Did it ever crossed your mind that we can instead, at any time, send tips directly to the authors?
I'm glad I'm not the only person that thinks tipping is a more sustainable alternative to a reward pool allocated to authors and curators.
In it's current form, $65 Million USD is paid to authors and curators in a single year. I wonder how much of it ends up in the hands of abusers? I wonder how long is this sustainable?
Replacing the reward pool for authors and curators system with a tipping system could save the future of Steemit. I know it's a unpopular idea among authors and curators, but if the whole system collapses within a few years, you won't have any reward pool at all to receive a share from.
What would be the incentive to invest?
I see three stages of the tipping system.
Stage 1: Investors tip authors to incentivize the production of quality content.
Stage 2: General public is drawn to the quality content. Some of them buy Steem to be able to participate more than it is possible for the initial 0.50 Steem.
Stage 3: Corporations, institutions, even governments start using Steemit to influence the general public. They need to buy Steem to promote their content.
When conflicting interests start to battle on Steemit, it comes down to who spends more Steem to get to the trending tab and the homepage of Steemit. Think about the elections, candidates, and their supporters.
That interest increases the demand on Steem and higher demand results in higher Steem prices. That's how investors profit from this cycle.
I explained this in greater detail in a post called How to Solve the Reward Pool Abuse Problem Once and For All and that post ignited some discussions so far in the comment section.
I'll head over to that thread some time today. My initial questions and concerns are:
This site currently gives money away for free. I am skeptical as to whether content quality will draw more to it. Why would they need Steem to do this model? Why not institute it with FIAT?
Money is value. Quality content is value as well. Also, it takes significant money to make significant money here. Many newbies realize that after their first week here.
I think you underestimate the amount of people on here now because of the free money who have became crypto enthusiasts after joining Steem/Steemit. I wonder if they would have come if they were told "They give you a little of money to tip with, then you have to buy it yourself."
The incentive for me to invest in crypto for the purposes of giving it away are slim. I'd rather they just have a paypal account and I could send it to them directly rather than having to go through an exchange (fees) for the purpose of donating it to content I like.
The speculative nature of the coin can only last for so long before it levels out, when it does, so does the site.
It depends on perspective. I know a lot of people in other countries find the money earned to be rather agreeable. I consider my earnings so far to be rather significant considering my super duper small monetary investment. Of course, I do not depend on income from Steem in any way.
I agree that content has value, but not as much as relationships. The current system encourages relationships much more than yours would.
I know it seems like I'm being rather negative...and I guess I am, but I do appreciate this out of the box thinking. I just have my doubts about its feasibility.
Have you ever tried to get data from @tipu? They basically run a similar service here on Steem already. Perhaps they will be willing to give you data on their usership.