An open platform is required. Steem is not an open platform, the top 19 is a prisoner's dilemma involving mutual and self voting, and allows a stake (one or group) who can control 13 of the witnesses and then they can simulate, once in a while, a disagreement, by defecting on one, and nobody knows the difference. except I figured it out.
The SYSTEM has to be in truth open. There is a natural partitioning of high skill individuals but new players should not be unnecessarily impeded in moving up. This eliminates competition and you are back to dictatorship.
I completely agree; that is definitely a big danger that comes with a group of people getting a bunch of leverage through large 'bank accounts'. We can just hope to get enough of a piece so that we can all rise up. :) My goal is definitely to increase my steem power so that I can help people by upvoting!
Yeah, if fraud was proven, that could definitely be a real possibility. crazy stuff.