Transparency, but not for us!

^Source

Steem is one of the most transparent blockchains in the cryptosphere.

True, we can have anonymous accounts alongside those personally identifiable, but what you did expect when everything else is in full display?

Privacy has its reasons and it has been argued in that direction on enough occasions in the past. I happen to agree with this.

Full transparency only gets you in trouble... eventually.

And I'm not talking about trouble with authorities (although for some this might be true), but I'm talking about becoming a target, if you have a fat enough account or if you are an influencer and you happen to piss someone off who takes it outside the social media realm.

Now, Steem is what it is, and the rules are the same for everyone. Unless they change.

The problem is most people value transparency (or say they do), but only until their own privacy is breached or their activity scrutinized. Then, they want privacy.

If the developers of the Steem blockchain suddenly discover the need for more privacy than they've already taken for themselves, what about the rest of the community?

Should we all power down and move our funds to exchanges? Or create anonymous accounts and shift funds between them?

I believe that's not going to happen. But keep in mind in the above case we are not talking about merely extra-fat accounts. We are talking about the creators and developers of the Steem blockchain.

Yes, private company by law, but not private to the Steem stakeholders and community. Its stake aside, the influence of the company on the current and immediate future of the Steem blockchain is immense, as practically the only developers of the blockchain, with a few exceptions (who couldn't take over the full job as far as I know).

Because, let's be honest, a blockchain which stagnates in terms of development, regardless of how well positioned it is at some point in time, will soon become obsolete in such a competitive market.

I may be wrong, and there may be immediate reasons which I cannot see, but invoking privacy in such a situation and on a blockchain like Steem, is at least unfortunate. But I believe we are way past the "unfortunate" phase...