Let's take a step back for a minute and try to figure out where we really want to go from here...

Steem was gifted a great opportunity a few weeks ago when Justin Sun announced he had purchased Steemit.com and steemit,inc.

The opportunity was in the fact that Sun has vast resources in the form of exchange connections, marketing connections, loads of developers/engineers, and almost unlimited funds.

All things that steem is desperately in need of.

However, as we all know, things quickly went south for a whole host of reasons that I would rather not get into on this post.

The point that should be focused on in my opinion, is where we go from here.

Judging by the recent response from Justin this morning, it is becoming apparent that we are very quickly about to turn things into an all out war of an "us against them", if we are not already there.

In my opinion, that would be a very unfortunate path for us to take considering all the potential benefits that a steem and Justin Sun/Tron relationship could bring.

If things continue as they are, we are very likely going to see one of two things happen, we are either going to see a chain split where much of the original community goes one direction and then the Justin Sun lead steem/steemit goes another.

In that instance I feel both sides lose.

The original community will lose steemit.com as well as very likely many exchange listings. They will likely lose the steem name as well. They will succeed in having their own community with their own witnesses but with few exchange listings and not a lot of financial resources.

The Justin Sun lead steem will lose out on one of the largest communities in all of crypto, which we are finding out is not as easy to replace as originally thought. However, he will likely get his coin numerous exchange listings as well as marketing and media attention in order to make sure it is known about.

Both sides will have their negatives and positives, but overall I feel like both sides would be better off if we could find a middle ground where we continue as one chain with the financial backing and resources of a Justin Sun and Tron.

How does that happen at this point?

That is the million dollar question.

The sticking point for the current community and witnesses seems to be that the steem Justin acquired should not be allowed to vote or allowed to be sold. Basically, they want that steem to be earmarked strictly for the development of steemit/steem.

That is all well and good, but may be unrealistic at this point.

For one, the guy paid $10 million for it.

I find it highly unlikely he is going to be ok with losing out on $10 million in order to honor some statements/promises made by the prior owners.

Which by the way is likely not legally binding anyways. Steemit,inc said they would use that steem for steemit/steem development, but what happens if they changed their mind? There were no contracts and lawyers involved, it was simply a company's intention and intentions can and do change all the time.

So, while it would be nice if that is what the funds were used for, it may not be legally binding and it may not be realistic to expect that they will be at this point

Given that... we need to figure out how to move forward with some kind of compromise with how that stake can best be used.

An example would be getting some kind of agreement that the stake cannot be sold on the open market for X amount of time, or that the stake can only be used to vote in a max of 10 witnesses etc... something where Justin doesn't have to worry about his stake being frozen again, but while also still keeping the chain at least somewhat decentralized.

While we are on that note, it's not like the chain was extraordinarily decentralized in the first place, it was and always has been basically the largest handful of accounts deciding the top 20 witnesses selections.

Once we can come to some agreements on that stake, and I mean win wins for both sides, perhaps we can then go about trying to do things that will benefit both parties and all of steem as a whole.

For now though, I know it is fun to jump on the bandwagon and go on the warpath but we need to remember to step back and keep in mind what the ultimate win win is for both sides.

It's not likely that Justin is just going to agree to turn over his stake, and it's also not in our interest to see steem run by one person or entity...

I think the longer these heated exchanges and name calling etc go on, the less likely we are to ever come to any kind of win win.

The time is now to sit down and work some things out.

Justin needs to hear some input from voices of reason on how things work on here and why they are the way they are. Judging by some of his comments lately, he truly doesn't understand how all of this works. We shouldn't bash him for that though, we should seek to educate him.

TLDR:

We need to figure out a win win for both sides, and it likely means we are going to have to make a compromise on that steemit,inc stake. He will need to make one too.

Stay informed my friends.

-Doc