Softfork 0.22.2 // The Steema Carta

in #witness5 years ago (edited)

Steema Carta


In the one thousandths two hundredth and fifteenth year of our Lord the barony of England gathered to lay the legal ground work of rights by which they, the people, and the king could abide one another. The document was called the Magna Carta. In it was outlined 60+ points regarding how the king, the barons, 25 elected barons, and free people were to interact. It outlined tax assessment, hereditary titles, rules of commerce, standards for justice, religious freedoms, and rule of law. It has been hotly contested for years and went through many revisions. Some have challenged its validity while others site it as the basis for common law.

Eight hundred and five years later the Steem Power holders (barons), and their elected witnesses are facing a challenge over the elevated powers of one individual (Justin) granted by a hotly contested purchase of stake. In order to temporarily ensure no unexpected hostile actions befall the Steem community and drastic changes are met with time for substantial planning I (and many other consensus witnesses) have enacted softfork 0.22.2. I'm dubbing it the Steema Carta.

The Steema Carta in brief

The Steema Carta in my eyes is much simpler than the Magna Carta. It involves three parts all of which are aimed at maximizing the freewill choice of all parties involved.

  1. Temporarily impose restrictions to the Steemit accounts matching the expectations Steemit has laid out for 4 years.
  2. Wait for Justin to tell us his intentions.
  3. Give ourselves time to plan around those intentions.

My criteria for lifting the restrictions have nothing to do with Justin's actual intentions. He's free to do and be as he sees fit, and we should be free to do and be as we see fit. The main ingredient allowing community wide voluntary action is time. The restrictions can be removed once his intentions are made clear and the Steem community has had time to code a response that allows members to voluntary interact as they see fit.

Background

I find it unlikely Ned the Snake provided much detail regarding the origin of the stake @justinsunsteemit has purchased, but for those who have been here for several years we know there's a strong history of it's purpose. From the early days of the bitcointalk forums filled with @bytemaster's commentary (Dan), to the product road map of 2017 (page 21), to various videos and github release notes the internet is peppered with a relatively plain message: "Steemit will use the stake that was mined and then inflated in the early days of the chain to pay for development, onboard users, and remain non-voting." This was the bargain. We, the community, would tolerate this outrageously sized stake in the hands of one entity so long as these conditions were met.

I wrote a post about the ninja mined stake two years ago. It's not my best work, but you can find some of the important references.

The efficacy of how well Steemit has performed on it's promises has been questionable, but at least in principle those promises have been delivered until Feburary 14th, 2020. This is the day Ned the Snake sold the Steem holdings of Steemit and pocketed them for personal gain.

This would be akin to a non-profit chair selling the money they hold in a public trust and pocketing the money. Ned has not only abandoned his fiduciary duty but pilfered funds from the community.

Selling this premined stake for personal profit, which they alleged over 4 years was to be used for the benefit of the community is a horrific act of a thief and traitor to every man and woman who ever engaged with Steem. Ned is a conman and a despicable human being. I believe his actions represent a crime. I intend to limit the harm that can be inflicted on Steem by Steemit. I believe it can all be settled, but the one requirement is time! That's what this softfork is about.

Justin got robbed!

What I highly suspect is that unbeknownst to Justin he's purchased stake from Ned the snake that was already promised to the community for the development of Steem and onboarding of new users. I sympathize with Justin as I believe it's likely Ned the Snake has committed legal fraud in his sale to Justin. It's possible he has specifically committed securities fraud. I think Justin is a victim of a crime. I think it's important to call a "timeout" and bring all the facts and discovery to the public to protect any additional harm or criminal activity.

My sympathy ends however with ongoing statements/announcements of "Old Steem token will be traded for new Steem token on Tron through a token swap."

Some of Justin's rhetoric is encouraging and promising like at the Dlive event, but the rest of the communications either lack detail or directly contradict his live statements. Mostly, his silence is deafening. His mixed communications indicate an intolerably large willingness to abandon Steem as a blockchain in favor of existing EXCLUSIVELY as a tron side chain/token. The Steem blockchain must continue to run. That's literally the one non-debatable job of a Witness!

Steem is an amazing technology and community

It would appear Justin doesn't understand the power of the Steem he's purchased or he'd never consider abandoning this project. Steem has integrated aspects of the same technology used by Facebook to organize data on the chain. It's highly unlikely that any chain is as capable of scaling as the Steem blockchain. Not only that, despite 2 million followers on twitter he's received more interaction on one steem blog post than he has on any recent tweets. Our community is strong, worthy of a chain, and worth defending.

This is a community of real people, many of whom call this place home, and we the elected witnesses have a responsibility to see it developed and continue to exist.

Steema Carta details

FOR-NOW I and other witnesses are enforcing through code what has been stated for years:

Steemit stake will remain non-voting.
Steemit stake will be used to develop the Steem blockchain.
Steemit stake will be used to onboard new users.

FOR-NOW the witnesses who choose to run this fork are blocking transactions by Steemit accounts that seek to circumvent the promises Steemit has made for 4 years. The code is implemented through a soft fork and can be easily altered or abandoned.

Here are the on chain actions this soft fork prohibits for accounts owned by steemit:
account_witness_proxy
account_witness_vote
update_proposal_votes
vote
withdraw_vesting
set_withdraw_vesting_route
transfer
limit_order_create
limit_order_create2
transfer_to_vesting
transfer_to_savings

Until

I can't speak for my fellow witnesses, but I'll continue to run this code until:

Justin puts his intentions in writing and we have time to react.

Options

This could result in Justin writing on the chain that he'll honor the 4 years of promises that Steemit has made. Specifically-

  1. Steemit stake will be non-voting
  2. Steemit stake will be used to onboard new users
  3. Steemit stake will be used to develop the chain

At that point witnesses will figure out how to trustlessly ensure a mutually agreeable plan with Justin/Tron.

Another possible outcome is Justin states his intention to complete a token swap and attempt to shut down the Steem blockchain. In that case I'll continue to run this softfork until such a time as a hardfork can be prepared to ensure the survival of the chain and the chronicle of it's inhabitants.

Ultimately, I just need to hear from Justin his plan and be given a chance to work with witnesses to code and communicate something that's mutually agreeable, or alternatively, we need time to ensure Steemians the ability to carefully plan and set forth on whichever future chain they see fit to follow (as I imagine multiple would form at first).

Philosophy behind it

The slogan of the Peace, Abundance and Liberty network is "Non Nocere. Non Accipies Stercore."" It roughly translates into "Do no Harm. Take no Shit." Temporary measures to codify the current contract until a new contract (enforced by code) can be created is harmless to a man with the means of Justin. This action may actually end up saving Justin millions of dollars that would have been paid to fraudster Ned by bringing to light obligations Ned may not have shared. It also might stop him from also entering into what I believe to be criminal activity of which I believe he's currently uninformed.

Justin can make whatever choice he wants here, but not without us having due time and planning. Essentially, we as a community will take no shit.

A case for fraud

Justin if you feel like you've been cheated out of millions I strongly urge you to consider a case of fraud against Ned. It's arguable he sold you property he and his company promised to the community. You've been cheated, but not by the Steem community. Just Ned. If you're still holding a piece of the deal I strongly encourage you question paying him the rest. I would also strongly encourage you to consider suing him for whatever portion you may have already paid. If there's a case for a class action against Ned I'm interested in participating and helping to organize steemians against him. For the legally minded I'm interested in a criminal case as well. Feel free to DM in discord.

Deescalation

I recognize codifying the status quo is an escalation. The goal should ultimately be deescalation. Here's hoping that Justin will communicate his intent and we can have time to react and plan.

A bright future?

Despite all this I think I'm still the most bullish of all the witnesses on the potential that a partnership between Tron and Steem can provide. I think the future can be incredibly strong for the SteemTron ecosystem by combining the powerful technology and community of the Steem blockchain with the powerful marketing arm of Justin Sun and the Tron Foundation.

It's less awesome if we unamicably part ways leading to a null future together, but so long as we have time to plan for it I see that as a potential pathway as well.

Here's hoping we can all work together to save Justin millions of dollars, legally fuck Ned, grow Steem, and zip all these chains together through voluntary interaction for one hell of a network. Smells like money...

May the eternal blockchain upvote us all!

P.S. Alternatives

  1. Do Nothing
  2. Implement changes to how governance works

Re: Do Nothing
The challenge here is that Tron has stated multiple times their intent to perform a token swap. While this is a great option for projects that are on test nets or have unsustainable communities it's a bad plan for Steem. Steem is a healthy ecosystem with a 4 year history, 41M blocks under our belt, and people who interact and rely on this chain with it's specific feature set. We've recently seen Justin's willingness to use his stake to vote for consensus on his own chain and it poses a real threat he could do the same here even potentially shutting down the chain on his own accord. Witnesses have one indesputable job. Keep the chain running. It's our job to ensure we collectively Steem on. The soft fork is the least invasive way to ensure the chain continues and the easiest to revoke. Doing nothing posed and poses an existential threat to Steem without proper planning. I can't abide that.

Re: Implement changes to how governance works
I'm in support of this. At the moment I don't have a distinct plan other than to ensure that the number of witnesses that a user can vote for is smaller than the number of consensus witnesses or has something like diminishing returns by voting many. While this is a great conversation to have it does necessitate a hard fork. A hard fork puts exchanges in the position where they have to choose which version of the chain to run. This irreversible change puts decision making power in the hands of exchanges choosing which fork to run or potentially staying neutral while the chain is incapable of trading tokens. This would inevitably lead to harm. So, while this is absolutely a discussion worth having it's not the correct time or approach in the current fork.

Steemit employees

My heart goes out to all of you. I'm sure this is an exceptionally difficult transition. Thanks for all you do and it's on honor to have you on the chain.

Witness

If you think this is the right action, if you think I provide value to the chain, or if you think I make good decisions on behalf of Steem please consider voting my witness. I'm the only consensus witness without either the Freedom or Blocktrades vote and I require broad community support if I'm to continue serving.

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regardless of the circumstances and I am not going to debate whether justin is good or bad, what we learned today is that our witnesses can and will change the code and execute it without having a single public conversation.

That will be remembered far after we've all forgotten whether we like or hate Justin Sun.

I am glad it happened now, big lesson.

Conversations take longer than 3 seconds.
Nobody likes this; but a supermajority of the witnesses did what we asked of them. They used their best judgement in defense of the chain.

Conversations take longer than 3 seconds.

Exactly. That pretty much sums up the entire purpose of mitigating the risk first and foremost, then informing the community and Steemit Inc's new ownership about the change.

There's really no other way to deal with an issue like this without signaling your intentions first, which then just allows the potential threat enough time to become an actual attack. Not saying that the new ownership would do that, but the security risk is too large to take that chance or to simply dismiss it.

Nobody likes this; but a supermajority of the witnesses did what we asked of them. They used their best judgement in defense of the chain.

That's how most of us view our actions and we are prepared for the consequences from our voters, should they disagree. Personally, I stand by this 100% and would have supported it if the rest of the witnesses had proposed it a couple of years ago.

This Is Not News.

I has happened numerous times before in cases where there were security issues. In fact I would go so far as to say it has happened with nearly every single blockchain including Bitcoin.

Agree or disagree with this particular soft fork,but the idea of code getting updated without public discussion is a part of reality. Transparency is good but everything being public to everyone all the time just does not work in this world.

No, it wasn't a discovered a security risk.

I get what you are saying. Again it isn't about Tron or Justin.

I accept the debate over whether this was a security risk

My point is that

witnesses can and will change the code and execute it without having a single public conversation

has happened before, will happen again, happens on every blockchain and literally every piece of not-trivial software ever when doing so is considered necessary for security, and is not news.

This is the reality of Delegated Proof of Stake. The elected witnesses can do what they want, provided a supermajority amongst them is there.

As the general community, we can only vote with our stake. We reward good decisions by sustaining our vote for the witnesses or changing it when we feel witnesses do not act in a way we think is best for Steem.

But at no point a decision or action of the witnesses would require a public conversation. Not by design. I would say getting consensus between witnesses is already challenge enough.

Although my stake is very small, I've changed some of my witness votes in light of current events.

Agreed, it is DPOS in action and the distribution showed.

You are also right, that nothing says they HAVE to have a conversation.

I consider it a very big deal to disable someone's stake temporary or not.

The stake wasn't stolen it was purchased. People who didn't like the terms of the deal nullified at least temporarily.

I can't minimize that to a "security risk".

The purchased stake was under certain conditions. Be it 'social contract', be it 'intentions', it was never supposed to be sold. Therefore any deal on it might actually be considered illegitimate.

It's not just 'someone's' or 'anyone's' stake we are talking about here, it's very specifically the ninja-mined stake that has always been subject of much debate on- and offsteem. And also one of the biggest reasons for the bitcoin- and rest of crypto community at large to consider Steem a scam.

The conditions on this specific part of stake have now simply been formalized to code in a temporary soft fork.

Then again, I fully agree with you that disabling stake is a very big deal. People will interpret it and will judge it in various ways, drawing different conclusions. Also, not engaging with the community about these things but executing them without any warning will also be interpreted and judged in various ways.

At the very least I find it highly interesting and I find myself engaged with the drama. I'm following closely.

This is the difference between representative democracy and direct democracy. We have all voted with our witness votes to make the top witnesses our representatives which does give them the power to act without consultation on matters where speed is of the essence.

I understand the tensions going on here, but it would appear that this unbelievably new form of governance is working and capable of making decisions swiftly. That is a good thing to know about.

Yes, agree. To be honest I was super surprised that the witnesses reached consensus. Extending the decision process to a fully democratic model can be done with gamification of the participants. I don’t see any other way for that to work with the decentralised scenario we are in ...

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@whatsup,

[A copy-pasted comment from lower down in the comments section]
.
As I've written on countless occasions, one of STEEM/Steemit's most significant problems is that it is being run by a bunch of Millennials whose knowledge about anything even tangentially business-related is limited to writing computer code. This little caper though takes the cake.

Having been a hedge fund manager for 20 years (and hence someone extremely familiar with securities law) let me assure you, @aggroed and fellow witnesses, if @justinsunsteemit decides to commence legal proceedings ... you guys are going to jail.

Let me be clear ... not fines ... prison (although you'll undoubtedly suffer enormous financial penalties as well). And, what you have just done is waived a giant red flag BEGGING the SEC to prosecute as part of its ongoing efforts to "set high-profile examples" in the cryptosphere.

  • Do you know what: Steemit Inc. ... a "U.S. Person" + Justin Sun ... a "U.S. Person" + thousands of U.S. Steemians + U.S.-based nodes equals?

  • That's right, fellas ... U.S. jurisdiction.

Obviously it did not occur to any of you luminaries to first consult with an attorney. I know this for an absolute FACT without even having to ask because any first year law student would have told you, unambiguously, that what you were proposing was MASSIVELY ILLEGAL.

Here's my recommendations:

1.) Immediately reverse the softfork;

2.) BEG Justin not to destroy your lives.

And quoting the Magna Carta ... I'd pay USD$1,000 to see you make that argument in front of a judge.

Quill

Hi Quillfire,

While I don't pretend to know whether or not anyone has broken any laws here, anyone who has been anywhere near the legal system knows NOTHING is an open and shut case certainly not perceived verbal agreements. So, the going to jail thing is so over the top it pretty much cancels out the rest of anything you said. Not saying it couldn't happen, but.. come on..

All of the legalities around crypto are mostly untested.

Typical of your style... It's a bit dramatic.

Had you said, I seriously think you have broken some laws, which put you in danger of being prosecuted this might have made sense.

Anyway, good to see you.

@whatsup,

What are the Top 20 Witnesses trying to accomplish?

They're trying to FORCE @justinsunsteemit to agree not to vote his stake: and to wit, agree to forfeit his right to vote for Witnesses thereby guaranteeing that they (and their agenda) remain in control of the blockchain.

Their manner of coercion is to hold his holdings hostage. This deprives him of his right to challenge them or even sell his stake in an effort to exit the blockchain completely. If he wants his money, he must agree to their terms ... while under duress.

That's extortion.

Law.com's Definition of Extortion:

  • "Obtaining money or property by threat to a victim's property or loved ones, intimidation, or false claim of a right ... It is a felony in all states, except that a direct threat to harm the victim is usually treated as the crime of robbery."

The speculation I've read is that he paid USD $10 million to buy out Steemit Inc. USD $10 million that he can't access or control unless he cedes to their coercive demands ... and you think I'm being a bit dramatic?

When I'm not fooling around in order to earn a few of your Drama Tokens, I hope you may have noticed that LOGIC is typical of my style.

Good to chat with you too. It's been awhile.

Quill

I do not the support nor endorse the direction they have taken.

Surprisingly so far Justin seems to be taking it better than I would have.

Next steps by both parties should be interesting

This ignorant user is spreading dangerous lies in order to attempt to gain popularity and attention from the new commie overlord. Ignore the ignorant twat bag, you'll immediately feel better about your life.

This ignorant user is spreading dangerous lies in order to attempt to gain popularity and attention from the new commie overlord. Ignore the ignorant twat bag, you'll immediately feel better about your life.

Wow, I feel so important. :) Classy.

Very big, indeed.

Agree with this 100%.

For the record, I agree with this ^

Principle compromised for Purpose. Tell me any exception of Justin's gallavanting across the blockchain and acquisitions market where it turned out well for both parties?

I completely agree. This is wrong. Stealing the guy's steem because you claim the seller was the thief is WEAK. All witnesses that didn't eradicate it when it was in Ned's hands are just as responsible and should resign. How could they let "stolen" steem exist on the blockchain when they were aware it was such? I hope they all have good lawyers because this could get really ugly.

And I agree, big lesson. It will be remembered for sure.

DPOS in action, the majority rules.

Actually, not the majority, rather the majority stake.

Very true, majority stake, you are correct.

but at least in principle those promises have been delivered until Feburary 14th, 2020

Most likely not even that. I have no public information to point to or share, but I learned recently from a source I consider reliable that a great deal of the ninja-mine sold to date was simply paid out to Steemit shareholders (most of which, obviously, to the majority shareholder, Ned).

Clearly, Steemit Inc is a for-profit company and, arguably, some degree of profit distribution is understandable and expected ("arguably" because this entire enterprise has been a bit of a disaster, so one might wonder where the "success" came from to generate large profits apart from raiding the ninja-mine). But what has been described to me were "profit" distributions of a magnitude that were egregious and surprising.

I recall, I believe in 2018, when there were questions about Ned's leadership, a community member who claimed to be a qualified auditor estimated that $30 million had been taken out up to that point, a number which far eclipsed the stated burn rate of about $2 million per year and called into question the claims of financial distress. There was some vague push back against the number, but no willingness to provide any sort of transparency on what the real numbers might be, nor to explain why or how a qualified auditor would get something like this wrong.

Best if luck if you go ahead with a lawsuit. Probably not my cup of tea to go that route, but I can certainly understand it, especially for people who took large losses buying Steem while Ned was spinning and making empty promises to prop up the price of Steem just as Steemit was cashing out.

A lot of people still keep throwing out the white paper as if it is a legal binding contract. I am not sure about the legal binding part of it, it is a document that is used to promote and present the goals of a company. Companies change all the time. IBM used to make typewriters, now they run block chains. Elon Musk used to, i'm not sure, but he launched a car into space.

Four years according to many the Ninja mined stake has been known. Four years the witnesses have had the ability to write all the ninja-mined stake out of steem. Four years the witnesses did nothing to resolve the issue.

I searched trying to find a reference for "White Paper" being a legally binding contract, I found nothing. Lots of links talking about the history, and about what they are used for, but know that stated they are legally binding.. They were mostly talked about as Audience specific advertising papers about what the company stands for.

Who in their right mind would invest large sums of money into Steem when they can have that investment locked up and un-retrievable. Was there not an exchange that locked up individuals steem? Did that not cause people to retaliate?

We see a lot of talk about FUD on steem block chain, i like it, I am guilty of it. The reality is the steem belongs to Justin, he bought it. If there was a legal breech it was false advertising on the part of Steemit and their white paper. Was actions taken to prevent Ned from selling his ninja-mined steem? Did the witness have a problem when he was selling it to keep steemit running?

Were we the people, holders of Steem large and small, that the witnesses are here to ensure our block chain is protected, invited to any of the witness group meetings to share our concerns? You said a "Super Majority" voted for the soft fork, how many witnesses make a super Majority 17 of the top 20? 26 or the top 30? 44 of the top 50?

I think this is a sad day for steem block chain, but that is just me and if I am a minority of one then so be it, those are a few of my thoughts on today's actions.

You said a "Super Majority" voted for the soft fork, how many witnesses make a super Majority 17 of the top 20?

If you look on the witness list, out of the top 20, currently 17 are running the updated version. Some are supporting it but are not switched over yet. The actual number is something like 18 or 19 out of the top 20.

The lower ranked witnesses don't make much difference here; together they get one vote.

Thank you, when seeing statements as super majority it needed to be clear to the people that only the top 20 witnesses opinions counted, as it is with all hard forks, the term soft fork was a new one on me.

The efficacy of how well Steemit has performed on it's promises has been questionable, but at least in principle those promises have been delivered until Feburary 14th, 2020. This is the day Ned the Snake sold the Steem holdings of Steemit and pocketed them for personal gain.

This would be akin to a non-profit chair selling the money they hold in a public trust and pocketing the money. Ned has not only abandoned his fiduciary duty but pilfered funds from the community.

The above statement simply isn't true, Ned owned Steemit inc, therefore he owned all of its assets. As I opined 3 years ago, the way the company was structured meant that it was, and still is a private company.

You can use all the flowery language you want, but Steemit inc is an entity which has employees, bank accounts and assets just like any other normal company.

I think this move by the witnesses is not right, and I've removed my vote from this article as I do not support this in any way shape or form.

I believe this behaviour is staggering when you consider we have had an incompetent fool at the helm for the past 3 years and neither you, nor any other witnesses have done anything about it.

Now that we have a savvy businessman in charge, who has secured a deal with a massive multi-national company, you do this.

All this will do will alienate someone who could propel this platform out of the crypto bubble and into the mainstream. I only hope for all our stakes he is the forgiving kind.

Cg

@cryptogee,

Hey mate.

As I've written on countless occasions, one of STEEM/Steemit's most significant problems is that it is being run by a bunch of Millennials whose knowledge about anything even tangentially business-related is limited to writing computer code. This little caper though takes the cake.

Having been a hedge fund manager for 20 years (and hence someone extremely familiar with securities law) let me assure you, @aggroed and fellow witnesses, if @justinsunsteemit decides to commence legal proceedings ... you guys are going to jail.

Let me be clear ... not fines ... prison (although you'll undoubtedly suffer enormous financial penalties as well). And, what you have just done is waived a giant red flag BEGGING the SEC to prosecute as part of its ongoing efforts to "set high-profile examples" in the cryptosphere.

  • Do you know what: Steemit Inc. ... a "U.S. Person" + Justin Sun ... a "U.S. Person" + thousands of U.S. Steemians + U.S.-based nodes equals?

  • That's right, fellas ... U.S. jurisdiction.

Obviously it did not occur to any of you luminaries to first consult with an attorney. I know this for an absolute FACT without even having to ask because any first year law student would have told you, unambiguously, that what you were proposing was MASSIVELY ILLEGAL.

Here's my recommendations:

1.) Immediately reverse the softfork;

2.) BEG Justin not to destroy your lives.

And quoting the Magna Carta ... I'd pay USD$1,000 to see you make that argument in front of a judge.

Quill

Hey man, good to see you! We've both take a little hiatus from this place.

You hit the nail on the head, these guys have no idea about business. If it was me, I'd get in my own witnesses and boot them all out and start running this platform the way it should have been run from day one.

Oh well, like you say this will not end well for them if they pursue this further, let's just sit back with a bag of !popcorn and watch this space.

Cg

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I could not be more proud to be a Steemian. Thank you @aggroed and all of the witnesses, promoters, creators, developers, tinkerers, and every other contributor in all forms large and small who who help build this incredible DAO.

Big mistake imo @aggroed. I think you guys are stealing the guy's steem. You didn't block it when you knew it existed under Ned, so imo that opens up a serious legal issue for all the witnesses as well as Ned. I think you should reconsider for your own sake, why on earth would you take this chance?

Right now if you reversed it the damage would be minimal, but if the price of steem moves much it could be a serious problem.

ps... don't forget the blockchain has records of everything. You can bet words will get twisted and a case will be able to be made that the witnesses knew this stake existed and that's all the other side will have to prove to bring you into the case.

Why the witnesses didn't do anything when it was in Ned his hand? We all know that Ned was hurting the steem a lot. We all see it with open eyes. If the witnesses will not give back free sun's parts, than there will be a dark time coming over steem. This is sure. Because nobody has the right to take anyone his coins away, if the witness have the right, than we all should ask them why they did nothing in the past with Ned and to save us that time!!! In that case the witnesses should exchange complete because we need wetness which Always stays for us, not only because of a new owner. What you guys think, by holding or freeze sun's coins, the world will be better and successful??? The media is starting to talk about us and in future no investor will come any more, because he will be afraid that his investment is blown away by the witness because they are afraid BEVORE anything was happening. You all witness should open the freeze coins and speak first, before you do something which can hurt all of us.....you locked someones investment, which is simliar like stealing, that's a crime. Hope you will give it free and first speak with sun about the future. Sun have now a strong move, because he can claim that you guys stole it. (yes it is stealing if you don't ask before you take) you should cut Ned's hand off but not the hand from the new investor

We completely agree @travelwithus. I can only hope that the witnesses will read what you and many others have to say. Thank you for taking the time to speak out and for making a valid point that should be listened to. I think most people commenting want to see Steem succeed, but that does justify stealing someone's assets in the process! Thanks for the comment and I wish you the best @travelwithus!

Thanks for "fighting" for Steemit and their Steemians.
I will give you a witness vote.
Not a specialist, but wasn't the blockchain created in a way that every
witness "holds" a blueprint of it, and can run it by himself, in case "some BS" happens..?
https://steemit.com/steemit/@luca1777/can-you-trust-tron-and-justin-sun

"Ned the Snake"

Well done. Transparency and clarity of intentions must be king to any thriving community.

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I am all for a Steem Magna Carta as I proposed 7 days ago. Any 'promises' by Justin Sun have to be integrated into code and with consequences. Anyone can say " I won't do this. I won't do that", but these are just words and so we need these promises hardwired in. How they are hardwired in, I will leave to the witnesses and devs to come up with those solutions.

@aggroed, Great to see that you've put your words so Strongly. Lack Of Clarity, this was and is there and in my opinion this aspect keeping many in the State Of Cluelessness. Hopefully after the Town Hall session we will going to see more Clarity. Stay blessed.

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Damn that escalated quickly looks like we have a bit of a Mexican stand off between the witnesses and JS! I don’t know much about the history but I’m assuming as stated the pre-mine would become less and less over time as they sell it to maintain their costs of running steemit inc

Then instead opted for ads to get some income too and now with Justin he doesn’t need to sell it he can sit on it because his already cash rich

So much question is to keep the promises should he continue to be selling, airdropping to new users for onboarding, delegating to dapps? Burning it?

I mean sitting on a nuke and promising never to use it is one thing but disarming it is another altogether

Why you bringing Mexicans into this? lol

Because their food is delicious!

It seems strange that aggroed has this view considering how he has run steemmonsters (now splinterlands). How many promises have you kept to your initial investors?

Perhaps we should change the fish and aquatic mammal language from whales, dolphins, minnows etc to a system of peerage and feudal rank? 😂

Seriously though, I'm too new to hold an important opinion, but this does seem like a reasonable defensive stance.

I think this is a good move. Ned could of sorted this out before he sold but then Justin might not of been interested. Got to wonder why Justin didn't see this coming and made the tweet about moving Steem to Tron. I'm not sure what's worse, the way Ned sold it or the buyers not doing their research properly. I hope it can be sorted out and at least we don't have to deal with Ned, Justin can have that pleasure :)

It really such a Kafka thing. Reading the comments I want to upvote everyone. But I'm glad you are protecting the chain you believe in.

Decentralization means we can always fork. Tron potentially offering a merge is novel, forks and mergers should be a thing so that we don't ultimately fork down to communities of 1. But steem and Tron? I didn't see that coming and only could because of steemit inc. That's not right for sure

Here's hoping we can all work together to save Justin millions of dollars, legally fuck Ned, grow Steem, and zip all these chains together through voluntary interaction for one hell of a network. Smells like money...

May the eternal blockchain upvote us all!

Yeah baby yeah!

Another reason I am glad I voted you as a witness!

We want peace, no more steem drama, and move forward.

In support of the plan + witness vote, maybe we can also use the opportunity to keep Steemit Inc from voting with pre-mined stake even after an agreement.

This just brought a Thought into my Head. What if One of the Future DEATH Splinter Cards in Splinterlands Is Called "NASTY NED", Have a Cost of ZERO Mana, 2 Health and 1 Speed but Has Double "SCAVANGE" from Level One and Then Triple Scavenge at Level 10 Since He will be a Common Card and He TAKES from Everybody ?? @aggroed

Id buy it. Esp now that you can buy them with cash.

Really Steem is amazing community you rightly said, its future is bright & promising. Thanks for this post.

yeah ntb. I think you were the witness who was the most reasonable throughout the last day and likely the one with the most on the line if the new Steemit Inc went AWOL & threatened SL pumping along.

After reading for hours and hours on this subject, I agree Ned has committed fraud and Justin needs to sue him or maybe we should all go tort and sue the snake together.

I was waiting for this 👍 I assumed by everyone’s silence something was brewing. Fully understand the need for discretion on this I thank all of your for taking necessary action ❤️

Agree 💯 Ned will more than likely hear from his lawyers on this, especially now we have locked up that stake 😅

Wow goodbye STEEM your witnesses killed you.

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Does this mean that all the witnesses who have votes from @freedom or @pumpkin should renege on these votes and just rely on those of the community? Because those two are just as much part of the Ninja Mining as @ned therefore I would think their votes would be invalid, don't you think?

when he tries to exchange old steem with new steem tokens, do you think other witnesses would be onboard to not to update their witness code hence effectively rejecting the change? I believe you, ausbitbank and followbtcnews (somehow connected via the minnowbooster projects) are already 3 out of the 50 "town hall" people that can reject such change... and does your witness node have an rpc node URL thingy?

Congratulations @aggroed!
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