Wow that's a big move from our biggest whale...
So I randomly stumbled into the Hive discord a couple hours ago and noticed there was a discussion going on...
Well that's one way to do it!
There was a lot of interesting conversation to be had here. Seeing everything get defunded except for Ecency is quite the shock indeed! Unsure how much we can read into that but the Swarm is a buzzin' on this one.
One big thing to consider here is that Hive is clearly a lot more centralized than a few of the evangelists around here like to admit. Of course this has always been the case, but it's moments like this where the harsh reality of the situation sets in and becomes undeniable rather than lurking the background where everyone can ignore it. One account being able to single-handedly fund proposals is not exactly a place we want to be in... of course ironically this exact problem has been solved when that account votes the return... but then again makes it pretty much impossible for anything to get funded without a greenlight, so now we have the reverse problem.
Somewhat reminds me of the 2020 hostile takeover.
Because one of the big problems with the DHF is that it controls the ninjamine... which should have been destroyed but instead is now controlled by a couple of key accounts. Remind me again what we did to users that voted both real witnesses and sock puppets during the hostile takeover? We forked all that Korean stake to @null because it was seen as an attack on our consensus and trying to exploit political gain during a crisis... of course on a mathematical level this is not true at all. Voting both sides is the same as voting neither side on a pure numbers basis. Interpret that how you will.
Some users are now trying to claim that huge accounts like Blocktrades should perhaps abstain from voting in the DHF entirely and actually let the community decide what does and does not get funded. Personally I think this is a slippery slope to be on. At what point does an account not have the right to exercise their stake because they "own too much"? That doesn't really make logical sense (especially with alt accounts in play). On a very real level too many users have been selling too much of their Hive (or not buying enough) which is why we are in this situation to begin with.
I can't say I'm terribly upset with the current outcome we find ourselves faced with. I will say that it's a little weird that no statement has been made, but many are saying the vote itself is the statement and doesn't require further clarification. Not sure people on Hive are going to be sated by that logic. We are a highly political network after all.
Hm... what else?
Where is Hive's money? All of Hive's value (including HBD) is contained on razor-thin trading books. Today Hive is worth 33 cents a token. That number goes up or down with high volatility. With this in mind it should be obvious that the ninjamine is not "for development". The ninjamine can only steal from users that acquired their tokens fairly and redistribute it to funded proposals (many of which have proven to be ineffective). In this regard it is nice to see everything get defunded... because I honestly have no idea how much money the DHF is allocated if we take away the premine that shouldn't exist in the first place.
The only way to realize the value of those counterfeit tokens is to dump them on the market, and once that happens price goes down and nobody can get that value for their stake. Currently this is the only problem I see with the current state of the DHF: many people on Hive like to pretend we don't have a premine. It's right there in the DHF. Stop pretending and make a move to destroy it permanently rather than acting like it doesn't exist. The "we don't have a foundation or a premine" narrative is not one we are making in good faith. We've swept the truth under a rug and pretend it's not there.
There's also a certain corporate/government vibe to the DHF that we see in legacy finance. It is this false reality that we need to spend the money in the DHF or we somehow lose it. The fact of the matter is that money from the DHF should only be spent if and only if the value being created is higher than the cost. This toxic attitude that we have to spend the surplus or lose it (like a government agency) is enraging the few times I've seen the concept floated.
Will number go up?
Potentially this move stops thousands of dollars of Hive from getting dumped on the market every day that it continues. I am thinking about buying here because I was going to buy anyway... but I think I'll give it a few days first to see what happens. Let the knee-jerk reactions resolve before doing anything hasty in either direction.
Conclusion
I took my sweet time getting this "breaking news" out there so I better just kill it here and hit the publish button. My current feeling over this situation is that it's some low-risk drama that somewhat highlights a few of the weaknesses that have been ignored up until now (while simultaneously fixing a lot of the DHF-wastes-money debate). It calls into question the value of a lot of these proposals. I imagine the drama has just begun so get ready to wade through it! This is a big move and should be respected as such. I'll likely have more to say on this topic once some of these events have matriculated.