Updated March 5th, 11:00am AST:

Versions v0.22.0, v0.22.1, v0.22.5, and v0.22.4444 are essentially the same thing when it comes to consensus code. Version v0.22.5 was created by whoever controls the 20 witnesses who were put in consensus via exchange stake, not community voted stake. v0.22.4444 was created to be consistent with v0.22.5 in terms of consensus, but it also has some negative cultural meanings to some people, so I've moved my witness back to v0.22.1.

I hope we can find a path forward that benefits the Steem community and creates a reasonable outcome for the new owner of the Steemit stake which takes into account the commitments made about that stake to the community since the beginning of this blockchain.

Updated Post:

Edit: I'm now running v0.20.4444

I'm now running v0.20.4444 from https://github.com/Gandalf-the-Grey/steem/releases/tag/v0.22.4444

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            STARTING STEEM NETWORK

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initminer public key: STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX
chain id: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
blockchain version: 0.22.4444
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It's the same thing as v0.22.1 (so, essentially, the same thing we presume is v0.22.5) with a slight change to change the version number to make it clear I do not support a centralized takeover.

To make this point clear, see https://steemian.info/witnesses

Notice the total voters column on the right. Is that really consensus?

I disabled my witness as a protest. Now I'm running v0.22.4444 so those who get their tokens off an exchange can vote for a witness who actually wants to protect their property from centralized power grabs like this.

Please see my post linked to below which includes a video with more information as this was unfolding this morning.

Original Post:

I've disabled my Steem witness (for now)

My intentions as a Steem witness are to help protect the decentralized nature of the Steem blockchain and the user content it secures. I do not support the current chain fork put in place by a small group of exchanges against the intentions of the Steem community as demonstrated by those who continued to show support for the witnesses who implemented the temporary soft fork 22.2.

If you don't think exchanges should control the Steem blockchain, don't store your tokens there. Your stake in Steem on centralized exchanges was just used to take over the Steem Blockchain.

I'll continue to monitor the situation and adjust accordingly.