I disagree that Jeff Berwick lost this debate. He remained open to new information and made some good points. His last statement about posting on Steemit revealed the emotional arguments relied on by Vays. Further Vays penultimate statement that 'it was gonna be difficult' referred to his prediction that Steemit was nothing but a scam, and having to post on Steemit in the future..

While I agree that Steemit displays numerous features that potentiate scams, it remains true that Dan isn't powering down. If he began to do so we'd have 13 weeks to follow suit, making his exit quite terminal for Steem.

I doubt that is Dan's purpose. While there is certainly evidence that investors in Steem and early miners are possessed of the vast majority of Steem, it is not that concerning to me, because I expect early adopters to profit maximally.

It is the mining of the rewards pool that alarms me.

This dramatically degrades curation, which impedes capital gains, a far more profitable mechanism for these early adopters, including Dan, than mining the rewards can be - if you believe Steemit is going to grow into a Fakebook competitor.

Furthermore, weighting Vote Power (VP) with SP voids the distributive defense against Sybil attacks.

All you have to do to control Steemit is control most of the Steem held on the platform as SP.

It is hard to imagine a mechanism more suited to Steemit's enemies than simply buying VP to completely control it, or one more rewarding financially for Dan and friends.

It is this fact that most supports the theory that Steemit isn't being guided into a long future, but is a scam. If the code continues to permit total control of the witnesses, particularly, with nothing more compelling than money, Dan is abdicating control of the platform to whoever will buy him out.

Both Vays and Berwick, due to the novelty and recent genesis of the platform, seemed unaware of this danger to the platform. @freedom supplies ~30% of @pumpkin's witness vote, and it is by watching the witnesses that we can ascertain whether Steemit retains potential, or has been compromised terminally.

If there is centralization of the votes for witness, the platform has become as wholly owned as CNN. Until then, we can surmise that the final sellout hasn't begun yet, but that Steemit remains for sale.

When the witnesses are no longer for sale to the highest bidder, then we can have confidence that Steemit is intended to grow into a significant social media platform. That will require a Hard Fork that ends the weighting of VP with SP. There is no other way I am aware of that can prevent just buying the witnesses that control the code.

Edit: I think this is an important post. First it is hard to be more critical of Steemit than you and Vays (and you also have done some research into the holdings of Steem by whales, and why that's significant), and posting this shows that Steemit isn't censored. Second, it discusses the Sybil attack that Steemit is experiencing, and prompted me to comment how Steemit might be completely controlled if it were a scam.

I'm resteeming to gain exposure. I reckon this issue should be on everyone's lips, particularly as we consider HF20, intended to rapidly grow Steemit - and potentiating rats leaving a sinking ship on rafts of money. This may well be Steemit's defining moment.