"...Do you realize that a whale can create almost 10 spam accounts and make them all whales too and then all those accounts can start voting each other on every post which is basically being operated a by a single user..."
There is no financial difference between splitting your SP into multiple accounts which circle jerk, and just self-voting. None. Since both are allowed by the code, verification doesn't impact either practice. Not at all.
"And normally people dealing in cryptos verify themselves at exchanges all the time."
And as we see, this is being abused by the US IRS to plunder those customers of exchanges that have had to reveal their identities. Anonymity is the only defense against plunder by institutions wielding force to extract your money from your wallet, and further, that defends ME from being censored with extreme prejudice in the real world to silence me here. My anonymity keeps my kids safe from being harmed to silence me.
This is a very real security matter, and as censorship burgeons across the web, it is becoming ever more important - and potentially profitable - to provide a safe haven from censorship, and only anonymity provides that security.
ID serves no useful purpose, and presents significant and dangerous attack vectors for Steemit users.
If you want to preclude self voting, that's a code issue, and doxxing is irrelevant. While circle jerking with multiple accounts is sleazy, it's also able to be dealt with in code, without doxxing the rest of us.
In any case, doxxing is far worse than the problems you want to solve. Lives are at stake, not just cryptocoins.
To drive this point home, I am currently under threat of death from private parties connected to corrupt government agencies. Only being able to post anonymously has protected my family from criminals that would eagerly harm them just for fun, and shutting me up would just be a bonus.
I will oppose ID verification until my dying breath, because allowing it might cause my family to draw their last breaths, and it won't do a damn thing to affect any problem you have brought up.
Your all points are valid and i respect them totally.
Circle jerking and self voting is allowed by the code.. true. But ID theft and posting same content under different usernames to receive upvotes from all sorts of followers is a crime. I am sure of that.. which is what i meant by "spam accounts".
And let us set aside this debate because your arguments are valid when you said that you fear for the safety of your family.
But i wrote something in the last paragraph of previous comment that playing field should be levelled then.. if there is no verification then there should never be any verification for anyone..
My short video and my picture holding steemit signboard will now forever be part of blockchain for all times to come that i cant even delete. So why did i have to verify myself in front of public?
Why cant i be trusted as an authentic user from the get go? That was my point.. would you consider my argument valid for this part?
I didn't verify my identity in the way you describe. Neither were you forced to. You didn't have to do it, and if you thought you did, you were mistaken. I cannot unmake our choices, so it is best to be circumspect from the get go.
Also, there are mechanisms in place that are directly confronting ID theft as it is practiced on Steemit. This can be done, and is being done, without ID. Reposting the same content on multiple accounts is considered plagiarism, and is also handled without resorting to ID.
ID is not necessary - and endangers all users, even if only by enabling their holdings to be plundered, or themselves to be classified by their words as more or less 'desirable'.
I'm agin' it.
I reckon we prove who we are by our words and actions, and I have let that be the case for me.
I respect your opinions and they are right. I wasnt forced to upload those pictures.. but its quite natural that when your post payout is 20 cents even with 100 views, one must take it as a sign.. that public is not ready to trust you, specially when it is said in the comments section by someone having 60+ reputation. And once i verified myself, payouts started to roll with values ranging from 6-10$ (in some cases, even more).
I am the biggest fan of anonymity that you will ever see but i was truly dejected the way steemit community was behaving towards me before verification.. may be things used to be better when you joined steemit back in May. Things were certainly not good in October and has even started to roll further down. My wife joined steemit 2 days ago and she was greeted with demands of verification from the get go..
But nonetheless, your idea is right. Wish everyone had the same mindset here. I am glad we had this conversation.
I admit I practically ignore payouts. I am only here for the interaction.
This has certainly colored my acceptance of payouts in the $.0x range =p