Binance is forced to “technically” support Steem’s recent hard fork - Changpeng Zhao
- Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has said that the exchange is forced to support Steem’s recent hard fork.
- The hard fork turned asset balances on a few addresses on the STEEM network into zero.
- If Binance were to withdraw their support, their users won’t be able to withdraw their STEEM tokens.
The Steem blockchain has recently gone through a hardfork, which has attracted many detractors due to increasing centralization concerns. The main problem with this fork was that it turned asset balances on a few addresses on the STEEM network into zero. One of the detractors mentioned above happens to be Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
CZ admitted that Binance is currently in a tricky position since the exchange is very much against zeroing other people’s assets on the blockchain.” However, to not support it would mean that Binance users would not be able to withdraw their STEEM tokens.
Following a dispute in the Steem community regarding the acquisition of SteemIt by Tron and Justin Sun, the hard fork was used as a tool to strip 64 dissenters of their token holdings. At the time, around $6.3 million worth crypto was seized with Dan Hensley, one of the most affected parties, claiming to have lost around $1 million in total. Wiping out users’ token holdings “goes against the very ethos of blockchain and decentralization,” said CZ. “The fact that this can happen on a blockchain means it is overly centralized.”
Author
Rajarshi Mitra
Independent Analyst
Rajarshi entered the blockchain space in 2016. He is a blockchain researcher who has worked for Blockgeeks and has done research work for several ICOs. He gets regularly invited to give talks on the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
