Huobi exchange has admitted its involvement in taking part in the recent reversal of Steemit’s blockchain soft fork and has withdrawn the vote.
At the same time, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance exchange, also said that his company has undone the vote and wants to remain neutral.
As Cryptopotato reported yesterday, TRON and Steemit attempted to reverse a soft fork on the blockchain, which intended to reduce their ability to sway governance decisions. To execute it correctly, they requested the assistance of three large cryptocurrency exchanges – Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex.
Ultimately, the exchanges mobilized their customers’ STEEM holdings and voted in favor of TRON and Steemit.
In a recent statement, Huobi admitted their involvement, saying that they did it for the good of the users and the network:
“From time to time, Huobi stakes user holdings to help block malicious activities and attacks on blockchain networks. Prior to this particular event, Steemit and Tron had reached out to seek our support.
Based on the information provided to us and out of an abundance of caution, we decided that helping Steemit and Tron was in the best interest of our users – and the network at large.”
Eventually, though, Huobi noted that it’s not a final decision, and they have removed the vote.
The company also informed that this is not an isolated case, and they have done it before to ensure the safety of other projects. However, they intend to implement a “new procedure to alert users of actions related to the staking of voting rights.”
Most of the community reacted negatively to the news. Claiming that it’s a “hostile takeover,” some members went further to blame the exchanges in acting against the decentralized nature of the blockchain network.
Binance CEO, CZ, reacted quickly by saying: “We will likely remove the vote, based on your feedback.” He confirmed it a few hours later:
“Done, unvoted. 1 oversight on my part. Miscommunication/upgrade rubber stamp. 2 @Binance have no interest in chain governance. We stay neutral. 3 Will continue to support regular upgrades/hard forks.” – he tweeted.
Justin Sun, TRON founder and CEO, also tweeted about the comments regarding the alleged hostile takeover and the collaboration between his company and the exchanges. He said that all allegations are false and that they only “wanted to protect the sanctity of private property & the interests of all from malicious hackers.”