Blocktrades Dev uses privileged possition to dump STEEM; then takes vacation
Blocktrades Developer Dan Notestein has used his position as custodian of OpenLedger's OPEN assets to issue himself OPEN.STEEM on the BitShares Exchange and sell to the market before anyone else even has access to deposit/withdraw STEEM to and from the platform. Not only that but he openly acknowledges that the OPEN.STEEM on the network is unbacked and therefore worthless and recommends noone buy the token. These points did not sway him from taking advantage of the people he's selling to who are now locked into holding OPEN.STEEM they can do nothing with but sell at a loss until he opens the deposit and withdrawal functions to the rest of us. This is at the very least highly unethical. Personally I've lost what little bit of respect I had for Dan Notestein and this looks very bad for both Blocktrades and OpenLedger for the manner in which they handle the issuance of their OPEN assets.
Below is a transcript of a conversation from Dan Notestein on Telegram:
Abit More, [16.04.16 21:07]
it seems DanN just issued some OPEN.STEEM to btsnow and dumped to xeroc
Abit More, [16.04.16 21:09]
dumped 1800 STEEM
Dan Notestein, [16.04.16 23:14]
STEEM gateway seemed to work in ok so far on our development site, I think it will be live by Monday, although I'll be on vacation by then. I guess other issue will be getting an updated webwallet for it.
Dan Notestein, [16.04.16 23:15]
and as abit observed, I've sold off all my "liquid steem" before my trip
Once Uponatime, [16.04.16 23:17]
I don't see any OPEN.STEEM on the sell side in the DEX
Dan Notestein, [16.04.16 23:18]
it's there, but I wouldn't recommend buying it. it's all by BM and he never actually deposited backing for all of it yet, grrr.
Dan Notestein, [16.04.16 23:19]
anyways, I think you can get a better price once the gateway is live
Things like this are a major issue, and will hurt openledger and bts by extension greatly if not curtailed. If a professional exchange did something like this they would at least hide it.
Finally. About time for everyone to realize that Openledger is nothing but a centralized exchange which uses bitshares as a cheap trading engine. A centralized exchange needs trust though. Putting up orders on the books when nobody can deposit is very unprofessional to say the least. I will not trust peole like that with my money.
Of course I'm biased, because I think what we really need is a real decentralized exchange. But the point can't be denied any more now.
Just seen the downvotes. Wouldn't arguments be better?
Well written