A super-majority of the top witnesses have decided to proceed with a change to limit the use of the accounts belonging to Steemit, Inc. (which have been acquired by Tron as part of the purchase of Steemit, Inc.) To find out more about this, please read this post.
The decision to support the changes (or not) has weighed heavily on many witnesses including myself, and a lot of very healthy and productive conversation has taken place between many of the witnesses and Steem's stakeholders.
I fully acknowledge and appreciate the severity of the situation, and fully understand why the witnesses running this software have chosen to do so. Personally however, I have chosen NOT to apply the changes to my witness node.
Regardless of the messy situation that got us here, and the very real security risk that Tron currently poses to our chain - I see them as a stakeholder who acquired their stake through a legitimate over-the-counter purchase, and I am not OK forcing restrictions on the way a stakeholder uses their stake.
Note: From a technical perspective, this will have no impact on the restrictions put in place by the other witnesses. I am a single witness, and by myself I am not able to overthrow the will of a super-majority consensus (by design).
Despite the fact that I am not applying these changes to my node, I do support the overall mission that the top witnesses and community/stakeholders are trying to achieve: Finding a way for Steem to progress in a way where the security of our governance and blockchain is not under the constant threat of a single stakeholder.
In my view, there are really two paths forward:
- We find a way to work with Tron and come up with a mutually acceptable plan that allows Tron to keep and use their stake in a way that is acceptable to the community and stakeholders, and puts an end to the "ninja mine" dysfunction that has plagued Steem since day one.
- We create a fork of Steem (similar to Ethereum vs Ethereum Classic) in a way that voids out the ninja mined stake (or does something with it such as funding the DAO) and we let Tron proceed with the chain they have full control of, and we proceed with a new chain without them.
I am really hoping that we can find a way to achieve #1, because I truly believe that there is more potential for both Steem and Tron to be successful if we work together towards mutually beneficial goals. For the time being I see that as the best path forward, and I will continue to work towards that end.