[Interview] All Steem Hard Fork Related Issues Revealed.
This is the contents of an interview with Steem witness, which may help us know better about the hard fork 23.0 initiated on May 20.Translated from: https://joind.io/market/id/2098
image from Shutterstock
Blockchain project Steem will implement a hard fork on May 20 at 11:00 pm (Korea time). The hard fork announcement will be uploaded on May 19 at 11:00 pm (Korea time). The scheduled hard fork is different from the HIVE one conducted in March. To examine the background and controversy around this hard fork, JOIND interviewed the witness team of the Steemit-based reward site Triple A. Triple A is a Korean project that has been securing a place in the top 20 witnesses after Hive Hard Fork. Below is the full interview.
Q> What is the background of the hard fork?
“When Hive split the blockchain in March, certain accounts were excluded from their airdrop. Hive responded by saying that they ‘excluded accounts that oppose decentralization,’ but it is not true. Only users who had not sided with the Witnesses before Hive Hard Fork and who had mediated between Steemit Inc. and the old Witnesses were excluded.
The situation further worsened after HIVE Hard Fork. They continued to attack the Steem blockchain ecosystem in the following ways:
- Disrupt network stability: cause disturbance with different node versions and meaningless price feeds
- Conduct block RAM spamming through infinite small amount transfer by using bots
- Write offensive and pointless spam comments to mislead other Steem users, or leave extremely long comments that are impossible to comment on
- Exploit the Steem Rewards Pool by astroturfing in the comment section and voting for themselves, which violated the spirit of “Proof of Brain” they insisted on when they were witnesses
- Spread fake news including rumors
- Publicly attack users, collect personal information and even threaten murder
For these reasons, we decided to start a hard fork. ”
Q> What changes does this hard fork cover?
“First, this hard fork includes a reduction of the power-down period from 13 weeks to 4 weeks, which is intended to allow investors and users to access Steem more easily.
It’s worth noting that the hard fork is executed by witnesses rather than Steemit Inc., and would request assistance from Steemit Inc. if necessary. In addition, seed node list will be updated in parallel with the hard fork launch to keep the Steem blockchain stable.
Lastly, hard fork 23.0 covers response to the attacks on Steem blockchain as described in the hard fork’s background above. Accounts posing a direct threat to the Steem blockchain or the legitimate assets of Steem holders will be seized (about 5 million US dollars’ worth of assets will be frozen). This is included as a mandatory measure to improve Steem’s network stability and user environment.
Q> When will the announcement be made and what’s the exact update time for the hard fork?
“Announcement on the hard fork will be released via Steem account @Mysoftfork22888 on May 19 at 11:00 pm (Korea time), along with which the related code will also be made public. The time of update is currently scheduled at 11:00 pm on May 20 (Korea time), and the code will then update to v23.0.”
Q> There have been doubts around whether the hard fork can be executed.
“Currently, main witnesses have agreed to update to v23.0 by consensus and the code has been shared with the exchanges. Witnesses who do not update to v23.0 will create a chain that is forked to v22.0, where changes covered in v23.0 will be inapplicable. Theoretically, if there are enough witnesses running the 22.0 code, there can be chances for a chain split. ”
Q> What is the plan after the hard fork?
“Current Steem witnesses went through a difficult time urgently preparing servers since the last Hive Hard Fork. Now we have some knowledge about the system. While preparing for the hard fork, we realized how much pressure was on the existing system. We will keep upgrading the structure of the Steem ecosystem to prevent this incident from happening again. Also, priority is given to improving blockchain stability and user experience, and we will strive to build Steem in a way that allows users and investors to grow and develop together with it.”
Q> You said you realized how much pressure was on the existing system. What does that mean?
“It has a lot to do with the behavior of old Witnesses. To understand this, we need to take a look at what blocktrade (@blocktrades) did, who used to be the No.1 witness before the hard fork in March. Blocktrade had been one of the core miners since the birth of Steem. It is managed by Dan Nostein, who owns another company besides Blocktrade.
By the end of 2019, blocktrade had received 25 million Steem in the past three years from Steemit Inc. in the name of development costs. He also designed the developers’ fund SPS, which in reality served as a window for old witnesses to make profits. Currently, SPS is running on HIVE under the same mechanism, and will eventually become a tool for distributing rewards to a handful of witnesses and those around them. Requesting 1000 HBD (SBD) per day for 63 days, it is taking more than $50,000 to build an image server. It is a method that facilitates collecting development costs directly from the reward pool without applying to Inc.
Blocktrade used the same method on Steemit. Information on Blocktrade's account and funds can be checked through the records on the exchange. Based on the above information, it can be seen that Blocktrade received more than 20 million Steem from Steemit Inc and moved them to exchanges over a course of three years. Blocktrade also abused another account, @darthknight, and voted for old witnesses during the 22.2 hard fork. At that time, @darthknight had a Steem Power-up of over 3 million Steem (the greater the power-up amount, the greater influence the witness voting is), and the transaction records on the exchange prove that this account belongs to blocktrade. The aforementioned deeds are evidenced by the transaction records and can also be verified directly through the transaction tool on Steem. The SPS that Blocktrade abused in Steem has now been locked by Steemit Inc.”
Q> Why are you making a late announcement of the hard fork?
“As mentioned earlier, Steem has been attacked again by Hive following the hard fork in March. Therefore, a late announcement buys us time to prepare for the hard fork. The announcement is going to be uploaded at 11:00 pm on the 19th, one day ahead of the hard fork.
Q> Some people believe that this hard fork is being conducted for the personal interest of the current Steem Witnesses.
“Now, few Steemit Witnesses make a living by this. If this is an operation for personal benefits, I think it would be better to simply post content or develop a DApp and sell products. ”
Q> I heard about a new project - Blurt airdrop, do you know how this project started?
“There was a guy named BIRDINC who used to work at Steemit and be in charge of B2B affairs or contacting exchanges. As HIVE hard fork took place, BIRDINC moved to HIVE. However, BIRDINC was not rewarded for his work since he was not a witness of HIVE. So he asked Hive if he could get compensation through SPS. He asked for a reward of around $300 per day, but he was kicked out after Hive refused him.
Afterward, BIRDINC stated that he would also conduct a forking. I am not sure how exactly it will be done, but the following facts have been confirmed.
- Unlike Hive, all accounts will receive airdrops with no exception.
- According to the disclosed information, snapshots are conducted on the 20th at around 2 pm.
- The launch date of the said chain is scheduled for July 4.
- Initial witnesses are provided with benefits such as a guaranteed position of witness for two years.
Considering that the launch date is July 4th, it seems to be a way of turning the snapshots taken on May 20th into a database and transferring to each account. However, details such as the means of forking have not yet been released. ”
Q> Why is there a delay in Steemit after Hive’s hard fork?
“The frequent delays have been caused partly by the effort of eliminating the system built by old witnesses all at once and partly by the attacks from HIVE. It is our hope that this fork which did not come easy will free us from the stagnation and create a foundation for our respective development and prosperity.”
※ The author has held Steem since 2017
More likely @steem will be free of users.
https://peakd.com/hive-133987/@penguinpablo/hive-vs-steem-stats-friday-may-22-2020
Thank you very much for publishing this interview. It is always good to get factual information from a different point of view.
I wish I had had this information BEFORE the hardfork. For example, spamming and milking annoyed me a lot, but I didn't know that it would affect the stability of the system.
However, some users continue to do both of these things, even depositing minimal amounts of money every second continues, if you look at the wallet of @bittrex for example.
Some of these - long known - "candidates" like @haejin are not affected by the hardfork. Why not?
Should the "troublemakers" have a new hobby, it would be easy for them to continue to disrupt the system with other, even completely new accounts. Do you want to run a new hardfork every time these actions are discovered? Do you have plans to prevent these actions?
Many users are very, very upset because the stake of the affected users is also affected and has been transferred to the account @comminity321. I am disappointed that the stake is not mentioned at all in this interview.
Without wanting to judge morally or legally about each "side" here to preserve the factual character of this text, I would like to point out that there is a difference between "not getting an airdrop" and "taking an existing stake", so I can understand the excitement (not the unobjective, vulgar condemnations).
Can you say what should happen to the stakes or what you had planned to do with them?
At the time of the interview, it was probably impossible to see that an anonymous user - celebrated as a hero on the Hive - would transfer the stakes to Bittrex. Can you get back the amounts and what will happen to them?
Furthermore I would like to know why the author of this text (someone who has held Steem since 2017) remains anonymous. For forming an own opinion at least his nick would be very important, because under the circumstances interested people could also follow his "story" on the Steem.
Every piece of the puzzle is important, so thanks again for supplying some more pieces. I would be very happy if my open questions were answered.
Many thanks in advance,
Chriddi
Thank you for your assessment, although it is based on some conjecture. Because I'm so tired of those, I'm still waiting for an "official" statement.
I'm afraid I think so too. And I hope very much to be able to protect myself from the fact that normal users are drawn deeper and deeper into this "war" by the terrible communication culture alone. All this negative energy prevents me at the moment from looking ahead positively - wherever...
I want to know exactly what Chriddi wants to know. These are very good questions to which every stakeholder would like to have an answer.
And while you're at it, I'd like to know the following:
Who is the Steemit Foundation?
Can you please introduce the foundation to your stakeholders. Management, finances, board of trustees and purpose of the foundation would suffice for now. That would be very nice.
Some weeks ago it was launched a discussion to talk about abuse, some ideas were expressed there for cases like haejin and other spamm and milking cases. In my understanding the kind of attacks on this time came directly from nodes, and boundaries on freedom of speech were clearly trespassed (doxing and racist attacks for example).
In the view of many steem holders with no airdrop, these hive assets existed in their wallets and were also transferred to the hive dao to make pledges (if not a code proven traitor to descentralization) to get them returned. It's what happened with all the Steemit Inc assets. In the first instance it was said that these "toxic" funds will not exist in hive, but this was not accurate. Before and after the fork many people have proposed to burn them, but until now they are still there. In the HF23 announcement it was set the same procedure to get the Steem back for those holders, but... here comes this strange Robin Hood giving the assets to the US Law. Of course, there's many more pieces in the puzzle to discover.
I think it's an interview in a Korean site with some of the administrators of TripleAAA.
These are just opinions, much probably not answers.
Best wishes for projects and life, @Chriddi!!
Many thanks for this information, dear @leveuf
It is very good to meet a user who can communicate in a reasonable way. Sometimes, unfortunately, condemning vocabulary and insults dominate the conversation, even flags on a few polite, factual questions... :-(
Maybe, but they were also helpful. I'm so tired of picking information out of emotionally colored comments and rumors - partly on "foreign" channels like Discord or Twitter - and still hope for an "official", factual statement.
All the best to you too!
Yes, for me the main problem in all this situation begun with communication. The technical operation on these platforms is a mystery for many users, let aside the economy and politics. Many have all the technical knowledge or the stake, but lack of ability to negotiate. Pretty much that's how societies work.
The fork gave me an opportunity to learn more about blockchain in general and different coins (also the lockdown), it's a big and constantly growing space. I'm used for everyday life, to find information in as many sources as possible, I was comfortable here, but then feel sorry when I discovered that I was being "gatekeeped".
My question, is there an official authority who establish what is 'decentralization' and what is not? Who it is? People have been judged and punished for that simple word since Valentine's Day.
Systems are complex. Some time ago I discussed with a dev about Open Source, it was the time of Utopian, my post touched a little of Windows for developers, and some others open source applications not on Github. Of curse, it was about a contribution not accepted. Plenty of attacks to Microsoft. Months later Microsoft buys Github, the site where are placed all the codes of these platforms we much love. What does this mean?
My hope is everybody to set a positive plan for the real value here, human esteeming interactions, that's what I learned here and I think it can be applied everywhere.
It's for me a pleasure to meet you @Chriddi, and it's good to talk.
Have an excellent day.
It is a good thing to hear both sides. There are also some good points on this post.
To let Indian community know about this interview I will translate it in Hindi,
Thanks for the clarification for those who doesn’t understand it
Link:- [Interview] All Steem Hard Fork Related Issues Revealed. [HINDI translation for Indians]
I think now that things have been resolved we will move together to build Steem, our main objectives and why we are here. Thanks for serving us!
Thank you for the information. Read!
After this hardfork, we should think of ways to grow the Steem user base by improving the UI, UX, and more use-cases.
STEEM-ON!
Grow? Steem is shrinking right now and you need to break the downtrend first.
https://peakd.com/hive-133987/@penguinpablo/hive-vs-steem-stats-friday-may-22-2020
Thanks very much for protecting the image of steemit from these wittiness.
Like your question and answer. I love the HF 23.0. It was late but better late then never.
Keep it up. They (Hive) want to destroy the steem. You have save it at some extend. They are thinking that they can only do this type of things, they want to rule the steem and Hive. But you have done great job.
Thanks for information and HF.
Hive doesn't need to destroy Steem. Steem is destroying itself by showing that funds can be seized. If the Steem witnesses can seize the funds of the Hive witnesses they can seize everyone else's funds as well. If I had 40000 Steem I would be very worried.
Criminals has to worried about the police action.
General public needs not to worries. If they worries, they have to think over it.
The HF 23.0 is very good and appreciable action by current steem witnesses.
LOL. You really think that?
Police states happen. Miscarriages of justice happen. Corruption happens. The general public should always be vigilante against those who governs them.
I did think think over it and have started to power down.
It is upto you.
Cool..