As I watched Justin Sun move another 3.6M STEEM into the HKDEV404 account, I was thinking about how much this hostile takeover has cost him. I am not talking about the coins he has been buying to wrestle control, I mean to his public and likely private reputation. It is probably this cost that affects him the most and drives his ego to keep doubling and tripling down - clawing for a victory. He can't win.

I was also thinking that if Justin or Tron had any competitors out there in the crypto space that wanted to punish him, they could easily keep buying a little bit of the liquid Steem and making him extend further. Who knows, for a few million (which is nothing for some projects and investors), they would be able to exact a very heavy toll on Justin's holdings and his relationships.

Relationships are important.

So, this is happening and while it might not be an ideal outcome, it might just be the best it is going to get. I have no more details than what is in the post, but I am guessing that at some point there will be a snapshot taken that will become the starting point for the new chain, whatever it will be called.

@blocktrades and a group of developers are going to fork the chain into a new place that will look much like this, except it will be minus Justin Sun and the stake that he bought, which has been hanging over the head of Steem like the sword of Damacles since the start of the chain - well, the restart. It is important to note, no property is harmed in this process.

The beauty of digital real estate is that it is unlimited. The beauty of ownership of blockchain property is that it can be transferred. The beauty of cryptocurrencies is that what gives them value is demand. When it comes to the value of STEEM, we are that demand and the value goes where we demand it to travel.

Essentially we are under siege, but rather than defend the walls, we copy paste everything of value within the castle and give it a new address. What is of value? Us. It is us that gives Steem any real value at all and it is why Justin Sun was interested in the purchase, as it would have given him an active and dedicated core community to build from - but he fucked that up. He may get very aggressive once this is reaches his ears, so be prepared for that stake of his to activate - lucky he doesn't like downvoting... ;D

Regardless of what happens though, this can be a pretty scary undertaking for all who like myself, do not understand all of the technical aspects, but at least feel heavily invested in the outcomes. This is part of the risk acceptance though and it has always been on the cards since day one, and highly likely due to the way that day one started. Perhaps with a fresh start with a group of people who have been active for the last few years, the distribution is at a point where it can be used effectively to build a community that deserves better than it has got thus far.

I have put a massive amount of effort into this place, but as I said on the @blocktrades post:

Ok. Let's go.

Once we are gone - there isn't much left.

Taraz [ a Steem TBA original ]