Before I start, I'd like to thank @aggroed for his Teach the controversy: Softfork 0.22.2 // Stop and Correct // Potential futures post; I think he sets a conciliatory tone and proposes some solutions aiming at a common ground.

That said, my own position first

• I have pulled all delegations from the worthy projects I have been supporting (this is NOT a reflection on those projects, it is covering my ass)
• I will start a power-down as soon as those delegations come back into my hands.
• I have likewise started powerdowns on all Steem-Engine coins (where Steemit goeth, they goeth also)

I have absolutely zero trust in Justin, considering his handling of the tron chain; that does not even take into account the likelihood he may be operating under the aegis of the CCP (see @lucylin's Alibaba Jack post). My biggest concern is re: a forced token swap...how the hell can I go to an exchange to swap tokens if my stake in STEEM is tied up in SP? What about SBD?

Basically, until I know for damn sure that Justin is going to do right by Steemit, I am bunkering up. On a NON self-interest level, do you REALLY want the Steemchain vetted by the CCP and it's Google catamites, because that is the risk we take currently?

My TLDR on the solution (I suggest reading his entire post however)

I will break from @aggroed's suggestion of giving Justin a chance; I say burn all the STEEM and SP that @aggroed has colorcoded Neon Green immediately, and let Justin take it out of Ned's ass legally. This is a win-win-win scenario.

I realize this is horrific, and abuse of witness power, but I don't see a future otherwise considering past actions...

I didn't even realize that witnesses could do with their power, but now that I see how it can be used, I don't want that power turned over to a Chinese oligarch.

@aggroed's summary thesis

Ned is a criminal who conned/defrauded the chain and Justin
Witnesses needed to intervene to stop and help correct the situation via temporary Softfork
Justin has to make his intentions known
Witnesses need time to code a way to trustlessly move forward

Agreed on all points, although the specificity of Ned's "crime" is addressed by @mstafford in this comment. Basically, we see it that way, but the charges of "crime" might not hold up in civil or criminal court in the way discussed in the post.

Among the solutions offered by @aggroed,

Steemit stake set to 0. It all went to Null.

This is the answer.

Among the other proposals are methods of divving up that SP (I even had a few thoughts on that myself); but in the end, we all gain in overall power here by burning the SP

Justin is likely a victim in this too. The goal is not to exact punishment on a man who just got swindled by Ned.

Normally, this is a sentiment I would agree with, but enough Steemers have provided enough documentation in recent posts on Justin's dishonest actions on the Tronchain. Let Justin sue Ned (my name is Clem, this is between them)

Beyond the suggestions for a smooth and united merger, @aggroed does a nice job of explaining the history of @steemit (et al) stake (color coded as Neon Green), and while that stake might not legally belong to the Steemit community, my argument would be that ethically, it does belong to us.

In reading that history, I was initially struck with the idea that stake colorcoded Blackshould be burned as well, but as @whatsup posted an old post of Dan's, I decided my idea was based on envy, not ethics, and would definitely make the trust level here even worse.

Do we run the risk of a 20% hostile takeover, regardless of the @steemit stake?

Yes, comments made by @novacadian demonstrate the risk. But that risk would be mitigated by a 75 million (+30 million???) STEEM burnoff, raising the value of STEEM by that much

Hell, that could set off a self-sustaining PLUS spike in price ;>