🚨 Warning to all communities 🚨 The STEEMIT TRAVEL Account has been compromised!! 🚩
Dear friends,
With regret, I write these words, as I never thought I would have to face such a situation. I want to personally express what I have recently experienced, as I am deeply disappointed by a wrong action taken by someone I would have helped if they had contacted me directly.
I am talking about @ponpase, whom I have always considered one of the best users of Steemit. He has been of great help on several occasions, assisting me in better understanding the platform and tirelessly working to grow and improve the community every day.
However, recently, a moderator from Steemit Travel contacted me because they could no longer access the Steemit Travel account. It turned out that the access keys had been changed, and the power-down process had been initiated. I personally asked users to remove their delegations from this account because it seemed that @ponpase was the only one who knew the Master Key. Unfortunately, it appears that this is his doing.
Dear friend, if you are reading these words, I cannot comprehend the reason behind your actions. All you had to do was reach out to me on Discord, and I would have helped you, whatever the issue, even if it involved money. Instead, I feel betrayed by your actions.
I noticed that, being the founder of another community called Steemit Marketing, the main account of that community has also undergone a power-down.
Furthermore, I have verified that withdrawals were made to Poloniex. Although the addresses may be different, they were made simultaneously.
I want to emphasize that the money withdrawn does not matter to me; you may need it more than I do. What strikes me is the gesture itself because asking for help would have been enough, and it would have been given. Moreover, there is a lack of respect for those who have worked hard to grow these two communities.
I hope that soon we will be able to start again with another community dedicated to the theme of travel, also because many people had joined specifically to share their adventures.
However, I am convinced that here on Steemit, there are still very honest people who work to make this community grow.
I am sorry to have to publish this post, but my disappointment towards you is significant. I hope to overcome this anger, and we will see each other in my next post.
I want to inform about this fact that has happened:
@steemitblog @steemcurator01 @ubongudofot @malikusman1 @pelon53 @chant @goodybest @adeljose @graceleon @kouba01 @mikitaly @stef1 @josepha @beautycreativity @moh.arif
Dear travelers ✨🧳
Steemit Travel Community is a great one to share a lot about trips, food, cultural knowledge... An amazing topic to be developed in the Steemit Blockchain through the dedication of amazing people like you, the active members that create quality content you really love enjoy and deserves attention from our part.
As because the official account of @hive-163291 that is fully managed by the founder has started recently a complete Power Down that won't allow the continuity of users' support in consequence, my person and the rest of the team are still standing for the spirit of travel topic at the Blockchain. Of course we weren't notified previously about this sudden decision, so in this opportunity I'm letting you know about this new situation in order to ask you to stop publishing over here with that account as benefactor by the moment, a new one will be created to carry out contests, apply to seasons of SEC and more.
It's sad to see how things are going on in this way after a entire successful year because we're all addicted about travel that would love to keep posting nice experiences into the ecosystem of Steemit.
Making active this space once again as soon as possible through other ways and restart the running of the community is an objective. I'll be taking the occasion to say thank you all for such great interaction you did before for the sake of travel, but don't worry. Everything isn't lost just because the decision of one single person.
My best regards I send to all of you 🌟💫
The recommendation is go for a brand new community. Unless you have the master key to change the owner, you can always be suddenly banned and muted.
Of course, that's why we're thinking about to start from scratch, literally. New account, new community, new everything.🧼 Thank you for sharing your lines. 👍🏼
Hello @hotspotitaly, I'm sorry to read this..., and also sorry for the trust lost, also, I am sorry because all your hardwork here is gone like a mist, but again, I'm not surprised that it's happening even in this community...(maybe you should make a little research about @arie.steem and the relationship with this user in question...).
That's why I encourage Admins/MOD to adopt Multisig wallet, that's the only solution to end this type of theft....otherwise, this type of complaint may likely keep increasing.
A lot of folks come up with the idea of creating communities for a particular purpose but ending up doing the same that is done in other communities and deviating from the scope of their community...Reasons? The need more users, they want to gather the fund..., after that what next? THEFT.
We don't know which community is next, they are all hidding everywhere with their plan B and sweet mouth.
It's a shame that this keep happening!
I appreciate your words, but along with the remaining Steemit Travel staff, we have decided to create another account using the Multisig wallet. I believe, as you have also suggested, that this is the best solution to prevent future abuses. Additionally, we want to continue this community, especially because travel experiences are crucial in promoting this social network, Steemit.
We are currently in the process of deciding on the name to use and understanding how to activate this Wallet. We will reach a conclusion shortly; we can't allow ourselves to be stopped by those who misuse the platform.
Good choice to go for Multisig wallet .Maybe, you can reach me on my Discord for some guides on that.
Leave me your contact in case I need it.
ubongudofot#9499
It is really sad to read that, especially when someone managed to trick all the people using their kindness and support.
Unfortunately, such situation will be happening and with @ponpase it was before that he was blackmailing others for his own benefit.
If he has a little bit of conscience, then he should stop Power Down and just step down from community Moderator posts. He could Power Down his own account.
Thank you for this post I can imagine your feeling when you discovered that.
it's not for Steem, he probably needs it more than me in his country, but for the work that people in the community have done, he's the founder, I'm afraid he won't resign, it seems impossible to me that he did such a thing, he was someone who gave a lot to Steemit
He knows how to gain the trust of people and that following certain rules on Steemit people can collect good amount of Steem. I am pretty sure that he did it for financial need but still he should remain fair and not abuse the trust of people.
However I saw that there is the possibility of creating a multisig Wallet and therefore we will certainly recreate a new community with others
Thanks for your words
https://steemit.com/hive-102132/@rexthetech/the-pennsif-witness-steem-multisig-wizard-is-here
Well said! reblogged it @hotspotitaly
Thank you very much anyway we will come back with another account and this time we will try to be much more careful
So I shouldent post my next big travel post in Steemit travel right? let me know when a new community is up :) Have a great weekend ;)
Sure friend. Travel subject deserves a great space into the ecosystem of Steemit Blockchain. Regards to you 😊
Dear travelers ✨🧳
Steemit Travel Community is a great one to share a lot about trips, food, cultural knowledge... An amazing topic to be developed in the Steemit Blockchain through the dedication of amazing people like you, the active members that create quality content you really love enjoy and deserves attention from our part.
As because the official account of @hive-163291 that is fully managed by the founder has started recently a complete Power Down that won't allow the continuity of users' support in consequence, my person and the rest of the team are still standing for the spirit of travel topic at the Blockchain. Of course we weren't notified previously about this sudden decision, so in this opportunity I'm letting you know about this new situation in order to ask you to stop publishing over here with that account as benefactor by the moment, a new one will be created to carry out contests, apply to seasons of SEC and more.
It's sad to see how things are going on in this way after a entire successful year because we're all addicted about travel that would love to keep posting nice experiences into the ecosystem of Steemit.
Making active this space once again as soon as possible through other ways and restart the running of the community is an objective. I'll be taking the occasion to say thank you all for such great interaction you did before for the sake of travel, but don't worry. Everything isn't lost just because the decision of one single person.
My best regards I send to all of you 🌟💫
Hi friend @hotspotitaly, I am very sorry about this situation. What strikes me in this case is that only one person had the master key?
I think it has always been recommended that the master key be owned by at least 2 users or 3 better, of those who manage the community keys, so that they can at least take action or do something to recover the account. Otherwise, if only one person has the master key, nothing can be done.
Even if all the keys are in the hands of at least two people, it cannot stop the founder from changing the key and initiating a power down. I think the best way out of all this is the integration of a multi-signature wallet, which will allow three people to authorize transactions based on an agreement.
It is true that you cannot prevent the passwords from being changed, but you can start the recovery of the account.
Fortunately, not all community administrators act this way. And certainly there are currently options to prevent this, as you mention.
Thank you, dear, for your words. It was a mistake on my part due to my limited experience on the platform. It will certainly serve as a lesson for me. Nonetheless, I was also at fault for trusting them as they seemed very willing to teach platform-related matters. However, we already have plans to recover with the other two members of the community and create a multisign wallet so that the keys are shared, preventing such an incident from happening again.
What bothers me the most is not just the fact that they deceived our staff, but all the people who create content in the community. Especially considering that they deceived several communities. For me, it's important that this individual gets banned!
This is another disappointing situation where a lot of people were scammed by the same person and that’s the hard reality.
I got the opportunity to work in the community Steem Database (@steem-database, is also powering down) but rejected my role few days later when saw a lot of communities created by the same person which seemed pure farming for me.
However, people are free to do what they want and I only leaved that community. Now @ponpase is farming using @rme’s curation project (@abb-curation) so I think @abuse-watcher should take a look to this situation.
Theft is theft, for whatever reason.
Right! Including the abuse of trust. Awful…
More than anything it annoys me because there was also the work of other people who were doing it mostly to grow the community in terms of users.
If we want to make steemit known to the world, we have to ensure that there are more and more users in the community. In the end, it is the people who advertise the platform.
I'm sorry for Ponpase because I trusted him and I always give people a chance but I'm sorry because this time he played it wrong and I can't even understand the meaning of what he did because in the end with the reputation issue he ended up in the platform @alejos7ven
At first, when I discovered that the Steem marketing account was on power down, I quickly tried to log in, but I couldn't because the keys had been changed. Immediately after that, I contacted @ponpose via Discord chat, and up until this moment, he hasn't replied to my messages. It is so annoying to work so hard for a community to grow and get disappointed at the end of the day, just like what has happened now.
I believe the new initiative, which is the multi-signature wallet designed by @pennsif, will help stop this saga and bring trust to communities. I am so disappointed with the action of @Ponpase. I worked so hard to see Steem Marketing grow, but got disappointed.
Unfortunately, I am a bit inexperienced in this field, and I trusted him anyway. However, it's a lesson that I need, and that we all need, to build a better community.
What I can tell you is to try to share my post in order to alert as many people as possible.
Hello there. I saw the respective post and loved this possibility. I'd like to try it for the creation of a new travel space friend. Thank you so much for your valuable feedback.
Yeah am fully in support of your ideas. Good luck.
Thank you dear Josepha ☺️
This is really a very sad news especially for travel lovers who are posting in this community. If @ ponpase wants to power down, it must do so from its own account. The main reason behind this is the ownership of the keys in one person's hand. The keys should always be in the hands of at least 2 people.
Yes we learned from this mistake indeed we are going to create a new account with shared keys
Even if all the keys are in the hands of at least two people, it cannot stop the founder from changing the key and initiating a power down. I think the best way out of all this is the integration of a multi-signature wallet, which will allow three people to authorize transactions based on an agreement.
Power down is never a solution. Not being able to be included in any big community support does not mean that the community is dead. Whatever happened to us is a lesson for us. We can build a new community where we will adopt the most secure method according to the suggestions given by everyone so that the same incident as before is not repeated with us.
Traveling Steem
I agree with you, we must continue this community made up of people who want to share their travel-related content here.
Lamento muchísimo esta situación, más porque sé que tú eres un usuario honesto y comprometido con la creación de contenido de calidad y tú ética es muy elevada, lo demuestras en tu blog y en este post tan sincero mi querido @hotspotitaly
De @ponpase ya sabía que es una persona muy complicada y poco fiable ya que comienza múltiples proyectos al mismo tiempo y es con el fin de buscar recompensa de las grandes cuentas de curación, pero no hace las cosas con integridad.
Está muy mal que nadie más tuviera acceso a las claves activas Master key... Ya que eso da evidencia de que las cosas venían muy mal.
Este caso sirva para que aprendamos a discernir quien viene con malas intenciones a steemit blockchain.
Gracias querida por tus palabras, en parte fue mi culpa debido a mi inexperiencia, y seguramente esto me servirá como lección. Sin embargo, ya estamos pensando en reorganizar todo gracias al resto del equipo de Steemit Travel. Solo traté de advertir a la comunidad que no apoyara más a estas personas que están destruyendo comunidades. Yo confié en él y le di una oportunidad, pero la desperdició.