Hello everyone, I extend my warmest greetings and trust that you are all faring well. This post has been drafted in light of a recent issue that has been raised regarding myself and my mate @collinz and our activities prior to and subsequent to our departure from the Steemit blockchain. Our objective is to provide clarity and address any concerns, uncertainties, or inquiries that may exist in relation to our actions on the Hive blockchain, through this communication.
Our Pursuit on steemit
I embarked on my Steemit journey in June of 2017, while my colleague joined the platform a month later, in July of the same year. We both continued to be active on the platform when Steemit underwent its launch a year later. To be frank, I was initially ignorant about the workings of social blockchains, and my colleague (@collinz) was in the same boat. As luck would have it, we met at a steem meetup, and the blockchain brought us, along with others, together as a community. Although we weren't close friends at first, we forged a bond through our mutual interest in the platform. In fact, it was I who encouraged him to join me on Hive after I began actively participating on the platform two years ago.
The shared are some of the meetups we attended during our time as members of Steem Ghana. At the time, we were relatively new to the blockchain and individuals such as @tj4real and @kwakumax, @richforever and others assisted. They were actively involved in promoting Steem with the goal of onboarding more Ghanaians to the platform. As a result, we also joined in the effort to promote Steemit to them.
We eventually formed a strong and capable team of promoters, introducing numerous Ghanaians to Steemit and providing guidance to newbies in order to facilitate an optimal blogging experience on the blockchain. Even after it was apparent that many of the community leaders had relinquished their interest in Steemit, we persevered in promoting the platform and remained steadfast in our consistency. Our efforts transcended digital promotion, as we reached out to orphanages and hospitals, rendering support in various forms. Additionally, we conducted promotional campaigns at business centers, shops, on the streets, and at secondary and tertiary institutions, thereby exposing multitudes to the platform.
All of the aforementioned promotional activities were funded using our post payouts, and on occasion, we received support from other promo-steem advocates, such as @stephenkendal, who exhibited faith in our endeavors. We did not receive any sponsorships from the Steemit team for the work we carried out promoting Steemit or Steem. Our efforts were concentrated on sharing our content, and we were rewarded with upvotes.
Some may call it sponsorship, but we disagree. Most users on Steemit have received significant upvotes from the Steem curators, even if they were not actively engaging in promotional activities like we were. Therefore, we believe it is more appropriate to refer to these upvotes as rewards, rather than sponsorship. However, we have received support or sponsorship from the Hive Decentralized Hive Fund (DHF) for our work promoting Hive.
My active promotion of Steem earned me a position as a promoter at Promo-Steem and as a moderator for the Steem Ghana community. I carried out most of the promotional activities by myself, and community leaders incorporated any good projects I found as community projects. For example, I came up with the idea of Steem-branded books for promotional purposes.
The majority of the content we shared was focused on promotion, highlighting the potential of Steem and the numerous possibilities presented by the blockchain. Like many users here on Hive today, we had great hopes for Steem in the past and promoted it in various ways. Our content and work remained on steemit, and our user names remained unchanged even after we departed from Hive. Every detail outlined in this post can still be verified, from the day we began our journey until the time we left Steemit.
Following the Hive Fork
In 2020, I made the decision to have an active presence on Hive. This choice came about after it became apparent that the decentralized platform we knew was now in the hands of a private individual who controlled the entire system, leaving no room for users to have the great experience we had grown accustomed to. My mate(@collinz) and I were aware of the Hive fork and the numerous issues that arose at that time. The primary reasons or details for the Hive fork were not entirely clear as at the time we were very active on Steemit.
One of the main reasons many people shifted to the Hive blockchain was due to the issues surrounding Justin Sun's centralized controlled system. There were also concerns about cybercrime, with some users losing or having their steem locked. However, many Steemit users, including myself and my mate, were not well informed about the acquisition of Steem, as there was not enough communication from witnesses detailing the entire issue that had caused the split.
Knowing more about the details earlier would have made a difference since it would have been riskier to promote a scheme through which others could lose their funds, as it already happened to some who lost their funds. The main reason for us leaving Steemit was due to the issue of centralized governance as has been exhibited by the new management of Steem. Today, many other Steemit users have also joined and it was one of the issues that made them turn their backs on Steemit.
We promoted and introduced Steem to new users out of a genuine interest and passion for the platform, despite not fully aware of the issues surrounding the fork. Due to our previous association with community leaders such as @arie.steem in the Promo-Steem community and @njaywan, @oppongk, and @nattybongo in Steem-Ghana, individuals on Hive who have doubts about their administration would also have doubts about us and would use them as a reference point.
However, we would like to clarify that our involvement with them is limited to community events like Steem meetings and promotions, in which we actively participated. We are not involved in their personal actions on Steemit. As previously mentioned, many of us were already enthusiastic supporters of Steem before the fork. The only issue that caused us to remain as Steem promoters despite the fork has been explained in this post.
Our Pursuit On Hive
After realizing that the system we had been promoting with passion was no longer what we thought it was, I joined Hive. The platform, which had once been inclusive, was now controlled by a centralized Steemit team such as the steemcurators. We were obliged to obey their guidelines, and failing to do so resulted in no votes or votes being removed, as well as no assistance for community members.
For many of us, this got oppressive, and despite the fact that some of us might have joined Hive, we stayed engaged in promoting Steem. It was challenging for me to move away from Steemit, considering all the work we had done promoting Steem, and it was even harder to transition to a new blockchain that was forked from Steem, Hive.
Despite my initial skepticism and lack of information about Hive, I decided to take a risk and investigate the platform deeper. When I discovered that there were relatively few Ghanaians using Hive, I knew that extending my promotional efforts would be advantageous. This would attract not just people who were still on Steemit, but also those who were unaware of Hive. I established Hive Ghana, as a way to enable Ghanaians and those who are still on Steemit to recognize the reality about Steemit that does not make it suitable for them to live there.
I discussed my plans with my mate @collinz, who had also given up on promoting Steem and was considering joining Hive. Starting this work was challenging, given that some may feel we had disappointed and betrayed Steem. On the other hand, the Hive community may also find it difficult to trust us, as they may doubt our credibility due to the work we did for Steem or because we promoted a platform that could have jeopardized many investors' investments.
Hive Marketing Materials
Despite the risk of harsh responses from both sides, we started sharing our promotional content and resources on Hive, some of which were identical to those we utilized on Steemit. The Hive community loved these resources, and many Hivers were already aware of some of the work we had done on Steemit before we made considerable success in our promotional efforts. We have no motive to conceal or misrepresent ourselves on Hive since the blockchain is transparent and nothing is concealed from anybody.
However, our credibility is now being questioned because some of these materials have resurfaced, even though we had no intention of using them for any dubious purposes. Our primary aim was to spread the word about Hive and grow our user base as we empower communities.
Hive Boreholes In Ghana
Currently, one of the most talked-about projects on Hive is the Hive Boreholes project. We have shared a lot of information on Hive about this project, including pictures, videos, and links that showcase the various activities surrounding the boreholes. It is considered one of the events with real use cases that future generations will always live to see.
Many people have been aware of our presence on Hive as a result of these initiatives, which have had an influence on the lives of individuals in roughly seven Ghanaian villages, and we are now on the eighth. These projects were not executed without the scrutiny and oversight of the Hive community, as proposals are always open for everyone to read and vote on.
We have been transparent with everything we have done so far and have endeavored to answer all questions that the Hive community has raised regarding these projects. It's reasonable that some people just concentrate on or assume that the amount stated in Hive and dollar terms is solely for the construction.
However, this assumption is incorrect, as the project encompasses much more than just the construction aspect.
We shared information about the three phases involved in the borehole projects through all our project updates. Each phase involved a series of work and other engagements. Each step required a lot of labor and other commitments. However, some people who had never looked into the idea or asked us to discuss the facts have suddenly emerged and started looking into it since they discovered we formerly championed Steem promotion. The reason for all this scrutiny is due to our previous activities on Steemit. If we had not engaged with Steem promotions before, would there have been a reason for the probes?
If the Hive boreholes project is being scrutinized, what about other proposals and projects that have been submitted and approved? Have they also been investigated? And what about projects that have no real-world impact or are just one-time activities that significant amounts have been used to fund? Have they been investigated as well? We have involved several stakeholders in the Hive Boreholes project, and we have worked well together to ensure its success.
Conclusion
We have made sure to communicate clearly with the Hive community throughout our projects, even involving the media. However, there has been a concern brought about by our previous work on Steemit and whether people should cast doubt on our current work. As previously indicated, we were inexperienced and poorly communicated following the fork. After realizing everything for ourselves, we decided to leave Steemit and aid others who were in the same predicament as us.
Our self-promotion on Steemit, which got no financing, was welcomed by the promo-steem community leaders who supported us. We engaged without fully understanding the consequences. While we accept we made a mistake in not understanding or finding out more about Steemit and the Justin Sun fiasco, we also feel that a lack of clear communication about these problems contributed to many individuals, including ourselves, being in the dark.
However, despite all of our efforts to make a significant difference in the lives of Ghanaians and raise awareness for hive in Ghana through media publications, the only concern someone has expressed about this impactful initiative is to make claims about our promotional activities over the years on steemit.
We are ready to be probed and are willing to answer questions regarding our initiatives if our prior steemit actions cast doubt on our image and continuing Hive activities throughout Ghana. We welcome @theycallmedan, @acidyo, @tobetada, @guiltyparties, @stoodkev, @nathen007, @acidyo @starkerz, @guiltyparties, @dswigle, @steevc, @ackza, @adetorrent, @neopch, @taskmaster4450, and all others in the hive ecosystem to this article. Thank you very much.