There is an old cliche; I hate to say I told you so but..., however I don't subscribe to this little saying, because mainly it's a lie. People love saying I told you so, because everyone enjoys being right, and I am no different; I'm just one of the few whom admits it.
Three years ago I wrote an article called Steemit.com Is Not The Decentralized Platform You Think It Is, in which I pointed out that even though Steem was a cryptocurrency existing over a distributed ledger, the company Steemit inc. was owned by private individuals.
I also went on to state that because Steemit inc. owned the IP (intellectual property) rights to the Steem currency, then that also meant that Steem wasn't really decentralised.
Many people disagreed with me, some even flagged me because they were so furious that I dared point out the giant pink elephant in the room.
Fast Forward To Tron
Recently I learned that Justin Sun CEO of the Tron platform has acquired Steemit inc and Chairman Ned Scott's Steem stake, thus completely taking over the Steem ecosystem.
Of course there are still people saying that Steem and Steemit are different, which of course technically they are. However that is missing the point, that Steemit ultimately decides the fate of Steem. Sure there are witness votes that go to deciding which direction Steem goes in, but that misses the point that the @freedom witness (owned by Steemit inc.) has the biggest clout of all the witnesses, and can therefore decide which witness are in the top 19, and can oppose or support any initiative it sees fit.
In other words; Steemit and Steem are different, however Steemit owns Steem.
Reality Bites
"But Cryptogee, if the community come together we can fork out Justin if he tries anything we don't like!"
LOL.
No you can't, because that would require the top 19 witness votes, which can be vetoed by the @freedom witness (now owned by Justin), and of course he can use that very same account to vote in his own witnesses.
So you see; Steemit, nor Steem never was truly decentralised, if it was, it would have been impossible to take over in this way. Anything that is under the control of a single entity, cannot be claimed to be decentralised. Simple.
What The Future Holds
Some people are calling this a merger, it isn't, it is a takeover, Tron now owns Steemit, and therefore the rights to the Steem crypto. So the question is; is that a bad thing or not?
Answer: who knows?
I personally doubt it, Justin is a businessman, he's into making profits by building an empire, thus it will probably be a good thing for the website of Steemit, and the cryptocurrency of Steem. Eventually we'll get a name change to Tronsteem or something similar, and things will probably go on as normal.
I would hope that the Tron team can make some positive changes to the site. There are many things that can be changed to enhance the user experience, and also to actually market the site beyond the limits of crypto enthusiasts. However that is just pure guesswork.
Reflections
I'll end by revealing my thoughts on the takeover.
On the whole I think it could be a good thing, the Tron community has grown at an exponential rate, and the partnerships they've got in place with people like Samsung are very interesting indeed. Justin has shown that he's capable of dealing with the big corporates beyond the world of Crypto, and he is bringing that experience and drive to the Steemit ecosystem.
Of course there will still be detractors and delusionists, people who think any kind of change is bad and that things should always stay the way they are. To those people I would probably say something along the lines of, from an organisational perspective, things can't really get any worse.
SMTs were first mentioned in 2017, Communities in 2016, we have only just got a beta version of Communites, and SMTs are still tantalisingly round the corner. In addition to that, Steemit has roughly (last time I heard) about 30,000 active accounts. Whereas Tron immediately started making partnerships with companies like Samsung and have around 4 million users on their network.
I think Justin Sun is a go-getter, someone who will drive Steemit inc into the future and will make things happen quickly and for the betterment of us all.
Let's hope in 3 years time, I'm doing another one of these; I told you so posts about this issue!
I don't see any change coming anytime soon, and in my honest opinion, I feel this is just another reason why Steemit will ultimately be replaced by something that takes the basic principles of the site, and improves it.
Cryptogee - 2017
Steemit.com Is Not The Decentralized Platform You Think It Is
WHAT DO YOU THINK; IS THE TRON TAKEOVER A GOOD THING FOR STEEMIT, BAD, OR JUST NEUTRAL? WILL JUSTIN SUN EVENTUALLY GET HIS OWN WITNESSES IN PLACE? OR WILL HE JUST LEAVE THINGS AS THEY ARE?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!!
I think the bloke is a lot more driven than Ned is, Ned checked out ages ago and just wanted his pay day and we can't blame him for that. Lets see what Justin can offer, yes I agree Justin still has quite a bit of control if not supreme control over the chain but it would be investment suicide to do anything but improve it as a separate entity for now.
Steem is a ready-made chain that offers different opportunities compared to Tron as well as a footing in the West. I think if he wants to maximise his returns he will double down and let the core team complete the roadmap as well as leveraging his other connections as you can see now with poloniex and perhaps with Samsung.
Consolidation isn't always the best solution for maximum returns, if it was we woudn't have Instagram and WhatsApp.
Totally agree with your views on this. I think Justin is not only more driven than Ned, he's more savvy than him.
Like you said consolidation is not always the answer, and we see many large corporations acquiring smaller interests, only to carry on running them as separate entities. Coca-Cola buying up Innocent Drinks comes to mind.
However Steemit does need to be changed if it is to thrive, so let's hope he has a plan or three up his sleeve!
Cg
tronie steemtron all sound terrible. if anything it should be called steem on. but steemit is much better.
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I think there is no point renaming the website, Steemit is fine. As far as the currency is concerned, who knows? I quite like TronSteem though :)
Cg
I don't think anything major will change in any short span of time. Development (and the unexpected issues encountered on this chain) mean that there'll be a huge span of time required for migration to another architechture.
Price wise, we've seen the buy the rumour, sell the news, the trick is to stay in the news cycle consistently to get the word out.
The exasperated efforts of about ~200 steemians to try and get the word out to this point is effective in their local communities and spheres of influence, but hasn't been able to penetrate very far out of the crypto sphere.
Justin Sun seems to be that go gettter that tries to put it out into normal town.
That's key issue for me, getting the word out of the crypto bubble, otherwise we're all just circle jerking.
Cg
SMT's =
Steem
Means
Tron's
Lolz! :)
Cg
I’ve learned not to rain on people’s parade, even when they are being delusional. The more delusional they are being, the harder they’ll attack you for speaking the truth. Good call though
The whole “decentralization is the future” as people are imagining it is a pipe dream. I’m not it saying it’s totally impossible, it just doesn’t work with where we are at as a culture. Real decentralization is the decentralization of power which has very little to do with decentralized technology, at least at present.
If we can evolve into a culture that takes care of each other more and cares about our ecosystem in an individual and collective way, THEN we can see some real decentralization. I think we are way closer to that kind culture than we realize, but a lot of people are still scared to trust in our own human nature, which is way more flexible and dynamic than we realize
I know little about Tron, but it is a little funny that we have a link with dlive again. He also owns Bittorrent, but I have not looked at that much recently. I think it's good if it brings a whole new audience to Steem and some fresh publicity may revive some dormant accounts. There is a risk he could compromise the integrity of the blockchain that could reduce freedom and put rewards at risk.
I assume it would be possible to do a fork that excludes specific witnesses, but we would need enough going with it to make it viable. The markets might decide that makes Steem worth a lot less. I know a lot of people were not impressed by Ned. Maybe Justin can be a better leader. Some have pointed out that him being from China is a risk.
I also know little about Tron, it has been on my periphary for a while now. The Dlive team were obviously impressed by them which is why they decided to jump over there in the first place.
I don't think that he will damage it, simply because he has just put a lot of money into Steemit and he'll want to at least break even and obviously profit from this.
The China paranoia thing is just silly conspiracy in my mind, I couldn't care less where he's from as long as he has integrity.
Cg
Technically you need 2/3 plus 1 of the witnesses to do it not 19 and to be precise it doesn't matter if a big account replaces the top block producers you can still create a fork with a minority witness (anyone running a node can create a fork).
The real issue is what chain do exchanges recognize as "Steem" and where do the users transact.
Yes, I think this is what I tried to say in a much clumsier way. We could fork Steem, but that Steem would not be usable on Steemit, seeing as Steemit inc have the IP and can make sure of that.
I think if that happened there would be mass confusion, and it wouldn't be to the benefit of anyone involved.
Cg
I guess the litmus test will be in Justin and co's. ability to attract and retain quality content creators and a growing and engaged user base. Time will tell.
I think that will be done by improving the look and usability of the site, so yes, only time will tell if he has the willing to make changes.
Cg
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