RE: Progress being made
I personally think that what @pharesim proposed or some variant of it is very much win-win, as I pointed out in my own reply.
Once the ninja-mined stake (which I point out elsewhere, he paid very little for anyway) is redevoted to ecosystem development and taken off the table, a few things happen:
- He has no direct costs to incur for all of the promises he made in the post above (development teams, new features, user experience, marketing, etc.), since the ninja-mined stake would be paying for it.
- As buyer of Steemit Inc and steemit.com he is the owner (and, once more, at a very low price) in the largest and most important business in the Steem ecosystem. As Steem grows due to the successful efforts in his post and #1 above, Steemit Inc is likewise positioned to increase its user base and asset value (domain, user traffic, eventual reintroduction of monetization in some form, etc.)
- He likely owns significant Steem stake apart from the ninja-mined stake, which will increase in value.
Rather, by focusing narrowly on the stake (even to the extent of lying to exchanges in order to trick them into helping him remove it, before even seeking to engage with witnesses or stakeholders on the matter, or responding to communications) is:
- Showing us by his actions that he is most interested in quickly cashing out the stake than working to increase the overall value of his Steemit assets, even if his words say otherwise
- Damaging the value of the his assets (for example, he has already lost the entire dev team, which resigned due to his actions) and damaging or destroying his reputation and the goodwill of the community which could be harnessed to his advantage (or, indeed, to build greater value for all of our advantage).
It isn't too late for a different course, but every day that goes by with the present "our funds" approach, more damage is being done to everyone (lose-lose).
The small stakeholders opinions shall be taken into account as well, even when they may be different to the views of the large stakeholders.
I would agree on that point. As a large-ish stakeholder I have large votes when it comes to that but I also seek to listen and learn from everyone regardless of stake. Mostly in these discussions I don't pay any attention to it.
I've seen numbers going around of 350k Dollar to 10M US Dollar TRON Foundation paid for Steemit Inc. I have no clue if one of these numbers are close to the truth. If it is to the higher end of this range, than I can imagine cash flow is an topic for TRON/Justin. Cash flow is the most important element of running a business. With all the funds in SPS, their is no cash flow other than whatever is released each time period to fund the activities of Steem Ecosystem development, the tasks executed by Steemit inc in last 4 to 5 years. If cash flow is one of the primary reasons for Justin to want to sell (part of) the Steemit Inc stake asap, then we may be able to work this into a deal/agreement. In my view, nothing is black/white, and I can';t imagine this to be the case for our witnesses and higher SP holders as well. To form an agreement, we need to talks, the right topics discussed, not only high level, but in-depth. This can only be done when both parties are willing to do so. I would like to see the Steem community to take this onboard, start to talk indepth sitting at the table with TRON. If need be meet eachother in person. Nothing shall be agreed at the table, as usually in business, just explore a whole set of possible solutions, understand the true drivers of the other party, discover where there is room to move closer together. The 'What If' shall be played for many different 'What If's'.
All this can happen while we are in the situation today. We dont need an action from Justin/TRONs side, nor we need one from our side.
Sure, Justin made various remarks and wrote various posts he never should've done. Totally not business-like; Full of emotions, Agitating the other party a lot. But Roy seems to be much calmer and therefore easier to talk with staying civil. Maybe we shall address Roy, sit with him at the table. Leave Justin out of the sessions.
And sure, when we dont progress, Justin may incur losses, but we as a community do so as well: loose-loose as you stated. I can't imagine Justin would go for the loose-loose, but then again, he is a business person driven by emotions, hence he can make unexpected moves imho. Could for instance walk away from Steem and Steemit Inc. If that is a loss; I do think so, since the chance Steemit Inc goes belly up is not unreal. And even when Steemit Inc can progress, with the little developers they have of which the main once stepped away, will we be delivered what we need in time before Steem is becoming irrelevant.
Cool: KUDOS! :)