RE: Do we actually need a worker proposal system? Let's get some real examples of work proposals first.
Its undeniable that steemapps.com has brought value to Steem.
I'm assuming that you build it because you love Steem and want to add value to it but surely also because you thought it could help you get you into the top 20 (incentive). A place you 100% deserve btw in my opinion.
Let's say this WP was in place, would you put future updates up there? Would you besides the witness pay ask for funds from the WP pool too? Would you be able to do more than you are doing now? Can you give an example of a WP you would put up there that is not possible for you to create now?
Magic dice is doing well right now because STEEM is cheap. When STEEM goes up people will lower the bets but your witness will still make 100k STEEM a year.
Also Magic Dice will have competition soon like you said. 10x more gambling apps won't mean 10x more profits for those apps. It will just dilute the gamblers and profits will go down.
Of course Bid-bots are the low hanging fruit. But the first person that puts in the work and finds the way to generate more ROI for passive investors than bid-bots will get all the delegation that are now going to bit bots. That's an incentive in itself.
Talking about incentives? Why did people make Dtube, Partiko, Steemhunt and all the other DApps. All without this WP incentive.
Everyone is talking about how much more projects that will bring actual value will be build for Steem with this WPS, yet none has been able to give a good example yet of something that isn't done today.
Because those projects all have business models behind it. All of those you've mentioned are earning benefactor & curation rewards and are self-sustaining.
However, sites like steemblockexplorer.com, steemworld.org, steemd.com, steemnow.com and projects like dsteem, beempy & co. all have no revenue model. They are simply there to bring value to Steem and its users.
I'm very certain that with a good Working Proposal System implementation, we can incentivize people to create more projects like the ones I've mentioned above.
If we have a baseline coverage via the reward-pool and the rest is being added by donations, then that's great. But I honestly don't see a reason why we shouldn't use the inflation of STEEM for funding of projects that are going to be valuable for Steem and that are not focusing on making money.
Because you will need to fund these projects indefinitely if they can't stand on their own feet at some point. And with even more projects wanting a piece of the WP pie you will run out of funds fast.
Personally, I was so happy that there finally was starting to be this realisation on the blockchain that the reward pool is not a business model and that projects need to look for outside funding to be sustainable.
Delegation is a good incubator model but the goal should always be that projects stand on their own feet.
Also, you have not provided any examples of proposals we can look forward too when this system is in place. "I'm very certain that..." is just not good enough.
Sorry for being so harsh about it. But this thing will effect everyone on this platform when this HF get's a pass. I for one want to be sure that when it does it's for the right reasons.
I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
I'm with you that businesses should look outside the reward pool for monetization, but I'm not talking about businesses. I'm talking about projects for Steem.
And the examples I've mentioned (steemblockexplorer, steemd, steemworld, dsteem, beempy, etc.) are very clearly projects without any business model. (not every project should have the goal to make money - but that doesn't mean the developer(s) aren't needing money to develop it)
For example, steemworld.org recently introduced donations and while a bit came in (~400-500 STEEM) I wouldn't say that's very much, comparing to 1+ year of development.
I'm not yet sure how it will look like in action as the current sketch is very rough, so I don't feel comfortable to make an example proposal.