Nobody knows what is best. I'm not 100% convinced for eliminating or scaling back the reward pool but open to the idea. I'm mostly just making the bast case here I can for the idea as presented in this post and then people can make up their own minds.
One thing is for sure, Steem has been a massive disappointment and not well received either by the market or by user growth, and people can debate the reasons and whether and how those might be fixable. Beyond the initial observation, It is all speculative though.
What about consulting some professional economists and bringing them in here to advise on the best economic setup in order to give steemit.com and steem the best chance for survival long term? Currently it looks like a bunch of developers and non-economists (no offense to anyone as they/you are all very smart people in different areas) throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. What about getting some professionals in here for some input? That seems like it would be well worth the money spent... what do you think?
In practice that is basically up to Steemit at this point as no one else has any budget for it. Witnesses are struggling just to justify expenses and time including 24/7 on call (top 12 are now paid about 13K USD per year), and stakeholders/investors are all heavily under water without even all that much left (my current stake in Steem which was once worth approximately 10 million USD is now worth approximately 100000 USD).
I made that exact suggestion to Steemit 1-2 years ago including some more specific detail on what sorts of experts would be best able to help; it all fell on deaf ears. By this time their available budget is also likely greatly reduced, albeit some of that is probably by their own choices to limit reinvestment of past gains back into the project (my opinion and somewhat though not entirely speculation; I have no visibility into their private books or finances).
SPS may have some available funding at some point (not yet as the pool is still being filled) but for all the same reasons (i.e. low price) that is also limited and has competing demands.
Mostly it seems we need to bootstrap and improvise at this point, as would any startup with limited funding, because that's pretty much what we are.
Also worth keeping in mind that "professional economists" is pretty broad and the number with specific expertise in the relevant sub-specialties is far smaller. Many if not most or all are likely to be highly paid working for major tech companies and other far better funded blockchain projects (and in some cases those overlap, so both).
Thanks for the in depth response, I appreciate it.
Regarding the funding, I would imagine just getting some consulting work done would be feasible using the SPS, or perhaps steemit,inc funds as opposed to a full time position? Inc seems much more open to trying things now than they were 2 years ago when you suggested something similar, perhaps it's worth bringing up again?
It may not be worth the money, but paying someone/someones to come in and outline what they think the best economic setup is for long term success might be all we really need. I can't imagine a consulting job like that would break the bank, though I can't say for sure what that might cost.
Getting a professional in economics and a professional in social media to help guide us in the right direction seems like the right move to me if they/we really want to make this a success instead of having everyone on here play economist or social media expert.
Other people have brought it up repeatedly. It's not an obscure idea.
That being said I agree with you they are open to more input, and I think something like this could have a chance to happen if the Steem price ever recovers and Steemit's budget (as well as SPS budget) improves to the point where there is more interest in expanding/hiring.
I would reiterate though, that relevant and highly-qualified economists and social media experts are in high demand, with in some cases almost unbelievable levels of compensation available from big tech companies and well-funded blockchain projects, and such expertise won't come cheap nor will it be easy to find someone like this looking for work.
I would actually somewhat fear Steemit bringing in some marginally qualified B players with poor understanding and bad ideas and it doing more harm than good. I don't think that is without basis.