I like your background. Would you be interested looking into collaborating creating a company based on the Harmony Network. Just a chat atm DM me and I’ll keep you in my list for Stage 3 growth 
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Community needs facts presented before a vote.
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Understandable. However I believe over the coming days and weeks more information will come out naturally and people can make their own minds up as they see things unfold.
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@Bricktop_One I’m wondering what information could possibly have been gained that changed your opinion so rapidly. So far this entire discussion has been either a gross misrepresentation of our leadership or a blatant precursor for disaster. Without evidence, facts, or even specifics how can the community think any differently towards the situation? If you and @OgreAbroad want to make serious change without unfounded accusations I suggest speaking up and dropping the cryptic language. You’re both well known community members and you’re not doing the situation any good by dancing around the information that you are allegedly privy to.
Many of us want what is best for this chain and at this point there is no evidence based on facts that suggest that the community cannot trust the team and its leadership. Help us to make the right choices here or contribute in a way that is clearer, please.
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I totally agree with you. And I’m not sure how many are successful leaders or innovators who commented on this post!
Pointing/blaming someone in tough times kinda stupidity!
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To be honest with you Pioneer, I don’t really care if people believe me or not. The truth will come out over time.
I got given information because people trusted me with it, they didn’t expect myself or ogre to be be able to change everyone’s perspective with the information but they thought the information needed to get out for those that would care. However they didn’t want to sacrifice their career whilst it can last to do so which I’m sure you understand.
This might not be the information that people need to be satisfied, but at least it’s better than nothing. I’m now losing faith myself, if the core team can’t take control, and the community don’t want to do anything then, we’ll then trust me with this, we’re screwed.
But whatever. I’m running out of steam. The only way I see this getting sorted, is if the whole core team stand together at once and have a serious intervention.
This is the only way forward.
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Give @Bricktop_One 7 Epochs before he bring up the information 
I mean everyone has some knowledge and information that’s deeper then other but may don’t speak public because it’s information that normal stay behind the curtain.
For example for your DAO Research I saw directly several points where you may don’t know. Or @TrickLuhDaKidz post Harmony Team - Please Explain "Wallet 2" Staking Procedures with a lot of questions where no one answered and I have information to several questions that may not nice to hear. For example that MyContainer debacle. Why do you continue a partnership when you got warned by several people and that customers of MyContainer are since over a year unable to withdraw their ONE.
Xenon finance and stolen assets, this “bug” was known by Harmony team and they declined to do something. IMO Harmony should have had the education material and the not that when you add or replace one person on the Multi-sig that you can change necessary signing to 1. Incubator DAO had a 1 of 9 wallet and was my proof of concept. I for my part informed several governor about this issue and suggest only to replace old governor to not change the necessary signing.
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I won’t be releasing any information when I’m un-staked either. Not my position, and not my job. I respect the people who have spoken as much as possible to try and make a change. It’s just unfortunate that’s the situation is so difficult that not much has.
Potentially working on another solution though that might keep everyone happy.
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Bricktop going to unilaterally repeg and save the chain 
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I don’t think any of the information given in this entire thread is better than nothing. Without any proof or people from the team stepping up to tell their story, then OgreAbroad1 made a mistake starting this whole thread.
All it provides is unnecessary drama.
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This is going to be my last input about this whole debacle, towards somewhat productive direction -
Company Culture
- The principle force behind decision-making is heavily dependent on firm culture. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. I am hereby attaching a piece that specifically speaks about company culture from one of my most favorite, respected leaders in the business space. You’d have to scroll through a little bit, but it’s a great read. @stse
Outcome : It’s the team’s responsibility to express dissent productively within the firm internally, and a leader to grasp this, or everyone to move on to better pastures. Productivity, leadership coaches & advisors can help re-align the mental compass, if needed to provide the requisite pause or general skillset. It would be disappointing for anyone to hear if the core team cannot stand to speak for itself - & treat their role as just another job. “Saying No” or realigning the path is an art in itself.
Effective Transparency v/s Radical Transparency - Team & Community Conduct
- The core team & the community must come to the realization by now, as to how this impractical goal of “radical transparency” has resulted in the firm’s communication strategy turn into one big Mexican stand-off with it’s stakeholders. It’s a failed experiment, and the core team & community’s conduct has been equally disappointing in this regard. The recent DAO drama & staking related questions (while a smaller number problem in terms of % on a balance sheet) is simply symptomatic of a larger problem, i.e. a broken or highly stressed governance model, something essential for PoS chains.
Outcome : The public does NOT require a need-to-know of every operational & strategic maneuver done by the core team. However, there are better ways to internally organize & effectively communicate permissioned data in an efficient way, to meet the compliance & social transparency needs (i.e. balance sheets, ecosystem safety reports, domain goals (i.e. product launches, feature enhancements, protocol upgrades, product launches…)). Hire more specialized talent, moderators & fix the pipelines - The Ops/HR & the damn governance forum. Some examples to look at for a revamp:
- @OgreAbroad @Bricktop_One I do not know whether a threat of a community vote was the right decision or not, but broad sweeping declarations at an such inopportune time, transgress beyond socially agreed upon rules & would only damage morale. Flirting with the idea of “If only you knew how bad things were” is really dangerous. I absolutely do not know what’s worse - Reality standing in truth to your testimony, or forum members being completely in the wrong.
Outcome: Crisis Management 101- It would have been a good time to clear the air before this thread grew upto almost 100+ comments. On a completely different note, I hope there are/will be some response & resolution Service level agreements (SLA’s) established for the governance forum in the future, because the current wait times are quite long. Just a tip for @giv @lij @dpagan-harmony @rongjian and the rest of the superstars.
The public faith is “shaken”, not stirred atm. Hopefully, the team makes a better drink out of this. 
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Haha I serious do wish, but unfortunately that’s not the case, I was trying to spark another way of starting an internal vote or poll so people can see for themselves the true sentiment of the team and what’s happening internally, but I don’t think this can happen either and I believe if it could, at the moment it wouldn’t be the truth.
Whether people want to hear it or not, I will be putting information together tomorrow if I have time to give some more insight. People can take this information or leave it.
Although I’m not willing to throw people under a bus that have shared insight, I do believe it’s my obligation to be as transparent as possible with what I have come to know, people should have the choice to listen or disregard.
And @White_Wolf to be honest, I don’t think a community vote is strong enough anymore, it would simply be ignored. I know that much now. I would be happy for anyone to show me otherwise though.
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Based on what has seemed to me to be repeated and long-lasting strategic and execution failures as well as the backgrounds of the people making these arms-length claims, I’m inclined to believe there are real issues here. I’m also in agreement with those who want to see evidence before being marched to drastic action. Finally, I’m sympathetic to the core team members supposedly staying silent for fear of losing their jobs. However, if this is all true, why do you think there will even be a job for you to have in the near future if you don’t come out and get us all past this sometimes-productive, sometimes-bickering pleas for your information? If what is being hinted at is true and you can fill in the details, the community—ie, all the people who have a financially-aligned incentive to back you if you’re right—WILL back you.
Said another way and asked earnestly: if it’s as bad as is being alleged in your names, why do you think there’s anything you have to lose by remaining in the shadows?
And as for @OgreAbroad1, if they’re telling the truth—and I have no reason to believe they’re not and in fact strongly suspect they are—they are indeed a Hero of the Harmony Chain. There’s no easy way to be a whistleblower and always a way to Monday morning quarterback it, so when this is all over, I hope people will thank them. Courage ain’t free, and communities that don’t reward it don’t get it.
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Hardly an “execution”… It is for sure certain that something needs to change. The old saying that “the buck stops here” when referring to leadership holds true. Stephan is undoubtedly a brilliant technical person but as a businessman he is totally unequipped to handle what Harmony needs to continue its growth. I would probably keep him on as a leading figure to continue the technical challenges ahead, but bring in “adults” with real world experience on taking this wonderful company to the next level.
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Excellent analogy. I absolutely agree with you statement.
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This response by white_wolf is the wisest and most well articulated. It hits the nail on the head.
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So since this whole thing began, team members have been forced to sit down and write a letter about their feelings. They felt like they could be identified through their handwriting, so I’m not sure how constructive this has been.
One thing that I find most disturbing is Stephens actions regarding people. Instead of asking people the time, casually grabbing someone by the wrist to look at their watch? Physically grabbing someone’s arm and walking them to where he wants them whilst they are addressing and presenting to the team. Telling people they cannot drink whilst he talks so he has their full attention, I guess this is fine unless the office is in California in the heat, oh wait. There are currently no questions allowed from the team however he will take people for individual walks to tell them to ask questions to him.
All of the above is subjective and you can take of it what you will, however telling someone to go and get you car washed and fill it with gas, and then not offering to pay them any money back for doing so it something you will only do if your truly on your own planet. Telling people to order you Ubers at conventions and insisting they order an Uber black. We have heard this before though, a total disregard for other people’s finances although it would take an Armageddon to make him lose his millionaire status whilst others struggle, people not getting paid for bounties, team members not being paid in the past, not paying 20 governors myself included for 7 months of work. Given that to settle with these 20 people would have cost around 13k, whilst other decisions to fly the team out to the HQ cost nearly 100k. Everyone give up hope a lot sooner than I did, because I saw the kindness is Stephens eyes in the past, I thought that everything I had experiences or heard was just a big misunderstanding, and surely it would be sorted over time. Maybe it just wasn’t a priority.
From someone that came from such humble beginnings, and someone that once claimed in an interview that ‘’My learning is really more from the emotional aspect, the self-reflection and what can be the day to day kindness and hard work that my parent showed to the business people around them’’. I would ask Stephen to remember this and consider that self-reflection, the emotional aspect. Some people may say that quoting Stephen when he mentions his family is wrong, and in normal circumstances I would agree, but many people’s families are being affected here. For the core team members, people unpaid for their work, and investors. And this pain will increase over time.
What most of us haven’t realised that although the current initiative is NFT for Q3, the team have been told that ‘’if you’re not onboard with NFT for Q3 then they shouldn’t be here’’. Now I won’t sit hear and demand to know why NFTs are the main point of focus, given that NFTs have never worked on Harmony, and given that the success on other blockchain NFT markets work from demand due to profit and to mass exposure which we do not currently have. In my eyes bearing in mind, I’m just a community member that really isn’t an expert, NFTs should be the last thing being focussed on here, and now, given a trustless bridge is vital after the hack, given the RPC issues are far from over with a desperate need for cross sharding, given our validators are struggling more than ever. What is going on.
This all sounds fine to you I’m sure, it’s not the first time we have heard Harmony are going heavy on a buzzword. But this time is different, before when we had a new phase a few team members where allocated, people went crazy about DAOs during a time when it was just Sam, then some additional team members assisting him with this focus, whist all the important stuff carried on. But this time, it’s drastically different, nearly everyone has been told to focus on NFT’s. Core engineers that are normally focussed on RPC, Bridges, and Cross Sharding are now, you guessed in, working on the NFT initiative. The team don’t know what’s going on, they do not understand why during such a vital time that they’re being taken away from the most vital thing that needs to be worked on, maintained and improved……The Tech.
So the bigger picture here and the reason why I’m talking about how a company owner treats people around them, is due to the fact that these people are absolutely imperative to the success of Harmony, they are the backbone of your success on your journey with Harmony. And sadly, these developers and engineers are now actively looking for other positions within the blockchain space, and not just 1 or two of them, enough of them to be a serious, serious problem. And mark my words, given time someone else will see how talented they are, someone will know how to truly nurture and care for that talent and let them innovate and make them feel appreciated elsewhere unless big changes happen, and fast.
If you want to know what’s happening, and if you truly care about what’s going on, ignore all the above smoke, demand to know the answers to some of the biggest questions right now.
How is the teams time being dispersed? Who is working on what? Are they solely working on that initiative and if not, how much of there time allocated to each initiative?
Again, I have given you my peace of mind, at the same time as writing all this, each time I have taken to the keyboard I’ve felt sick to my stomach, my conscience is now clear and no matter what happens from here on. I won’t feel like I didn’t do what I could, even if that was just to cause a little self-reflection and for changes to possibly happen with a strike of lightening which I doubt but which I hope, I seriously hope.
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I will address that much of what is being said has truth to it. Stephen was attacked and allegedly punched in the face. He did have someone maintain his vehicle. And according to the team schedule found on the notion site they are slated to go heavy on the NFT initiative (which is not a surprise, this was planned in advance and published for the community to see ahead of time). I have also heard that there are core team members seeking employment elsewhere. I wish that the core team would take the initiative and communicate more regarding this thread and the rumors, but that hasn’t happened and I think that it is time that the community accept that it is up to us to digest the information and find it.
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Stephen was likely punched in the face by a business partner or a person in his personal life. Okay, what does that have to do with the Harmony blockchain? Nothing, but it may reflect on the sentiment towards him as a leader. Either way, not pertinent to the success of the blockchain to discuss Stephen’s personal life imo.
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Stephen charged staff to maintain his vehicle without reimbursement or thanks. Shame on him. But we need to be productive in how we talk about this and the situation at large. The point of many of these leaked statements is to discredit Stephen and to highlight that he is not a kind leader with the skillset needed to manage this company and team. I cannot speak on this, as I have not interacted with him personally. But I can say that I have heard all of these things from various sources and that they do appear to be coming from within the core team.
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NFTs. According to market research, there is still money to be made in this sector. Harmony is full speed ahead on the NFT initiative to onboard new users and to drive NFT sales in order to fund their creators. They also aim to promote fiat purchases in order to inject cash into our economy. This has all been mapped out at a macro level for awhile now and should not be news to the community. Whether Stephen is choosing to allocate key development resources towards the initiative and away from infrastructure is beyond me.
All that being said, I want to turn the focus away from the cannibalization of the chain and its leadership and more towards the realities, as I see them. Harmony is Stephen’s business and we are in a precarious timeline and situation that may not benefit from a change in leadership. Stephen likely will not step down even if requested. We can’t be certain that the core team supports Stephen’s removal until they speak to the community in an official capacity, which thus far has not happened as is not likely going to happen, as they enjoy their salaries and benefits. That’s understandable, we cannot all be martyrs. There is no shame in doing your job to the best of your ability and I do not think that you need to like your boss. Stephen is the boss and I am still sure that he is doing what he thinks is best for the chain. Whether he is wrong or right I do not know. I am not going to support the removal of the top level of the chain’s leadership without a clear narrative that is shared to the community by the core team. Not their alts, which currently leak info on Twitter that will cause more damage than good.
We need to be unified and to believe that our leadership and their core team is competent enough to see this through. I’m not a Stephen supporter, I am a Harmony supporter. Stephen is Harmony, for the time being. Therefore, we need to align ourselves to the path or speak up. No more cloak and dagger, come out and say it. The community can’t speak for you.
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Love this on a lot of counts, but it will help to remember that while Stephen helped get Harmony to where it is now, he isn’t Harmony.
Harmony is its community first, its projects second, its teams third, and its C-suite last.
I may be on my own thinking this, but there are heroes throughout this chain that make it what it is. I don’t need to meet nor know Stephen to understand that.
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Is there anything more productive than a well maintained vehicle? I don’t think so.
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