It seems to me that the 13-week powerdown period has contributed (in part or significantly) to the formation of this community. And we always say that the community is the most important thing we have. It's not a coincidence that we have a strong community here that other places don't have. They get in and get out whenever they want, no commitment. Here we have commitment. When I explain Hive to people, I tell them that the owners of the network have to lock their funds for 13 weeks, and this is how the network incentivizes longer-term thinking for the benefit of the whole place, and this makes sense to them. Participating in governance and being able to withdraw at any point in time? I don't think it makes sense. Probably will degrade the community.
How would we benefit from instant withdrawals? Isn't it far more juicy for investors if they can put HBD in savings and get a pretty good APR on a stablecoin, than to put funds in a volatile currency? And would we not want to advertise the latter as the main investment opportunity here since we want stability rather than pumps and dumps?
It's better explained by @theycallmedan but there would be a commitment because you can't instant withdraw without a cost.
We would benefit from a x% (say 5%) burn of the funds a a "fee". This would allow us to bridge between investors who are afraid of buying hive because they have to lock it up if they don't want to lose out on the inflation and people who are investing "long term".
I know a lot of people who would invest in hive but are afraid of the 13 week power down. I think the community was built mostly because hive is, by nature, very social, where other chains don't have that much talking going on, and instant withdrawals wouldn't hurt that much.