RE: Blog rewards CAN’T be widely distributed

[biophil]

I'm not completely sure I understand your 2nd bullet on #1. Is it assuming that I go grab a huge pile of free signups, and then have each of them post articles and they all vote on one another's articles?

I think we need to very carefully consider how a 1-account-1-vote might be implemented via a semi-autonomous verification system. As things stand right now, the big voters are simply too big for minnows to have any financial incentive to stick around.

Comments

[anonymint]

I'm not completely sure I understand your 2nd bullet on #1. Is it assuming that I go grab a huge pile of free signups, and then have each of them post articles and they all vote on one another's articles?

Even if we set a threshold for voting above the level given to free signup accounts, the attacker could buy STEEM POWER and vote his free signup accounts above the threshold. Then consolidate them by using them to vote (or just continue voting them up from his STEEM POWER) to reach the threshold for powering them down.

The point is that if we allow voting to be linear it enables targeting which accounts we want to transfer value to via voting, and popularity of the content becomes irrelevant in this attack.

I think we need to very carefully consider how a 1-account-1-vote might be implemented via a semi-autonomous verification system.

I assume you mean that if we can identify account holders then we can prevent Sybil attacks on free signups. But this isn't the only vulnerability with 1-account-1-vote (linear) weighting. Besides, account verification will likely drastically curtail signups, because nobody likes to be forced to do KYC just so they can try the site and vote.

As things stand right now, the big voters are simply too big for minnows to have any financial incentive to stick around.

In my opinion, unfortunately (or fortunately for me) it is impossible to fix without discarding the concept of voting from a shared debasement pool. I am moving on to completely redesigning a Steem-like onboarding mechanism

[biophil]

Then consolidate them by using them to vote (or just continue voting them up from his STEEM POWER) to reach the threshold for powering them down.

I see. I had misunderstood which threshold you were talking about.

Besides, account verification will likely drastically curtail signups, because nobody likes to be forced to do KYC just so they can try the site and vote.

Certainly. I've been kicking around the idea of a hybrid system where un-verified users have a stake-weighted vote, while verified users get an additional constant-weight vote. I haven't thought through the math, the implementation, or the vulnerabilities it might cause.

I am moving on to completely redesigning a Steem-like on boarding mechanism

I would love to be kept in the loop with whatever you develop; one thing that always frustrates me about this dev team is how ad hoc many of their solutions are, but you seem to consider stuff pretty carefully.

[anonymint]

I would love to be kept in the loop with whatever you develop; one thing that always frustrates me about this dev team is how ad hoc many of their solutions are, but you seem to consider stuff pretty carefully.

Follow me. I will blog post if there is something. Thanks for the attention.