RE: HF20, Pay To Play, and RC Pools
Well I’m not going to fault people for how they reacted to the inability of so many newbies to post that led to the 10x change. That change happened because of the outcry. One of the responsibilities of participating in a decentralized environment is having an opinion and contributing it.
Not everyone is going to communicate the same way we would. For one thing, for an awful lot of people fear comes out as anger. It’s a less vulnerable emotion. And I think a lot of people have been genuinely afraid for the future prospects of this platform they live, and which some even depend on for support.
That said, yes, there is a lot of potential here. As soon as you create a way to track real costs you empower people to make better decisions. Decentralization puts more of that responsibility on each of us too. I do think we’re still needing to adjust the calculations for initial allocation of RCs, maybe make the 3 into a 15 so people start with RCs as if they had 30SP. But we’re ina system where those tweaks can happen now, assuming people keep voicing their desire that they do.
Pay to win is different from pay to ply indeed. But if you’re living in Bangladesh, you’re not spending $60 on video games. And you can’t spend it on steem either. I think one of the things we have to address is what equal access looks like in such an economically diverse world. I for one find the greatest value in this being a global platform. I’d hate to lose that. But folks who can buy no steem right now are reliant on quickly figuring out how to find someone to delegate to them (pool or no pool). It is hard enough for them to figure out the 3 coins, SP, VP/mana and now what RCs are. They have just a few comments per day in which to also find their way into the sites of someone looking to delegate. That’s such a high bar to entry that for most it does effectively make it pay to play, because those in the developed world who can throw money at the problem don’t have to manage that.
The way I see your pool idea being able to work to make it more “show me your quality to play” for newbies is if the platform adds the requirements and path to them within the welcome material prominently.
The pool idea actually isn't mine. It's my understanding that the lead developer at Steemit is making it happening for sure. Soon™. I view it less as "show me your quality" and more as "don't spam the network with garbage and you can stay".
It's true that even dirt-poor Americans have money to throw at non-essentials. Other people aren't so lucky. The truth is, we haven't lost anything. We've actually gained the ability to onboard a lot more users than we otherwise could have.
The network effect that we are creating here is going to help the poorest nations first (as long as they have internet access of course). When I spend an hour writing a post and I get $5, financially I almost feel like I'm wasting my time. To other people $5 is a lot of money, and hopefully they don't live in a culture that encourages spending money on frivolous things at every turn.
SMTs will provide a way to distance ourselves from the Steem currency. Let's say I made an amazing app that will go viral. Do I want to make haejin rich at the same time? No thanks. Instead I use SMT protocol to quarantine my app and capture all the value. But what if people with no RCs want to use my app? Well, no problem, they can join my pool and use my app all they want.
Without HF20 the Steem network cannot guarantee a sable and safe space for SMTs. With HF20, Steem is now delegating the responsibility of blockchain interaction to the entire community.