This was a great read! Thanks, @anyx! I dont fully understand how Steemit works, but I think the analogy to bitcoin is flawed. From my understanding, Steemit rewards come from content creation. So i think the best analogy is to intellectual property laws. When viewed from that perspective, I think the true problem is not the reposting of content. In the end, the problem comes from the person voting on the reposted content.
Under U.S. Copyright law, the market determines the value of a copyright, for example the value of the rights to reproduce and sell a book. US Copyright law, however, has long recognized that the value of an artistic work is rarely known when that work is first created, so authors are given a "Termination" right, which is the right to revoke a prior grant of copyright ownership. The author can essentially take back the rights to the artistic work.
An author therefore, has another opportunity to monetize or profit from the resale of the rights in their artistic work. Moreover, the Termination rights of an author are so sacred that even an agreement by the author to not exercise its termination rights is not a valid waiver of those rights.
The underlying notion that an author should be able to recapture the value of their recognizes that other factors affecting the value of the work need time to materialize. In my opinion, this notion should not be ignored on Steemit. Unless Steemit provides a mechanism for authors to continue to reap the fruits of their works, then authors should be allowed - without sanction - to repost their old works. The market will dictate the value of subsequent posts.
Which leads me to the conclusion that the problem really arises when a Steemit user votes both on the original and reposted content. Although good intentioned Steemit users wouldnt vote on a repost when they both remember they voted on the original post and know that the content is a repost, this does create the risk of fraud, such as "shill" voting or other scams artificially boosting the value of the reposted content.
I offer two potential solutions: (1) require reposted content to contain a "NOTICE" indicating it is reposted so that both Steemit and Steemit users can identify reposted content, and (2) create a rule within Steemit that does not allow a user to vote on a repost when that voter has already voted on the original post.
Best,
Mike