Here is a mention of "blacklist" and the idea to act as a block for other bots - from 29 days ago. I'll let others decide on what to do with this info. I personally find the whole extortion aspect to be repulsive. There's no place for it on this platform and anyone involved doesn't deserve to earn a single penny from their activity here, in my opinion.

https://steemit.com/upvote-bot/@fyrstikken/updated-winfrey-upvote-bot-will-vote-for-everyone-who-post-on-steemit-with-a-2-upvote-except-posts-flagged-by-cheetah-or

Also - if this is the owner of @blacklist, then that means they're the likely owner of @asshole as well. They were created the same way, the same day, had the same amount transferred to them, and the voting was the same 1%.