tree leaves on sky image from Pixabay
I would like to use this moment to say goodbye to the Hive community.
First, here are my reasons why I need to quit.
- I don't want the consequences of my anonymity being uncovered. I don't know if I have already done something that would allow just anyone with technical knowledge to uncover my anonymity, but I don't want to increase the risk further by continued posting on Hive. Just one identity leak will make all my efforts to remain anonymous become nothing.
- The Tor browser makes it difficult to use most Hive dapps. From being unable to watch any video on 3Speak (or any video dapp) to being unable to login to some dapps at all due to the Hive KeyChain requirement, accessing Hive has been so difficult for me. I even made a compromise to lower the security of Tor browser below the minimum standard just to avoid the hassle of broken dapps and repeated logins.
- I love decentralization, but immutability has its disadvantages. I can't exercise my right to be forgotten because of the blockchain nature. Privacy is therefore irrelevant here. I have made here some posts (mostly comments) that I wish could be completely erased (not just hidden) by me.
- It takes a toll on my well-being. The hardest part of remaining anonymous is never telling anyone, no matter how trustworthy, about my anonymous activities. I also have adapted a personality that is different from my real one, especially my way of writing. Over time, the differences inevitably blur, so I should know where to stop my anonymous activities, and that time is now.
I am specifically referring to my posts against governments and corporations, especially about their global untargeted surveillance which is against the right to privacy, their attempts to censor which is against the right free speech, and their deliberate actions to use COVID-19 for their motives that are never found to benefit the general public.
There have been many times that I almost published my real personal information (such as my email address) here on Hive, because I frequently switch between Tor browser (which I am always using to access Hive like what I am doing right now) and Firefox/Brave browser for most online activities on which privacy or anonymity is irrelevant.
In real life, I am not the type of person who would openly speak about society's (already obvious) mistakes. I am in fact the opposite of that. I can and do pay so much attention to detail that I can easily spot other people's mistakes, but I am afraid of receiving backlash for telling the truth. That is why posting on Hive about things I want to change costs much of my energy and time.
Next, I would like to thank everyone who supported me here on Hive.
- @gniksivart and @jotakrevs for giving the time to reply on my posts when I was still new here on Hive.
- Fellow privacy enthusiasts @ash and @fav (I know they are owned by the same person).
- The user @suesa who delegated 50 Hive Power for me for about 2 months, allowing me to post a lot about #Privacy and respond to polls on dPoll.io.
- The user @fw206 who habitually upvoted my votes pertaining to privacy with more or less worth $0.35.
- The dPoll community who responded to my polls: @billybohner, @vimukthi, @pereu4ivatel, @n1hal, @patrickulrich @abbak7, @d-zero, @aschatria, @russia-btc, @fredkese, @akdx, @jeffjagoe, @gravitcaper, @maxer27, @sudutpandang, @wonderful.world1, @unklebonehead, @godlovermel25, @wakeupkitty.pal, @erica005, @suntree, @pyramidone, @rmach, @reeta0119, @a-quarius, @pavelsku, @kggymlife, its developer @emrebeyler, and everyone who diligently responded to my polls and upvoted them.
- The user @vimukthi who has delegated 150 Hive Power for me from a month ago until this time of posting, preventing me from worrying about running out of Resource Credits for posting.
- @danielsaori for his service @dustsweeper.
- The Quello (@quello) community for helping me get answers to my questions, and allowing me to answer other people's questions.
- The D.Buzz (@dbuzz) community @oniemaniego, @shainemata, @fernandosoder, @d-zero, @billybohner, @slashformotion, @globetrottergcc, @last.german, @sarimanok, @godlovermel25, @rmach, @iamraincrystal, @june21neneng, its admin @chrisrice, its developer @nathansenn, and everyone there I had good times with.
Finally, I would like to ask for your opinions about what I should do to my account after I decided never to use it again.
Here are the possible choices I could make:
- Delegate all my Hive Power to another person whom I believe deserves it.
- Privately give away my owner key (and/or master password) to somebody I believe deserves to inherit my account. This includes the credentials of the Privacy community account @hive-120808.
- Just stop using my Hive account (with or without automatic voting to @dbuzz in place).
Power down all my Hive Power, then donate the HIVE to another person or community whom I believe deserves it or withdraw them to an XMR (Monero) wallet using BlockTrades (though it will require me to go back 13 weeks after, long after I have stopped using Hive).
I am inclined to delegate all my Hive Power to @dbuzz. I believe that @dbuzz will delegate their own Hive Power to users in need.
I would continue using this Hive account @anonymouser until August 5, 2020 (but it can be earlier), just for us to exchange goodbyes, and for me to make delegations or transfers.
After that, you may contact me privately at anonymousers[aht]tutanota[dat]com (the email address I created exclusively for Hive), though I would not entertain emails there requesting me to continue using my Hive account. Within about 30 days of no emails from Hive users, I would also delete that email address, since some spam emails there are already bothering me.
Maybe I would create a semi-anonymous account here on Hive in the future, but nobody would know it is me who was behind the account @anonymouser. That is really sad, but that is the price I have to pay for deciding to be anonymous and posting about sensitive topics.