Hey Steemit Friends! 😎

For those of you not "in the know", the complimentary STEEM fork and "social sharing" platform known as Whaleshares is now LIVE! 🐳

If you have a BitShares account, you only have about a week left to claim your possibly sizable WHALESTAKE drop! 😱

The SnapShot took place on August 1, 2018, on Bitshares Block 29222369 at 2018-08-01 03:18:51 UTC. If your BitShares account(s) held BTS, WHALESHARE, or BROWNIE.PTS tokens BEFORE that time, you are eligible for the WLS drop!

While STEEMIT is considered a "blogging platform", Whaleshares is meant to be more of a censorship-resistant "social sharing" platform, with the following goals in mind:

The long-term intent of Whaleshares is to establish itself as a Decentralized Autonomous Cooperative (DAC) where users of all sizes may transparently share and contribute value to their networks of trusted friends and have a voice in the future evolution of the platform itself. We will need individuals to step up and help form the groups that oversee the governance, arbitration, and standards that carry the project forward.

Link: 🚀 Whaleshares.io and BitsharesTalk.io Main Launch!

So... how's it different?!

As you dive deeper into the platform, you'll discover quite a few key differences from STEEM, with even more kewl things to come in the near future... 😎

For example, flagging costs 3 times more than does rewarding, which means it's much more difficult for a single "mean guy", "mean girl", or "mean bot" to "put baby in the corner"! 😭

So, if you've ever been downvoted simply for sharing your opinions or interests (and not for outright plagiarism, which is still shunned upon and should not be rewarded), you'll still have a chance to "find your voice" on the Whaleshares Chain, and have an additional opportunity to be rewarded for your thoughts, for up to 14 days no less! 💃

Cuz censorship is a very slippery slope, and the last thing we all need in this world are more headlines such as Saudi Arabia declares online satire punishable offence, where the Saudis police content for their idea of "quality" ... 😤

"Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disrupts public order, religious values and public morals through social media ... will be considered a cybercrime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of three million riyals ($800,000)," the public prosecution tweeted late Monday.

Or how about the SEC, who now wants to Keep Tabs on Social Media Posts That Could Move Markets, in order to well, you know, "protect investors from bad quality content" that could adversely effect markets (such as tweets by those pesky short sellers shedding light on corporate shenanigans)... 🙈

Dance and Feel Free to Be Your "Best Self"!

As such, you're welcome to civilly and respectfully express yourself any way you'd like on Whaleshares. You're also encouraged to cross-post content you created to both Whaleshares and STEEM. There's even a tool called MASDACS that helps automate the process for you!

And since Whaleshares is also a "social sharing" platform, it's perfectly okay to share pretty much anything you and your "circle of friends" deem important and useful, even if it's just a link with a small blurb about what you find interesting, just as you would on other social media platforms such as FaceBook or Twitter (except for the rewards, and without all the censorship and shadow banning)! 😮

That leads to another big change on the platform. If you believe a post is worth rewarding, then it should also be worth sharing with your circle as well! So on Whaleshares, when you REWARD, you also SHARE. Pretty cool, ay?

And for those of you who might be worried this will clutter your personal feed (which was my original motivation for creating the "Hide Resteems" script for STEEMIT), you'll be happy to know that you can filter your posts and shares to make them easy to find! 🙌😀

Another "YUGE" change on Whaleshares... 😮

There are no megawhales 🐋 on Whaleshares like you may have encountered on STEEMIT, and there is no delegation to create even more megawhale-type users either.

Currently, the largest "whales" you might encounter on Whaleshares may hold around 1% of the initial 21 Million WLS Supply. This is another reason it will be much more difficult for any one person to censor others, or to control who is considered "worthy" of receiving rewards from the reward-pool. On Whaleshares, everyone's more or less starting out on equal footing, and will have a chance to be rewarded as such.

Furthermore, as an alternative to delegation, and in order to create a stable, long-term economy, larger stake holders are encouraged to further build their WHALESTAKE to back community support WhaleTokens. Not only can these WhaleTokens be used to further reward great user shares, but they can also be used to support and finance other valuable community initiatives and projects as well. Rise up to be a great community member, and you just may have the chance to increase your own WHALESTAKE enough to have your own SMT-style token, and also start supporting your own projects and initiatives!

For those who'd like to dig even deeper into the reasons behind creating the chain, I welcome you all to peruse the "Whaleshares WhalePaper". You can also find a shorter summary of some key features in the following post...

Link: 🔱 Whaleshares Hard Fork 1 Announcement

🚪 I WANT IN, WHAT CAN I DO?!

Well, here's another area that Whaleshares vastly differs. No funds were raised to build it, and there was NO ICO to buy into!

This "grassroots effort" was completely community driven, supported, and financed.

... by the community, for the community ...

Except for the 10% going to the project development team (which currently has little real-world value until people begin to establish a value for it on BitShares sometime in October), the rest is being dropped onto the BitShares, Brownie Points, and Whaleshares communities, which also consist of many respected STEEM users as well.

At the end of the day, just like with STEEM, the only thing that will really bring value to this new chain and token is you, the community, and what you all bring to it.

So, at this point, there really is no way for people to just "BUY IN", besides just creating an account, and hitting the ground running by "sharing" with the community!

HOWEVER, if you do already have a bitshares account, and are pretty sure you have a bit of WHALESTAKE to claim (even if you held 5 BTS in your account before August 1st, you have enough to claim), it'll cost you 1 WHALESHARE (currently, costing about 1 BTS, or U.S. 10 cents).

ADDITIONALLY... If you didn't qualify for the drop, there is still hope! There's another link you can use to create an account by sending 10 WHALESHARE (or currently about U.S. ONE dollar) via bitshares. (more details at the end of this post)

If you still haven't signed up for a bitshares account (Dan Larimer's first crypto project before STEEM), CLICK HERE to create a new one for free. BitShares is a decentralized crypto exchange. As such, I'm quite sure you'll find it to be another powerful tool in your crypto "arsenal", especially as compared to centralized exchanges.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US STEEMIANS?!

Well, here's the really great part. I've come across many amazing, kind-hearted and talented people during my time here on STEEMIT. As such, I'm in a bit of a position to help "pay it forward" in some small degree, and I welcome you to reach out to me on discord (also @alexpmorris), as I just may be able to hook you up with some WHALESHARE tokens (and possibly even a bit of WHALESTAKE) to help you along so you can hit the ground running.

Granted, I can't do this for everyone, but I'll certainly do the best I can, especially if you drop an awesome share, or if you're among my most loyal and engaging long-time follows/followers on the STEEM platform, always working hard through thick and thin, striving to make our little community here a better place for all...! 😊

Details on how to Claim or Create a Whaleshares Account:

To claim your drop:

1. Confirm you held at least some BTS, WHALESHARES, or BROWNIE.PTS in your account before August 1st
2. Make sure you have 1 WHALESHARE token in your BitShares Account Wallet.
3. Make sure you have at least 0.2 BTS in your BitShares Account Wallet. (Fee)
4. Go to https://wls.services
5. Follow the instructions provided in the Official Sharedrop Announcement.

• Each BitShares account can only claim the sharedrop to ONE Whaleshares account.
• If you have multiple BitShares accounts, if you'd like, they can all claim to the same Whaleshares account.

💡 If you don't have 1 WHALESHARE token, you can buy one on the DEX with BTS...

Link: WHALESHARE_BTS Market on Bitshares via Rudex

To create an account (nothing to claim):

1. Make sure you have 10 WHALESHARE token in your BitShares Account Wallet.
2. Make sure you have at least 0.2 BTS in your BitShares Account Wallet. (Fee)
3. Go to https://newacc.wls.services
4. Follow the instructions provided in the Official Sharedrop Announcement.
   The process is the same as 'claiming with a new account'.

If you don't have 10 WHALESHARE tokens, you can buy them on the DEX with BTS...
Link: WHALESHARE_BTS Market on Bitshares via Rudex

Finally, if you think you might benefit from a quick video walkthrough on how to create or claim your new Whaleshares account, click here to check out Candi's excellent video tutorial!

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Also, be sure to join the Whaleshares Official Discord and introduce yourself to others in the community if you haven't done so already. There are many other people there willing to help you if you run into any stumbling blocks along the way!

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As always, I appreciate your upvote, your follow and all your comments!