1 needs modification, 2 is a good idea
Despite some who call 2 an exit fee, I think Steem Power should stop being marketed as an "investment" to "investors". Market it to users of the platform who want to power up their accounts but make powering up or upgrading a lot easier. Make it possible with a gift card, fiat, a credit card, or Paypal. People should never see Bitcoin or blockchain anywhere on the Steemit official marketing.
Use gamification to make people want to upgrade their Steem Power. Market Steem Dollars to crypto investors for the 10% interest.
Steem Power a purchasable upgrade for accounts
reddit gold is our premium membership program. It grants you access to extra features to improve your reddit experience. It also makes you really quite dapper.
And Alice goes to Walgreens with her Visa Card and buys the Steem Card instead of the Netflix card. It's also possible to sell a Steem Power subscription for people who want to buy a little bit at a time, remeber WoW is subscription based and. Second Life has Linden Dollars which are like our Steem Dollars and can be marketed in a similar way.
Do not make the mistake of listening to crypto anarchists or crypto people when it comes to marketing. Crypto people are horrible at marketing and that includes Bitcoin. All of crypto has a bad reputaton and horrible marketing. Look at Pokemon Go or even Reddit Gold to see how to do marketing, or just hire a profesisonal in gamification and marketing guru. Do not listen to Steemit whales and don't even listen to me. Hire people who are from the gaming world, or who marketed popular social networks.
Note: notice games and social networks never use words like "investor" or "speculator", as this would be like trying to market the social network as a gambling site which is something they all avoid.
UPDATE: IF ANYONE CAN GET IN CONTACT WITH Jane McGonigal AND HIRE HER AS A CONSULTANT IT WOULD BE GREAT FOR STEEMIT. SHE IS A THOUGHT LEADER IN "PURPOSE DRIVEN GAMING" AND HAVING HER ASSOCIATED WITH STEEMIT WOULD BRING MOMENTUM.
References
Both @ned and @dan are crypto anarchists (or voluntaryists ?) so the likelihood of them not listening to that approach is slimmer.
I think you're hitting at a root cause here -- pie in the sky ideals only last as long as it takes for reality to step in. Believing that all SP can be essentially redistributed 'fairly' without psychology and market forces wreaking havoc on the ecosystem is foolish and a sure way to lose market share. Greg Maxwell has a similar, but different, problem... all tech, no business.
I know for a fact Dan and Ned aren't currently listening to crypto-anarchists. Some of the solutions they are considering definitely haven't come from crypto-anarchists. Good ideas are good ideas and they can be crypto-anarchists privately but the platform isn't going to survive appealing to a fringe philosophical and political viewpoint.
Data should be collected. An Ideal user should be chosen. And then all effort should be about encouraging that.
That's pretty much it, really. Demand for Steem Power is stalling because there's limited appeal to the platform. In free-to-play games, whales are addicted and have ample motivation to keep leveling up. On Steemit, I'm not seeing the same appeal. There are a lot of great suggestions throughout this thread. But the essence is clear - creating penalties and controls will never create demand. Adding value and appeal to the platform will.
I wholeheartedly agree about making powering up easier. I borrowed a bit of money to power up,but I have not yet used it,because the whole process seems very cumbersome, so I have procrastinated. The thought of it makes me nervous,to be honest, I´m afraid that I will manage to fuck up somehow and lose my money.
Exactly in line with some thoughts I have had..... not my intent to spam your comment but would love your opinion on this,
https://steemit.com/steemit/@clevecross/if-it-were-mine-to-change-my-answer-to-stellabella-and-why
THIS^^^