The downvote pool makes sense in the current scenario. I have also seen the steemcommunity implementation. I didn't spend too much time looking into it as I am not clear about few things.
- Communities : What happened to them ?
- SMTs
Both communities and SMTs may change the behavior of the platform I am assuming that it will be even possible to implement features like down votes within the scope of "communities" & then use an SMT / Token as opposed to Steem itself.
Let me deviate a little bit here. The way currently the platform works where Steemit, Inc stores everyone's content including those can cause DMCA either in their S3 image stores and even in witnesses in their servers will eventually have to change. Right now interfaces like Condensor is hiding objectionable content using rules in the front end. Eventually the storage outsourcing has to change. (This is not something I came up with after the layoffs etc.). I have written about it in the past ( https://steemit.com/steemcleaners/@bobinson/scenario-dmca-takedown-of-steem-blockchain )
Coming back to the rules, I feel the specific rules should be imposed by either dApps, communities or SMTs and should act like a smart contract imposing those rules as opposed to the token and blockchain STEEM imposing the rules. When we say that vote farming is bad, we are defining the ethical and moral code. Yes, it also impacts the overall economy of the system. But, if its possible to create independent silos where vote farming is allowed, porn is allowed etc and limit those into specific scopes then the economic problem of Steem as such will vanish. Now, since imposing rules like "down_vote_pool" by a certain community/dApp/SMT will use their computational and storage power on the chain which is now defined by Resource Credits. This further means, the more rules the "silos" apply, the more RCs they will need which will inturn increase the demand of Steem and pull up its value.
Right now to be very honest I have no idea how the roadmap looks like. For example I know that we are moving to Hivemind but for me that also meant communities but not sure whether its happening or not.
So, for the sake this discussion, we can assume that there are no SMTs and no communities and no smart contract like feature to impose rules. In such a scenario, the downvote pool does seem like a good idea.
Thanks @bobinson. Please check out trafalgar’s comments (especially the top comment here). Even with SMTs and communities, they will take a very long time to take effect, and there’ll still be core Steem distribution anyway, until they remove the rewards pool. All of these are a big IF.
Just think of Steem as an MMORPG with SP as some buy-in weapon or levelling mechanism. It’ll have proper value if the game works. And it very likely can - just align the path of profit maximisation to that of the benefit of the platform. Now it’s just not working. I’m pretty convinced by increasing curation rewards, moving away from linear, and having some “free” downvotes will solve the problem. As per the 3 items proposed. Just need some devs convinced about this as well. It’s the only thing I talk about the whole year and even flew halfway round the world to SF3 to remind people about it. Honestly we think it’s just 1% of the effort required compared to SMTs for turning the tables of a completely dysfunctional content discovery and rewards platform.
Anyway, check out trafalgar’s comments around here. Honestly I think he’s one of the smartest and most rational investors around.