The Steem News @ 15 February 2020 - Tron & Steem - Livestream & Witness Forum Summary of Discussions

Day 2 of the marriage between Tron and Steemit Inc brought much discussion and some information.

First up Justin Sun, founder of Tron and Ned Scott, co-founder of Steem and Chair of Steemit Inc held a livestream, billed as an AMA, on DLive.

Immediately following the livestream @aggroed hosted a Witness Forum on MSP Waves.

The Justin Sun & Ned Scott Livestream

This livestream went out through DLive (recently acquired by Tron) as well as YouTube and Periscope/Twitter. It lasted around 50 minutes.

Although billed as an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with questions invited before the event, it was more a presentation about Tron and Steem, with only a few questions being answered by Justin Sun.

However @justinsunsteemit did give some clarification on a few issues of concern to the Steem community including...

1. There are no current plans for a token swap of Steem for a new Steem/Tron token. There will need to be plans made before this will proceed.

2. Steem will continue to run independently for the immediate future, and the Steemit Inc team will remain in place.

3. A new product will be released next with new features. It is assumed this will be the new version of Steemit.com including Communities.

4. Tron will be investing resources, people and money, into increased development and marketing of Steem.

5. Justin Sun has no plans 'right now' to use his large Steem Power stake to vote on content or for witnesses.

6. As long as the Steemit Inc team are ready for it, then SMTs will be released.

7. Tron will be offering financial support for the development of DApps.

Justin Sun is "pretty bullish about the future of Steem and Steemit" and he "really cherishes the words of the Steem community".

Several people have produced summaries and responses to the livestream...

There were over 1500 people viewing the livestream on DLive. A recording is available on YouTube...

STEEMIT2.0. TRON and Steemit leading in a new era of decentralized social networking

The Witness Forum on MSP Waves

Immediately following the livestream top 20 witness @aggroed hosted a Witness Forum in MSP Waves.

There were over 250 members of the Steem community present including most of the top witnesses.

The witnesses were invited first to give their general impression of the situation following the livestream.

Contributions included...

@timcliff - "Cautiously optimistic... wait and see... no rash plans. This could be the turning point for Steem to move in a positive direction"
@lukestokes - "Justin Sun could be the person to help Steem get the recognition it deserves. Cautiously optimistic but the community should be prepared if we need to act against a hostile takeover"
@yabapmatt - "Nothing changing for now. Justin Sun will be putting money into Steem. The ultimate plan will be put to make a new Steem token on Tron"
@aggroed - "For now cautiously optimistic"
@crimsonclad - "Positive. Let's make this work'"
@starkerz - "Very bullish. Justin Sun has a win-win vision. But our responsibility as a community is to ensure it will be difficult for Justin Sun to do a hostile takeover"
@therealwolf - "The community has been living under the illusion that Steem is fully decentralised, but it's not. It is important that the community has more Steem than Tron"
@thecryptodrive - "Whole thing was a bit soft. As a business owner on Steem I was uninspired"

@aggroed then posed the question to the witnesses "Under what circumstances would you support a fork?"

Responses included...

@lukestokes - "If the fork would remove property, we must consider very, very carefully before forking. Only go for a fork if there is a hostile takover that puts the chain at systemic risk"
@drakos - "We need to be very careful about forking anyone out. Forking is not a good idea. Who would do ongoing blockchain development?"
@yabapmatt - "A fork wouldn't do anything that Justin Sun would care about"
@starkerz - "Need to have a mitigation plan in place. We should look out for danger signs"
@crimsonclad - "Only fork if Justin Sun is voting for witnesses"
@jarvie - "Would fork right away to get rid of the attack vectors, so Tron doesn't have the opportunity to do a hostile takeover"
@therealwolf - "Should focus on the positive things we can do with Tron money"
@thecryptodrive - "Would a negotiated fork be possible?"
@fredrikaa - "Important not to lose perspective. Things were not perfect before"
@themarkymark - "At some point in the future Steem will disappear into Tron - that's a fact"
@jesta - "The community is involved, the community cares. It is the devil we know v the devil we don't"
@themarkymark - "Should prepare for a fork, but doing one now is premature. Otherwise against forking as it will reflect on the integrity of the blockchain"
@aggroed - "Should get Tron to sign an agreement that they won't use their stake to vote witnesses..."
@mcfarhat - "Should open lines of communication"
@lukestokes - "Justin Sun may be more in alignment with the Steem community regarding marketing and promotion"

The discussion then moved to the witnesses' outlook for the future.

Responses included...

@theycallmedan - "Extremely bullish. Must keep all options on the table, and be prepared. The community should be optimistic and be ready to grab the opportunity"
@fredrikaa - "As a dApp owner I see this as positive. Growing with this momentum is a good thing. Plenty to work with, but need time to reflect. Use energy like this to move forward. Bullish, but cautious."
@adsactly - "Be more positive than negative"
@lukestokes - "Take time to breathe. Still early"
@jarvie - "Optimistic but cautious. Lots of things Justin Sun can bring to the table"
@starkerz - "Massive, massive opportunity. Funding now available means everything will get completed. But must get our butts covered just in case. Guaranteed winner. Very, very excited about the future."
@crimsonclad - "Optimistic, rather than pessimistic. On a level that we were not optimistic with Ned. It is an opportunity to get Steem spoken about more widely"
@aggroed - "For now I'm excited. The marketing and capital will be great for us. As long as STEEM is still on the exchanges, the chain is still running and Justin Sun is not voting for witnesses"

In summary, the consensus seemed to be that there is no immediate need to hard fork, but preparations for all eventualities should be considered.

Channels of communications with Justin Sun and Tron should be opened, and ideally some agreement should be reached.

Overall, the mood was optimistic.

@starkerz summed it up well ... "Positivity with Caution"

For reference Justin Sun has now made his first post on Steem...

Excited about TRON&Steem/Steemit collaboration

The Tron / Steem news is still generating a lot of posts expressing a range of opinions.

Including some from witnesses...

And many from leading community members (in alphabetical order)...

And a few from DApps...

@actifit - Actifit Updates: Steemit x Tron Partnership & Our Thoughts. Weekly Staff Picked Actifit Reports #27. Get In Shape Promotional Workout Video
@spinvest - Tron buy Steemit - What does this mean to SPinvest?

Media Coverage

CoinDesk - Steemit Sets Up Shop on Tron Network
CryptoBriefing - Steemit Migrating to TRON Blockchain, New Partnership

KEY DATA [ from CoinMarketCap & @arcange ]

Steem price	US$ 0.259	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC
CoinMarketCap Ranking	#72	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC
FCAS Score	755 / A	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC
SBD price	US$ 1.03	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC
No. of Whales	37	14 Feb '20
No. of Orcas	366	14 Feb '20
No. of Dolphins	2222	14 Feb '20
No. of Minnows	9300	14 Feb '20
Alexa rank (steemit.com)	#15,178	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC
Unique visitors (steemit.com)	217,740 / day	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC
Page views (steemit.com)	500,802 / day	16 Feb '20 2.19am UTC

Follow @penguinpablo & @steem-data for more statistics.

This is #259 (15 Feb '20) of this daily news service.

[ graphics by @pennsif ]