By default on each comment, steemit.com generates the canonical link meta tag as normal. However, if within the json_metadata field the canonical property is set, it will use that value in place of the steemit.com domain.

The interesting bit of what you quoted I just extracted above – and the reason that it's interesting is that it is expressing exactly the opposite use for canonical_URL than the one you're proposing.

The original proposition existed before any serious competition for being an external interface to the blockchain for reading/writing actually existed beyond Steemit.com. Canonical_URL was introduced so that those potential sites could and should set the canonical link to that content to specifically be themselves and not, as previously, default to Steemit.com.

So, as intended, canonical_URL was to diversify and diffuse content surfaced from the Steem blockchain across a myriad of platforms.

But what you're suggesting is to do just the opposite – to have the diffuse means of interface to the Steem blockchain concentrate canonical URLs to a single service which is not their own. That is exactly the opposite intent that the original field was to do.

Now, like I said, I don't care if you're providing a script tool for individuals to be able to update their own posts on the blockchain in any way that they might like. While it breaks original intent, their control as creators can do its own thing. You want to convert all of your Steemit.com links to peakd.com? Go ahead. More power to you.

But telling interfaces that they should – note SHOULD – set their canonical_URL to anything but themselves by default?

That's the part of the overreaching implicit standard that I'm not cool with, and exactly what I think should be part of a new round of standards discussion if someone seriously intends to treat it as such.

And I know that you have such intent because the part of your discussion which you have so carefully illuminated is "Front ends with wrong canonical links" – and as I have repeatedly said before, there is nothing wrong with the canonical links that those sites are providing. Busy.org and Steem.Leo are using exactly the right canonical link as expressed in the discussion you quoted. They are providing canonical links to themselves, which is exactly where their audience reads it.

Look, I get it – a lot of people hate Justin Sun and they want to screw them over however they can. Effectively stealing links from Steemit.com and redirecting them elsewhere, specifically to Hive-oriented front ends, is one way to do that. I get it.

But if you want to do that, at least be honest about what you want to do and what the results are likely to be for sites which aren't peakd.com – and by that I mean a vast decrease in search-delivered traffic with everything that comes with that. Let's be honest. Let's be clear.