Considering what the new "phenomenon" termed "fintech" has done to incumbents followed by the "blockchain" hype or summit explosion I would suggest that we are in a very sensitive phase as far as the current system and its power over the economic or financial future goes.

At the end of the day even policy makers at any level of government or within the official corporate structure on boardroom levels or below that are oftentimes not fully aware of who is in control of the actual agenda or who is best positioned within the possibly competing agendas within any structure that participates in the economy.

Hence it all comes down to strategy in my eyes. None of us is in possession of all relevant datapoints when it comes to assessing the balance of the current powerplay on the global scale.

What most of us do know however is that the central banking system is flawed if not outright fraudulent. However the average person is not helped much with even absorbing that insight in the day to day survival needs to protect life and liberty.

So back to the question of the function of lobbyists. It is a phenomenon that can be emotionally handled - or practically. In other words a lobbyist is on a certain level nothing more than a strategic representative for a specific interest or interest group.

Since we all have an interest - if for nothing less than for the survival of the human species - we understand that the current central banking system is not sustainable. It will be increasingly difficult to find anybody that can successfully counter that argument.

So the lobbyist question is one of practicality to a very important end goal. The question is not can we afford lobbyists - it is rather can we afford not to integrate lobbyists in the strategy of making cryptocurrencies adaptable for mass integration and mass acceptance.

We can learn from the techniques that have been used against us and apply them to corner the incumbents and the power controllers step by step.

Steemit is an incentive based tool and has been conceived as far as I see it from exactly that strategic core of thinking.

Incentivice a lobbyist to incentivice a policy maker or influencer based on what their individual needs are as well as what they need for their constituency or their fans/followers. If it's done ethically and morally sound within the framework of the laws in the affected jurisdictions then one is en par with what the current power incumbents are doing and it is a more fair and equal game now.

So I support the concept of a think tank to strategically integrate the method of lobbying in order to make the cryptocurrency space palatable for the masses as well as the current decision makers on all levels of society ;-)