Token Entitlement

Forking A Blockchain

This seems to cause some confusion. In this instance, there were roughly 100 people who got together to pull this off. That was not required. In fact, Blocktrades could have forked it themselves.

We often state how anyone can fork a blockchain and that is true. Keep that in mind throughout this article.

When someone (or a group) forks a blockchain, it creates a new chain. That seems obvious yet it appears to be overlooked by many.

Those who are responsible for the fork are free to do whatever they desire. They can adopt whatever governance they want; they are free to give tokens out as they see fit. Since it is a new entity, it is a blank slate.

Tokens

A natural part of forking is to distribute tokens. This is a major decision that people who are forking chains have to make.

Who is going to be involved in the airdrop?

Once again, the ones who put this together could decide anything they wanted. In this instance, the group of 100 or so could have chosen to give tokens to themselves and let everyone else start with a zero balance.

The decision was made to airdrop most holders of STEEM on a 1:1 basis. There were some accounts that were excluded as per the decision of those who were putting together the blockchain.

We know there were some accounts that were omitted due to an error in the script and that is being addressed.

Here is where we see token entitlement coming in.

There are some feel that what the "forkers" did was wrong. They believe certain accounts should not be singled out. Everyone should receive tokens is the thought.

It even got to the point that some have called it stealing from those account holders. How is it stealing when this is something totally new?

STEEM is not an access token. Holding it does not entitle one to airdrops from anyone who forks the chain. If the developers behind the fork decide to drop, that is their decision.

Obviously, it is often in projects best interest to try and attract as many people to the new development as possible. Here again, while the 100 or so people could have only dropped to themselves, it probably would not have been prudent.

Tokens are often marketing pieces, used to offer incentive to people to partake in what they are doing. It only makes sense to open it up to more people than just the original circle.

Made For The Steem Community But Not By The Community

I also saw people questioning things such as the funding of the Proposal System and how it should not be that way. Some even went so far as to question who made that decision and why wasn't the community involved.

What community?

This blockchain was set up by a group who forked the blockchain. It was their blockchain, not the Steem community's. Until the blockchain went live, the "community" was just the 100 people putting it together. The fact that they invited the rest of us to partake is what expanded it.

To frame it another way, we know those who use to work for Steemit Inc are working on another chain. Now, we have no idea what it is based upon. However, just because they were part of Steem, and I held STEEM tokens, does that mean I am entitled to tokens from them? Should they check with the Steem (or Hive) community before they make any decisions.

Of course not. It is their project and they are free to include whomever they want. Certainly, I would think it a smart move to try to include those who are known to be loyal and dedicated, so the Hive community might be a good place to start. But that is entirely up to them.

Fracturing The Community

Some also think that the way the "forkers" handled this divides the community.

I have news for everyone, it was fractured before. That is why there was a fork. If we were all united and singing Kumbaya, there would be no need for a fork.

Forks are the ultimate arbiter in blockchain disagreements. Anyone who does not align with what is going on is free to take the proverbial bucket and build another sandbox. That is what a number of people who were on Steem did. They opted to invite some they felt would like that sandbox better. At they same time, they decided not to invite those who previously were destroying their sand castles they had built.

It is unfortunate but this is how things unfolded. Now, there is a Steem community as well as one on Hive. Some opt to use both just like many choose to use both Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Now it is up to each community to grow and expand.

Freedom

What talk about freedom a lot and people often give it a great deal of lip service. While they probably believe what they are saying is true, we see a different streak show up when things happen in a way they disagree with.

A group of people got together and exercised their freedom to fork a blockchain. They did not like what was taking place thus they started something new. This is the advantage of open source software. At the same time, each individual was exercising freedom in the actions that took place before the fork. We all made decisions based upon how we felt about what was taking place.

Right now, we are all here on a voluntary basis. Nobody is forced to remain on Steem nor to use Hive. Anyone reading these words is free to go use Voice, Facebook, YouTube, or smoke signals. None of us are forced.

The same goes true for those who started Hive. They did so with the intention of expanding to include many of the members of the Steem community. However, it was their baby to start, to establish it as they saw fit.

Certainly, I am grateful they expanded the scope to include other accounts into the process. At the same time, I would love to be a part of whatever @vanderberg etal are cooking up. Nevertheless, that is up to them and we will see what happens there.

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