Robin Hood'ing The Steem Hardfork | Two Scenarios Of Purposefully Involving Bittrex In Steem's Future
And the thriller continues!
I marveled when I saw that the funds that were seized from some large stakeholders, the funds that were meant to be transferred to the account @community321 to eventually be used as major voting stake have suddenly been transferred to Bittrex without any proper designation-memo relating to a target Bittrex account.
This in effect has thrown a mighty wrench into the recent Hardfork attempts by the gang on Steem. Sure they could do another "emergency hardfork" tomorrow, just digging their grave deeper and deeper (in terms of reputation in the public eye), or they could just conceed to a(nother) loss here.
I see two major scenarios here that I want to share as the situation develops:
Scenario 1
The core of the Steem community has once again managed to fend off a major criminal attack on the network by those who claim to work in its interests but who show the exact opposite in their actions. Just as the creation of Hive was a defensive move to resist the hostile takeover attempts of a democratically run network this feels like the newest instance of the same story. The self-elected king and his cronies try to seize control but the people resist.
It feels like a Robin Hood scenario really: Someone managing to hack into the account that was designated to gather the stolen funds, only to intercept them and to send them off to Bittrex with a kinky memo instead.
Involving Bittrex this way makes the situation a lot more complicated.
Should Bittrex decide to send the funds back to the proxy-theft account @community321 then it would signal to the entirety of the crypto community that - at least Bittrex as a major crypto exchange - condones and supports the behavior of the new Steem management gang, namely theft of private property.
Should Bittrex decide not to send the funds back to the proxy-theft account but instead to the funds' proper owners before the hardfork it would signal that the exchange is really on the site of "the little man" and not on the side of the gang that has tried again to take over the steem blockchain.
In both variants Bittrex is forced to take sides in this most unexpected turn of events which by definition makes Bittrex an active participant in choosing a future for Steem. And they have their own reputation on the line now - everyone is watching.
If I were to guess they would just wire the funds back to @community321 and claim they have no interest in getting involved.
Still this scenario would show that at least one individual made the Robin Hood move and defended against a massive takeover-attempt of injustice. A tale that shall be long remembered on Hive and (depending on the next developments) maybe on Steem - if the circumstance isn't outright censored into oblivion.
Scenario 2
However, since we are dealing with the gang I also see a second scenario on the horizon:
The stolen funds were never intended to be gathered in the @community321 account, or at least the gang decided at the last moment that stealing the funds outright on-chain would be too damn unforgiveable within the crypto community if the gang had any hope of making steem successful in the future and to not tarnish its reputation beyond repair (in case this hasn't already happened).
One way to "smooth" the waves a bit is to claim someone hacked into the account sending it off to Bittrex in this way while that was really part of the plan all along in order to "save face" (if there is any face left to save these days). Involving Bittrex in this way would probably complicate legal prosecution of the gang or its cronies by magnitudes, because it could always be claimed later that the funds were never intended to be stolen nor to be used for stake voting but to be "held" off-chain. Passing the ball to Bittrex now in this way could be one of the smartest con moves ever, legally speaking, delegating responsibility to a third party and muddying the waters of right and wrong further when it comes to investigating the chain of events.
I feel: The gang should not be underestimated. I totally see that as a possible scenario.
Neither do I believe that this is all due to some childish super-rich crypto-kid who somehow decided to buy steem one day and send this place to madness - Justin is just the actor on stage representing a certain energetic force in the background: People who see Steem as dangerous to their plans in the long run if it is allowed to run like a free society could.
Nor do I believe that the gang are incompetent. The gang knows what they are doing and they are playing us, just like it was to be expected that Steem would pump today like crazy now that all its reputation goes down the drain for everyone to see. The moment most comenteers decide to sell their Steem and dapps on Steem stop supporting the chain we see nothing in terms of price movement, only a day later we see a major pump that is still ongoing.
I never researched it but I already have a feeling the tale we all know of Robin Hood is probably another lie by the gang as well. We need heroes, and power structures always make sure the opposition is undermined long before it gets going.
But maybe I'm just giving them too much credit now.
All of that said: I find the first scenario more likely but maybe I just want it to be that way. I want to believe people eventually stand up to injustice and throw the king and his cronies out of "their" palace. Whatever happened here, I am seriously questioning why anyone would ever watch a thriller these days when you can just refresh your feed from time to time and read how things unfold for all to see on both chains <3
It's just so exciting!!
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