Steem blockchain just became a centralized database

This is my first post which is directly posted to the Project HOPE community. I think the Steem blockchain is going through some changes that I think the Project HOPE community should be aware.

So while I was away from Steem last week, not only was there turbulence in the stock markets, there was a significant development to the Steem blockchain. A softfork 22.2 was deployed to limit certain actions by some STINC controlled accounts.

The objective of the softfork as the announcement post indicated was to,

.. Soft Fork 0.22.2 has been deployed to allow for the entire community to discuss how best to achieve the original goals that this ninja-mined stake exists to support.

Unfortunately, this triggered a "counter-attack" from STINC with the support from a few major exchanges. As it stands, now STINC has control over the top 20 witnesses and effectively reversed the changes brought about in SF 22.2.

Regardless whether SF 22.2 was right or wrong, it represented decentralized consensus and governance. The witnesses who brought SF 22.2 were all voted by the community and they represent the voices from the community.

On the other hand, STINC did a hostile takeover of the top 20 witnesses spots and reversed the community decision. This is against the spirit of decentralization and a huge step back from what a blockchain should be. They have effectively centralized the Steem blockchain and can change it how ever they like.

What makes it worse is that these centralized exchanges might have used STEEM that are stored on the exchanges to fund this move. I won't be surprise to see some of them blocking STEEM withdrawals soon. If that is the case, it is a complete breach of trust.

For now, I will monitor what is going on. I have a sum of STEEM on Binance and I am going to withdraw them right now in case they get freeze. I urge everyone to withdraw their STEEM from all centralized exchanges for the time being while we wait for clear indications on where this is headed.

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This article is created on the Steem blockchain. Check this series of posts to learn more about writing on an immutable and censorship-resistant content platform: