To welcome the newest version of the blockchain I wanted look back on highlights from the previous "forkening". For several weeks after HF18 many authors simply stopped as the Steemit reward pool took time to replenish itself, but during this time the tough kept going and some interesting discoveries were made. All in all, good times.

Here's to you, Steemit!

5. Bonne chance, France: Complete #MacronLeaks are now distributed via IPFS!

Recently during the 2017 French Presidential election yours truly, borrowing an idea from Steemit, decided to host the complete email archives of Emmanuel Macron (now President of France) and his cohorts on a distributed, decentralized filesystem known as the Interplanetary Filesystem. As they were being subject to censorship and not available at Wikileaks, it was decided hosting them through this distributed network to be an efficient way to maintain access for all until the election.

In the end Emmanuel Macron did become President of France, but to this day this remains a powerful example of what decentralized computing and information can accomplish even with limited resources.

4. Pizzagate Wiki vs. Robot Army: How a Reddit post about Laura Silsby and Max Maccoby broke the Internet

This moment in time was perhaps the greatest turning point for me personally in my shift to Steemit. After the censorship efforts of Reddit combined with literal swarms of bots tearing the Pizzagate Wiki apart from within I was left with no option but to completely rethink my strategy for conducting crowdsourced investigations into human trafficking. Websites on their own are pretty much helpless against the relentless censorship machine, but this beautiful place called Steemit has been impenetrable.

Sure berniesanders can downvote my posts here and there, but they're not getting deleted any time soon and that works for me :)

3. Steemit Archive Project: Journalist Andrew Breitbart's coroner and toxicology reports

Here's a fine example where Steemit was used to successfully preserve some good old fashioned science and hard facts. While the evidence discovered in Andrew Breitbart's toxicology report is unsettling to say the least, at least he can rest a bit easier knowing that it won't go away any time soon. The low levels of creatinine and elevated levels of potassium and chloride suggest that he was likely the victim of some form of lethal injection and NOT the victim of a random cardiac arrest.

Science!

2. Steemit Archive Project: The Finders documents Part I & Part II

This was perhaps one of the most painstaking processes yet, but also another fantastic example of the power and potential of Steemit. Many familiar with the actions of the Washington D.C.-based cult known as "The Finders" are also familiar with the fact that the stories are scattered and rather disorganized. This further has enabled them to remain in the shadows despite publicly committing crimes.

In this part of the Steemit Archive Project I uploaded the most important news clippings, police reports and testimonies from the time which indicated a rather dark and nefarious nature to the Finders cult.

1. My first book, The Case Against DynCorp, now officially self-published on Smashwords!

I am very proud of this book and I believe it represents the collective effort of many great Steemians including @v4vapid, @fortified and @ausbitbank. That is precisely why it is also free on all platforms, and it's going to stick around for a good long while!

What became the United States defense contractor DynCorp International began in 1946 as California Eastern Airways (CEA), an air freight business, and Land-Air Inc., in aircraft maintenance company founded by veterans of World War II. In 1962 CEA became “Dynalectron Corporation”. By 1986, Dynaelectron was one of the largest defense contractors in North America. In 1987, Dynalectron changed its name to DynCorp and subsequently became a privately traded corporation in 1988. In 2003 DynCorp officially became “DynCorp International”.

At about the same time DynCorp began involving itself in criminal activities perpetrated by the United States government and its rising military-industrial complex. This book’s content begins in the 1980s when DynCorp began its work trafficking drugs and weapons during the Iran-Contra Scandal. It takes the reader through the 1990s human trafficking scandals in the Balkans, through the 2000s human and organ trafficking scandals, and additional major criminal activities leading up to 2017.

Get it today in multiple formats, including .mobi, .epub and more! All for free!