I just finished reading the comments in @blocktrades latest post which describes a scenario where you can buy Steem Power for SBD and I have to admit, there seems to be a real death spiral going on, which I was not quite aware of until now. In order for this platform to survive in any usable form, we have to agree on what it is and what it is supposed to do.

What is the purpose of the Steem Blockchain?

Is it a place where we exchange our goods and services with each other in a peer to peer system?
Is it a blogging platform?
Is it a place where you just buy upvotes, no matter what kind of post it is?
Is it a place where everything is for sale including Steem Power, Reputation, friendship and everything else that is sellable?
Is it a competitor for blogging platforms like Medium?
Is it a place where we learn how to build bots to automate our income?
Is it a place where we discover new ideas?
Is it a place where we form smaller collectives, in order to have a sort of basic income model, where bare bones money for survival is mostly automated so that we can focus on building a better world?

Right now it seems that everyone has their own definition of what Steem is.

I am a purist. When I joined Steemit, I thought deeply about the word, 'Steem', which comes from the word, 'esteem'. Holding someone in high esteem has nothing to do with money. Reputation cannot be bought or sold, and in fact there are certain things that money cannot buy. What we are seeing with the vast vote buying operations, and all the associated services springing up........the question we need to ask is this:

Are we in a death spiral?

If we are in a death spiral, in mid-hang of a social and economic suicide here on Steem, we need to first identify what exactly is the problem. Everyone seems to be pissed off by different causes, so this post is only an exploration of the problems that currently exist, and an attempt by all of us to come up with solutions.

Is it that the mega whales have not been as creative with solutions as they could be? Are they perhaps not the best shepherds of a social media platform? Have they gone too far in creating a socially and economically vacuous model?

But first things first, what do you see as a major problem in Planet Steem right now?

One thing is clear though. In Steemit's present state, it functions like a caste system. This is just a fact. Is this how the founders, @ned and @dan envisioned Steemit? If not, what was the vision? Every anarchist community I've helped to build has dissolved into a seething pit of human madness, chaos, disillusionment, lust and greed. Humans have not evolved, and the stewards of this platform are from a dizzying array of different philosophical fabric.

The problem I identified early is on that the major mega whales are not really the central cultivators of culture. With no one tending the fields, weeds tend to take over the beautiful crops, and strangle their potential. The ones who want to amass great wealth are not always the ones you want to watch the sheep at night.

Over time, this could change, and I think it would be smart for us all to get some outside opinions. If you are here reading this and you are not heavily involved with Steemit, we need to hear your opinion and perspective. Just like cybersecurity companies who hire an outside company to give them a full security audit, I think the Steem blockchain could benefit from getting some outside opinions about what the existing social problems are how to solve them. Above all, the social atmosphere is the most important thing here. Without that, it will become a vast wasteland of bots just upvoting shitposts.

I have often thought that we need to have a Whale Abuse Department run by AI, because no human on this platform wants to get involved in a whale war. Robots don't give a shit about reputation and they don't have inherent greed. (I'm sure this could be programmed into them though).

But as we all shrink away from combatting and dealing with obvious power abuse, so does the inherent value of this platform wither and die.

So, hopefully we are all adults and can discuss the current problems which are plaguing the system.

Put your voice below. Identify a problem you see and a possible solution. Be clear, don't attack people, stay focused on the problem and possible solutions. If we can avoid personal attacks, there will be more light shed.

I can only share my own vision of what Steemit could be and why I'm still here. I would like there to be less suffering in the world. And if I can share my artistic visions and energies with people, helping others and in return get enough for basic sustenance to keep my child and parents alive and housed, then I am happy. If I could help thousands of people see that the answers lie inside of them......this would be a paradise.

For me, that's it.

Your Turn,
Stellabelle