As most must be aware now (my feed has been filled with posts on the Tron acquisition of Steemit), life as a Steemian is about to drastically change in the coming year. There has been mentions made by Justin Sun, who acquired Steemits assets, that there will at some future point be a swap of some sort for some unknown (and probably as of yet non-existent token) value for our Steem tokens.
I have seen posts all over the spectrum on this, with a minority seeming to be ok with what is going on, some cautiously recommending a wait and see attitude. And some who advocate forking, either now or in the near future as soon as the Tron founder makes any moves that the community deems unacceptable.
While I am not a fan of the call to nullify a large stakeholders stake (seems to fly in the face of the very nature of a stake based system), it further seems to not be well thought out.
Since coming here, I have heard much criticism of Steemit. Yet despite the criticism, those willing (or more likely financially able), to step forward and run their own full nodes and/or sites has not seen much action. It is exactly due to the high costs of hosting coupled with paying employees that Steemit, and now by default Justin Sun is sitting in such a powerful position.
He now owns the wallets that hold our Steem. He is one of the main node subsidizers. He holds now approximately 21% of Steem, possibly much more if he began buying small increments before the sale of Steemit to him. I consider this likely, as early in 2018 he was one of the silent investors in the acquisition of Poloniex. The subsequent delisting of Steem there, announced Oct 9th and delisted on the 15th would appear (to myself) as an attempt to cause hardship for the chain, as well as attempt forcing a downward valuation, possibly in an attempt to scoop up more at a bargain as I assume many there decided to sell off their Steem rather than moving it. Profit on trading fees, bargains on those seeking to trade into other assets to play day trader with on their favored exchange for doing so.
He holds many of the cards now by holding our wallets, running the main node(s) and paying to host the Steemit website. He also own whatever is going on with SMT, and has the power to nullify our witnesses and install his own.
So with an honest appraisal of his position now clarified from my understanding (if you hold one different, would love to have you share it in the comments), there is one thing I think needs admitted here.
In no way is it likely that he has been sitting around hating the Steem blockchain, plotting on how to kill it. Mr. Sun is a businessman, and despite his appearing not to fully understand how Steem and our dapps work, he surely has some vision that he wants to fund to further his business interests. Logically, killing Steem off would be an epic fail. The Dapps he mentions are not owned by Steemit, so they are only part of his structure if he makes it smooth for those Dapp owners to continue doing so. As for the community, if he covets the community (possible he doesn't, although it seems to be one of the real assets the Steemit website offers) he will seek not to disenfranchise this community.
Each of us need to ask ourselves what our goals were here. Profit, community, etc. Decide if the probable upcoming changes (such as a forced swap, probable hardfork for those wishing to maintain the chain as it is, etc) are something that aligns with those goals.
Each of us are responsible for steering our own ships, especially when the possibility of a bad storm lies ahead.
For myself, I do believe like others I respect here, will begin a power down in case moves are made not in alignment with my attachments here. I won't be jumping the gun and selling it off, but don't like the idea of having to wait 13 weeks to sell when the changes are implemented. If Mr. Sun decides to keep Steem as a side chain to Tron instead of trying to force it into Tron and creating a new token to force swap, I will power it back up. But for now he is saying repeatedly he does envision this swap. I desire not having to create yet more passwords and keys and precautions and morphed communities etc. That is not what aligns with why I am here. Hopefully much of that will not happen, but best to be prepared that the storm I see ahead will indeed hit me. That's how I must steer my ship for now.
Curious how those of you who read this see the changes impacting your reasons for being here. Please feel free to share in the comments.