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There is one thing that nobody can contest about the steem blockchain and that’s the fact that it’s never ever gonna be a non-drama place to be.  Always something moving and shaping happening on the chain and that’s probably one of the most interesting things about it — you see governance and security of a chain and it’s decentralised nature is a hard thing.

While I maybe conflicted about the soft fork in some ways because of it’s weaponisation to get a seat at the table of conversation about the open source chain code and multiple node hosting it also opens up a much bigger conversation about who’s the actual threat here when large members of the top 20 governance system have existing steem businesses — who’s the hostile takeover party here, there seems more than one.

But firstly, let me say, securing the uptime and governance of the chain itself should be the top priority.  Finally, after a week or so of not really getting the feedback they obviously feel they are entitled too (lot of entitlement when your a top 20 governance witness I’ve noticed) they played their deck of cards and introduced a soft fork to affect mainly all the steemit accounts and assets that are a ‘threat’ to their current positions… sorry, I mean the chain, it’s about the chain right.. ok, got it.

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> important you give this a read, https://steemit.com/steem/@softfork222/soft-fork-222 before making any judgements yourself I think, I gave it a read and it felt crafted from a few people, not the many (I could be wrong) — also read Justin’s response — https://steemit.com/steemit/@justinsunsteemit/open-letter-to-steem-community

I’m glad to see @roelandp back at the top, where he should be, he’s the biggest voice of reason on the whole of the steem platform as a witness and as the best event organiser I’ve come across, someone I see as a peer I have great trust in his dutch judgement, also great to see blocktrades next who has done SO much for this chain too.

So ok, there is a lot to unpack here from a general public, user, witness, developer, hostile outside party (that’s not ned) situation and I get it, things are running high — you’ve got snake oil sales middle men chomping at the bit to get Justin to sign stuff and try and make ‘deals’ when Justin and tron doesn’t have to do a single scratch of that — even now he could just pick a bunch of say twenty people and delegate some SP to them and get up there in consensus (which kinda defeats the purpose of consensus)

So what’s happening here and what are my fragmented thoughts on the matter, well like I said, I was actually for the soft fork and even thou I didn’t like the manipulative nerd copy that was read aloud on video like some kind of commitment speech securing the chain from anything hostile that the witnesses are concerned about is no1 priority for me.  Everything we hold dear about the technology and the chain of steem is absolutely worth fighting for and that’s where things get a little murky.

### everyone is invested differently — emotional, financially.

You only have to look at the witness chart today to see how the cards have fallen, lots of people making “rash” decisions in my eyes, lots of movement of places, probably a lot of people annoyed at other witnesses because they have taken this action and yet a bunch of people that just went ahead and did it because XXX user did, not because it was the right thing or not to do for the chain — in other words, group think, because that’s the world we live in now, the like, the heart, the press.

Ok, let’s just lay out a few things that pop into my mind (I’ll probably keep adding to the list as this goes on)

- by pushing this soft fork you send a clear message from the witnesses of the steem blockchain, we are not here just to be eaten up, we are like Zion in the matrix, we have drums and we can make noise.  Come in peace, shoot to kill.
- who is the threat here? Someone who has big stake and wants to invest or the witnesses also in consensus that have invested money into products they also run on the steem blockchain (seems like questionable ethics)
- Justin/tron replied in four hours with a very professional (in my eyes) response about doing a physical town hall for the top 50 witnesses — expect the snake oil salesmen to be trying to ink desperate deals of relevancy.
- there is way more than just ‘blockchain’ and ‘community’ at work here, there is a real battle for land, it’s like a tower block development trying to come in and cause the gentrification effect but with tron branding.
- the steem blockchain is never dull, in fact I’d go as far as to say it’s probably the most entertaining and thought provoking chain in the world.
- will we see more things get acquired? I can certainly see a lot of very heated conversations going down between steem application operators/witnesses and might see assets trade hands for quick exits.
- what signals does this send to the communities of steem as a whole regarding investing in the platform, does this scare of potential big investors if they have to face the nerd mob of ever changing governance?
- if current governance witnesses want certain things of a high profile investor shouldn’t the community also get confirmations of their steem investment intents also, can’t be one rule for one, one for another.
- did the ‘group’ that put this together consider the ramifications of the potential of existing delegations being removed from a variety of applications running on the steem blockchain by justin’s stake?
- the Steema Carta? Quite obvious to me that certain witnesses have a delusion of grandeur and are closet megomaniacs who don’t have a thread of the same kind of wisdom of those that created the Magna Carta — do certain governance witness believe they are kings/gods? Worrying!
- will big investors even bother to invest in steem anymore? Is this not the game we are watching unfold, existing steem businesses working in cahoots with their consensus position to protect their own interests and to keep power community positions and in turn scared of change?
- what is Steemit 2.0 that Justin talks about? — the only way that would work would be to keep the devs, get rid of marketing and old baggage and start fresh with the core blockchain developers.
- was this a true threat to steem or was this those king/god perceptions really for the betterment and positioning of the current community structure? Has in fact the top 20 governance been infected of a hydra of users desperate to keep their positions firm because they are no longer no1 hot shit?
- a seat at the table at any cost is not the same as a seat at the table based on a measured business transaction, do businesses do business with anarchists with a track record of obvious psyop manipulation.

### did this show resilience for the chain or desperation?

More and more I feel like this was the only move that could have been made by the consensus witnesses, an unknown (effectively) party comes in, buys the beach side property with all the roads and access and trimmings but doesn’t realise that a community group owns the power station powering it all, if you were the power station in the middle of the island surrounded by all these power brokers you would HAVE to show your cards (maybe splinter lands ones?) to your opponent, in business, this sends many signals to the circling sharks, the blood is most definitely in the water.

But also, it’s a strong and very important thing that I don’t thing the tron network has, the whole reason for decentralisation of networks in the first place, the resilience is in the network, not the compliance of the network operators — the first order of business is securing the chain and while I feel some consensus witnesses has used this opportunity to entangle emotion, ego and vanity into this power play to maintain status and position of their own steem business and assets I also think they had no other option really.

I am thankful for the security part of that determination but I no longer know who are the hostile takeover elements — it was always going to be a double edge sword but for those parties involved what options did they have? Let someone come and take over their borders and land and just fade away or make a stand and say we built this with our bare hands from a small germinating seed into a forest — sure, you might have the best logging machines in the world and can clear this forest but you’ll never buy the elements that fostered it’s growth.

Stay frosty out there,
__humble x

P.S — I guess if you have any real issues about any of the things about the steem witnesses they will all be in one place in the months to come! Field you resolutions face to face with them there eh? Build connections!

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