My initial thoughts are that this is a coup. It is pretty clear that by purchasing Steemit.com/Inc, Justin intends to bring what is probably in reality, a much more active community (i mean where's the evidence that there are real people actually using TRX dapps?) to the Tron ecosystem, and forcibly too at that.
By taking control of what is up till now, the more important component(s) of the Steem ecosystem (the main blockchain developers at Steemit Inc, as well as the highly associated brand that is Steemit.com) , the crux of the issue is forced.. You can either stick with the legacy STEEM chain and risk being on the losing chain in terms of roadmap and uncertain amount of continued development, or you can risk joining Justin and his cronies at STEEMT with possibly your stake diluted, and most importantly, be subject to a much less decentralised platform where the guy leading the ship has so far proven to be less than an ideal leader to steer the fleet.
If you place value on Steemit.com, then very soon, STEEMT (Steem on Tron) will be the only way you can continue participating on Steemit.com and with that, you will effectively be forced to acquire your current STEEM stake, on STEEMT. And the only way you can do that as suggested/offered by Justin is by swapping STEEM for STEEMT. - The STEEM is his collateral just in case the legacy STEEM does as some suggest, fork into some variant of STEEM Classic, with or without Stinc stake (preferably not). This however, is not a good deal for current STEEM holders as the fundamentals which they have bought into are no longer the same as those that will be on STEEMT.
- Will STEEMT have the same mechanics, economics as Steem?
- How will STEEMT guarantee that your STEEM stake once swapped with STEEMT remains the same proportion? ie. if you owned 0.1% of all STEEM before, will you also own 0.1% of STEEMT?
The fact that the fairest and easiest way to transition is eluded (airdropping STEEM users with their respective stakes on STEEMT) suggests that Justin is strong arming the STEEM community to leave the chain, and have no collateral in case STEEMT turns out to be a shitshow disaster. It is a coup to take over the brand of "Steem and STEEM" and I expect at least a conceited effort from the STEEM community to push back and demand better terms.
Whether or not Justin agrees to better terms like airdropping is going to decide how much of the stake of STEEM "swaps" to STEEMT, but I do think that this is a pretty crucial factor moving forward. Stakeholders of STEEM are not going to surrender their stake on STEEM for an unproven new STEEMT token that is very unfavourable for STEEM holders. The idea of airdropping to TRX holders already suggests that some dilution is going to happen, and that for me is already a huge black flag.
We as a community have debated, argued, had wars over countless Steem related items, but we now face the greatest danger of all, a hostile coup d'etat that threatens the 4 years of history we have accumulated, for good and for bad, on the Steem network.
Exchanges with some sense of conscience and morality will likely follow the community voice and keep our legacy chain very much alive. There will be a war for consensus on what "Steem" is, and it is our duty as a community right now to unite under one banner, to retain our identity, and make it clear that we are not so easily swayed, much less bullied into foregoing our piece of history on this chain.
I don't know how things will go, I don't have many answers, but I do know that our chain is worth defending.
Will you join me to let our voice be heard?