I like the DPoS system but I fear that it may make it easier to hamper networks that use it. Is it easier to target hundreds of mines or thousands of users or 20 or so witnesses. If we're living in a future where state players see crypto as a threat, then the more underground a network is the more likely it is to gain use when legislation, regulatory and other... more direct methods of dealing with threats to the system are harnessed.

As states move against crypto or seek to co-opt their movements then it could be as simple as using their current toolkits to either move their own witnesses into positions of power or threaten existing witnesses. As it becomes more dangerous to be a witness people will question if those remaining are really acting in the networks' best interests.

I'm of the opinion that there remains the very real possibility that the carrots and sticks used to cripple crypto will be hard to deal with, but there may be many who continue to see the utility in distributed networks that are privacy-oriented even in such an environment. In fact users of steemit may avoid a lot of the more detrimental attacks and notions of this crypto as a tool of bandits, thieves and smugglers may get dismissed, as the faucet encourages the identification of the users.

And just so I'm understanding this right, graphene boils down to using filters to cut down on the size of the block a node has to download, and isn't btc segwit compatible? If it turns out to that this and other such technologies operate in the wild without a hitch then it's all the more evidence that bitcoin is pretty much dead in the water as far as mass adoption goes as it's ultimately replaced in use even as a "store of value". Good as gold my ass if the tech isn't up to par.