OK. Rather than justify any actions, here I will try and lay out the facts, so as to help everyone better UNDERSTAND what all is involved.
There is no reason for anyone to impose opinions upon anyone or throw judgemental accusations around.
Since day one of my experiences on Steem, it was clear that ‘information flow’ was not necessarily at an admirable level.

To show that my words are not only ‘words’ but actions, many people here can recall the questions of “Where can we see all the witness related posts from witnesses?”
As a result, one of the first publically noticed projects that I took on was to tackle this “gap in the communications flowchart” and as a result in May of 2018 was born

Hive account@witnesspage

Actions speak louder than words!

“Never enough transparency” or as I keep saying, “We need to adopt transparent, open & public policymaking”.
Call it “TOP POLITICS”

Note: this concept I read about well over a decade ago and now it is possible thanks to immutable data technology, such as blockchains. The idea of “TOP Politics” stuck there (obviously).

So as you can see, my goals are not to persuade or direct anyone, my goal, even here in this post is to help inform and assist everyone to get the relevant information, so as to better asses the reality of our reality.

So here goes:

A few days ago I posted about some of the events that have helped shape things to where we are today and also about the differences between Steem, STEEM, STEEM Backed Dollars and the various front ends/ User Interfaces, such as steemit.com:

To Be or Not To Be? That Is Still The Question! (Sharing Thoughts)

& the following post is maybe just as important to read:

Steemit IS NOT Steem! - Tron IS NOT Steem!

What I shall copy paste from there is the following:

What people need to know is the following:
Steem = the blockchain.
STEEM = the first of two native cryptocurrencies on the Steem blockchain.
STEEM Backed Dollars (SBD) = the other cryptocurrency on the Steem blockchain.
Then there are many Dapps and apps that use the term Steem in their names.
One of which is the user interface (UI) steemit.com

I suggest that you have a read of it, when you get a chance.

“We can’t change yesterday, it is what we do today that matters.”
(another one of those life sayings things I try to live by)

Some of the things I mentioned in that post shall be listed here as they are RELEVANT INFORMATION.

Let’s start at Now and work our way back:

Yesterday we saw Soft Fork 22.2 implemented.

Why is it a “Soft Fork” and not a “Hard Fork”.

Well, quite simply, the options that were addressed in the Soft Fork were already approved in the code. Which is simple to comprehend.

Unlike a Hard Fork in which there are “new options” being added, a Soft Fork is simply dealing with the existing approved options in the code.

Does a Soft Fork as such then require consensus as such? YES.

How is this achieved?

Well, first of all, the actions need to be laid out in writing, usually presented on Github and then tested and if Witnesses wish to implement it then we can.

How is it “approved”?

Simply as with any changes in and to the code, the Witnesses implement this code into the server one manages.
If the required number of witnesses implement the changes as per the consensus requirements (defined in the code) then that Soft Fork or Hard Fork are the go.

I presume many already knew this, but from what I heard and read, many are still not too sure as to what all this means.
Basically: Any changes made have to have the defined number of witnesses approving it, which is done by implementing them.

I guess the best example to give is one that we have all seen and heard about, so that everyone gets a clearer picture is like in real life when you see an act or change to an act being approved by parliament or congress.

What did the Soft Fork include in it:

There it is.
Now, to help better explain this:
The accounts that hold powered up (“staked”) STEEM which were exclusively there for the purpose of building Steem had these listed options applied to them.
The keys (what many people often compare to “passwords”) to these accounts were held by Steemit Inc.

What exactly was this STEEM intended for?

The following is a copy paste from a document published by Steemit Inc. that in my opinion best describes it:

Since then, there have been changes made to how the further development of Steem (the blockchain) and anything related to Steem, including but not limited to the various applications such as “front ends/ user interfaces” is done.

It was called Steem.DAO (DAO = Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
This was named as per the request of Steemit Inc.

DAO is a popular term for blockchain-based systems like the worker proposal system.
Often we may see “SPS” used, which was the original suggested name, which stood for “Steem Proposal System”. Many of us still refer to the DAO by its original suggested name of SPS. (it is the one and the same thing.)

What this meant was that our ecosystem now had code by which future support to development could be decided upon by all stake holders and not just one registered company that has allocated stake for that purpose.
However, the relevant stake for these purposes in the listed accounts was not transferred to the DAO fund.
We have also seen a real foundation formed and registered in The USA. A foundation that was formed as per the recommendations of Steemit Inc.

The foundation is exclusively managed by people voted in by stakeholders and as such can be at any time closed/shut down by stake holders. Not by any one individual. This foundation literally covers ALL the missing “gaps” that could exist if for example Steemit Inc. were to have been closed down.

Again, the difference being, that stake holders make the decision to do so and not one individual.

Why was a company registered instead of code?

I can’t say exactly why. What I did say is the following:

….After all, those STEEM were there for that exact purpose and at the time were when the Steem blockchain was commenced, the founders thought that a company to do the job would be the best way to go about things. However, as time moved forwards, it was made clear that “a company” can’t effectively serve the needs of a decentralized community such as the 1 million+ accounts/ “xyz” hundred thousand people who are registered on the Steem blockchain.

Why wasn’t the relevant stake transferred to the DAO?

I don’t know. Many people tried to justify “Why not” but there was never a direct, straight to the point answer given that could justify a centralized US company managing stake that falls under the Steem code.

Yet we all saw what happened recently = The sale of Steemit Inc. !!!!

Which was all done behind closed doors, well out of any public knowledge of it.
Nothing in regards to this sale was transparent, open, nor public.

Most importantly, no communications with any stake holders (Steemians) were ever conducted in ref. to the relevant topics that are of vital importance to the Steem ecosystem.
So the “fine print” of the terms and conditions in this contract/sale of Steemit Inc, are unknown to anyone except those who signed off on it.

This is very RELEVANT to the current situation. (which shall be made clear later on in this post).

It is my presumption that the sale of Steemit Inc. was as per US Law. As that is the only “loophole” in our ecosystem that could allow for such a thing to happen in the way that it happened.

Here comes a very important detail that must be understood:

Steemit Inc. is a US registered company.

The STEEM listed in those relevant accounts that personnel within Steemit inc. managed is on the Steem blockchain.
Hence that stake is part of and falls under the code that makes Steem what it is.

Part of that code clearly defines the governance of Steem and everything that is related to it.

The code is all publically available on Github, where it was listed as Open Source (OS) and is FREE for use by anyone.
So there were no unknowns at any time. It was and still is and always shall be available to the public.

Ref: https://github.com/search?q=steem

There is a piece of disinformation flying around that is totally misleading.
It goes somewhat like this:

“once that stake was paid for it ceased to be ninja-mined stake”

OK. Many people may have an opinion on this, however, to state facts and nothing but the facts:

The way this stake was acquired was under some very questionable means. Which will never change. They were not distrubuted under any fair and equal terms and conditions. The mining of tokens was then in the code, however the code was meddled with by the founders and as a direct result of this foul doing Steemit Inc. in 2016 had acquired a whopping 41% of all the STEEM on the market.

This was and is the stake at question. This is the stake that exclusively still exists for the clearly defined purposes. (shown earlier in the post).

These purposes were and are the sole reason why this STEEEM was not burned.

This relevant stake was and is the “ninja mined” STEEM for as long as it exists, or for as long as it isn’t utilized and dispersed in accordance with the defined purposes.

So the line being thrown around is not factual, nor can any opinion back it, as there are no facts backing it.

If let’s say someone were to acquire any other STEEM, there wouldn’t be any issues with that.

That is the fact of that matter. No matter what opinions may be thrown around or how much anyone may strongly feel that their opinions and views override undeniable facts, which by the way are all on the Steem blockchain.

Which brings us back to Soft Fork 22.2!

What is most important at all times in our Steem ecosystem, including all things relevant to it is the following:

The role of witnesses is to ensure the existential security of the Steem blockchain.

This can be done in many ways, first and most obvious is to ensure the code is kept up to date on the servers managed by witnesses.

Then we obviously have all the other elements of Steem, which all fall under our “ecosystem”, from economy to business and without any doubt all of us stake holders best interests.

Hence the term “Governance”.

All of this is defined in the code that makes Steem what it is.

What seems to be often confused is the following:

“The code”

Best parallel that I can give is “A national constitution and laws as per that constitution”.
Everything needs to be defined in the code for Steem to be independent of any foreign jurisdiction.

This is what ensures Steems existence, independence and decentralization.
If for example there were to be a potential danger of Steems existence, then it is the responsibility of our Witnesses to ensure it is prevented.

Which is EXACTLY what Soft Fork 22.2 is all about.

What do I say about all the above mentioned?

Hard times call for some very hard decisions to be made.

The lack of information flow in the past (up to date) has not helped matters.
The fact that we are in this position is all a result of past actions. Our skeletons in the closets are coming out and biting all our rear ends.

There have been many questions as to what all, apart from the relevant issue with the stake at topic influenced the decision for SF22.2?

Well, there is the manner by which the sale of a company formed for the sole purpose of our ecosystem being sold off like a piece of meat at a butcher shop. That is probably the most influential fact out there. Sold as if it was for private profits and not for Steems best interests.

No need to go into the (i)morality powered by greed of the person or persons who sold it off to the best bidder, so that they can pocket some quick millions. That is crystal clear to anyone who wants to face the reality of it all.

There is the fact that very definitive statements were made by the new owner of the company Steemit Inc. & his prior actions on other blockchains were such that backed these statements.

Here are some of them:

Tron Announcement (which has a paragraph about moving the Steem token to the Tron network)

https://medium.com/@TronFoundation/steemit-joining-tron-ecosystem-6ad66584d0b

Sun tweeting he is moving the "Propietary Blockchain" ??? to Tron:

https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1229304521123192832
- justinsuntron

There are many more where these came from, but for the sake of proving the fact, these are definitely sufficient.

As for the previous actions by Mr Sun, which confirm his means of doing business and abuse of “ninja mined” stake, I will not say a word, here is proof of that:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tron-community-in-uproar-as-genesis-coins-used-in-super-reps-vote

There have been Tweets from Mr. Justin Sun that confirm his actions and business practices when it comes to the use of stake that should not be used for voting on governance. Some of our Steem witnesses have screenshots of them. I don't. But I do have a copy paste of the text from one such deleted Tweet:

Justin SunJustin Sun Hive account@justinsuntron
@ TronSpark @ redpillblue1 @ Tronfoundation I agreed with you. The vote is just temporary and short term solution. The long term solution is find a way/standard/guidelines to encourage active SRs and punish dormant SRs.
TwitterTwitter | Feb 19th

So, there is no doubt to the fact of how Mr. Justin Sun uses “ninja mined” stake that was agreed to NEVER be used for voting on Witnesses.

He does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants and to anyone he wants, no matter what the case may be.
Remember one fact in life:

Actions speak louder than words.

The above listed facts should be ample to define the eminent threat to the Steem blockchain, to our ecosystem and what brought about the need for Soft Fork 22.2

As I stated at the beginning of this post.

I have tried to, to the best of my capabilities relay facts only.

Those who know me, know that I do not hold back on saying what I really think.
However, here I felt that it was my responsibility as a witness to relay the facts that are relevant to Soft Fork 22.2

So as to help ensure all fellow Steemians (stake holders) are informed and can as per the facts be able to take into consideration everything that is relevant when thinking about or talking about SF22.2 .

I know that my PR skills are not necessarily up to a level of a used car salesperson!
& no I do not offer a free set of steak knives with anything!

I sincerely hope that this post and the facts listed herein help everyone better UNDERSTAND the reality of our reality.

For the sake of stating my personal opinion on the topic, I will write up a post, once I calm down from having gone through all these disturbing facts listed above which were all the centrepiece of almost all day every day since Ned Scott did the dirty on us all.

& as one person said the other day:

"Opinions are like armpits, we all have a couple of them"

What that person forgot to say was the important part, and that is "THEY STINK"

So that is why I prefer to try and stick to facts, rather than opinions, when it comes to such important issues as the existential security of our Steem blockchain.

PS. Latest and greatest from Tron:

https://medium.com/@TronFoundation/tron-weekly-report-02-15-02-21-international-version-86ac7a29799c