Tomorrow, May 20th, at 14:00 UTC, a STEEM hardfork is scheduled, version 0.23, code name "New Steem". I wrote yesterday about it, but it wasn't yet confirmed. Now we have an official post about this. As I suggested yesterday, the source code was made public just a couple of days before the implementation date.
The most important - and, dare to say - sad part of this hardfork is a measure that will seize the funds from a number of STEEM accounts, which, according to the new governance, have "engaged in criminal activities".
Here is the relevant part of the source code, containing the list of the accounts that will be seized:
namespace hardforkprotect23
{
inline static const std::set< std::string >& get_hive_accounts23()
{
static const std::set< std::string > hive_accounts23
{
"abusereports",
"berniesanders",
"kingdong",
"nextgencrypto",
"ngc",
"ozchartart",
"sirvotesalot",
"sockpuppet",
"thecyclist",
"xx0xx",
"xxxxxxxxxx",
"z8teyb289qav9z",
"agent14",
"curatorhulk",
"dhenz",
"drbanner",
"gokuisreal",
"johnmadden",
"realself",
"theycallmedan",
"arsahk",
"blocktrades",
"darthknight",
"kevtorin",
"kriborin",
"lessys",
"acidyo",
"ats-david",
"ausbitbank",
"bittrix",
"clappy",
"drakos",
"fefemz",
"freedom",
"gtg",
"howo",
"jawnz",
"klobu",
"likwid",
"liondani",
"neoxian",
"netuoso",
"ocd-witness",
"pfunk",
"pharesim",
"roelandp",
"roundbeargames",
"sooty",
"steempress",
"themarkymark",
"therealwolf",
"timetickertickin",
"transisto",
"znnuksfe",
"mottler",
"mottler-1",
"smooth",
"smooth.witness",
"smooth-a",
"smooth-b",
"smooth-c",
"smooth-d",
"smooth-e",
"smooth-f",
"safari"
};
As anyone can see, this is in retaliation to the recent Hive hardfork, as these accounts are former witnesses in STEEM and current witnesses in HIVE.
There is also the lower power down period, from 13 weeks to 4 weeks, which is confirmed by the public source code, but, at least in my opinion, this part, in which user accounts are seized is by far the most important in this release.
At this moment, we don't know if exchanges will support this hardfork, but if they will, it will set the most bleak precedent in the recent history of crypto.
I'm not going into many more details, as the discussion can go on forever with "who started it first", I will just share that this hardfork, and especially the tone and the content of the post announcing it, gave me the chills. I lived 19 years under communism, in Romania, and that was the tone and the content of how power was enforced back then. It was a matter of: "we're right, because we say we are, and there's nothing you can do about it".
The HIVE hardfork, which, in all honesty, also transferred some stake from some accounts into other accounts, had a different tone and content. The transferred stake was never "meant" to be used, anyway, so it was more of a "let's put things back where they belong". Whereas this STEEM hardfork is more of a "we're going to take everything you thought you own, and make it ours, just because we can".
It's gonna be a cold and frightening day in the crypto world tomorrow, as this situation proves that authoritarianism can be disguised in "decentralization" and trash all the freedoms we thought we have, in a matter of months.
There is an ongoing funding proposal for two of my Hive-related projects, which will allow me to support some of the costs involved. If you want to support this proposal, all you have to do is to vote it using any of the two links below:
Sign this proposal with Hivesigner
Peakd: https://peakd.com/me/proposals/92
Already supported by: @toofasteddie, @alina.romila, @amico, @bluerobo, @chrisaiki, @erikah, @ervin-lemark, @ew-and-patterns, @guruvaj, @mytechtrail, @pharesim, @ryivhnn, @sacrosanct, @captainklaus, @santigs, @inertia, @bro.poker, @distantsignal, @doze, @gadrian-sp, @shmoogleosukami, @valued-customer, @condeas, @justinashby, @likwid, @bucipuci
I'm a geek, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Hive you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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