- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has revealed that he approved the “soft fork” which returned control of TRON’s funds to Justin Sun and the TRON Foundation.
- Binance and other exchanges have withdrawn their support for the TRON CEO after unrest in the Steem community.
The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, spoke about the developments in the conflict between the CEO of TRON and the Steem community. Justin Sun, the CEO of TRON was harshly criticized by the crypto community for what many called a hostile attack on the integrity of the Steem blockchain.
On February 14, Sun announced the purchase of the content platform Steemit. The announcement was part of a surprise that TRON’s CEO promised to users of the platform. Originally, the acquisition was intended to strengthen both blockchain platforms and create a better experience for Steemit users. From the outset, however, Steemit users expressed concerns about the changes that the acquisition of the platform would bring.
Attack or justified action by TRON’s CEO?
Following the acquisition of the platform, some Steemit users began to warn that TRON’s CEO would not respect the oral agreements made with the community. In addition, users claimed that Sun, in his announcements about the purchase of Steem, spoke as if the blockchain was part of the deal. According to the users, however, Steem is a decentralized blockchain that cannot be sold or purchased by a single entity.
The CEO of TRON made an announcement that triggered the subsequent events. Sun claimed that Steem’s brands would be moved to TRON’s platform. By purchasing Steem, Sun received 64 million STEEM from the founders’ funds. Steem’s governance model allows users to vote with their tokens and have control over the network.
Steem users took Sun’s announcement seriously and anticipated what they call a “malicious attack” on the blockchain. Therefore, they decided to implement a soft fork that blocked Sun’s funds. Thus, they tried to prevent the CEO of TRON from influencing Steem’s blockchain. As justification, the Steem community referred to a verbal agreement with the original founders of Steemit. The founders’ funds were supposed not be used to influence Steem’s future. An agreement that, from the perspective of Steem users, was not going to be respected.
At that time, Sun took a countermeasure and claimed that “hackers” were trying to take his funds. The crypto exchanges that had funds from Steem users, Binance, Huobi and Poloniex were contacted by the TRON team to take their clients’ funds and exercise their vote to unlock Sun’s funds. According to Changpeng Zhao, he was not aware of all the details and thought he was voting for a “regular update”.
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1236373815447506945
The Binance CEO defended himself and said that the exchange handles many cryptocurrency projects and it is impossible to be aware of all of them. The crypto community criticized him for accepting without having all the information. Meanwhile, Justin Sun justified his action, pointing out that the soft fork was indeed a hard fork to destroy Sun’s funds.
This is actually very serious. Has the whole community been deceived into voting for a Soft Fork, which was actually in fact a Hard Fork? https://t.co/liKffDcwss
— Mike McCarthy (@Mike_Bitcoin_X) March 7, 2020
Nevertheless, Binance and Huobi have withdrawn their support for Sun. Meanwhile, Steem users continue to claim that their decision is justified and that they are fighting a malicious attack by TRON. The likelihood of a chain split is increasing with the tensions between the TRON CEO and Steem community. Nevertheless, McCarthy said they are in talks to de-escalate the situation and agree on a course of action. According to McCarthy, a solution is expected soon. It remains to be seen what the future steps of the steem users will be and whether they will accept the Tron Foundation’s approach.
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