While I respect that this is not an optional choice on the part of Blocktrades, I am also aware that this is one of many steps that regulators around the globe will keep taking to keep the financial systems transparent for the benefit of those pulling the levers.

My concern is whether Blocktrades is working towards creating an off/on ramp from crypto to fiat, as this would certainly put Blocktrades in the same position that Bittrex is in now, who recently had to eliminate basic accounts that had no KYC (proof of identity, uploaded photos, documentation, etc), which hurt a lot of Steem users that took advantage of the on/off ramp. Such an outcome for Blocktrades would likely kneecap the crypto-side of Steem much more so, and maybe propel the Steem blockchain into something entirely different than what it is now.

I'm not against progress and evolution of Steem, as I get more use out of Steem these days when playing drugwars, and upcoming projects like Cache.gg look exciting as well, whereas the social media aspect of Steem (purely for the sake of social media) is niche at best in the current climate where something you said 20 years ago can land you in jail today, and everything you say on Steem is written in stone. Great for writers who want proof they own their ideas, bad for someone seeking to speak their mind on controversial topics. As I say, niche.

Then you have to wonder if applications using the Steem ecosystem would want to use blocktrades in the same way as something like paypal, which is very much trusted and does not require typical KYC to make transactions, as there are other means of proving someone owns a bank account or a credit card. But where does Blocktrades sit in comparison to paypal? If Steem users cannot move Steem in and out of the platform without KYC (if further regulatory steps are taken in the future, or Blocktrades adds fiat on/off ramps), then Blocktrades effectively decouples itself from Steem in the way paypal did with eBay.

Of course, as long as Blocktrades doesn't allow you to store a balance that they manage, then that should leave Blocktrades in a much better position.

I don't know whether that will be a good thing or not, but it certainly motivates me to power down now instead of facing the risk of losing liquidity. I mean, I'm not going to, but the FUD is certainly knocking at the door. I also understand the liquidity of Steem is a major issue that has seen countless exploits of the system for profit without any consequence, killing the potential for everyone else, and Blocktrades has played a major role in this, as did other exchanges like Bittrex.

So many things to weigh here, and in the long term I see the legitimization of Blocktrades and the tightening down of Steem's liquidity only being a good thing for actual users of the platform, but it certainly is an unknown for speculative traders. Who knows, maybe with some luck there will be scared whales trying to get out while they can and move the center of gravity of the ecosystem back down from the sky.

At the very least, thanks for the work put into Blocktrades, and the continued effort to keep improving the experience for users. I've always known that the older functionality of Steem relied heavily on Blocktrades, but it really hits home just how much Steem users rely on Blocktrades for liquidity, and it will be interesting to see where this takes us.

Appreciate the update, thanks for the hard work.