Why the EOS 'Steemit killer' Called 'Voice' Could Be A Dangerous Sell Out
Ever since @dan parted company from Steemit inc. he has been threatening to create a 'Steemit Killer' App on EOS, his new multi-billion dollar project. He has now announced details of it and it is called 'Voice'. Unfortunately, it looks like it is going to suffer from some of the same weak points as EOS - as compared to Steem - while also possibly solving some of Steem's problems.
Dan and Block One recently held a fancy launch event for Voice and made some interesting announcements for EOS. I am not inherently against EOS, I think it's an interesting project and look forward to seeing what it achieves. I do, though, have huge reservations about some of the ideology being used by Dan - which seem to me to be totally counter to his original stated objectives that were more anarchy inspired. I will explain.
I have noticed that since Dan left Steemit inc. and joined Block one, his position on important ideas relating to truth, freedom and liberation have gradually slipped towards a more centralised, corporate, 'traditional' (empire building) mentality and away from actual principles of freedom. He started out by saying 'let's make government irrelevant', was running Steem and promoted it's uncensored, decentralised features and free market mentality. Now, with EOS, he is creating a massively more heavily funded, more centralised (using institutions such as universities, corporations and governments instead of average people) and apparently more controlled network.. apparently compromising the ideology that attracted many to his ideas in the first place.
I have seen him post a variety of highly questionable Tweets relating to freedom, rights and liberty in the last few months and on at least one occasion he had to explain himself and even backtrack after many people called him out. Has Dan been 'got' by big money interests? Does he just think differently now? Were his principles just not that strong to begin with?
After many years participating in groups online who support principles of free will, such as veganism and anarchism - I have noticed a recurring thread. There are always people and views within the groups which don't align fully with the underlying principles - for example, there are some in vegan groups who are there for their health and not for the wellbeing of animals, so who don't really support or do much to care for animal welfare - despite that being the main point of veganism. In anarchy groups, there are many subgroups that I don't think really align with true anarchy and for me, anarcho capitalism is one of them. It's a bit like 'anarchy light' to me - in that it seems to want to gloss over the real world details relating to money and violence in ways that really only serves to shift the balance of power a little more in favour of it's supporters without really doing anything to solve ALL of the problems of ALL of the people. I feel Dan is likely caught up in some denials here that are hidden, even to him.
Voice
Voice, is Dan's replacement for Steem and on the surface it looks polished, shiny and new. I don't have all of the details yet, but it seems to be similar to Steem - yet different and dare I say it, more corporate and more controlling/limited. The glimpses I have seen of how commenting and rewards will work lead me to think that it will not be as empowering as Steem, though how it will play out in the real world is not 100% clear.
One of the main concerns that I have and that many people have is that it will require users to go through an ID process, so that each person can only have one account. This is great from the perspective that it will go some way to stopping spam, but it introduces HUGE problems. Steem's great strength lies in it's openness and ability to support free expression and private commerce - which includes anonymity. Forcing people to provide ID means that no-one will be anonymous and all actions can be traced/monitored. Having such a system is a wet dream for the empire builders and authoritarians - who Dan will not likely be able to stop from infringing on your privacy. What is he going to do when a special ops squad smashes down his door and puts a gun to his head? Probably nothing... And your privacy will vanish.
Steem remains the only socio economic system on the web that provides community and commercial features in one.
As you can see in one of Dan's recent tweets - he is twisting the nature of freedom in a disturbingly denial based way:
> What good is freedom of speech if your voice is drowned out by the noise of millions of bots. We need more people willing to stand behind what they say. Allowing those without masks to scare you into a mask empowers them and disempowers you.
I am all for stopping the bots, but that cannot happen at the expense of true freedom. He is trying to say that your freedom of speech has no value when votes are being sold on Steem and to some extent I agree that that is a problem. I also agree that wearing masks is far from ideal and it is much better for people to stand up and be themselves in the face of evil and tyranny. HOWEVER, the fact remains that for many people around the world - who definitely don't live with the means that Dan has (perhaps in some kind of gated community) - speaking up freely can mean EXECUTION and TORTURE!
My reply to Dan:
> As long as there is monopoly on violence and psychos willing to torture and kill those who speak out - anonymity remains vital for free speech.
I don't really understand how Dan can be so short sighted here - it gives the impression that he is either going down a delusional ego trip route like Steve Jobs / Bill Gates or worse, is actually part of some kind of plot to out dissenters while claiming only to be giving them a voice.
I would like to give Dan the benefit of the doubt and I would like to think that most of the world will not get caught up in a trap that ends up getting them killed. However, I urge all involved to exercise caution here. If you feel that speaking out freely is not possible on Voice, then support Steem to the max. If you want a chance at a truly decentralised social network, that is very hard to censor - then support Steem to the max. I really don't want to see a kind of Steem/Facebook hybrid that has some of Steem's features but all of Facebook's fuckery.
In my opinion, stopping bots can be done without KYC / ID checks and in fact, even with KYC checks, there is no real way to stop vote selling as it can just happen in a more manual/covert way than currently on Steem.
What do you think/feel here?
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
This post was originally published at Ureka.org: Earth Heart Community.
Well, that's the state of being of people who have not ended their denial. The positive version of Dan's words is that we need to end denial and be real - which I totally agree with. Unfortunately, you can't just skip straight to that without solving other problems first.
I'm going to ignore your comment and remain in denial of the truth of your statement while preserving my anonymity ;)
Your ancestors would be proud! lol ;)
KYC is the antithesis of freedom in the blockchain environment. I will certainly never sign up for voice, though I’ve mistakenly signed up for something else using KYC because I didn’t yet understand how insidious it gets but I’m working on unraveling that mess.
There are arguments for and against KYC for sure however, with globalists foaming at the mouth in anticipation of connecting everything one does on the internet to their drivers license, and completely eliminating internet and personal freedom, this trend must be stopped.
That being said, most of the activity in EOS and posse seems to be centralized and backed by big money interests. I don’t think our mostly decentralized nature here is really threatened. It gives people more of an incentive to come here in my opinion.
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I strongly agree with your initial statement:
as well as pretty much the rest.
Well said!
Plus, I think you may find many more skeletons and red flags in my related post Is EOS’s new Social Media Platform VOICE.com Facebook 2.0 Mark of the Beast?
As long as people understand the differences, then yes, I agree - EOS is a selling point for Steem :)
I welcome kyc. Flagwars with no identtity people on steem is horrendous. I know so many instances of people who play gsmes on steem and they beat a whale in the game and the whale made sure the person never made money again via steem posts with their bot army.
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I appreciate that that is a problem, yes - but there are ways around that if the community actually gets ACTIVE in working together. Part of the problem is the sense of competition rather than co-operation. It's fine to have KYC if you have no intent to dissent against evil empire and tyrannical psychopaths, but that's kind of necessary at the moment. It's ironic that the case for KYC here is to stand up against tyrants, when in reality, it just throws you into the hands of worse tyrants who actually will kill some of us.
Indeed.
Perhaps it is a Larimer sellout. I think the cost of wallet creation for the BEOS drop was to create a barrier for the poorest to take part. The KYC will be another exclusion tactic.
Facebook and Google are prime examples of doing well and I am sure that EOS will do very well following in their footsteps.
Even many of the 1960s hippy generation sold out and became wealthy cogs in an exploitation machine.. sadly, i would not expect a numbers geek to fair much better.
As they say - when money talks, bullshit walks. Unfortunately there will be a push for this on all blockchain platforms of all types, not only EOS. It's only a matter of time...
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It's up for those with enough experience to be heard making the case for alternatives.. Anonymously or otherwise!
I wish there was a way to change KYC into something more like KYCIR (Know Your Client Is Real) or KYCIV (KYC Is Verified) without compromising identity. I have no idea how it would actually work without at least one centralized verifier, but some way to verify your identity without giving up your identity to every company that wants you to upload your driver's license is something we'll eventually need.
Generally speaking, identity and personality are creations - so it is like trying to connect an anchor to a cloud or something like that! 'Identity' works most effectively when there is such tight control that people aren't free to change and move.. Which is part of the problem. The need is for us to become highly attuned to each other's energy signatures via feelings - this is our true nature and cannot be faked. Unfortunately, most people are emotionally numb and a long way from doing that.
I definitely agree. Attaching a government-issued ID to ourselves to create a 'person' is really a problem on its own most aren't aware of. But, I also get that in this digital age, we need some sort of verification to prevent the bots, trolls, and the like. Should we be moving towards further reducing people's freedoms and desire for privacy because right now it's the only way? I don't think so and I hope someday there is a better option. Maybe some sort of AI that could verify people's particulars and then encrypt the data so no one actually sees anything could be developed. It looks like it will become a much bigger problem before any feasible solution will be adopted, though.
Yeah I agree, voice will demand more private information than Facebook. Steemit is still the only Free, Decentralized, uncensored Social Network.
He's an U.S. Government puppet
It could be possible. I just think he's been compromised and is in over his head with the bankster Executive Team at Block.one...
Plausible as well, like most who have the potential to truly challenge the status quo. But, in any case, his background is disturbing.
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I am not ruling out anything, but evidence is needed to support such claims.
Maybe the fact he used to work for them before Steem would be a hint?. Raytheon, Torc Robotics... also he's said openly that EOS is working with the US Government.
I agree that that is a red flag. If you are right then he would be one of the biggest sellouts ever in the public eye and his connection with Brock Pierce would look even more messed up :/
Hopefully I'm wrong!. But it smells.
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Human activities mostly are trying and errors, no one has ever come up with an absolute solution to all humanity problems, not Steem nor Voice can, they’re all experiments that we can wish well as we experiment.
I love your article @ura-soul
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Thanks. Every experiment needs a solid foundation - we are really just looking at the plan/foundation and scratching our heads at this point ;)