I know, it's probably best to wait for more information, but thought I'd speculate on the announcement.
Be warned: this is pure speculation, and I could be totally wrong.
These dudes know how to groom their hair, will give 'em that. But Ned does not look like that anymore.
Edit: Here's the original announcement from Tron: https://medium.com/@TronFoundation/steemit-joining-tron-ecosystem-6ad66584d0b
Key emphasis on these lines:
TRON and Steemit’s development teams will immediately begin working together to bring Steemit and other Steem blockchain based DApps to TRON blockchain
old STEEM token to a new TRON based STEEM token, giveaways to the existing TRX users with the new TRON based STEEM token
Anyhoo, the wording in the announcement sounds very much like the Steem chain is being abandoned and much of the existing infrastructure and dApps are moved to Tron. That's speculation, but what definitely isn't is that there's a token swap coming soon to move from STEEM from the Steem chain to Tron network. The question is - how can they make such decisions without witnesses approving it?
The answer is, they can't. The Steem witnesses, and indeed, the existing Steem chain at large, will have nothing to do with the TRC STEEM token.
Does that mean witnesses are fired? Yes and no. Which means, there's going to be a split in the Steem network, one that continues the existing Steem chain, and one that moves to Tron.
Someone with better information, please educate us.
Addendum: Poloniex has confirmed the swap. Yes, the STEEM tokens are being moved wholesale to the Tron blockchain. Additionally, there are giveaways for TRX holders. I certainly hope those tokens come from Steemit Inc's stake, but either way, that's pretty bad news for inflation.
Addendum #2: Ned is more candid. In no uncertain terms, he has sold Steemit Inc to Justin Sun / Tron.
Update, 1 hour later: Others seem to be interpreting the announcement similarly. My only hope now is that the transition is gradual and well thought out. We'll find out tomorrow.
Update, 3 hours later: As mentioned above, I just wanted to clarify that we don't know the timing. It seems obvious now that as per Tron's current plans, the current Steem chain will be abandoned and everything moved over to Tron. However, what we don't know is how long this process will take, how gradual the transition will be etc. We'll find out more tomorrow.
Update #3: I'm seeing a lot of chatter about how "witnesses will decide". No, witnesses have no say in the matter. Tron has their own witnesses, the Steem witnesses are irrelevant to them. All Steem witnesses can do at this time is a) convince exchanges/Tron not to support the swap; or b) let the swap happen with TRC STEEM becoming the new STEEM, and continue the legacy chain as STEEM Classic or whatever. Of course, there'll be an interim period while infrastructure and dApps are migrating to Tron that Steem witnesses will still be needed to keep it running. But once everything is migrated to Tron, Steem witnesses will have no influence whatsoever. That is, unless Tron have some wild new plans for the migration that we haven't considered. We'll find out tomorrow, as always.
