For me the problem is simple, get rid of the early vote bonus, for me that doesn't make sense. Why should you be rewarded just because you found something first?
There is more value in linking to or creating original content, voting for that original content is equally valuable whether you do it first or last. The true value in voting is a collective one, each vote on its own does not bring much value but as a group they do.
Therefore the votes can still be weighted, however the time of the votes should not come into it and all this feature does is tempt people to game the system.
The other undesirable effect is that once there have been 50 or so votes on a post and all the whales have come in, then even people who aren't necessarily trying to game the system are put off from voting, because they may perceive it as a waste of vote.
We should encourage people to vote because they like or dislike content, not just because they are chasing a bonus.
Secondly
The 50/50 share of the pot is unfair, voting for something is not as hard and time consuming as creating the thing in the first place.
Reduce curation share to 20%, that way, people are still making a little something, just for browsing and voting, but they are still incentivised to CREATE.
CG