@Poloniex Now Holding 28 Million in Uncredited Deposits, Does the Steemit Community Provide a Solution? Or Are We Helpless?

Two weeks ago, I had a power down payment. My account wasn’t huge, but the count was just over 1040 shares. As I’ve shared already, I didn’t think a lot about it, sent it over to Poloniex, to start the process of converting, with the end in mine, of buying a used car this summer using some of my Steem. No such luck. After many requests for help, it’s apparent that Poloniex either lacks the capacity to respond, or has no intention of giving anything but canned responses, and that’s a problem.

After ups and downs for two weeks, they posted a notice the other day saying they would start crediting accounts with deposits on July first, the first came and went, with no word. The wallet, by my count, has been back up and receiving deposits at least four times in the past two weeks, with the results being, their liquid steem, in their steemit wallet, going from 23 to 28 million.

To all of you who will say, “Just move to Bittrex”, done and done, but that changes nothing regarding the more than $1600 in Steem still in limbo in the Poloniex account, which brings me to my point. This type of thing, right here, is why anarchist’s can’t have nice things. It’s all well and good to talk about people acting in their own best interests, and not needing oversight, but when the shit hit the fans, what are we supposed to do?

It strikes me, that since this one account has collected at least 5 million additional shares of Steem, since I last posted on this topic a week ago, that this is effecting the entire Steem economy. It has to have an effect on the price of steem, which is going down, pretty steadily since this whole thing started. How much, as a percentage, of the overall reward pool is now congregated in that account, and what, if anything, can be done to fix it, and prevent this from happening again?

Yes, I know, many of you will call me a crank, but here’s the thing. If that was your bank, would you just walk away from it? With no actual response, no knowledge of if your funds will be restored, and no recourse? While I’m not inclined to assume they are somehow working an angle here, the idea has crossed my mind.

So, as a Steemit community, is this something you are all okay with? An exchange that is one of a few working with our currency, being able to just horde the steem in their account, not credit your deposits and not respond? I get it, it’s a new technology, if things got screwed up, fine, that’s great, fix it, but why at my expense?

I think Poloniex needs to take a look at a mechanism for restoring that steem, without taking their usual cut, to the Steemit accounts from whence it came, immediately.
So, I’m here asking @Dan, @Ned, @Poloniex, anybody?

Is there any mechanism in the Steem blockchain for dealing with bad actors? Is there anything the witnesses can do to sanction this account, or at least prevent them from accepting further transfers? If not, is it possible to build this in? I’m very frustrated on my own behalf, but it’s bigger than that. I’ve already shared how I feel that this is where anarchy ends and centralization begins, as people grow unwilling to overlook such huge problems and start to call for action.

If there is hope that this will be corrected, or if anyone has any other information regarding this, please share. I’m sorry to be bringing this up again, and I don’t want to be a negative voice here, but I think unless we take positive steps to police ourselves, this could become a huge problem.

Perhaps it is not hitting enough of us at the level it is hitting me? Perhaps others in my position have more Steem than they need? I don’t know, but I can’t be the only one thinking that something needs to change.

Here are some suggestions. I think exchange accounts should be treated differently, in that an average user should not be able to just log on here and start one. There should be some accountability. Secondly, private messaging needs to be a viable thing.

Since Poloniex has opted not to share posts, there is no means of reaching out to them, other than their website, which gets canned responses, and Twitter, which gets you nothing in particular.

This, I find, is the most frustrating thing about libertarian and anarcho enterprises, everyone wants to shrug off government, but very few seem ready to acknowledge, that even if it’s simply within the community, some standards and enforceable rules, with penalties, should be put in place to prevent people being taken advantage of with no recourse.

@Poloniex, you’ve got our attention. I suggest you use your power to share a statement about what you intend to do. If this goes very much longer, I’m going to be investigating legal remedies if no one within the community is willing to step up and offer a solution. Sorry that it’s been tough for you, Poloniex, but you’ve got to act more responsibly since we are all at your mercy.

I also recognize a problem here. We all have sent voluntary contributions to a single user account, with no receipt, and other than the obvious intent, no way to prove what we were sending that money for. With Bittrex, there is a tax ID with each and every transaction, but here inside Steemit, there is no such thing, and as long as they keep our wallets on Poloniex offline, we have no access to any IDs generated there. This is a serious issue that seems like it could be rectified, and should be rectified.

Again, I’m not terribly technical, all I know is this, if I send someone something for a specific purpose, that purpose should be fulfilled, or my investment returned within a reasonable amount of time. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions as to next steps, or ways to prevent similar things in the future (other than simply using other services, which I am doing and fully intend to do from here out) thanks!

Note: I am a big boy. I'm not crying. If I never get it back, I'll make more and count it as stupid tax, but I don't willingly pay stupid tax, so just attempting to right this wrong, for myself and others.