But who/how decides what is bad behaviour? Is it up to vigilantes? Does might make right and the one with the most power wins?
Blockchain technology has been built around a core principle of achieving consensus. Why is this any different? Where is the consensus for this Proof of Brain people talk about? I'm not seeing it and there isn't really much evidence that people are trying to see it so is it any wonder this platform has become a free-for-all?
That is clearly bad behavior. And it is being incentivized by the current rules because they are profitable activities since HF19.
A fork could render all of them unprofitable so there is no need for vigilantes.
Don't forget Dan's motto:
The economic incentives in STEEM since HF19 are flawed, proof of brain is no longer the driver of this blockchain.
I wasn't here before H19 but I think abuse would have still been possible with non-linear rewards. Instead of self-voting with 10,000 SP Could I not have spawned 100 accounts with 100 SP each and then set up a curation trail. Wouldn't that have paid out?
Quadratic rewards meant that the bigger the payout on a post, the more your vote would affect it (either up or down).
Its not currently worth downvoting dodgy, overvalued TA crap by 50c compared to just upvoting yourself 50c; but if the choice is between upvoting yourself 5c and downvoting the rubbish by $5, it becomes much more appealing.
That does sound a bit better and it makes me wonder why such a system was abandoned. Maybe there is a clue in all those witnesses who are running bid bots?
I understand Dan had strong views on the topic so maybe we just need to wait for EOS to launch a competitor?
Or for the threat of that to force a reconsideration here.
The closer Dan's thing and steem are, the more steem's network effect will matter.
Possibly. Though I can just imagine the vitriol that will occur in the debate of that scenario so I'm not sure if logic or reason would prevail.
Maybe I am just being too pessimistic and cynical :)
There's a catch: It is costly to spawn new accounts.
Not really. You just need to send VESTS to the new account :-
https://v2.steemconnect.com/accounts/create