Insanity at it's finest...and a new round of negotiations.
I've been monitoring the news closely, from the very moment Justin Sun announced that he came to an agreement with Ned and acquired Steemit.Inc. Deep down I knew that it won't go well, or even if it did go well it would be really bumpy on its way there, and I was right....
I got to tell you that the whole thing, with exchanges interfering over the governance and the future of the chain and the fact that we are nowhere near to an agreement is giving me grey hair...I am telling you...I already have some... I don't need more...
To begin with, the 2 big exchanges Binance and Huobi must have violated every law there is and with their actions crashed everything decentralization stands for.
They claim that they didn't know and that their intention was to "help" and "protect" Steem from hackers and invaders (our previous top 20) while a HF was in play....REALLY?
We've been through 20+ HF before the 0.22.2 SOFT FORK but never before they had interfered. They usually made the necessary adjustments to their wallets, suspended withdrawals and deposits for a few days for everything to be nice and neat and we were back in business.
So why now? What is different this time?
On top of that they don't mean to understand that they should have already started the power down procedure days ago. By now they could have liquefy 1/13th of they custodial funds they illegally used and return those funds to their rightful owners to do whatever the hell they want with it.
It is twisted isn't it?
I am in favor of the 22.4444 version and totally against the sock puppets that Justin has planted in the top 20...and at the same time my liquid STEEM, which I was holding on Binance to trade has being used to vote for something that I am totally against of. If that's not a fiasco then what is?
My guess is that many of you are in the very same position...
So why they haven't initiated a power down procedure yet?
Because they are buying time....
It makes absolutely no sense acting like this. Even if someone was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that...they didn't know what they were doing...that it was a big misunderstanding....now they are completely informed. THEY KNOW what they should do. What they should have already been doing actually....
Obviously there is a reason for that. And the only solid explanation is that they are waiting Justin to take control of the situation and push a HF that would allow them to exit instantly or in 3 - 7 days, aka--> they are planning to vote again since Justin needs the super-majority of the witnesses (17) and there is no way to get there without their help.
In case you didn't know...there is no such thing as STEEM liquidity on the exchanges right now and the only way for him to regain those 17 spots would be either if be bribed Bittrex -which by the way announced that they have no intention to do such a thing as it is against their principles- oooor to spend a shit ton a $$$ and buy the liquid STEEM from Bittrex's open market.
I am really trying to think of a way that the whole negotiations can move forward but I am 100% sure that Tron's representative, Roy, will demand that the only way we could reach to an agreement would be if we make an exception and allow those exchanges to power down immediately...but that's just a hunch....
In any case I am totally against it. NO EXCEPTIONS. Why should we help someone who tried to ruin what we have been building for the past 4 years? Does that mean that I want them to go down? No. But this would be a lesson for them and for everyone who might attempt to do something similar in the future...
They said they didn't know...well they know now...
The power-down option is there...what's stopping them?
Lemme know what you are thinking of the whole situation in the comment section below.
Have a good one people.
Image Source
Don't forget to vote for your witnesses.
Cheers.
A total cluster fuck, really.It's hard to believe a reputable exchange like Binance and the others would do something this devious.
Nobody saw it coming...
I also think they are buying time. They illegally used their customer's funds as you said and now they are trying to figure a way to get out of this. The most likely scenario that comes to my mind is they wait until the Tron team has their super-fast power down code ready, they vote for witnesses and then implement the code. Hope I am wrong though!
I hope both you and I are wrong.
That is a scary possibility!
I'm pretty sure they are stalling for time @mindtrap.
I am also pretty sure that the much higher than usual volume on Bittrex and gradual uptrend in the price of Steem for about 48 hours is a signal that Justin/"they" are trying to accumulate Steem by buying it. This pattern began at approximately 10am US Pacific time on March 4th, and is still running; volume at about $180,000-200,000 per day, up from about 1/8th of that. And the trading has been "aggressive," meaning there are almost no downspikes.
So, I'm thinking we need to do everything we can to boost at least 5-6 of our consensus witnesses so far out of range that it becomes economically idiotic to try to buy enough Steem to unseat them.
There's a bit of a lull right now, with the previously HUGE buy wall having gone back to its usual pattern of many more small orders... just six hours ago, Bittrex had lots of 20,000, 30,000, 50,000 Steem buy orders... those have dried up a bit... but that should be watched, and we should have MAJOR campaigns to get people to not only make sure they have voted for witnesses, but also those people who HAVE voted for witnesses — but did so "a long time ago" need to check their voting and see if they aren't voting for some deactivated/obsolete witnesses, and move their votes "up."
We're certainly not out of the woods yet, so let's not get too comfortable...
We shouldn’t get comfortable for sure...
At the moment there is a 10mil SP gap between blocktrades and the rest of the sock puppets. If he’s even considering to purchase such a massive amount from Bittrex or even Upbit just to “restore order” that would move the price to new highs...
I do feel uncomfortable tho seeing almost all our witnesses powering down...
I'm not too worried about the witnesses powering down; it seems to be a perpetual cycle, I expect primarily to pay for the expense of running a witness (servers, bandwidth, storage, etc.) — when the price of Steem is higher, they power down less, when it's low, they power down more.
Another possible explanation for the increased volume on Bittrex could be that Huobi and Binance both have their Steem withdrawal gateways suspended due to the fact that Justin got the Steem they have in client trust accounts locked up for 13 weeks... and people are simply using a different platform to trade.
This type of investigative reporting merits its own post.
My guess is that reality makes more sense when we know the interest.
Do you like riddles? How about this:
Image source
Almost nobody's talking about the fact that we're on the way to lose our freedom.
Why?
NO EXCEPTIONSYou can't enter in negotiation "with good faith" by adopting such an approach. If none of the parties are willing to give some concessions, then we probably better off forking right now and save everyone months of constant headaches.
All the witnesses are not powering down, I just checked a few and @gtg, @enginewitty, @steemspeak, & @pharesim are not. I agree most of them are, wow!
Many witnesses power down constantly, including myself, to cover costs for running witness servers. I'm at a monthly bill of almost 1000 USD nowadays for steem-related server costs, for example. But, at the moment I actually power-up my powerdowns as soon as they are paid out, for the case.
Note that I don't power down my full SP, but just a small portion, and Im sure more people are like that.
Good to know, thanks!!
Thanks @roelandp, I felt pretty sure that was what was going on, but nice to hear it directly.
It's not FREE to run a witness, folks...
Nope, I ain't going anywhere man. Pay for my witness out of pocket or with other earnings.
Nice to hear, that puts a better light on the situation.
Believe it or not, but I think they are planning to interfere in our governance again.
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Oh, I am sure they will...but that would also be their tombstone.
Their reputation will go down the toilet
Their reputation will go down the toiletI highly doubt that. People will move on and the new coins will be listed, do you really that the world gives a shit about Steem? If we don't the right thing for our blockchain than no one will.
The world might not give a shit about Steem (yet) but they do give a shit if their funds is being used in a hostile way or worst if they cannot have access to it
People might not give a shit about Steem, BUT if we stand our ground and drive off the "invaders" we will have set a precedent of a decentralized system withstanding the onslaught of a large centralized governance takeover... might not help us but it could have some very positive long-term implications for the whole idea of "decentralization."
This business of the exchanges using our funds against our wishes, isn't it illegal? So why do we not also explore the legal options as a deterrent for them to interfere? For the record I still have some steem in one of those exchanges and cannot withdraw to vote for who I want, all because they have already voted for me without my permission. This is criminal use of my funds and we, the community, should also consider that.
But at the same time, all our witnesses are powering down.
Hmmm. I wonder?
Any clue?
As said elsewhere in this thread: Many witnesses power down constantly, including myself, to cover costs for running witness servers. I'm at a monthly bill of almost 1000 USD nowadays for steem-related server costs, for example. But, at the moment I actually power-up my powerdowns as soon as they are paid out, for the case.
Note that I don't power down my full SP, but just a small portion, and Im sure more people are like that.
Thanks for the clarification but...there are some massive power downs such as the one from blocktrades. That isn’t for server costs...
1000$ eh? So prior to MIRA it was what? 5x?
I understand what you're saying. I'm sure this isn't the case.
But I constantly checking the witnesses list and those little piggies keep adding by their names.
Something is brewing and you didn't convince me. Telling people to power up, vote for witnesses, save the chain and powering down at the same time? For me is a slap in the face to the whole community.
All of them? Really? No clue, but I'll do some digging
Maybe for the same reason you do? :P
I'm F... clueless.
They need to learn the hard way.
I'm with you on that.
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