Wolf Witness Statement: Steem Protective Soft Fork 222

Today, on the 23th Februrary of 2020 at 10PM UTC, the majority of Steem witnesses have accepted a temporary soft fork (v0.22.2), which immediatly prohibits certain operations from Steemit Inc owned accounts.

This software update is temporary, reversible and no other accounts have and will be affected.

More information about the soft fork can be found in this post:

https://steempeak.com/steem/@softfork222/soft-fork-222

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As a consensus witness & stakeholder, it is my N°1 priority to ensure the safety & governance of Steem, the blockchain.

As such, I've decided to run the proposed SF, with the goal to ensure the protection of Steem, which has always been threatened by the ninjamined stake, but even more so due to the recent purchase of Steemit Inc by an external party.

More information about the soft fork and the arguments around it, can be found in this post:

https://steempeak.com/steem/@softfork222/soft-fork-222

Personal Note

Over the past 2 1/2 years, I've invested sweat & tears into Steem. For the possibilities, this blockchain & community has given me, I'm extremely grateful. Which is why I believe that running the SF is the right thing to do.

I always had some kind of faith in things turning out okay. "Once SMTs & communities are here, we'll thrive" was my motto. But the more I looked into the early history of Steem and what I've witnessed over time, the more disturbed I became, regarding what went wrong.

Most importantly, how Steem was launched (ninjamine, chain-wipe, hyperinflation & co.) and how absurd the distribution was tilted towards Steemit Inc. owning the far majority of Steem. On top of that, how bad the outside image got, because of exactly this reason.

I trusted that Steemit Inc, or rather Ned Scott, would do the correct thing with this ninjamined stake, or rather what was promised in the past (Example: Youtube Video), as in using it to support Steem & its ecosystem, as well as distribute it to reduce the risk of centralisation.

But what I didn't expect, was for him to sell his company right when we were on the cusp of thriving. I could talk a lot about personal responsability and all of that, but that's not what this note is about.

The immense value Steem provides, is in part due to Steemit Inc, but has been mainly created by many, many community-developers, -entrepreneurs, -creators & stakeholders. And this is what we have to support & protect, starting with this soft fork.

As I wrote in the beginning of the post, this SF is only temporary to ensure that the ninjamined stake can't be used to maliciously attack our blockchain.

The goal is to find a mutual compatible solution with Steemit Inc on how the stake can be used to benefit Steem, without explicitely having to trust "words". Because, as we've seen now, words can easily be broken, code can not.

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We are Steem!

Wolf

^{If you agree with me on this, then please vote for me as witness to ensure the governance of this blockchain.}