Why I haven't given up on Steem just yet
Let me begin by saying, some of the decisions made by the new Steemit team has been absolutely despicable and inspires no confidence. If you have moved over to Hive exclusively, I'm not going to try to convince you to return, and I won't be cross-posting this to Hive.
With that said, for better or for worse, Steem is not just another network for me. I have a long history with this platform, and try as I might, the emotional/nostalgia factor will always be there. It's not about the money either - I've been divested off Steem for a long time now.
Let's look at the facts - the network was always centralized, and now we have firm evidence. The network is compromised. The Steemit Team has responded very poorly. Hive finally lifts the clouds off the ninja mine. Adding it all up, it doesn't really make much sense to continue on Steem.
So is it just an irrational, emotional decision? Sure, could very well be. There are two possible outcomes here. Justin Sun writes off the acquisition as a loss, and just dumps whatever he can at a loss and moves on. Steem will continue to live, and maybe some stakeholders will resurrect it, but in all likelihood that'll be the end of Steem as a competitive network. The other option is that Justin Sun has to find a way to make his investment worth it. Along the way, he'll have to offload the Steemit stake, which will make the network more secure over time. Right now, it can go either way, but once the nerves calm down, I do believe he will be pushed to the rational option. The Tron Foundation has formidable resources, and if they are really motivated, they can develop and market Steem in a way Ned's Steemit Inc never could.
But the real reason I haven't shunned Steem for life is, simply - time. I'm not going to make a decision based on the events of a month or so. Steem has been around for 4 years, and for better or worse, it'll be here for years to come, in whatever form. I'm not ready to give up just yet. I want to see how it ends up, and I want to keep supporting Steem in any way I can till it truly is beyond saving.
So, I'll continue to be on both Hive and Steem, of course with differing magnitudes.
I will divest, as even if there are intentions from Sun/Tron to make something of Steem, it will take them months to half a year to make a plan, get development done, and make the case to believe in Steem again.
But, with so much stuff being broken about PoB and the inflation-based reward pool, this might be what's needed to get someone with a fresh set of ideas to build from scratch without the biases towards the ideas held on this chain in the past.
PoB is a myth. The whitepaper even doesn’t mention it (only the short version does).
Absolutely, the inflation-funded reward pool has completely failed, and needs a new approach. I have suggested several alternatives on my blog in the past.
And yes, it's prudent to divest. There are plenty of other crypto projects which have a higher risk/reward ratio at this time.
For the moment, I will keep the door open here, simply to see what happens with my own eyes, rather than just through the hive rumor mill.
Yeah, like with all crypto projects, there'll definitely be some tribalism ongoing.
We will never know what Justin's true intentions were if the top witnesses hadn't preemptively struck. Now that Justin is in complete control it will be interesting to see what he does.
I would says it is two times less centralized now with the two chains than before. And we the users) have twice more power to upvote good posts :)
Yes, options are always good
Couple things:
Steem was always centralized even without the steemit,inc stake being included. The Top 20 Witnesses were all but decided by a small handful of the largest whales and it had been that way since day 1. Lets not kid ourselves into believing it suddenly become centralized, even without the steemit,inc stake participating.
Just about everything Justin has done since he acquired steemit,inc and steemit.com has been in reaction to what was done to him (freezing his stake). I'm not condoning what he did, but we will never know what his actual plans were if our centralized group of top witnesses hadn't pre-preemptively struck.
I don't have high hopes for steem or steemit at this point, but it is possible Justin brings million of users over from Asia and it basically starts over with a new community. It's worth sticking around just to see what his actual plans are now that he is in complete control.
Agreed, on all counts.