Perhaps i may need to come back to re-read, re-think and then re-phrase what i'll say in a later time..
Maybe we can learn from the mainstream social media in that how does their upvote/like economy works.. When karma isnt worth anything, how is it circulated among the redditors and what will their criteria of giving out upvotes and downvotes be. Conversely, when we look at steem, knowing that our votes have a monetary value tied behind it, how have we performed in terms of setting our criteria to upvote/downvote.
there's no money behind the likes, upvotes and claps on other platforms. So why are they worth so much and why do people flock there? I guess we might agree it's mainly due to the network effect, driven by content people find addictive and worth their time and attention.
It's not that these content creators on other platforms arent in it for the money too? they pretty much have the same mindset as most of the non-whales that are here - to create value (ergo make money).
But is there any other value besides money? It's hard to buy a Network Effect but its something that determines whether an internet platform thrives or dies..
Does Steem have a semblance of the Network Effect? is it a priority on the platform and among it's developers and users?
I know this discussion is about the best way to distribute the steem tokens among the users but really it got me into thinking will too much change in the blockchain cause good or harm? is the original White Paper written as a base for experimentation for improvement or a codex to be abide by?
and is changing token distribution addressing the root cause, if there is even a root cause..
please dont take this as me pouring water on your train of thought, in fact inspired me to go on another tangent.
Ultimately, what does the Steem Blockchain aim to do to improve the human experience? what will be it's function when it became a part of the mainstream zeitgest? What can people find on the apps of the steem blockchain that people cant find anywhere else.. and im talking about the selfie-ing, console-gaming, wage-earning, dutiful-voting, barely tech-literate majority of the human race.
To be honest some of this stuff really is beyond me. But i think there needs to be a site-wide understanding of what the Steem Blockchain can and will potentially be and not just the "crypto-atm machine" that so many users are sadly taking advantage of currently.
or maybe im just rambling, and i apologise for that.
whitepaper for steem is simply - a public content blockchain. what it is will be up to the users :)
Ever evolving. Got it.. which is why discussions like these paramount. for the first time ever users get to decide the future of a platform and not faceless stakeholders. Man i love Steem
Discussions and consensus are now still not scalable though. Have a read at this: https://steemit.com/tauchain/@trafalgar/the-power-of-tau-scaling-the-creation-of-knowledge
I think this is something that’ll also greatly help steem when it’s out
I'll give it a read!