Ned/Steemit,
A lot has happened in the past seven days. I'm sure by now most of the community is aware by now of the fact Steemit, Inc. started a large power down in reaction to a perceived threat of a hardfork that could potentially remove or freeze the balances of Steemit Inc's accounts.
Many of the witnesses, stakeholders, and members of the community are very concerned over what is happening.
In terms of Steemit powering down all of their stake and hiding it from view - we feel very strongly that this is heading in the complete opposite direction of where things should go. We would like to see more trust and more transparency (not less).
A hardfork that would potentially affect the security of Steemit's accounts could only go through with support from a sufficient number (17/21) of the top witnesses.
I would like to make a commitment to you:
If Steemit, Inc. stops the full power downs of all of their accounts and returns them to their normal power down rate prior to the first disbursement of the current power down cycle, I personally commit to you (on chain) as a witness that I will not implement, support, or condone any hardfork that affects the balances, keys, or security of any of Steemit's accounts on the current chain.
I know many other witnesses feel the same way, and will be making similar statements. I encourage all other witnesses to express their views and make similar commitments.
[Edit] Just to be clear, the wording I used is not intended to imply I would fork if the power down continues. This is not a "do this or I will x" type of statement. I have not, nor have I ever, made any statements indicating that I am in support of a fork of the main chain, nor have I ever implied that if a set of demands weren't met that I would do such a thing.
Note: This commitment does still allow any stakeholders / witnesses who may want to go off and form their own chain (as a fork of Steem) in a way that doesn't disrupt the current chain the option to do so.
It is our hope that with sufficient demonstration from the witnesses that your funds are safe here, that you will no longer feel the need to hide them from view.