A while back I had this doomsday scenario pop into my head about a potential vulnerability with Steem and I suppose with a lot of DPoS systems. Hive account@andrarchy recently made a post talking about how Steemit is attempting to combat issues like hate speech on social networks. He brings up how centralized solutions like Facebook or Twitter can just ban these accounts, which violates free speech, but is a quick solution, even though it's one that's extremely riddled in controversy.

He mentions Steem being the answer to this because of proof of brain, people's ability to flag things from view, but the ultimate permanence of the blockchain. I'm summarizing, check out his post to get a clearer idea of what he's saying.

Anyway, I commented on that post, about my doomsday scenario and I wanted to toss it out there for you all to get your opinions. To get straight to the point without mincing words the underlying function of Steem is...

Money = Power/Influence

Hive account@andrarchy presents the system on Steem as being provably fair. More skin in the game = more influence. That's a better sounding way of saying it, and both are equally accurate. Also for the record, I think this is the way it should be, I probably just wouldn't necessarily classify it as "fair". I really wouldn't even broch that word because it's so ambiguous and would mean a lot of different things to different people.

Anyway, my doomsday scenario is what if a really bad actor or actors has a ton of money? Can they just hijack and destroy the platform? Would that be fair? If the KKK or the taliban put out a mandate that all members start powering up Steem, and they collectively amassed millions, then used that influence to create hate fueled posts that they forced onto everyone that's here. Would everyone who's dedicated a ton of time and energy here, just be screwed?

I think if this actually happened most people here would be begging for a centralized solution. They'd be screaming for Hive account@ned to do something, for STINC to do something, they scream for them to do all sorts of stuff now, and it's not anything that serious.

My question to you all, is what would you want to happen? Are you ready to wrap yourself in the flag of decentralization and ride or die with it until the end, or would you want STINC to come in with a hammer and just make all the baddies disappear with the flick of a switch?

Also, I made that image up there, so this is still an art post :D

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and as always, thanks for looking!