Tomorrow, May 20th, at 14:00 UTC, a STEEM hardfork is scheduled, version 0.23, code name "New Steem". I wrote yesterday about it, but it wasn't yet confirmed. Now we have an official post about this. As I suggested yesterday, the source code was made public just a couple of days before the implementation date.
The most important - and, dare to say - sad part of this hardfork is a measure that will seize the funds from a number of STEEM accounts, which, according to the new governance, have "engaged in criminal activities".
Here is the relevant part of the source code, containing the list of the accounts that will be seized:
namespace hardforkprotect23
{
inline static const std::set< std::string >& get_hive_accounts23()
{
static const std::set< std::string > hive_accounts23
{
"abusereports",
"berniesanders",
"kingdong",
"nextgencrypto",
"ngc",
"ozchartart",
"sirvotesalot",
"sockpuppet",
"thecyclist",
"xx0xx",
"xxxxxxxxxx",
"z8teyb289qav9z",
"agent14",
"curatorhulk",
"dhenz",
"drbanner",
"gokuisreal",
"johnmadden",
"realself",
"theycallmedan",
"arsahk",
"blocktrades",
"darthknight",
"kevtorin",
"kriborin",
"lessys",
"acidyo",
"ats-david",
"ausbitbank",
"bittrix",
"clappy",
"drakos",
"fefemz",
"freedom",
"gtg",
"howo",
"jawnz",
"klobu",
"likwid",
"liondani",
"neoxian",
"netuoso",
"ocd-witness",
"pfunk",
"pharesim",
"roelandp",
"roundbeargames",
"sooty",
"steempress",
"themarkymark",
"therealwolf",
"timetickertickin",
"transisto",
"znnuksfe",
"mottler",
"mottler-1",
"smooth",
"smooth.witness",
"smooth-a",
"smooth-b",
"smooth-c",
"smooth-d",
"smooth-e",
"smooth-f",
"safari"
};
As anyone can see, this is in retaliation to the recent Hive hardfork, as these accounts are former witnesses in STEEM and current witnesses in HIVE.
There is also the lower power down period, from 13 weeks to 4 weeks, which is confirmed by the public source code, but, at least in my opinion, this part, in which user accounts are seized is by far the most important in this release.
At this moment, we don't know if exchanges will support this hardfork, but if they will, it will set the most bleak precedent in the recent history of crypto.
I'm not going into many more details, as the discussion can go on forever with "who started it first", I will just share that this hardfork, and especially the tone and the content of the post announcing it, gave me the chills. I lived 19 years under communism, in Romania, and that was the tone and the content of how power was enforced back then. It was a matter of: "we're right, because we say we are, and there's nothing you can do about it".
The HIVE hardfork, which, in all honesty, also transferred some stake from some accounts into other accounts, had a different tone and content. The transferred stake was never "meant" to be used, anyway, so it was more of a "let's put things back where they belong". Whereas this STEEM hardfork is more of a "we're going to take everything you thought you own, and make it ours, just because we can".
It's gonna be a cold and frightening day in the crypto world tomorrow, as this situation proves that authoritarianism can be disguised in "decentralization" and trash all the freedoms we thought we have, in a matter of months.
There is an ongoing funding proposal for two of my Hive-related projects, which will allow me to support some of the costs involved. If you want to support this proposal, all you have to do is to vote it using any of the two links below:
Sign this proposal with Hivesigner
Peakd: https://peakd.com/me/proposals/92
Already supported by: @toofasteddie, @alina.romila, @amico, @bluerobo, @chrisaiki, @erikah, @ervin-lemark, @ew-and-patterns, @guruvaj, @mytechtrail, @pharesim, @ryivhnn, @sacrosanct, @captainklaus, @santigs, @inertia, @bro.poker, @distantsignal, @doze, @gadrian-sp, @shmoogleosukami, @valued-customer, @condeas, @justinashby, @likwid, @bucipuci
I'm a geek, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Hive you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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Exchanges will validate this. All least those which are centralized and strictly for-business. They don't care about things like freedom and community and decentralization unless these can be spelled-out in dollars.
It's the money that makes their world go round, not the ethics, empathy and basic human values.
By the way, this was expected. The only reason why it didn't happen sooner is because their devs had to learn the trade of coding the hardfork first. It will be interesting to see how successful will they be. Will the chain be down for a longer period of time? Will there be any quick fixes? With such minor changes there shouldn't be any. yet ...
I tend to agree with you about how exchanges will react, but still, let's wait and see. As for the level of skill of those coding this hardfork, I tend to go even further than you: they don't know yet what they're doing.
There's a difference between stealing funds and not giving them out in the first place. The Hive project was entitled to choose who got an airdrop. No Steemian lost any Steem and they all got a Hive account. This is revenge pure and simple. Justin's total control of Steem lets him do what he wants. A sad day for the platform we used to love.
Agree with all you've said. Really curious how tomorrow will end.
It is really placing a dangerous precedent in the DPoS technology which consequences can be hurting. Hope serious exchanges, if any, will not take it in consideration. It's a shame.
Yes, if exchanges will validate this, it's not only Steem that goes down, but a lot of trust in the DPoS blockchain technology.
It really is just unbelievable, the tone of the announcement too, all the accusations of criminality.
I did have a HORRIBLE thought by the way - might it be possible that Justin Sun launches a lawsuit against the Hive witnesses to 'get in there' first - keep in mind that it's people who define what is 'criminal' - so I had this horrible chain of reasoning that goes like this:
The FED realises the social-media crypto concept isn't going anywhere
They reason it's easier to control it using ONE point of contact - i.e. Justin Sun
JS and the FED collaborate to legally define the HIVE fork as illegal
I mean let's face it, we're a far bigger threat to State systems than Justin Sun and the Tron foundation.
Or am I just being really paranoid and maybe way out regarding the possibility of some sort of corporate collaboration as this...?
I don't know if you're paranoid, but a single point of contact is also a single point of failure. I will let you think about that for a while...
If someone will say steem will be in this situation four months back, I will strongly deny it.
Gradually the fall is getting nearer as day goes by
Waiting for good news and implementation of new cryto world!
Hoooooly. Have you all seen this!
https://peakd.com/steem/@ookamisuuhaisha/all-steem-assets-held-by-community321-has-been-just
All funds transferred to bittrex!