra's concerts have been cancelled. We had tickets to see all 9 of the Beethoven symphonies (a likely once in a lifetime opportunity), and the virus happened to come the week that the first concert would have happened. I can only imagine what it must be like for musicians living paycheck to paycheck to all of a sudden have that stream of income ripped away. I am glad that you are prepared, and I hope that things in the Netherlands turn around.
In regards to the Hive/Steem news, I really was quite shocked to learn we were on the blacklist, and very frustrated. I wrote that whole post, and now I am going to focus on accumulating Steem since Hive has burned the bridge before I could even cross it. I am sad because so many good people are on the Hive chain, and I feel like the community which I have actively (more or less) participated in for years has left me in the dust for dead. All I can do is work with what I have. Thank you so much for speaking up for us! I hope to still see you on Steem!
In the end, I hope everything works out (and that this bloody virus ceases to exist)!
Yes, these times are pretty hefty for musicians... Ah well, it is going to be hard for many people though.
As for hive, I have been asking around and it appears that it is possible to write an appeal via the SPS equivalent on Hive. It must feel terrible to have been treated like this. I already saw that the Tron/steem thing was getting ugly and hyper partisan...and now it is a bit over the top with the blacklist. I could write one for you and @remlaps if there is a problem with the lack of hive power, although I would also understand if you both felt betrayed by the whole experience. Anyway, I would wait a a week or so... Let some cool heads prevail...
I could also delegate some HP to your accounts so that you at least have some power to cross post if you are interested?
I'm just as split on the Hive/steem thing. Steem is a no go, with JS censoring posts, and now downvoting full force with the STINC stake. But I don't agree at all with what the Hive guys did with the blacklist. Forking out the JS stake... I was okay with that. Excluding people for disagreeing with them... doesn't feel right, at all.
So I'm going to lay low for a bit. I don't want to take part in Hive because of a couple of things like the blacklist, but then again... I don't want to leave all together. This community means too much to me. So, got some thinking to do. Will wait for the dust to settle.
I have the same thoughts about the blacklist... it was a bit too much, happy to hear that I am not the only person that thought that. Everything has really left me with a bad taste about both....
Same here 😕
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 10 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 3 SBD worth and should receive 138 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePig