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a plutocracy ruled by Sybil attack

Without the HP to back it up, not so much. And as people strive to buy up tokens, the price rises dramatically. Only the ninja-mined Steemit stake made such a coup feasible there.

The plutocracy have a significant preponderance of the tokens. Upstarts have joined their ranks that rose out of the bidbots, like Marky and the realwolf, but few have just bought their way in. Because they discuss amongst themselves matters of money, they arrive at mutually agreeable policies that prevent them from contesting openly over things in ways that could cost them money, certainly prudent and fiscally sound way to operate.

However, any of them at any minute could sell their accounts and bail, and sooner or later all of them will, or they'll just die holding bags. The ability to seize power in Hive is based solely on acquisition of tokens. Gaining tokens is gaining more attack power in terms of governance. The Plutocracy has the tokens, so they govern, until they sell the tokens or die, at which point someone else will govern - or governance will be in the hands of probate (not a desirable prospect, IMO).

Each token is more power to take governance, and that's all governance on Hive takes: more money. Larger stakes like freedom and adm had better be corporate operations, or the death of whomever runs them could disrupt Hive tremendously.