Yesterday I published conversations with CZ of Binance as he reacted to Hard Fork 23 HF23 over on Steem.. While all that was going on, I had an interesting set of discussions with an account claiming to represent current Steem Witnesses.
This account is very new (May 2020) and has very few followers but it is jumping in and commenting on anything HF23 related. It is obviously very pro Justin. This account claims that HF23 was successful but that immediately after that success, the "community witnesses" suffered a hack.
#steem conducted a successful hard fork, but it led to hacking. However, the hacked assets will be recovered.
— Steem witness (@SteemWitness) May 20, 2020
Anything you do or say on twitter will be taken down and may be used in evidence against you....
This is a vital admission. It indicates the Community Witnesses on Steem fully intended to be the recipient of the permanent theft of the assets of the Steem accounts targeted by HF23. Community Witnesses can only claim they were "hacked" and the "assets will be recovered" if they had the expectation that after they ran the HF23 code 23m Steem would have moved from the rightful owners to the Steem Witnesses and be in their possession.
@theycallmedan knew how to respond.
You tried to steal my money. And failed. Whoever is behind this account should be ashamed.
— They Call Me Dan (@TheycallmeDan_) May 20, 2020
@threespeak pointed out this useful detail about the number of followers on this account and their relationship to Justin Sun.
You have 9 followers all of whom are related to Justin Sun. You’re criminal hackers. Karma is a bitch.
— 3Speak.online (@3speakonline) May 20, 2020
The account did look at Andrew's advice to Witnesses and others, not to run the HF23 code because doing so would be a crime. Like many in the blockchain world, Steem Witness thinks "code is law" takes precedence above the laws of sovereign nations in which we all live. He therefore asked me this question:
I ask you because I don't know law. Do you think that the expression of the person with the largest stake violates the law? Does Justin have a legal basis for not voting?
— Steem witness (@SteemWitness) May 23, 2020
It is the case that the largest single controlling stake on the Steem blockchain is wielded by one individual. And because it is a Delegated Proof of Stake Chain, the code does allow that individual and his co-conspirators, to permanently withhold property from the rightful owners: i.e. transfer Steem from real peoples' accounts into the hands of the Steem witnesses. The code allows this.
The laws of nearly every nation on Earth, however, do not allow this. It is theft. Guess which laws will operate in the criminal courts? I pointed this out and mentioned the 51% attack with the help of Huobi, Binance and Poloniex, on Steem by Justin Sun after he bought Steemit Inc.
By law, 51% attacks are very safe. It is a good perspective.
— Steem witness (@SteemWitness) May 23, 2020
Steem Witness seems to think 51% attacks on a DPOS chain are legal. I'm not sure I'd want to go to court defending that position, but it is clear that mounting a successful civil suit against Justin Sun for the original takeover of the Steem blockchain would be very difficult. In addition, the miraculous and successful birth of Hive has defrayed the financial damage he would have done, had Hive not been born.
The difference between the 51% Sybil attack on Steem and this theft of real assets is the difference between an esoteric blockchain civil law suit (hard and complicated) and a straightforward criminal theft in which blockchain technology is an incidental enabler.
In many ways it is easier to correctly understand what happened on 20 May 2020 at 1400 UTC if you know nothing about blockchains!
This led to a discussion of how joint decisions are now made amongst Steem witnesses. In the old days, pre Justin Sun and now on Hive, almost all permanent changes to the code are discussed in public and especially ones that derive people of their assets permanently as was done in HF23. This happens so Hive users, large and small, can shift their votes for witnesses depending on how they feel about proposed changes. In Steem this happens in secret.
I'll submit it later. We don't have to give it now
— Steem witness (@SteemWitness) May 23, 2020
For reference, we used Discord, WeChat and KakaoTalk.
That's enough for now. Just for reference, all of these tweets are archived and saved. We'll see what Bittrex does with the funds they're holding. It is likely that at some point police forces will be alerted around the world. The evidence is written onto the Steem blockchain and some of the conspirators are not shy about their part in this conspiracy.
