From the looks of things, we can say that the steem community is in a better position today. Two major players (exchanges) who partook in the hostile take over have not only withdrawn their votes but also are intending on powering down their customer's funds used in this said hostile takeover. This, to a large extent, reduces the fear of steemit implementing a rushed hard fork to bail out the exchanges which was never a necessity.
Like I mentioned in one of my tweets, Justin, for the most part, has projected his fears as that of the exchanges. I think it is clear now to the exchanges that their funds were never in danger and it's in their best interest to power down. This leaves Justin with just a few cards to play with. Either he buys more steem to maintain his position which he has been doing so far or buys a few witnesses or communities. At this point, you can say he is panicky and making more mistakes. Probably it is time to get a better team around him.
The steem blockchain is/was under one of the greatest threats in its history and it is good to see that a majority of steemians stood firm with the blockchain and our elected witnesses. They are not perfect. They've made discussions in the past I am not so happy with but when it did matter the most they stood for the blockchain or their interest like a few people like to point out. Not withstand it's still very much a win-win situation for the witnesses and the community they represent. I still very much stand with most of the decisions they've made so far, especially the said soft fork. This whole saga was inevitable. It was either now or later and this was, in my own opinion, the best time to tackle many issues pertaining to governance and infrastructure of the blockchain. Many of such talks will be had in the coming weeks in other to secure the integrity of the blockchain.
We've seen many capitulate under pressure; we've seen the steem community divide into two camps. While some steemians chose to be neutral in the face of potential threat to the blockchain out of fear of losing their investment or potential earning, some went as far as becoming anti-steem (for the fun of it or the attention it got them). Luke (one of the top consensus witnesses) asked a very important question during one of the many live discussions on discord about why people are here if they did not believe or understand the ethos of decentralization. If money is really the driving force of being on a decentralized platform like steem, chances are you can make significantly more outside here. Personally, I think it's time for many of us to rethink and gauge our expectations of the steem blockchain. It's been shown these past few weeks that there are more important things than investors earning ROI on their investment and if you're indeed investing your fiat, time and content on steem then you know what you're investing in.
How are things likely to play out in the coming weeks?
I think Justin will not concede anytime soon. This saga will stretch for another week or so. The major question on my mind is what he does when he eventually concedes. My guess is he powers down and leaves. That might not sound like a good thing for many but like we've pointed out in many discussions in the past, the steemit ninjamined token has been problematic and probably it is best we have all of it in the market. This might aid in better distribution of steem in the future.
For now, I will be watching on twitter to see how things unfold in the coming weeks. It's in my opinion that the steem community has a better chance now of taking back their blockchain and this would not be possible without the help and support of everyone who has contributed to the fight on Twitter, steem, and discord, creating awareness for the blockchain. A big thank you to everyone who chose to lend their voice to this course. I appreciate every one of you. It's fascinating seeing many set their differences aside to fight for what they believe in. This gives me great fate in the future of the blockchain.