To echo Jerry's answer above, the truth is running the servers and back-up servers to keep Steem secure is surprisingly expensive...like, potentially $500+ a month expensive.
It's not unexpected that witnesses will need to power down, in some cases regularly, to cover costs. The main reason I included the Steem Power data, other than that it was interesting to me, is that it helps provide a little background information on the focus of each witness. Some have re-invested much of their funds into witness upgrades, or community efforts, while others are betting very big on Steemit long-term.
One should not construe powering down as positive or negative, it simply is. One of the things that immediately became clear while researching the witnesses is that they spend a lot of time and effort witnessing. None of them are witnessing to make a quick buck.
I'm sorry if there was some confusion, I'm not saying that people are making a quick buck.
I have over 30 years IT experience, trust me, I know the cost of running a reliable service.
The reason I specifically asked is because there are a lot of new users that read remarks about founders and witnesses powering down, and don't know what the impact on the system is.
Especially when people start casting doubt about the viability of the system and there is no decent decent response from someone knowledgeable.
You replied earlier
While I understand that it takes 13 weeks for the power-down to complete, my question was more about the total amount that was being powered down.
It tells you something if someone with 500,000 SP powers down 50,000 or if they power down 500,000.
Having said that, everybody can and may power down what they want, they earned it, it's theirs to spend.
I really love Steem(it) and believe in its future. Hell, I'm working towards becoming an iceberg and have all the whales swim around me ;-)
I'm just thinking about the larger community, especially when Steemit really starts growing, we must be very clear in our communication.
Maybe the updated whitepaper describes the effects of power down a bit better, the original paper was a bit vague about power down and its impact.
And thank you for the effort for collecting all this data, I know it's a lot of work.
"I'm not saying that people are making a quick buck."
I didn't mean to imply you did, I just wanted to head off any negative comments at the pass!
"It tells you something if someone with 500,000 SP powers down 50,000 or if they power down 500,000."
Absolutely, but you won't know until they cancel the power down, ie in retrospect.
We're glad you found our efforts worthwhile!