I`ve been asked to translate my german take on the "The Ugly Truth Behind Steemit" article on Meedium. I guess it has all already been said in english, but here it is:
This morning I was woken up by the maniac sound of my mobile inbox, because a lot of
german acquaintances and friends from the Crypto-Universe sent me an article that promises to bring the "The Ugly Truth Behind Steemit" to light. I`ve read the article three times now and I totally understand why this article spreads doubts. In Crypto-Slang, which tries to mimick Wall Street parlor, such an article is called an FUD-article. Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. This does include the possibility that the author himself might be affected and does not necessarily imply any manipulative intention.
About 14 days ago, all this chatter about Scam and Insider-Deals made me so crazy (= fearful, uncertain, doubtful), that I yelled at a chat room full of Whales and threatened to go to the German authorities if I was not immediately presented clear answers to all those allegations. In the meantime, I have apologized to these gentlemen but since then I at least don`t go there anymore and beg for votes, unless something goes terribly wrong, like the original only 5 SBD for my Venezuela-Article. I tell you this to hint at the fact, that I care deeply whether this expriment (!) is legitimate or not. Everyone can read the article and we can discuss it in the comments section. Here is my take on what the main critique points are:
The Mining Start at the end of March 2016 was highly unfair and was manipulated in a way to favor an tiny group of Insiders and given them an unfair advantage
The subject of fairness in the context of a Coin launch always make me chuckle a bit. The parties involved who throw insults at each other because some mining process is even more complicated than another one, are all Crypto-Nerds among themselves. I`ve been watching those launches for years now, helpless, because I always was to dumb and clumsy to mine and up to today I never managed to gather a team that reliably mines all the coins I discover early. I find this terribly unfair and it has cost me millions over the years. Mimimi.
If someone really wants to know more details, I`ll dig deeper, but I know some people, who should be "victims" of these alleged shenanigangs and they tell me about chaos and mistakes, but no "scam". The whole story is almost an exact copy of the whole "Dash Instamine"-Saga. It`s ironic, that the mega-whale 
Regarding insiders: Yes, @dantheman seems to have friends and colleagues he wanted to have on board. According to this definition, my Facebook friends are now also some kind of insiders, because they learned about Steemit much earlier than the rest of the world and yes, I want some of them on board. If Steemit succeeds, it will be clear as the light of day that one obviously had to jump on board in August 2016, just as the monday morning quarterbacks will know for sure why it had to fail when it does.
I have to disclaim that I am heavily biased on this point though, because I actually even like the bunch of Insiders, who now have all the power.
Centralization and Censorship
To speak about "censorship" on Steemit is a violent and insulting blow in the face of any victim of actual real censorship. I don`t want to add much more, because I would turn rude and insulting myself.
Regardind centralization: That`s precisely why I translated this critical article about the subject and I don`t have anything to add. I just have a strongly diminishing motivation to deal with critique that does not include any constructive alternative solution and throws around terms like "censorship" and "scam" in a hyperinflationary way.
Tone Vays and the Ponzi allegations
I`ve met Tone in february at Anarchapulco. He is a very smart guy, but let`s just say he sometimes tends to hurt himself with his over-confidence.
I can follow his line of reasoning when it comes to the uncertain longterm econimic sustainability and some possibly flawed incentive mechanisms. But as usual, he is not only "uncertain", but rather absolutely convinced that anything besides Bitcoin will crash and burn.
Plus, for alle the heavy "censorship" talk, you can see his points discussed ad nauseam on Steemit:
The Great Steemit Debate -- Tone Vays vs. Blake Miles - YouTube
Conclusion:
The articles author promisses to continue what seems to be planned as a series. I will keep watching what comes next. In the meantime I highly recommend an article that might give a few different hints at what the reason behind that article might be: 