We have heard a lot of people say Steem is barely decentralized. Also I think it is a bit of a strech to even call Hive decentralized (It's just more decentralized than steem).
You are right if the platform was truly decentralized, it would be harder for governments to hold it accountable. But we could end up with them just making it illegal. If that happens, it won't be popular.
Also, people can still steal from decentralized entities. For example, there is 63million Hive in the dao account. If the witnesses just decided to suddently divide it amongst themselves in a quick hardfork, we would probably take actio. This is also why I think if Bittrex just goes with the Steem consensus, they could be breaking the law.
A good example from the non-crypto world is populism, or tyranny of the majority. Even legitimate democratic states break international law all the time.
It frustrates me that users here don't realize this money is a Red Herring.
They could just as easily destroy it and create other coins out of thin air and gift it to themselves.
Wolf has even advocated that we get rid of author rewards all together and turn those rewards into a token. God I hate that douche. He wants the witnesses to control all the inflation of Hive. Everything he does caters to the elite here.
I completely agree. I just bring it up because it is tangible. There is also the argument that it was created for development and maintenance. It's rational to assume it will be destoryed or used for its intended purpose. I can't say the same for the infinite amount of Hive that could just be forked into existence.
I guess another way to look at it is to consider BTC where all the inflation goes to miners. Maintaining the network just gets transaction fees.
Hive has 20% of the inflation going to maintenance and development as it stands and no transaction fee (there is RC, but it is renewable). Finds need to be used appropriately.