So is this a
- We start from scratch with a new Genesis block.
Or - We fork and cut out Steemit Inc's accounts?
I think there are going to be complaints from the community about both options, so I'm curious if there might be a 3rd that I'm not seeing/thinking about?
P.S. I'm in for the community, I don't care if the name changes.. as long as the ideal stays the same (as it was at inception, not whatever Ned thought up to line up his exit strategy)
It won't be #1.
If #2 is the selected option, the new chain after the fork will undoubtedly have no Steemit stake. And that's not a problem as the fork will likely be run with a new chain ID. So the current chain can continue on as Steem with all of its current balances. Nothing would need to be taken from Steemit accounts...the balances just wouldn't be added to the accounts on the new chain. They would just not receive the new tokens.
This is not "theoretically" a problem, but poses a fundamental flaw when you talk with anyone who cares about governance and cares about their stake.
If you do this, what is it to say that you wouldn't do this again, simply because you (or the witnesses) don't agree with a single user (or group of users) on the blockchain. It's starts a very dangerous precedent.
I'm not saying that it is wrong, I'm just pointing out the risk of what this action means to the existing Steem community, and to the broader Crypto Market. It's akin to walking on coals for the future of the new blockchain..
I don’t see any dangerous precedent at all. In fact, it falls exactly in line with free association and private property.
If a community wants to follow the chain where a group of people felt that existing entities represented an existential threat to long-term decentralization and security, then why should they not go with those individuals who took their computers and software, adjusted some code, and moved on without those threatening entities? Who is harmed in such a scenario?
And if that community proves to be trustworthy and more people want to invest and participate because it demonstrates that it can operate based on common philosophical principles and also defend itself from existential threats, how is this damaging to the overall crypto community?
I would think that such a community that’s willing to make tough choices but adheres to its principles would be a beacon of light in what is mostly a scammer’s paradise. And again - nobody is taking anything at all away from anyone else. The Steem blockchain would continue as is, assuming the remaining users can support it.
Now if such a community just randomly forked away from people for petty reasons, I would expect them to suffer from a poor reputation. But I don’t believe for a second that escaping centralization and a pretty much guaranteed trashing of a blockchain is going to tarnish a community’s reputation at all. And if such a reputation is gained in that scenario within the greater crypto community, then it just reaffirms the view that there are few principled actors in the crypto space in general.