(I've said some of this in other threads, but repeating and adding to it here.)
I really want to know what the end game is with these funds
If you read the posts that are referenced in the body of the @hbd.funder posts, everything about how the funds are used is explained in detail: https://peakd.com/hbd/@hbd.funder/upvote-this-post-to-fund-hbdstabilize
The TLDR is that they are immediately used to buy HIVE and then all of the funds are transferred directly into the DAO.
the inflation caused by $1000's of dollars a day taken from the reward pool
The inflation is the same regardless of where the rewards pool funds are directed. Technically if you look deeper into the economics of what the @hbdstabilizer effort has actually been doing, it has been having a deflationary impact on HIVE.
No funds are "taken". No user is entitled to any rewards other than what stakeholders decide to direct to them through voting. If stakeholders vote for other things besides a user's post and that user gets less rewards, that is how the rewards pool is intended to function.
I realize this is a controversial effort, and there are a large number of users who are against it. Everyone has the right to use their stake however they want though, and there are several large stakeholders that I am in direct communication with who support the effort.
I am very concerned after the comment @timcliff made about sole proprietorship.
100% of the funds are being directed back into the DAO. It is 100% verifiable on the blockchain. The only reason I am doing/supporting this is because I believe it is one of the best things we can do with the reward pool funds to increase the value of HIVE. I also do not at any point in time have control or access to any of the funds.
@smooth controls the keys of the @hbdstabilizer account, and in my view he is one of the most trustworthy people involved with HIVE. The balance of the @hbdstabilizer account is pretty much always kept at 0 too, so even if he did decide to go rogue - there is not a large amount of money that he could make off with.
There are quite a few eyeballs on this project, and we are doing everything as transparently as we can.
Thank you for taking the time to explain things clearly and accurately. I don't have much to add.
Sorry to sound like a noob here but what does DAO stand for and what is it?
Decentralized Autonomous Organization :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organization
Basically it is a pool of money that can fund efforts to improve the platform and community. Community members can create proposals to fund various efforts and stakeholders vote on the ones they would like to fund.
You can see the list of available proposals here:
https://peakd.com/me/proposals