"If one can develop an oracle system which guarantees that one real individual is associated with only one account, you could alter the distribution mechanism and take into account that information."
Well, why not 2FA? It's not like you'd have to reinvent the wheel. While some folks have more than one phone (I have... umm.. 5?) that at least is dramatic limitation on bots.
Then we'd need your phone number.
You got it when I signed up. The same as every account created through Steemit.com.
Bots just use fake, or temporary numbers, which 2FA would end.
Yes, you're right that was a brain-fart. We do ask for your phone number. My assumption is that the engineers determined that the costs of requiring that every user enable 2FA before being able to get an account (in terms of increasing barriers to entry and adding an extra step to the sign up process) outweigh the costs. Most people want us to be decreasing the friction in the sign up process not increasing it. But thanks for your feedback.
This might be an opportune time to examine the results of that decision, as but ~11% of accounts opened in 2016 - including bots - remain active.
Most people have been leaving. I'll take fewer signups, in exchange for a better retention rate, if that's the cost.