[NEWS] Did Binance just help Justin Sun take over the Steem network?

[bbc.reporter]

If your cryptocoin is a proof of stake or delegated proof of stake coin, I reckon that you should withdraw them from the exchanges immediately. You do not want your favorite exchange to become your own tormentor hehe.

Also, the Steemit community's softfork to protect itself was acted hastily and got another softfork act that was also hastily given by the threat hehehehehe.



Have centralized exchanges used customer funds to help Tron CEO Justin Sun regain control over the Steem blockchain network?

That appears to be the case, according to crypto industry observers, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, and the CEO of one of biggest exchanges on the planet, Binance—who confirmed his exchange’s involvement in a tweet.

Sun recently bought Steemit.com, essentially a decentralized Reddit that runs on the Steem blockchain. With the purchase, he also got access to a large amount of pre-mined Steem. But eight days ago, the community voted in favor of a soft-fork that would prevent Sun from accessing these tokens until he provided more detail about his plans for Steemit.

“So Justin reacts by getting more Steem from his friends to regain control over the platform he just purchased,” a developer who’s worked on apps on Steemit, Jason Stallings of BlockArcade, told Decrypt. “We're at the start of the Steem/Tron war of 2020,” he said.

“They tried to wrestle control from Justin and he outplayed them by utilizing his influence just the same as he will for the platform going forward,” Alexander Klein, a blockchain developer and Steemit contributor, told Decrypt.

Read in full https://decrypt.co/21108/did-binance-just-help-take-over-steem-network-justin-sun

[layer1gfx]

CZ said on twitter they will most "likely" remove the vote after receiving a lot of negative feedback:

Re: Steem, read my “tweets and comments” about our position and thoughts on the issue. We will likely remove the vote, based on your feedback. The op requires people in several different geographic locations to coordinate, may take a little time.

hopefully huobi and poloniex will follow the same example. reading the comments on twitter give you a bit more of a perspective of how long this should take to undo...

[SquallLeonhart]

I guess I always supported a free market and if Justin Sun (which I dislike very much) managed to take control of steemit, maybe he deserves to control it at the end as well? I am not saying he should do bad things just because he can but if steemit is not strong enough to fight off an attack at this level, how could it really hope to be a decent coin in the future as well.

Even if Justin sun completely removes himself from steemit and sells it and just leaves, how could be sure from now on to the future that nobody else will try something like that. Steemit had a chance to show it is resistant and it failed so right now whatever happens it is an coin that is untrustworthy for me.

[bttmember]

I think there is no use dragging binance into this controversy as it is simply Justin Sun taking over steem and there has been some resistance from steem community against it but i think that if he has rightfully purchased the majority shares then he has all the rights to the platform and all these things should be resolved in a good manner between the two parties.

[layer1gfx]

binance used customers' coins to vote which is not okay. they will undo it or already did, not sure. it looks all very much like a power struggle.
sure, justin sun bought the project so he can do what he wants with his purchase, but if his actions are destroying the whole idea, then i wonder what he intended to achieve in the first place?

[akhjob]

binance used customers' coins to vote which is not okay. they will undo it or already did, not sure. it looks all very much like a power struggle.
sure, justin sun bought the project so he can do what he wants with his purchase, but if his actions are destroying the whole idea, then i wonder what he intended to achieve in the first place?

Yeah, CZ announced that he had unvoted. Huobi has also removed their vote..
Everyone should understand that keeping your funds in an exchanges is like keeping your money in a Bank. All you are having is the numbers you can't do shit with these numbers. So, if you are not holding the keys for your coins, then it's not yours. Unless you are actively trading, don't keep your funds in an exchange.

[libert19]

I think there is no use dragging binance into this controversy as it is simply Justin Sun taking over steem and there has been some resistance from steem community against it but i think that if he has rightfully purchased the majority shares then he has all the rights to the platform and all these things should be resolved in a good manner between the two parties.

Why not? The user deposited funds on binance were used to vote for witnesses. It's not ethical thing to do.

Steemit users don't want steem to become another tron based token, hence majority are against it.

[cabron]

Didn't the holders who stored their coins in binance heard of "not your keys not you coins"?

Still its not right to use the users funds and worse using it for voting in their favor. I don't think people will still be interested invest to steemit unless they see Sun's making it better.  But I am amazed to their strategy though.

[Lexurdania]

Justin is one of the blockchain actors who is quite aggressive and has a good marketing vision. Although many people underestimate the project they are working on, but it is proven that projects that are made are quite successful in the market and have good liquidity and are traded in large exchangers

[bbc.reporter]

CZ said on twitter they will most "likely" remove the vote after receiving a lot of negative feedback:

Re: Steem, read my “tweets and comments” about our position and thoughts on the issue. We will likely remove the vote, based on your feedback. The op requires people in several different geographic locations to coordinate, may take a little time.

hopefully huobi and poloniex will follow the same example. reading the comments on twitter give you a bit more of a perspective of how long this should take to undo...

Huobi and Binance have removed their votes after some pressure from Steemit's community hehehe. However, the occurrence made it appear how weak a proof of stake system is versus the exchanges that do not hold a stake of the coin themselves.

[layer1gfx]

the nerve that they used their customers coins in the first place... i wonder what they were thinking? 
sure they can pull a "sorry, changed my mind" like politicians when they get caught with something naughty.
and taking over a whole community looks like politics to me...

[Ucy]

If your cryptocoin is a proof of stake or delegated proof of stake coin, I reckon that you should withdraw them from the exchanges....

Read in full https://decrypt.co/21108/did-binance-just-help-take-over-steem-network-justin-sun

But eight days ago, the community voted in favor of a soft-fork that would prevent Sun from accessing these tokens until he provided more detail about his plans for Steemit.

Interesting..
I think this is what should have done before the takeover of Steemit. I wonder if the takeover was hastily done, no involvement of the community, no communication, no agreement with the community etc? Well, I guess lessons have been learned. A truely decentralized platform shouldn't be that easy to takeover without the input of all/most stakeholders.

[beerlover]

Can someone explain to me the details of what happened afterwards? I am not really great with blockchain takeovers and now there are places who are saying they are removing their "votes" and so forth, what does that really mean? Plus isn't it somehow illegal for exchanges to use their customers money to do something?

Just simply imagined, freebitco.in offers 4% for all bitcoins staying on their website for example, what happens if an exchange decides to keep their "cold storage" as just freebitco.in savings account and get more money from them? I know that is unsustainable but the idea stands, no exchange should be allowed to touch customers assets without their permission if you ask me. No matter what the reason is or no matter what the result will be.

[cytpoway121]

I think there is no use dragging binance into this controversy as it is simply Justin Sun taking over steem and there has been some resistance from steem community against it but i think that if he has rightfully purchased the majority shares then he has all the rights to the platform and all these things should be resolved in a good manner between the two parties.

Why not? The user deposited funds on binance were used to vote for witnesses. It's not ethical thing to do.

Steemit users don't want steem to become another tron based token, hence majority are against it.

I am actually wondering why alot of peeps are against tron take over, but it is what it is.
To ME, what matters is the existence of steemit as one of the best blog pages for crypto currency blogs.

The steemit interface has improved, with new features needing you to subscribe to channels too.
But why are majority against it ?

[libert19]

I think there is no use dragging binance into this controversy as it is simply Justin Sun taking over steem and there has been some resistance from steem community against it but i think that if he has rightfully purchased the majority shares then he has all the rights to the platform and all these things should be resolved in a good manner between the two parties.

Why not? The user deposited funds on binance were used to vote for witnesses. It's not ethical thing to do.

Steemit users don't want steem to become another tron based token, hence majority are against it.

I am actually wondering why alot of peeps are against tron take over, but it is what it is.
To ME, what matters is the existence of steemit as one of the best blog pages for crypto currency blogs.

The steemit interface has improved, with new features needing you to subscribe to channels too.
But why are majority against it ?

Steem is a blockchain with already many dapps thriving over it, making steem another tron token will make all dapps die. Steemit was sold, not Steem.

[bbc.reporter]

the nerve that they used their customers coins in the first place... i wonder what they were thinking? 
sure they can pull a "sorry, changed my mind" like politicians when they get caught with something naughty.
and taking over a whole community looks like politics to me...

Agreed! However, the Steem witnesses made the first attack by voting on a softfork that would freeze the coins in the wallets owned by Justin Sun. Justin responded by asking his friends on the exchanges to use the coins under their control to vote against the witnesses' softfork.

Is that right? Why would the witnesses vote to freeze someone's coins?

In any case, this makes it appear that proof of stake cryptocoins should be avoided.a

[slashz9]

I guess I always supported a free market and if Justin Sun (which I dislike very much) managed to take control of steemit, maybe he deserves to control it at the end as well? I am not saying he should do bad things just because he can but if steemit is not strong enough to fight off an attack at this level, how could it really hope to be a decent coin in the future as well.

Even if Justin sun completely removes himself from steemit and sells it and just leaves, how could be sure from now on to the future that nobody else will try something like that. Steemit had a chance to show it is resistant and it failed so right now whatever happens it is an coin that is untrustworthy for me.

why do you say that?is it because of justin sun who just bought it that you say the coin cannot be trusted.
that's a bit of irony because you associate project performance with the owner.
although under the new leadership then not all systems will change dramatically there may be an update from justin to make it better, who knows?

[minairia3]

Agreed! However, the Steem witnesses made the first attack by voting on a softfork that would freeze the coins in the wallets owned by Justin Sun. Justin responded by asking his friends on the exchanges to use the coins under their control to vote against the witnesses' softfork.

Is that right? Why would the witnesses vote to freeze someone's coins?

Meaning his friend is Binance who are holding those against Tron Justin Sun? Ive read on the Binance official twitter that they have not against this protest from steemians as he is not on the that point to oppose too.

To be honest, I like steemit and becoming one of the projects under tron blockchain or somehow affiliated could be of conflict as their both posses difference. Why the hell he also acquiring it on the first place?

[bbc.reporter]

It appears the real scammer on this issue is really Ned Scott, the former ceo of the Steemit foundation. He sold all the premined steemcoins to Justin without telling him the history and the verbal agreement of those coins have on the community. Those coins were never for the intention of voting. They are for marketing and development.

Also, the votes to freeze Justin's coins were only to freeze it only from voting. There were not stolen or locked.

[layer1gfx]

It appears the real scammer on this issue is really Ned Scott, the former ceo of the Steemit foundation. He sold all the premined steemcoins to Justin without telling him the history and the verbal agreement of those coins have on the community. Those coins were never for the intention of voting. They are for marketing and development.

Also, the votes to freeze Justin's coins were only to freeze it only from voting. There were not stolen or locked.

interesting to hear that. how about due diligence? did justin not do his homework and DYOR on the project before buying it?
i don't think he is such an inexperienced business man.