As some of you may know I closed down the curation project here on Blurt a couple of weeks ago. I did announce it in a couple of places, but this is the first formal announcement via a publication. I will not reopen the curation project here. I waited to announce this decision here until enough time had passed that I could objectively present the information to you.
The main reason behind this move was that I had over 240,000 Blurt stolen from my @r2cornell account. I never shared my active key with anyone. I have been at this too long to share it with anyone. I read in a post recently that insinuates that I carelessly gave out my active key. Back in 2017 I may have been careless, but I think I have a better handle on things today.
My computer technician cannot figure out how someone could have hacked my computer. He has been working for me for 15 years now. He said he has never had any issues on my system that could lead to a hacking. Since this happened we added a newer security suite to all my computers just to be sure.
I think I paid my curators well, which means there was less earnings for me. It would take me a very long time to recover such a loss, and seeing I bought a lot of Blurt with my own money at a time when the price of Blurt was higher I may never be able to recover the loss.
My initial reaction was not a good one. I saw it as a "slap in the face" for all I have done here. I now can see that a slight to all who received benefit from the curation project has also happened.
I initially undelegated everything from all accounts. I also started selling my Blurt, but with the amount I have I need to be careful so I do not push down the price. I have since discontinued power-down on two accounts, and left it in place on two others. I will probably send Blurt from those accounts I am Powering-Down, to the two other accounts. I will still sell some if the price is right.
I did read a post earlier today which seems to be putting the blame for depressing the price of Blurt on me. The depressing of the price of Blurt has been going on for awhile now. It is not a recent event. I know because I paid a lot more than recent prices for much of my Blurt. There are many others selling as well. I think it is best I do not read posts anymore because reading that the blame is on me is unsettling. Seems someone is trying to find a "scapegoat" for Blurt's price issues. Why would I want to depress the price, when I have already lost so much (from purchase price to the theft)? If I read anymore about such nonsense I may do as they suggest I did. I am sure the author is not aware that such nonsensical talk can hurt my reputation on all the platforms. It seems the author is a witness that I have never voted for. I think it is time to pull all witness votes.
To those who send me links for curating on Blurt you need to know that I am just going to ignore them. In the past I have had some users try and make me feel guilty in hopes of getting a vote from me. Those users were blocked then, and any new ones will also be blocked. So, even though I may make a publication I will not be curating anything.
The Post-Promotion Channel for Blurt on Discord will eventually be deleted. I am waiting to get the numbers to pay my curators their commissions. It is then that I will delete those channels.
As to the other curation projects, on the other platforms, they will continue. But, if I experience anything negative on those platforms I will not hesitate to shut them down. I will not be curating anything on the other platforms. I pay curators to do that. I seldom have a curator terminate their relationship with the projects, so I am not in need of help in the area.
My decision may seem harsh, although the money invested was going to pay me an income during my retirement. Granted it is only a small portion of my retirement funds, but the loss of any does have its impact.
I apologize for not translating any of this to Spanish which has been the way I have done things since before Blurt or Hive. Maybe in future publications I will get back to this.
My cover photograph and the one I will be placing below this paragraph is my first Amaryllis. I try to get it to bloom around Christmas. Last year it went into full bloom around the time my wife passed away in mid January. This year it bloomed toward the end of November. I have picked up another 5 or 6 Amaryllis bulbs this year (some different colors). One does not look like it will be blooming this year. The others are only a couple weeks out of dormancy, so too early to know when they will bloom. I will be growing more houseplants, including flowering plants now that I am about to enter full retirement. I am also working on doubling my growing space for my plant room, where I grow mostly vegetables during the cold snowy months. Maybe a subject of future posts.
I normally use a Canon EOS Rebel T5 for most photographs, except where noted. I do have an older PowerShot Canon digital camera that I use from time to time. I do take some photographs with my Samsung Note 9 smart phone and include them from time to time.
This brings us to the end of this publication. I trust you will find the information helpful in clarifying what I am doing. I am not sure how much publishing I will do on Blurt. I may do one periodically, albeit shorter ones than I used to. Thank you for sharing this moment in time with me.
Thanks for your responses under my comments. I thought that being so many years on these graphene blockchains you have a "thicker skin" and you are able to accept even the absurd (which had some logics) with understanding. Anyways,
You had never changed your password and active key. This is edit history of your account:
Only one transaction is a key change (last one: 2023/12/02, after the hack)
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/206ae219507ea21286d9f7d22c95e24ccab94513
the rest are profile updates
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/8bb7c409bb3c8d11fb8dc34e00eecb34099efe65
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/83eeef40cfbcfe596019bcaa2c06e8671e4f1281
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/8b7fa258471bd535cd497393a160fabe2dae444d
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/42b54ff4ff1d5eb35d7d6a8dd0645df50497825c
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/cf5232c24a1fba4e0a36a8c3a2be5e2096e1aebf
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/54bf9453983acf2904c9c0d4f71d7e1c7dc3f132
https://ecosynthesizer.com/blurt/trx/9f7dc51063f9adfa7f689f8b23c8d39d9f364824
I bet that on Steem and Hive you have left your active key in at least a few or more places. Over the course of 7 years, several hundreds of applications have been created on both blockchains - most of them have shut down, but the owners can keep the keys or use authorization.
What I wrote here and this sequence of events makes me conclude that you have no connection with @richardman
Think about your decision, Perhaps after a series of hardforks, one of the goals of which is to drastically reduce inflation, Blurt will gain a second life and the price will improve. I say this because I sympathize with you after the hack and don't want you to incur additional losses selling BLURT for nothing.
I also think that among stakeholder there would be no problem with donations to cover your losses
"I also think that among stakeholder there would be no problem with donations to cover your losses". This sounds nice, but I have never asked anyone for anything on any of the platform. I will get past this situation. I need to work on my mind and stop thinking about the loss and how difficult it will be to recover that which is gone. In that way I can make a clear decision as to what I am going to do. I am making changes with my Blurt so that I am in a situation to have a scaled back version of what I had. I do not think it is good to have so many curation accounts.
so all these emotions etc and the facts say something different Mr. @R2cornell. You wrote that you changed your chain keys, but that's not true.
Fortunately, a feature of these blockchains is that each transaction can be viewed and the facts can be quickly determined.
Your man couldn't find any evidence of how the security was breached because no one had breached the security and most likely used your Steem keys completely painlessly.
And we, these "negative" people who simply look for the facts and do not get carried away by emotions, are always a pain in the ass, so it's nice to present us as bad and "soulless", right?
I'm sorry for your loss, but decency would require you to admit your mistake because otherwise you're projecting the blame onto our platform. Especially by repeatedly emphasizing what security measures you have and how much you care about them, and saying that you have no idea how this happened. Well, the Blockchain record speaks for itself as to how this could have happened without violating any security measures.
I also didn't remember to change the keys during my first year on Blurt, and only someone's post (I don't remember whose) reminded me about it. I didn't have as much money as you, so maybe that's why no scammer got around to it.
Now there is a boom and all the fraudsters have become active because the best time to steal crypto is when you can sell it for large amounts.
My Blurt keys on all but @scilwa had been changed at some point. All I know is that for these past years My steemit, hive and Blurt were all different. Maybe I changed steemit and Hive and not Blurt. I know prior to the forks that created Hive and Blurt I did have to change my password and keys on Steemit. We are talking in the early days on the steemit platform. I know I did not fully understand the implications of the various keys.
I cannot change what took place. I am not finalizing any decision until such time that I do not make an emotional response to the situation. That will mean I won't read the negative post where I am accused of some of things I have read about. I have responded to some but will not be doing that anymore.
No one is accusing you of anything. There was no response from you beforehand, except that you decided to leave. Your transactions, on the other hand, just seemed suspicious. Apparently you also claimed that you changed these keys and wrote in your post that there could be no errors on your part.
Unfortunately, neither the steem nor hive networks are particularly favorable to the existence of this blockchain. The potential success of this platform is a blow to the dogma on which the existence of the other two blockchains is based, that although no one likes them, downvotes are necessary and without them these blockchains could not function.
So if anyone ever obtained your old keys from there, they could use it to stealing money from you and deal with the competition at the same time, because every hack into someone's account potentially destroys our blockchain and presents it as dangerous.
Regarding the price drop, it's not that I blame you. I rather wanted to inform the community that we are not dealing with a panic sale of tokens here, but a theft.
The fact that when you withdraw and the thief sells the tokens, we are dealing with a drop in price is, of course, not entirely your fault, but the depth of the market, which is also the responsibility of the team and other people responsible for advertising and running this blockchain. Also, the fact that our hardest times happened during a bear market was not favorable for advertising.
I'm really sorry about you and, as I said under my entry sensitizing you to take security measures, I am definitely in favor of organizing a collection from the community to refund it to you, just like @mariuszkarowski, but admit that it could also be the fault of these keys so that others they did not unanimously blame blockchain security.
Because your current post clearly states that, according to you, your security was flawless, and naturally everyone thinks that there must be something to do with the blockchain because there is no other option.
I am sorry, but there was some very clear accusations made.
Accusations are not the same as assumptions. Some assumptions have been made here based on the analyzed facts. Some conclusions were made during the conversation. Perhaps harmful to you, but at the moment they seemed rational. But no one maintained this position in the discussion and wrote no official judgment post accusing you of these actions.
This was just part of the discussion taking place under the neutral post that announced what had happened. Something like preparatory proceedings before the police press charges. A few hours later, the position was changed based on new facts and the charges were dropped.
So, as I wrote, I'm sorry that such unpleasantness happened to you, but I have already dealt with people who, by making themselves a victim, secretly manipulated the audience's emotions and faked their own wrongs in order to achieve certain benefits. Hence these assumptions. I'm sorry if you felt offended, but we can't turn back time.
I suggest we simply leave it behind and focus on moving forward and making Blurt a safe and profitable place for anyone who invests here. Your curatorial project supports many authors and makes more than one of them willing to continue writing here, so I'm glad you decided to stay. And for this reason, I also believe that even if you do not want to burden the blurt fund to recover the stolen money, it is for the good of the project and due to the fact that this theft has reduced the earnings of many authors by 1/4, I suggest that we set up proposals in the DAO to use these funds for return you.
...aaaaaaaaaaaaand cue up multiple 'thefts', by chancers with no ethics, who see an opportunity to double dip...really ?
....unless it's all about the market timing, and keeping up the appearance of the plates spinning successfully, (without token price destruction), is all that's relevant - in which case this strategy makes total sense.
If a token has no utility beyond the actual token itself, then...oh... I can't bothered anymore ...lol...there's really is no point ...
...good luck, matey.
Re🤬eD
🥓
Telegramand Whatsapp
Nice investigative work on key changes 👍
With the cessation of the R2cornell project, the Blurt blockchain and its community lose a significant manual curation project, which is truly disheartening. I thank you for the years spent supporting the Blurt community in the most admirable way—through manual curation.
I won't dwell on the controversies since most of what I've read seems to come from individuals who, if they had spent just 2 minutes, of their overly precious time, conducting a minimum of investigation (simply by checking the richardman account on the 3 blockchain explorers), which is basic before making accusations, would have quickly realized the foolishness of their assumptions.
For information: richardman account is part of a known network on Steem and Hive, specializing in phishing (using comments/posts with link to fake airdrops and claiming pages). This account is also mentioned in several posts on the 3 blockchains, some Discord servers and has victimized many.
When I suggested to you, instead of selling your BLURT, to delegate to @beblurt or @blurtbooster to continue supporting the Blurt community indirectly and without having to spend time on it, I had calculated that in 1 year, you would have recovered the stolen BLURT. I admit to being disappointed to see that you chose to delegate to UPVU (presumably to recover the lost funds more quickly), whose actions are in no way geared toward supporting the Blurt blockchain or its community. I sincerely hope that you reconsider this decision and opt to delegate to systems that work for the benefit of the Blurt blockchain and its community.
I also noticed that, like me, you appreciate Canon cameras.
Thank you. I do not have anymore Blurt for sale. In fact I bought some today on ionomy.com for the same price as I sold, which was below market value.
I am considering reopening the project in view of the support I have received. Because of some changes I am making it may take some weeks for everything to fall in place.
I have delegated some to blurtbooster and will add more while I am in a holding pattern.
Thank you again!
This is great news. @khrom suggested in his post that we can cover your losses through DAO. I like this solution. Currently the DAO voting system is broken, but it will be fixed in one of the planned hardforks. After the voting system is fixed, we will write such a proposal (me or khrom) and set your account as a beneficiary
That sounds nice, but I can come through this without taking away from the Blurt system.
The fix for the DAO voting system is already done in code, and will be included in the next hard fork. I think that will be ready in early to mid January.
I am so sorry for what has happened to you, @r2cornell you have been and always have been one of the most genuine and giving person on all platforms it really disguises me how humans react I suggest keeping your spirits up because karma will always destroy these fifty low lives and you will come up on top again. Stay strong my man and do hope to see you back here with all good forces.
Thank you so much. I am considering re-starting the curation project, but first I am making some changes to better protect my tokens. It may take a few weeks. I will probably do a short post outlining my plans soon.
It is really sad to see things unfold this way.
You have always been supportive to a lot of people including myself and I thank you greatly for that.
You halped a lot of my african brothers become successful on blurt and outside BLURT.
The attack on your account is a big blow to all of us and I felt very sad when I got to learn about it.
However, I will implore you not to continue making your decisions out of anger and based on the negative reviews you've seen.
Everyone knows that you are part of blurt success story.
In the meantime, I will plead with you to reconsider your decisions.
Almost every successful crypto enthusiast have experienced one huge loss or another while in the space and how they managed it made them bounce back stronger and successful.
Both you and Blurt had no hand in what happened to your account as every investigation pointed to a hacker that already attacked many accounts even on hive and steemit.
Don't let his evil antics way you down so much to abandon your legacies on Blurt.
We appreciate you and will continue to do so.
However, if you want to delegate and not post anymore, I will also advise you to delegate to either blurtbooster or beblurt since they have higher curation rewards than upvu and also contribute to the growth and governance of this Blockchain.
Thank you so much @r2cornell
Africans love and hold you at high esteem for your good heart and support.
Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it.
I see little information on delegating to Blurtbooster or beblurt. Not clear as to the amount that can be earned.
Blurtbooster and beblurt share 85% of their weekly curation rewards to their delegators.
So the amount of blurtpower you delegate to them will determine your weekly revenue from them.
You can delegate a portion to both accounts and know which will be more gainful to you overtime.
Thank you for the support you have provided so far sir! Whatever you do next, I hope it goes well.
I really respect you.
Have a wonderful day ❣️
Thank you. Read my two comments above.
Honestly, it is so sad to read this. Its really devastating how we humans are. All we know how to do is blame, blame, blame. A lot of persons do not remember and probably do not even know how much you have helped this great platform. My sincere apologies for the hack and loss of such a huge amount of blurt. Thank you so much for all you have done on this platform.
Thank you
Hello. I am very sorry for what happened. The truth is that I had no idea, I just found out from this publication because although I have a hive account I never managed to access it (I have no liquidity within that platform and I barely understand it)
The point is that I come to thank you for all the support you have given me since I started at blurt. He was one of the first to support my content and that encouraged me a lot; I will never forget it, on the contrary, I value it very much.
I wish you the best, that you can continue forward in the best way, the one in which you feel at peace with yourself and not what others want, because there are too many people to judge and question, sadly. May life smile at you now more than ever so that you can receive a little of what it has given us here.
Encouragement and a hug from Cuba, warm and pure like that beautiful Amarilys that she gave us in the image. Here I give you this beautiful flower wishing you many good things.
Lien.
Thank you very much for your sweet thoughts. I plan on being around. I thought I had a plan for Blurt which I outlined a little above. Now I need to get my feelings back in order since reading the negativity about me.
Hive and Steemit are still up and running. Not that they are better or worse than Blurt. It is just the the way it is
I really thought you had been careless.
You have always been the project that supports everyone no matter what. You are on all three platforms, no matter what happens, you have moved on. I admire your project, I dream about it, you are my inspiration on the web3.
I can't figure out why to withdraw support for Blurt. I can read some reasons in what you expose, I don't share it, but, everyone knows what happens. Personally, I respect your decision.
And thanks for supporting my account on Hive, and Steemit, even here on Blurt when no one did. When I started just barely and it was only a small account.
And those flowers, they are very pretty. I recommend planting clovers, I don't know, they have a special magic.
Thank you. I need to time, and will try not to read anymore negative posts about the situation. I need time. That was why I stopped some power-downs and started moving Blurt to just 2 accounts. It gives me time to make a non emotional decision from here on. Reading the negative posts will do me no good.
"I really thought you had been careless." Maybe. I just do not know what happened. I may never know.
All I know is that positive posts and comments do help calm me and will allow me to think things through and make a good decision.
I had always planned on being active on the three platforms as long as I did not need the funds for retirement, which I do not. I have to get my mind to dismiss the loss and make a healthy decision.
Above all there is no blame on Blurt. Megadrive gathered some information from me and asked me a lot of questions. I believe he was sincerely trying to figure out what might have happened.
It's a big loss, but, I think that beyond the money, the important thing is also your stability and tranquility.
I have also read several things. The best thing, in my personal opinion, is that you take some time. Really reading negative posts will not do you good.
It's good to know what could have happened, it will help prevent it from happening again. But, I don't know about it, so I don't know if you can get to know.
I hope you will find out what happened one day.
I'm deeply sry for what happened to you, I cannot imagine how they managed to steal your funds unless they used successfully some kind of brute force attack which is very unlikely. Anyways, it is a big loss not only of your funds but also of the hard work and amazing job you've been doing helping people grow their accounts while providing them some hope.
I won't blame you by any action you may find suitable, it's your money, no one has nothing to do with it.
You know my best wishes are always with you 🤗
Thank you I appreciate it. I needed to hear that, because I have been reading some very unsetting posts about me and the theft. I felt violated when the theft happened, and now feel even more violated.
I have no clue what I will do now. I need to get past the emotional feelings before making a decision. That is why I waited until today to do this publication.
Thank you again.
You are probably the single greatest thing on all 3 Blockchains.
The only reason most people are still blogging on Blurt, Steemit and Hive.
Thanks. I know I have seen a lot of newcomers grow on the three platforms. I offered advice where I could and then supported their blogging.
Hmm, this is a hard pill to swallow. That's human nature no matter how you try to be good to people and help there would be other's who will not appreciate and condemn what you do.
I will conclude everything with this quote that "when life throw lemon at you, make a lemon juice out of it" and another I personally use to encourage myself anytime I receive negative energy from others is this one.
"People build story building with bricks other throw at them". Pick up yourself to perform better when others seems to discourage you. Loosing such amount of blurt is discouraging. Wish you the best.
Thank you for your kind words. I am considering re-starting the curation project, but first I am making some changes to better protect my tokens. It may take a few weeks. I will probably do a short post outlining my plans soon.
Am happy to hear that. I will be expecting a great come back. Have a wonderful month.
I have known you since my arrival in the world of web3.0 and I know that you are a person who gives everything without expecting anything in return. I am very sorry for the unpleasant situation you went through with the theft, in the end it shows us that no computer system is 100% safe.
I do not agree with your decision to throw in the towel, I think your healing project is one of the few projects that cure genuine content in an organic way and I am sure that if you were to follow the community it would have given you unconditional support so that you could recover, maybe not immediately, but in a faster way. In spite of everything, I respect your decision and I want you to know that I support you from here just as you have supported me and an extensive list of people on this and other platforms.
I wish you the best in your future projects and as always I am at your service if you want help with anything.
Everything I had been reading was very negative toward me. I saw one post where it was positive as was the comments. After losing the amount I did and feeling like no one was supporting me left me in not in a good state of mind. I emotionally reacted and started powering down everything. A few followers had positive things to say, so I stopped some of the power-downs. Currently I am going to consolidate Blurt to 2 accounts and let time pass so I can make a decision that is not wrapped in emotions.
Just like I do not know how the theft could happen, I currently am not clear on what I will do. maybe a scaled down version of what was before. I just do not know.
There are some making statements that border on slander. Some did a little research but not complete. And they sure did not ask me anything. They were too busy laying blame on me for the theft and the the price going down. The price of Blurt has been going down for a long time. I sure did not do it. Besides when I sell I want a good price or I will sit on it.
I appreciate your words. I have a lot to think on. I am not rushing decisions anymore.
Thanks for providing Support to the Blurt Community all these years. Please ignore those people who are making posts, as its normal for them to blame others. I am also starting to ignore them now.
Those people who knew you well know, how much you have done. So don't be sad. I hope your losses maybe covered at a future time, if you keep some to sell later.
Thanks again for all your efforts.
Thank you. I am currently undecided as what I will do. I have a few ideas, but need time.
You have done an incredible job with Curation on all 3 platforms. Ignore the negative people and just invest your hard earned $$$ (delegation / staking) … Earn passive income and don’t look back. Stay diversified. Blurt, Steem, SBD, RPK, Koin, Bitcoin Litecoin, Cosmos, Tron etc etc …. It all adds up
Thanks @offgridlife. I appreciate the support and great information you have shared with me over the past couple of days. It helps!
I am so sorry for what happened to you, @r2cornell it is very hard to overcome being robbed of so much money and I know how much support it takes to grow a project, I have mine and 7 years making it grow. What a pain, everything that happens to you, I'm so sorry.
You really don't need to leave, why leave Blurt and stay on other platforms, that are petty?
I also have points against, the circumstances are very doubtful.
I always supported your project, I have seen how much you support people and their content. People are very cruel, but you should ignore them and focus on growing what makes you happy. And I hope you do well in everything you do, the truth is that I have a lot of doubts about everything that happened to you. Blessings.
By @cristo.
I need to get past some of the stuff I read today, on what some are saying. I made an emotional decision when the Blurt was stolen, and started powering down everything. I have stopped some power-downs. I am going to not make an emotional decision based on current events.
I do not disagree with you about the other platforms. I just need time to make some unemotional decisions. So that means ignore the negativity toward me.
Ignore the negative people and Life is very positive. ☀️
Telegramand Whatsapp
Beautiful flower. Thank you so much for your support over the years.
This flower is awesome💖💖
Wow amazing flowers 🌺🌺
I think many people will feel lost in the blurt of your passing, we can only hope that you have a nice day ❤️
I am trying to make some changes and hope to come back with a scaled back version of the curation project. It is going to take 2 - 3 weeks.
Sorry to hear you're going through this turmoil. Thanks for all the great curation you've done.
That's a good looking amaryllis. My grandma used to grow them in her livingroom, I recall them blooming at this time of year.
Thank you
Very beautiful flower❤️
So sorry for your loss sir
After hearing the explanation about what happened to you, about the thing you should change your master key so that the bad guy can't take the coins because it's very important to keep your coins, for years but the bad guy deliberately took your coins,
Thank you. I changed my keys as soon as I saw what happened.
Hi @dsc-r2cornell, great news! Your content was selected by curators @oneray, @nalexadre to receive a special curation from BeBlurt 🎉 Don't hesitate to upvote this comment as the curators will receive 80% of the rewards for their involvement.
You can support us by voting for our witness, our decentralized funding proposal, or through delegation. You're also welcome to join our Discord server 👉 https://discord.beblurt.com
I am very sorry for your decision. I also had 400 USD stolen from HIVE.
What very few accept about these platforms is that there is a very high speculative and scam component, which is why investing money from our own pockets is very risky.
Think about those who buy to drive the value of cryptos up and then at a certain moment, at the so-called "inflection point of the parabola" they stop buying and start selling.
There is a witness in HIVE (acydio) who had a capital of more than 20 million USD when this token was at 3.60 USD. Now you are withdrawing everything from your account (PD) until it reaches zero.
The curious thing is that all those who defend this system talk about stability. I don't think that with these actions they will achieve it.