I’m amazed that there is any question regarding the ownership of tokens in the last couple of months after Justin Sun rode in with his declarations. I remember the first time I read of such code controversy, awhile back in regards to Ethereum. How some in the crypto world were angry that the code was rolled back to undo the theft that had taken place there.
When I read that, my first question was whether the die hard crypto purists wanted mass adoption. If they wanted there to be any financial attachment to the coins. If not, what did they believe would be the incentive for people to put money into the projects that would likely be a money sink. It seems apparent to me, that one of the major hurdles to adoption for crypto is the worry of being relieved of ones holdings, after taking extraordinary precautions involving wallet addresses and password/keys so long one would need a photographic memory to remember it. And after all that, the fear of an exchange playing one of their KYC games to deny one withdrawing (funny how they never seem to have the problem when depositing) their own funds.
If we are honest here, most crypto investment is being made solely as a gamble on future profits, much like the stock market. Many investors could give a shit about the projects they invest in. Have no practical use for the purpose of the project in and of itself. Now that I’ve qualified the crucial part to this, it’s time to lay out in simple terms why the fork to create Hive WAS/IS a gift, and the recent Steem fork was theft.
To put perspective on why this is eating at me. It’s bad enough that Justin Sun is calling his and his lackeys lack of a gift theft, to the extent he claims to be crying to authorities no one gave him his fucking gift. But he appears to be rationalizing the theft his code forced as being the same thing. Which is ironic and suggests he knows better, as if he somehow is so stupid to think it’;s the same, then by his own admission he just committed theft.
What adds salt to the wound is some of the other comments on this. Yesterday, Edicted wrote a Devils Advocate post that suggested the two acts were the same. My response to that can be found here, as it would be redundant to add it to the chain again.
After our dialogue on this matter, I came across a comment on another post that left me amazed. It basically asserted that all Steem is property of the witnesses.
As someone who is here (as I suspect many of us are) because of the use case coupled with potential profit down the road, I look around wondering how so many seem to justify stripping others of their investments. Talk of code being law somehow a justification to strip others of their property.
If this attitude somehow were to become the legally allowed structure, any investment at all in any project would be insanely stupid. One could kiss any serious value goodbye.
When Hive forked, it created tokens that were non existent before. No exchange had ever possessed the tokens, no one had bought any. The airdrop to those who got one was a gift from those who incurred the costs and risks of setting it all up. Then negotiations were made to get exchanges to acknowledge the existence of this new commodity, and allow trading of it. A gift.
When Steem forked, it did the reverse. It was a pre-existing project, that had years of history on exchanges. Years of investors buying into it. In fact, some of what was stripped was bought with cash, lots of cash. I seem to recall Theycallmedan saying some time back he spent over 1 million dollars to buy in. In other words, THEFT.
I’ve seen it said that no legal action should be taken because there isn’t a difference between the two actions. It seems to me that there is a world of difference, as I outlined above and in the comment I linked to. Justin Sun is a thief, and he is bad for crypto. If he isn’t smacked down hard now and made an example of, the waves of his actions will harm all of crypto. Those he stole from need to go scorched earth on his ass and make sure the world sees this won’t be tolerated. From day one he came in as a dictator, and unable to just let us part ways he insists there must be war. His irrational stance from his pride IS CRIMINAL now, and he belongs in prison. He doesn’t get a pass because he is Justin Sun, and he doesn’t get a pass because this took place on a blockchain. The people he stole from are from OUR COMMUNITY. He needs to be dealt with. The idea that the tokens in our wallets are OUR property needs to be PROVEN. Not only is this about our community, it is necessary to show the world that investing in projects aren’t in vain, waiting for the wallets to grow thick enough before witnesses decide they can just help themselves.
I’m not one for making a proposal, but if there is one put forward to handle legal fees towards seeing these funds returned (in case Bittrex somehow is willing to facilitate trafficking in stolen property), as well as pursue legal consequences from Justin Sun I would vote for it.
I’m also not a fan of prison for many, due to how many don’t belong there. This guy does belong there, where he will find himself often no longer needing to ask if others want to fuck him. This guy is a scum bag and it’s time he finds out he tried pushing the wrong community around.