Why would anyone burn a bear?

I'm coming to SteemFest³!

Got my ticket yesterday evening and, as you can see, it talks about burning bears, which I think is not a sensible thing to do 😂😂😂

Jokes aside, I come with important messages:

Steem is a community which has grown around a set of rules set out and enforced by an open source IT system (a "blockchain").
1. The community is important.
2. The rules are important.
3. The blockchain is important
The first two elements above are those of a "proto-state". The blockchain enables the emergence of completely novel, non-territorial states.
As such, the Steem virtual state has a Government too: the Top 20 witnesses, with the other witnesses (among which Hive account@lux-witness which I run with Hive account@pstaiano) as a sort of Parliament.

I come to Steemfest as a private person, not in any kind of official quality. Speaking for myself only. But I do work in a governmental organisation. And I'll argue that there need not be any contradiction between blockchain (especially one like steem) and government.

Here is a shout out to Hive account@roelandp, our "GO" as they say in French ("gentil organisateur"): what about a live debate pitting someone like Hive account@dollarvigilante against your humble servant? It might help clear some of the confusion around what "state" and "government" are and why some can be evil but should not be presumed to be so beforehand.