The past few days have been something to behold! It is already an epic tale of decentralization Vs raw centralised capitalism, good Vs bad and the beautiful demonstration of a community pulling together, like family, in tough times! I can only imagine what Justin Sun is feeling and thinking right now. I hope he has seen that this is a fight that he cannot win, because even if he did get the control and power back, the damage to him and his reputation has already been done. I hope that through this both Justin and the world can now see the power of the Steem community, demonstrated by reinstalling 5 of our witnesses despite Justin's current best efforts to buy/bring in millions and millions more Steem. I spent a good half hour reading twitter posts in responses to Justin's tweets, so many of them, and everyone saying the same thing! There seems to be little support for Justin on twitter and even on the larger crypto news streams. If you haven't seen then please check out https://www.coindesk.com/why-crypto-should-care-about-justin-suns-steem-drama .

The community has talked and debated and shared and vented on the MSP Town Hall Meetings. We have mobilized a huge majority of the Steem community into finally voting witnesses, and we have discovered some real and significant weaknesses in our witness voting system. Fortunately, if we do get control back of the chain, and right now we are just ONE witness away from being able to do that, we can and I’m sure will fix the issues with Witness voting. Less votes per person would that would already go a long way to stop this takeover every happening again.

We stand on a precipice, with one foot in our Steem Ship, and the other foot hovering off the ground as many people prepare or consider whether to start a New Steem. That may happen, and if it does i believe both will continue to exist and grow. Personally I would like us to try to save Steem as it is without a Fork, but i understand why some people feel it is necessary. Justin still owns SteemitINC, and could surprise us with another move at any time. Heck he could just buy another 10 Mil Steem and takeover the game again right? Well I’m not one to focus on fear, I believe we have already demonstrated our will and our strength, and so however this does pan out long term, i do really hope we still stay together as one community. I think the best way to achieve that is to stay and fight for what we have created, as one united force. If we fork it is going to be a very difficult choice for many, and i believe more than half would not move. We don’t like change, and most people who are here are not going to move very easily.

Lessons Learned!

I think we have learned a lot of lessons over this whole drama. I would like to share a few lessons I have learned. If you have more lessons to share please tell us in the comments.. What have you learned over the past week about Steem?

1. Never tell someone you are going to burn their money, its quite provocative.
2. Our witness voting system needs an overhaul.
3. Exchanges need to be blocked from staking their Steem (i think that is possible)
4. When we act together and support one cause we are very powerful!

Right this moment we have SIX FIVE of our own witnesses back in the top 20. We have already manage to stop JS from making any further forks, so he can no longer implement a short power down change. This was needed for him to let the exchanges have their liquid (clients) Steem back quickly. This option is for now off the table, and is likely to cause problems for Binance and the other exchanges that took part. One thing i would like to mention is that I am not SURE the extent that Binance collaborated with JS. I have heard that JS lied to them and told them Steem had been hacked, which prompted them to allow him to do what he did. This may or may not be true, I hope in time we find out exactly who did what.

If we get ONE more witness in place we will have taken back control of our blockchain. It looks like that may happen today, but let's watch and see! The moment we hit 7 witnesses i expect to see some action from our Witnesses, who I assume will reverse JS previous fork and deal with the ninja minded stake in an appropriate way.

SO as we all watch on with eager eyes, it is hard to post about anything else really. Our community feeds have gone quiet, and we are all focused on the goal. Amazing work STEEM COMMUNITY, we are all legends really! Let's show the world what blockchain is really about!

MY THOUGHTS ON THE JS/WITNESS MEETING & OPEN QUESTION: "What is safer, Witness Votes Based on Stake, Or One Man One Vote?"

https://steempeak.com/steem/@eco-alex/my-thoughts-on-the-js-witness-meeting-and-open-question-what-is-safer-witness-votes-based-on-stake-or-one-man-one-vote