When we at Steemit originally decided to go down this path, we were motivated partly by our fears about what results from centralized control over information. The problem with closed and centralized systems is not that they are populated by evil people--it’s that closed and centralized systems are systematically flawed because people are flawed.

The Problem With Centralized Content Platforms

As long as anyone controls any platform, their flaws will become expressed in the system. If anyone, for example, controls what can and cannot be posted, then they will control what can and cannot be posted as evidenced by the actions of Twitter, Facebook, and now Medium. When faced with something they do not understand, they will be incapable of dealing with it appropriately, for as Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Since we released and open-sourced the Steem blockchain protocol over two years ago, followed closely by steemit.com (our flagship Steem application), things have certainly changed a lot, but not for the better. This was demonstrated in a recent post by the Status team, a blockchain project that is building a mobile operating system for Ethereum.

Censorship on Medium

In the Status team’s own words:

Recently, we attempted to publish a blog post announcing our latest Bug Bounty Program. The post was immediately suspended, followed by an automated email noting a general violation, without detailing any specifics, and a link to Medium’s recently updated policy regarding cryptocurrencies. Though we had not violated any of these policies, we re-submitted several revisions that carefully edited out any potential trigger words, like “bounty,” “ETH,” and “SNT.” The post was never successfully published.

Like the Status team, we too are concerned about the “creeping censorship around cryptocurrencies,” which only validates our initial motivations for embarking on this journey and why we want to wholeheartedly invite all blockchain projects, not just Status, to Steem - whether it’s through steemit.com, busy.org, dlive.io, or one of the many other user-interface DApps that have now been built to leverage Steem’s Decentralized Content Management System and Decentralized Reward Distribution Mechanism (Proof-of-Brain). Steem remains the only blockchain autonomously rewarding content creators and has distributed over $40 million worth of rewards to users all over the world since its launch.

Steemit.com is the #1 site for user-generated content relating to blockchain technology, but in addition to that, posting through any Steem interface makes your content available to all Steem interfaces, so that you are not beholden to any single platform. Finally, because Steem is a decentralized blockchain, it remains censorship-resistant, meaning your content is safe and not controlled by anyone.

We Believe in Blockchain

As one of the most mature projects in the space, we have proven through action that we believe in blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralization, and censorship resistance. That’s why we want every project, regardless of whether they are powered by Steem, to feel welcome on this platform we have created. Of course, even if we didn’t want you, there’s nothing we could do to keep you from posting and even earning STEEM! That’s the beauty of decentralization.

So join us, Status! Because just like you:

We want our society to be freer for everyone. We believe the forces of censorship and centralization are often closely bound and we worry when we see the power to freely express ourselves so arbitrarily limited.

If the people at Status--or any other blockchain project--want to communicate with Steemit, Inc. they can e-mail us at advocacy@steemit.com. They can also sign up for a free Steem blockchain account via https://signup.steemit.com/ and start posting their content via steemit.com as soon as their account is approved.

We look forward to having you here!

Team Steemit