Voting and Proxying (Personal Rant)
During the recent increase of worker proposals that have come under consideration, discussions have arisen about the perceived voting power of certain proxies. Some have even argued that proxies should have a maximum voting power.
I would like to briefly discuss the following points:
- proxies are not necessarily whales; they usually have voting power delegated to them
- anyone can vote directly, select or a proxy, or change a proxy at any time
- BitShares voting is based on stake which can be acquired through exchange (so obviously voting concentration can happen; there should be no surprise here)
- Only around 40% of all available stake is voting at all (the remainder either do not care; have been lost or forgotten; or are on "centralized exchanges" most of whom abstain from voting)
On top of this, this week just saw the approval for an effort to on-board more centralized exchanges which further has the likelihood of decreasing voting participation by shifting BitShares to more centralized exchanges that abstains from voting. While having more centralized exchanges using BitShares tokens does have benefits, it also has drawbacks.
Do people want greater "voter participation", or do they really just want voting to go their way?!?!