Regarding the trending page or any post for that matter, what if we had a separate vote count on all posts that was simply about the quality of the post? Perhaps one could select from one to five points and that was summed anonymously into a total that represented the quality of the post and that would determine its trending rank. This ranking would be separate from payouts so it would be a non-financial reward.

In general I like the theme or trend of your post @kyriacos as I believe adjustments need to be made here if Steemit is going to prosper for the long term. I've been rolling ideas around in my head, however as a newbie I also need to get a better overall understanding of the operation here. I'm planning to write an article regarding the economics and how Steemit could be impacted.

I agree with your analysis that Steemit is currently riding a wave of enthusiasm for cryptos in general and the idea of getting compensation for posts is very attractive. But the question is if it is going to make economic sense in the longterm? The answer is going to depend on whether the content is of quality to a larger audience than just Steemers or if Steemers are going to pay to participate in which case it could become a zero sum enterprise.

I believe that economics will most always need to return to basic fundamentals. One cannot eat electronic ideas or art, nor cannot one sleep under an electronic roof or wear electronic clothes, unless you're Tron of course.

So far cryptos amount to a decentralized stock exchange and payment systems but do not meet the requirements for currencies. Recently, in thinking about what really makes a currency, one thought comes is what if people were paid to get an education as part of a more expanded currency generation system. Obviously education is something that is very important to a functional society. Is it possible that Steemit could move/expand in that direction to be more essential? LBRY is has a setup that could easily do that also.

Anyway this is a rather big subject but I'm tossing out a couple ideas. I'll be writing something more detailed so will give a shout out when I do to get a bigger conversation going.