The overall supply of Steem would diminish, Steem would become more scarce and by doing so raising the value of every Steem in existence.
Essentially what people are doing by buying upvotes to get into trending page is what Steemit Inc should have provided by default, but now we have this promoted tab that no one visits making it useless.
What gives Bitcoin its value is that there will be only 21 million of them, ever. Steem has somewhat high inflation currently so little deflation won't hurt, it would rather pique the interest of investors.
If Steemit Inc isn't willing to fix the promoted feature, maybe we can do it together so everyone benefits. But I'm not sure if there's a way to burn Steem, anyone know if it's possible?
Maybe send the Steem you want to burn to an inactive whale. Wouldn't that be like burning it?
I can be inactive and you send Steem to me, sure :)
I'm sure you get the point. It needs to be 100% certain that the funds are gone. No trust required.