For anyone who doesn't already know, Justin Sun of TRON has purchased Steemit Inc. This was announced yesterday via a Twitter post and a Medium post, with very little information at all. This morning, Ned Scott & Justin did a live video, which I was watching. Here's my notes as it went, with a list of relevant posts at the bottom.
Here's my notes while watching the video
First off, it should tell you something that they decided to do this AMA on dlive, a Chinese company that started themselves on Steem in order to use our rewards system to get people to use their app, and then quickly left the Steem ecosystem for their own centralized platform, attempting to steal as many of the Steem users as they could.
It literally took Ned 10 minutes to ever once mention that Steem is a blockchain, and that it is a totally different thing than Steemit.
He talks about how "the company continued to integrate all these products"... What products? All the dApps on Steem were created by the community, not by Steemit (the company)... If you didn't already realize it, Ned doesn't actually understand that Steemit isn't Steem and doesn't own Steem.
Justin goes into explaining his interest in social media, and goes into some explanations of BitTorrent, which TRON purchased, and again sort of confusing the .torrent protocol and the company: BitTorrent Inc.
Next he goes into how TRON is working with dlive, then moves onto how they work with Poloniex, a crypto exchange that most everyone walked away from a LONG time ago because of their shady dealings.
Justin says that there will not be a token swap anytime soon. No further details yet.
He consistently refers to the "steem token," something that doesn't exist. It's unclear whether he is referring to STEEM or the Tron-Steem-Token that was referred to in their Medium post.
After 10 minutes of introductions and a solid 15 minute sales pitch, Justin finally opens it up for questions...
Q: For investors, what will the price merge [sic] look like for STEEM holders?
A: No immediate plan for token swap, STEEM & TRON will stay separate for now. Says that Steem doesn't have smart contracts... (Does that mean SMTs are definitely not a thing? Sounds like it.)
Q: We poured our hearts into the Steem blockchain, are you going to take it away from us?
A: No, I see a win-win solution. Since the announcement, the price of steem is up. (Duh) Blah blah, win-win, nothing really said.
Ned brings it back to talking about Justin for another 10+ minutes as the comments blow up with people wondering why this was referred to as an AMA. Apparently he worked at Ripple starting back in 2013(?)... Again, not a good sign that he was working with the Bankers' own crypto. Ned & Justin were both born in the year of the horse... Super relevant... Positive changes, blah blah blah.
Ned gives a message to the "Steemit Community" about how this is the "20th" time we've faced something like this... I didn't know Steemit Inc had a community, and reminding everyone how many times he's left everyone high & dry is maybe not a great idea.
Q: Justin will you be using your stake to vote on content or witnesses?
A: No plans to right now. Want to keep existing structure and team as it is.
Q: Will you be at SteemFest?
A: Sounds like a yes
Q: What's the giveaway for the TRX holders?
A: He believes "in the future" they will find a plan to connect TRON & Steem... More interaction, more users, more feedback... No real information.
Next they are sharing how Steem users can connect with TRON by using BitTorrent, or dlive (that project that took millions out of the STEEM ecosystem...)
Q: What about SMTs?
A: If team is ready for SMT, we will release it. We're looking forward to seeing if we can release it. It's been worked on for so long, we want to release it.
He goes onto talking about "features" to be released next week. It's going to be "awesome." Most likely referring to Communities.
So... 52 minutes total, and they answered 6 or 7 actual questions...
Now it's time for the top 20 witnesses to discuss what this all means, over on @Aggroed's MSP-Waves broadcast. I'm going to let those folks give you their opinions & ideas themselves.
Overall sense of the video
I feel better about this than I did yesterday, it doesn't sound like they're going to try anything too crazy right away, and the fact that Justin specifically said that they won't be using the SteemitInc stake to vote on content or pick their own witnesses is great.
Here's what the market had to say about the first news, and over the course of the video...
Image Source
It sounded like Justin most likely doesn't quite understand the difference between Steemit.com/SteemitInc, the Steem blockchain itself, the STEEM token, and the many dApps that have been built on the Steem blockchain. He said a few things about dApps specifically, that made it seem like he thought they were something that he owns now too.
Anyway, like I said I feel a bit better about this after the video, but not much. If they try to move Steem onto the TRON blockchain, attempt to centralize Steem, or otherwise go against what makes this place great, I will be removing 100% of my content from their platform, and will be supporting a community-driven Hard-Fork, as many witnesses have already discussed.
Learn More
Post-Video
- Most Recent: Steem - The Confusion Continues... Justin Sun deletes latest Tweet by @jrcornel
- Justin says Steemit is migrating to Tron: Time to Panic or Things will be OK for Now? by @aggroed
- Justin Sun & Ned Scott AMA Recording including chat and Steem chart by @acidyo
- Justin Sun - Ned AMA + STEEM Price by @firepower
- It Is A Great Time To Be Involved With Steem: Post AMA Video by @taskmaster4450
- How are all my Chicken Littles doing? by @edicted
- My Thoughts About TRON - Steemit Partnership by @dragosroua
- Thoughts On The Future of STEEM by @theycallmedan
- Witness Update from @c0ff33a Steem Blockchain and Steemit Inc with Tron by @c0ff33a
- Steem + Tron Thoughts: The Best We Could Have Hoped For by @midlet
- Predicting the Future of STEEM and TRON by @buggedout
- Toward a smile or a frown by @tarazkp
Pre-Video
- STEEM is still not Steemit, even if Tron buys Steemit. by @LukeStokes
- Justin Sun bought STEEMIT and is trying to convince everyone that he bought STEEM by @lordbutterfly
- Steem Classic, anyone? by @liberosist
- Steemit / Tron Announcement by @Splinterlands
- Regarding Steem and Tron by @vimm
- Did Justin Sun Jump The Gun A Bit? by @taskmaster4450
- I guess I have to talk about the Tron thing? by @edicted
- My opinions on the Tron news by @themarkymark
- Steem? Tron? Ston? Treem?- confusions and questions by @tarazkp
- Updates From Steemit Inc Team And Justin Sun's Involvement by @taskmaster4450
- Steem-tronic? by @Steevc
- How to Prevent Hostile Takeovers for a Naive Steem Community by @starkerz
- Thoughts on what's on everyone's mind by @acidyo
- A Witness Prayer for Steem and Tron by @thecryptodrive
- No, TRON didn’t buy Steem blockchain by gokulnk on Medium
Keep Calm & STEEM On!
And be ready to hard-fork away if they screw this up
"reminding everyone how many times he's left everyone high & dry is maybe not a great idea."
I think that sums up a lot about Ned. He's very slick. He knows when he's supposed to smile and not show his true feelings, but he doesn't know how to relate to people in a way that makes them feel like they're a part of something with him. If he was as good at marketing as Sun I might overlook it and simply value him for what he brings, but then slicky doesn't even successfully promote the amazing tech and active community that is STEEM.
I think the project can't possibly be worse off under Sun's leadership. I still have my concerns on his now having to deal with active witnesses who actually get to decide the future of the platform. Is he hands off until he doesn't get his way, then the promise not to use stake to vote on witnesses goes out the window?
Also very telling the association with dLive, and not in a good way.
Heh. Ya, Ned is a slimy one for sure, very classic politician. Haven't ever heard/seen him being honest in my (almost) 4 years here.
As for Sun, I know very little about him, and he seems to be more genuinely excited about the project, and blockchain in general. That said, his/Tron's ties to the Chinese government and projects like dlive are quite worrisome.
Overall, I feel like this video at least took away the worry that things will collapse right away, but I'm still beginning to power down, just to be on the safe side.
I forgot to mention the Chinese govt thing. I hadn't even really thought about it in relation to TRX until Sun was going to have this lunch with Buffett that he invited lots of "crypto influencers" to. Then all the sudden Sun starts lying, saying he's in San Francisco with a stomach bug and can't make it to the lunch. Everyone was saying really the Chinese forced him back to China and were holding him there. He appears on livestream in front of backrop/greenscreen of Golden Gate Bridge in SF. Folks cry fowl fakery. Next thing you know, Sun issues a formal apology saying to the effect: he let his ego grow too big and shamed his country.
Now that's some scary shit. Having tech you rely on held in hands held in THOSE hands is nothing to relax on.
edit: Oh and recently Sun did have the Buffett lunch with just 3 other guests he chose. No fan fair.
Yeah, that was cool. It kind of calmed me down especially when he kept saying that there will be no swap for the moment and that smts will keep going !
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 0/20 - need recharge?)
Same. I feel better than I did yesterday, but still a bit worried. We'll see how it all plays out.
It's obvious that he can't swap tokens immediately after purchase, he need make some hf to make a change.
Right, unless they made it some kind of clunky thing where you send STEEM somewhere, and that unlocks Steem-Tron for you elsewhere or something like that.
I have faith in the top witnesses (most of them) and their dedication to this decentralized, community-oriented blockchain. That said, I'm definitely positioning myself to make big changes if they go the wrong way. My content is for the Steem Blockchain, not for TRON.
I've watched only the last third of AMA (was it?). I've learned Samsung Flip phone is awesome and the future is bright. my quick notes
Seems we have very similar impressions...
Ya, I definitely wouldn't call it an AMA. They only answered a couple of questions, and spent about 80% of the video just talking about themselves and TRON. Feels like a glorified infomercial.
To my thinking, it's how they deal with the issue of Steempower holdings that will mark the ethics involved in this new alliance. People can move their Steem and Steemdollars out fairly easily on their own accord but the Steempower is a bit of a different issue. If they find a way to be ethical there then it might all work out. It's an interesting tension between the private ownership ethos and collective ethical concerns.
Ya, the 13-week lockdown on SP makes it tricky when dealing with things like this, where they just spring news on the world all of a sudden, with no details, after having already made decisions that affect all of us.
I see the big deciding factor being whether they just put money, manpower, and publicity into the blockchain, or whether they start trying to siphon resources out of Steem onto their blockchain.
It all comes down to whether they truly want to join & collaborate with our community, or try to eat it up. Is TRON going to be a piece of our decentralized ecosystem, or are they going to try to centralize it?
When B.J. sold his zaadz site to Gaiam they simply did a hard shut down with no input from the users. I was pissed...
When the corporatocracy outsourced manufacturing to the far east they abandoned and destroyed whole communities and ways of living.
So the precedents don't bode well.
Very true, and exactly why I started powering down, just to be safe.
I never put a dollar into Steem (just tens of thousands of hours of my time and creativity), and I've pulled out lots of funds along the way, but I've never lost hope for this blockchain.
Even if Justin's plans go in the worst possible direction, I think the community will hard-fork away and we'll finally have a Steem without StInc... but good lord will that be a headache, and will likely kill the price.
If members are helped to see the new steem as now belonging to them and not to the @slothful.whales , they might be willing to make a few sacrifices to give it a sound future. If we, the posters commit (with the witnesses standing alongside us) I think the market will take note and make investments (I would look for smaller investments so that no one corp or person can take over again).
I bought another 2500 SP during the broadcast (when price was just under 0.25) :-)
I hope that ends up being the right move:)
Well, from the bigger perspective it's all just a game anyway, it's like playing monopoly. We are always supported and provides for by true self, receiving whatever we need in the present moment, even if it may not appear so.
And I just bought another 2000 :-)
Pretty soon I'll have enough to build a Steem hotel on Park Lane :-)
Wowza. I started power-downs myself. I'm not going to jump ship right away, but I don't want to lose everything if they do decide they're going to bend us all over and make themselves rich off our backs (more than Ned already has)
Well I say good for Ned for helping develop this amazing Steem platform (I assume he did) and for doing his best, which is what we all do. I feel gratitude for his work, and for all beings for playing their unique parts in this wonderful game of life.
May all beings feel content and joyful.
Ps. I just bought 2000 more SP.
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I'm shocked there wasn't a guitar somewhere in the shot.
Decentralization is pivotal to why I'm on steem. And flowing from decentralization is no censorship. Those two key planks shift, then so do I. Appreciating your so-much-easier-to-follow blow-by-blow. The body language was interesting, no?
Everyone (plus you) keeps on saying Steemit was sold, not STEEM (blockchain). If true, then the only way they can obey the Chinese govt and censor us is by moving our posts etc to Tron blockchain, which it seems is centralised.
Can we prevent our posts from being migrated without our permission? Is'nt it a sort of plagiarism, if they do so without our specific permission?
I read a few of the above posts you linked, but was a bit puzzled by this one (I would have asked him directly, but I cannot comment on Steempeak - I do not see a Reply button)
He keeps on saying that Tron bought Steem.
Technically he did buy Steem, a lot of it, to be exact around 73M Steem. No one owns the blockchain and with that stake he bought Steemit as a company.
The real concern is being able to control the top witness spots and force forks that the community don't want.
If that doesn't happen, then we likely will have a lot more funding for development and marketing.
Thanks