I certainly understand your depth of feeling in this matter, given your incessant, demonstrable, and heartfelt devotion and engagement with Steemers.

I must note, however, that the sooner malign parties reveal themselves and make their move, the better off their victims are. Dlive has been here for a while, but could have continued to milk us all for a lot longer. That the community has been duped, and at unknown cost, is bad. That Steemit and @ned have is worse, and I hope it's a useful wake up call for those interested in Stinc's corporate accountability.

It's all too easy to be easily wooed, and the easier the wooing the harsher the breakup when the real dance card is read. I doubt Stinc and @ned aren't deeply introspecting on how they could have better performed due diligence. I think it's fortunate that Steem potentiates the delegation model that has precluded actual larceny, as I suspect the dlive team might not have much hesitated to take money lent them via traditional means.

I may be being unnecessarily harsh to them, but the manner of their seduction and departure does suggest significant ethical lapses are not foreign to them. From your exposition of their relationships and publications, they were intentionally duplicitous, and that does not make me feel all free and easy regarding their ethical standards.

Lastly, in addition to this being a watershed event regarding due diligence and Steem delegations, I don't think it's going to hurt Steem in the long run. Folks that have focused on using dlive might suffer a quick segue to another streaming platform, but I see Vimm is already in use by some, and hope it is every bit as useful technically, and far preferable ethically.

The observers watching this event will see some important information come to light about Steem, Steemers, and the resilience of this blockchain. I think in the end they'll be impressed with all the aforementioned, and a few other things, such as the open and giving nature of the devs and Stinc, how the price of Steem rose, rather than fell, when this 'partnership' broke, and how the community and the technology never even hiccuped or lost any functionality at all while transitioning to a new streaming provider(s).

'By their fruits you shall know them.' Lino and dlive have shown all the world the fruit they bear in partnerships. Steem and Steemers have too, and we shine. We gave support to folks that claimed to support us in turn, and when they turned on us, we didn't even twitch, but immediately produced rising prices and improved services.

I am confident Lino and dlive will not.

That's my takeaway from this debacle.

Thanks!