I'm sure there will be hundreds of posts about this, and truthfully it's to be expected at this point in time. I'm trying to be mentally flexible to understand the reasoning behind this, the calculations that someone made in order to make this particular move, but I'm having a hard time doing so.
I'm trying to be fair and also objective about this too. I mean, without a doubt @ned powering down is not something that gave people the warm fuzzies, but as the mantra says, your stake, your call. However, this is entirely different to me, and I don't believe the ramifications of this action was calculated at all.
Things are not pretty, we know this, we are experiencing in many ways the ugliest part of the bear market. Communities are struggling to stay active, authors have left, and even the most positive of personalities is struggling to keep on smiling through it all. I have to admit, I'm guilty of this myself and even though I believe there are incredible people on STEEM, capable, intelligent and talented, I'm also aware that nothing is guaranteed and thus blindly cheerleading, pretending everything is fine, is far from productive.
I won't hold my breath, but I sincerely hope that @ned and @steemit practice some radical transparency here, because as they say: "Perception is truth", and if this move, this seemingly sneaky memo that most people would have missed, if I'm to be honest, is all that we are going to get from the higher ups, then I would not be surprised if this causes a wave of panic, that results of course, in the token dumping lower and lower.
Cards on the table here, I'm personally at a point where I've not lost my faith in the people that are part of this blockchain, in the witnesses who care and show us so every single day, but I'm not where I used to be, mentally that is, regarding the well being of Steemit Inc, the company.
I'm not trying to add to the panic stew here, but I would lie if I pretended seeing that massive powerdown didn't make me uncomfortable, more so because a generic sounding memo is all the "communication" we currently have.