With every action, there is a lesson.
Yesterday, a soft fork was put in on Steem that froze account of 8-10 large stakeholders. The justification was that these accounts were "attacking" the Steem network. How where they doing that? By downvoting on the platform according to the announcement.
Two of the accounts, 
In response, Blocktrades closed down a portion of its business, the trading of STEEM and SBD tokens.
DPOS was already coming under some fire for what took place. Many on the outside are questioning the effectiveness of the structure. At the core of the issue is obviously centralization.
This all stems from the ninja-mined stake of Steemit Inc.
To make matters worse, many of the Witnesses were against the fork, thus opting to run the old code. In this instance, Steemit Inc (Tron) jumped in and took control by removing the Witness votes from those who were against it.
Any decentralization that DPOS might have offered with the Witnesses was shown to be not in effect by their removal. The stake held by Sun is all that matters.
This carries a lot of weight throughout the entire cryptocurrency industry. POW versus POS was long debated. We saw how POW networks are not 100% secure with a number of 51% attacks taking place. DPOS, in the eyes of many, offered a better system yet that is not exactly panning out. There are vulnerabilities which are being exploited.
This is a serious issue. For Steem, it is horrific. What business is going to want to build on there knowing that, at any time, the stake could be frozen? All the accusations of theft are indeed coming to pass.
Of course, this is a major opportunity for Hive. Governance needs to be addressed. This is something that must take place in a public forum among all the community members. The idea of each account having 30 full votes in a system with 20 consensus Witnesses is not working. We need something different.
In short, we must structure a system which eliminates the possibility of what is taking place on Steem happening on Hive.
Fortunately, there are a couple of factors already working in Hive's favor. The first is the fact the distribution of the tokens is much better since the Steemit Inc stake was not airdropped to anyone. At present, it resides in the DAO to support the proposal system.
The second is the fact that any tokens bought must wait 30 days before they can vote on Witnesses. Thus, there is a bit of time to prevent an attack.
These are good starting points but not enough. Our governance system needs to be the best in the industry. Once again, all eyes are on Hive. Since the situation is so fresh in everyone's mind, plus with Steem making news with their antics, it is time to leverage that with a much improved system.
Ultimately, Hive needs to be a business friendly chain. And no, I am not talking about businesses that hang an app or put together a little game for Hive members to play. Instead, I am referring to the type of system that will attract some heavy hitters. If we want larger websites/businesses engaging with Hive, we must make sure it is a business structure they can trust.
This all starts with ensuring people's money is safe.
Think about it. If you were starting a business, after what took place yesterday, would you start it on Steem knowing that a soft fork could freeze your holdings?
We must make sure there is a marked difference between how Hive operates as compared to Steem. While we already have it to a degree, we need to make sure that it is evident to all within the crypto world.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
Posted via Steemleo
