In regards to exclusion list vs. blacklist:

In language it is simply required that it convey the meaning. - Confucius

Sorry that I keep quoting Confucius, but you will remember that I did a whole series reviewing all 20 of the Analects several years back on Steem.

Furthermore, I elaborated on censorship above. I will merely add that they may think we voted for centralization, but I assure you we didn't. We voted for a deadlock. 5 witnesses from Steemtron, 5 of the original witnesses. We chose 5 because that is the minimum number needed (it actually might have been 4, but we were worried that it might also be 5 so we voted the latter. Either is greater than 2) to stop a hardfork.

One thing I will add is that Hive as a blockchain is filled with numerous inaccurate transactions which are not permanent due to the decision to airdrop. The Hive fork effectively eliminated permanence and immutability by zeroing out millions of wallets, but leaving the records of previous transactions on the blockchain. Hive can't have the cake and eat it too. Either they created the stake out of nowhere, or the stake is a result of those transactions. Those inaccurate "records" still existing leads me to believe the latter. I left an example in my comment to @yabapmatt.

I have always been appreciative of you @ats-david, and I have always thought you were one of the better assets to this community. I wish you luck, and I wish this situation did not exist.