It's almost unavoidable at this point. Just about everyday I see someone throwing in the towel. Either because they fear the upcoming changes and thus feel as if they need to at least walk away with something, because chances are everything will go to zero, or it's someone who is experiencing personal turmoil and thus needs whatever cash they can get their hands on.
All time Lows
This may not be the case in USD, which let's face it, it's really what we all worry about in the short term, but it seems to be accurate against BTC, the king of crypto. The truth is that It does seem worrying that the bleedout hasn't stopped and to to see some people losing hope, is disheartening.
It's not unreasonable that some people are choosing to sell at market value, even at this loss, because they rather ride the wave up on another token, or even chase BTC. But the move in my opinion is just as risky, if not more. I can't tell how many times I've lost money for chasing uptrends.
The 50/50 issue
I've talked about this before, and I guess it's getting old, but the truth is that the problem is is not really there. Yes, at face value it seems like content creators are going to get less for their work, a smaller percentage of the pool, but people say this, without considering the price of STEEM itself.
To put it simply, I rather have 1% of a million dollars than 50% of ten. What these ideas are attempting to do is to increase the floor valuation of STEEM. Yes, I guess we could frame it as "the people are overpaid" but that's a strawman argument, or at least it's one sided.
The issue is that STEEM is not attractive enough to investors, at least the way that it's working today. So to say that we must do nothing, that no change is required, is to passively say that everything is peachy, and I don't think that's a true assertion of the situation either.
BUIDL
Because we have options today, it's not entirely correct to say that we are at the mercy of a handful of powerful witnesses. Yes, when it comes to consensus, the upgrading of the blockchain itself, etc, they will be the ones who will accept or reject the upgrade, but it doesn't mean a community member is out of options.
If for example, you believed that we should pay more to content creators, that the split should be 90/10, you could start a Tribe using STEEM ENGINE, and give the experiment a go. It's not free, I'll grant you that, but from what I can tell, there's enough people upset with how STEEM will be distributed, that amassing the funds for this effort might not be too difficult.
Maybe you've noticed Palnet already, and how well it seems to be doing with the 50/50, and yes, I will grant you that we are early on the distribution of Palcoins and thus it's hardly a good time to slam the gavel, but it's also fair to point out that the experiential value of steemians on Palnet is excellent. Everyone is having fun, and in the end, that is just as important.
If you are leaving
I bid you farewell, I'm not one to play tribal games ironically enough. I don't think the game is over, as some say, not by a long shot, and I'm ready to see what's around the corner.
Regardless of what happens I regret nothing. I've written more than I thought I ever could, made friends, and learnt so much about money and economic systems that my victory is completely independent from the story of how MenO became a crypto millionaire. Not that I would hate it, but again, that's not how I measure my quality of life.
MenO