A plan to fix spam and the lopsided reward distribution!

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

In most companies, large chunks of ownership are held by a few people. So it is somewhat natural that few people hold a majority of the steem power. However, this has negative consequences when the only thing that steem power can be used for is upvoting other peoples content. The result is a very small cadre of people control what content appears on trending and ultimately decide what content is worthy to be on steemit.

If the goal of steemit is to gain mass appeal, we need to put control of what content hits trending in the hands of the masses of users not a select few.

The current distribution of steemit:

  • Nearly one-third (33%) of all steem-power is held in the account @steemit
  • The next 15 or so non-exchange accounts hold nearly 50% of the steem
  • 90% of the 17% of remaining steem-power is held by less than 200 people.
  • 1.5% of steem-power for everyone else.

The solution:

We need to allow large investors to opt out of the reward pool without penalizing them. I think a good solution is to Split the 10% inflation that is the current reward pool into two groups: (a) Dividend Pool (b) Reward Pool. Each pool will get a proportion of the 10% inflation equivalent to the proportions staked in them. By incentivizing large accounts to opt out of the reward pool, we let smaller accounts take a larger role in deciding how the rewards are split-up. This also allows passive investors (who do not want to use the utility of steem) to invest without penalty.

Dividend Pool

  • The dividend pool is the equivalent of automatic 100% self-voting.
  • Is a non-voting share that does not require a 3 month vesting period (no-vesting ensures passive investors are more interested in steem)
  • Can not elect witnesses

Benefits for investors

  • INVESTORS will want to BUY steem.
  • Easy to hold, no need to actively use your steem to maximize your investment
  • Liquidity for investors -- No 3 month lockout.
  • Allows Passive Investors

Benefits for Whales

  • Less research to direct a massive reward pool
  • Let smaller fish decide trending content, don't get blamed for ruining steemit by promoting bad content.

Benefits for everyone else

  • Better trending content
  • Less Spam
  • Votes are more impactful

Reward Pool

  • Still vested for 3 months
  • More or less operated the same. Optionally increase the max vote from 2% to 100%.

Wouldn't this make the Reward pool smaller?

Probably. The reward pool will more closely match the quality of content.

Wouldn't everyone just elect to pay themselves?

No! You would have to assume that no one on steemit

  • wants to support content
  • wants to self-promote their own content
  • wants to vote for witnesses

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All good content has a picture

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“In most companies, large chunks of ownership are held by a few people. So it is somewhat natural that few people hold a majority of the steem power.”

I don’t think this is natural it is just what you have been conditioned to believe, by a system that is stacked in favour of these few people.

“very small cadre of people control what content appears on trending and ultimately decide what content is worthy to be on steemit.”

Exactly I think this is wrong.

Thank you so much for this post I think this is the number one issue facing Steemit at the moment and it needs to be talked about with a solution found so that the platform goes forward in a positive direction.

As I've mentioned a couple times before (here and here), I'd like to see a universal dividend implemented, where a fraction of all post and curation awards go to everyone equally as their share of the value of the network.

The problem with a universal dividend (or i would call what you propose "free steem" - since a dividend would be proportional to ownership) is fake accounts.

My proposal is that we let people opt out of the reward pool and receive what they would have gotten if they had 100% self-upvoted, i call that a dividend for lack of a better term.

We need to let people be "steem owners" without forcing those owners to pick the content that everyone on steemit sees.

Hopefully, the message will get out there. It is a hard problem to solve.

I want investors to buy big stakes of steem (because that makes the price go up). But i dont want only a few people deciding how to divy up the reward pool.

Seems like a good solution is to not force investors to use 100% of the utility they are entitled too.. (give them another option that is equally as profitable)

Maybe trending should be defined more by number of upvotes rather than SBD amount? Or more a mix of both. Thanks for bringing up this subject

one neat thing: there is nothing that stops someone from making a steem browser that sorts posts in a different way.

You need @steemit's agreement to introduce all its changes. Thanks @donaldtrumpfan.

i agree with you
trending tab is full of spam and emojis :D

Very interesting points, I think. Gonna resteem. Hopefully some of the folk managing Steemit right now will spot it.

Good post m8 :)

Thanks, I think it is a controversial idea. So there might be an intermediate step in this direction.

Thanks, I think it is a controversial idea.

Well, of course it is. Almost all truly necessary conversation and ideology is controversial, empirically speaking. Its good that you've started that fire. Or are helping sustain, either way.

And you're welcome :P

So there might be an intermediate step in this direction.

Possibly, yes...maybe could use some refinement. I wish I had something more meaningful to contribute to this discussion, but as it happens, I am still trying to familiarize myself with the much finer workings of Steemit and Steem itself.