Been meaning to respond to this and now I'm able to. Great post!
Wouldn't the dividends be paid in the sense of cashing out? That is what the inflation rate is designed for because the "company" is literally unable to pay us for dividends.
I wonder about the legality of a stakeholder/worker being able to self pay themselves (self upvotes) because what is profit and what is company revenue?
I also wonder about someone being alerted to this type of behavior on the platform can constitute legal action, and if so, how.
I have already seen literal piracy taking place, and as a community, if we don't want steemit to become a ponzi scheme, we have to start shutting those down that are hurting the platform.
People are calling this tactic a witch hunt. Is it really? Do we want to turn a blind eye and potentially lose what could have been something great?
I've been on the platform 2 months now and I feel I've flagged more posts than many whales. I watch these whales upvote themselves hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Is it deserved? Sure, some of them definitely deserve it.
Are they spreading any wealth? Well, if you're not commenting on their posts or a part of their circle, no.
That's not entirely bad thing, but we are all a bunch of small communities that make up one big community. If your community is hurting, so is mine. Even if you don't see the damage being done, or care about it, doesn't mean it isn't happening
Legality is pretty irrelevant I think. It's a decentralized organization and the reference to dividends was just to explain the mechanics of Ponzi schemes better.
I've seen a number of Ponzi like schemes shut down, both in response to explanation and discussion of why they're harmful and in response to persistent downvoting to make them unprofitable, so there is progress being made. I have to wonder about some of the large stakeholders supporting harvesting though. I'd love to hear their perspectives on the subject. You'd think they'd have put thought into the platform somewhat proportional to their stake in it.
Seems that some got in so cheap they don't much care. A lot of shortsightedness going on with people chasing immediate wealth without thinking longterm.