Leaves me at least one 100% vote.
Still the Steem Pool needs to be drained, that is what it was build for.
And the SegWit discussion heats up.
For me it is confusing to see well known members of the Steem realm adding to the FUD {Fear, Uncertanty and Doubt}. And apparantly getting big potential payouts while doing so. While the angry come in and the name calling starts. Apparantly a lot of frustration is going on, while the Bitcoin blockchain seems to be stuck on high difficulty. Because none of the different kinds of clients seems to be able to find the right solution. And Bitcoin is almost at 7(!) Exa Hashes per second on the complete Bitcoin network, while difficulty still is very high right now. But there were also a few blocks mined within the 10 minute time frame. And some blocks were not really well filled. So, what pool will accept to the challenge of getting the next block out?
At some point I got caught up in the SegWit discussion. Because it started to hit a nerve. Would probably not have dived into it, if I had been feeling alright. One reason I stopped being active at the Bitcoin talk forum was because it tends to get a kind of grim there. Almost like a trollbox on some exchanges and I experience it like an energy drain. It is at the point where fanaticism enters the realm that I need to get out. Normally I do ignore posts and replies of that kind here at Steem too. As they tend to cause division and are often accompanied by name calling and aggression. And for me that is a closed door, as ratio leaves the mind as soon as anger enters.
That is a biology science fact by the way, because it involves a different part of the human brain. It is the animal part of the brain that lays underneath our big evolved grey matter. Normaly needed for flee, freeze of fight behaviour, or to basicly survive. It can however not think logical or analyse for us humans. That part of the brain is connected to fear and triggers all kinds of stress hormones to be released. All ment for us to help us survive. And in that way I can understand the aggression that follows fear. Because when we feel threatened, it triggers fear, and that can pump our adrenaline up to very high levels. And then rational thinking is almost lost, because it is a waste of body energy that one might need to survive. Our grey brain mass does use a lot of energy and when we need to basicly survive, who has time to over think things?
BTC ABC is already being mined, without succes.
Now, in a previous post I called it a clone, and I still think it is. If the BTC-ABC finds a block now it will already be dropped by the Bitcoin blockchain. Yes, there is already a BTC-ABC client and at Viabtc it is already mining, while the BCC-Token is being traded against BTC. It has a very low 24 hour trade volume though and the price is quite stable. And with that low trade figure it looks like it could still be easily manipulated in price. And together with the rather fanatic marketing going on right now (at Steem for instance), I am still very sceptic about the organisation behind of all this. But no matter what, it is an Altcoin that refuses to create a new blockchain and instead is going to try and split attack the one of Bitcoin. Cheap shot, although it apparantly needs some very aggresive tactics to enforce it.
And so is bending the truth, or telling half the story. Because I have read that BTC-ABC (BitCoin Cash/BCC) was not yet being mined. But it is, at the Viabtc pool, just have a look and do the math. And also keep in mind that Viabtc is already signalling SegWit {SW} for the Bitcoin network... Bitcoin, BTC, is trading at almost 6 million at ViaBtc, by the way. So, what market is 150.000 then for BTC-ABC {Bitcoin Cash (Futures)}? The market can not be wrong, that is what I read in some replies here at Steem. Okay then Bitcoin trading volume at Viabtc: 72.23%, while BCC/BTC-ABC does 1.81%, it gets beaten by Litecoin, that does 4.18%! It is last in row. How is that about the market being right? And it is being mined, at about 2 Peta Hashes per second. While Bitcoin is being mined at 357 Peta Hashes per second, at that pool only!
And at a total bitcoin network mining capacity of 6900 Peta Hashes, or 6.9 Exa, BTC-ABC/ BTC-Cash mining is next to nothing. 2 divided over 6900 times 100% equals? Almost 0.03 percent mining power supporting BTC-ABC/ BTC-Cash, that is what the numbers tell us. And even trade is very doubtable, because with 142 thousand US Dollar in trade volume over 24 hours, it can still easily be price manipulated. So, what does tell us that? As it gets spread all over the place that the market shows it. Yeah, well, it seems to be a lot of air pumping the BTC-ABC balloon. So about 200 contracts are being used to mine BTC-ABC with 10 Tera Hash type Ant-miners, that looks only a good deal for Viabtc... Hope those who have those cloud mining contracts are allowed to swap them for mining Bitcoin.
MIT Free Open Source.
There are so many wild west stories surrounding the Bitcoin source code. But as far as I know it is all available under a Free MIT Open Source license, that is why there are so many Altcoins, and clones like BTC-ABC/ Bitcoin-Cash. Yet, the FUD {Fear, Uncertanty and Doubt} that is being spread somehow seems to claim the opposite. And apparantly all it takes is some anti-government statement in the title to get some heavy Steem Power {SP} backed upvotes. Darn, I whish I had known that sooner. Sorry, I am getting cynical here again, but at this point I am really getting fed up with Steem as a Social Media Platform. And I guess that is what got me triggered in the first place.
It really took a bad turn for me when the moaning started about the Steem reward pool like: "they're draining the pool, they're draining the pool!" Just started to sound like a Southpark episode called "They took our jobs", instead the Steem version is very annoying. Because the Steem reward pool gets filled to be drained, to the last drop of Steem. That is the way it was constructed. Okay, so for more than a year is was drained exponentially by the richest Steem Power {SP} owning members. Within one and a half year half of the ever to be released Steem was spread out that way, about 243 million of it. With the richest members getting exponentially more, but that has been changed to linear, or one Steem Power equals one vote.
It already has been drained half.
When the year 2038 begins there will be about 585 million Steem available. But already half of that is in the Steem realm available. The other half will take 20 years to be released. So, for those who want to do the math, feel free to do so. Maybe then it can be understood that the biggest drain already happened. And those who had the most exponential gain (think of a figure like a quarter of a circle going upwards) were those who had enormous amounts of Steem Power in their account(s). This is a fact, just like most of the Steem was spread that way within one and a half year. Now that is different, more like linear spreading. But no matter what, or how it gets divided, it will always be a drain of the Steem pool, otherwise nobody would get any Steem at all...
Is it fair? Well, it is about competition, that favours the best adapted to the parameters of the game. That is part of any competition, so it is here at the Steem blockchain too. Yet, it is strange to state that the Steem pool gets drained like it is something that is wrong. It is what is supposed to be done, through competition, that will divide it into potential payouts. And competition for that will get harder over time as more members join and less Steem gets produced by the blockchain. So, at some point I do expect Community Tokens to be part of a solution for that. But no matter what, the Steem pool will be drained, that is what is supposed to happen, to get it rotating into the Steemeconomy.
Tiresome that I find it to be, it drains my energy and that is for me a signal I should stay true to my path. Any time I get dragged into this sideways I feel like I am losing a part of who I really am. Fear spreading posts, posts bending the truth, aggressive responses, name calling, I am so done with that. And I guess that is why I had such a good time when I went on a trip that I financed with my Steem earnings. Had a fantastic Steem meet and greet with some great people that I consider very good friends. And I had a splendid time in Nijmegen and Arnhem. Where in Arnhem I was able to pay in Bitcoin directly, which was an awesome experience for a geek like me.
TAO, the path is my way.
So, I leave you for now with a filtered photo I shot at Sonsbeek park in Arnhem where I went for a stroll with my dear friends. It beats the virtual digital world anytime for me, and I was almost sorry I could not stay longer at that beautifull place. The photo is symbolic for me as to somehow I found my way back home there, a long distance from where I was born and raised. Oh, and a few days ago I stopped self-upvoting, as I think it is okay when that function got removed on a blockchain level. But I disagree with any kind of witchhunt that seems to be going on about the subject of self-upvoting. Let everybody decide for themselves and maybe it will be cut out by the developers in a next hardfork.
Today I am moving on, TAO style, always on the path that is my way. And no matter what happens to Bitcoin, no matter what is draining the Steem pool, I will move on. Hopefully with more travel to many different places. Cause one day I will hit the bucket too and I still have a long list to go.
Have a great one!
PS The apparant Bitcoin high difficulty blockchain halt already has been solved.
NOTE: Only invest in cryptos what you are willing and able to lose. Also your speculation might be as bad or as good as mine.
UPDATE: Text corrections.
UPDATE2: Added missing link for Viabtc pool.
UPDATE3: Text corrections.
I found my TAO in Sonsbeek Arnhem again.
filtered photo cc-by-sa @oaldamster