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RE: Blockchains are Fundamental to Online Freedom
100% Clay, you had me at the title of the post, and I agree with everything you said...
My only question, is the future: Could a giant whale potentially affect the freedom of speech on this platform? For example flag anyone they disagree with systematically, to the point of causing a small user to self censor. Even though we are less likely to experience this here, i don't know that we are totally immune form speech police, when wallet size also has "the greater say"
I suppose the answer to that question kind of directly correlates to the types of witnesses that we have in the top 20. This is why I am a very vocal opponent of selling witness votes. We only need 17/20 to fork and if a whale somehow bought up enough stake to control the top 20 witness spots, we'd just have to fork off before they started making code changes. Essentially to answer your question, no, it would require complete and utter corruption of the entire ideologies and beliefs of most of the people running the chain and then making the chain mutable would probably kill it as it wouldn't be a crypto any more.
hmm.. i need to better understand the witness dynamics... but that sound quite reassuring.
Maybe a simpler way to say that is this:
At the point that it became a possibility, we would all have abandoned our own principles and beliefs. Essentially... as long as roughly twenty people that have the technical capacity to run a witness node hold similar beliefs about freedom and anti censorship, they would be able to keep the chain alive. Even if someone tried to "steal the chain" they would have to convince everyone else to go along with them.
I see! well lets keep our witnesses well wined and dined then :D
I do think that there is a shift in thinking happening on the platform. I think there is an awakening towards building communities, upholding principles, and viewing the platform as serving more than just the monetary purpose. So i'm actually more convinced now that the platform will do well, regardless of the jokers of the world. :)