Steem - Perhaps STEEM could benefit from catching up with the times...
We have been so focused on winning this latest war with Justin Sun that we may be missing some things...
Earning staking rewards has been very popular in crypto for much of the past year.
Exchanges are allowing users to earn staking rewards by voluntarily staking their coins on exchanges.
For coins that are having trouble getting listed on more exchanges (like steem), this might be something we should be paying attention to.
Right now, there is an all out war going on with Justin Sun, and in some respects perhaps rightfully so. There have been numerous missteps on both sides, but I don't really want to get into that here.
One thing that Justin Sun has mentioned a few times lately is allowing exchanges to stake steem.
It's very popular in crypto right now, and Sun sees an opportunity for steem to jump on the bandwagon.
However, with the current witness voting setup, it's really a non starter.
We already saw what can happen when exchanges use customer funds to vote in witnesses. Keep in mind that wasn't exactly the same thing as staking, in fact it's very different, but the end result could be similar.
A large centralized exchange controlling large amounts of steem potentially casting votes.
However, there is couple things that can be done to help counter this...
One idea being tossed around is changing the witnesses votes from 30 down to say 3 or 5. While it is more of a quick fix than a long term solution for the governance model, it would in one full swoop eliminate one of the main hurdles with allowing exchanges to stake steem.
It would prevent one large exchange from completely taking over the governance model. At most they would be able to get 3 of their 'witnesses' voted in.
The other change is that of a faster power down...
There is a reason Justin has been pushing for this. Yes he is trying to help is friends at the exchanges get their steem "unstuck" as quickly as possible, but he is also trying to make steem more attractive for staking.
He is doing this because he knows that it will be an easier sell to get exchanges to list steem if it has the ability for staking rewards as well.
Not only that, but the coins that have the ability to be staked often become quite popular once they are on an exchange, generating more trading volume, which of course is a positive for a listing exchange.
The power down time frame that is gaining some support as of late is something like a 4 week power down.
I am not sure if that is short enough to allow for staking, but it is long enough that it mitigates some of the security risks associated with an account being hacked.
We can't really go much shorter than that without really sacrificing security as well as potentially muddying the waters for content discovery on steemit.com.
Which perhaps is yet another signal that we need to move to make steem a base layer with minimal inflation and have SMTs deliver the POB rewards for different communities and front ends.
Either way, while we are in the midst of this current stalemate with Justin, perhaps it is a good idea for us to understand exactly why he is pushing for some of these changes.
Changes that could help drive more demand for the steem coin down the road.
We would likely need to make broader sweeping changes though for most of the changes not to completely mess up what we currently have.
Either way, hopefully we can come to some understanding before this stalemate drags on much longer.
As of right now though, Justin Sun @justinsunsteemit could you please update your witness price feeds? Not doing so will continue to cause problems with your investment.
Stay informed my friends.
Image Source:
https://medium.com/@TronFoundation/the-truth-behind-steem-takeover-38179feba963
-Doc
Regardless of how all of this turns out, there are some drastic changes that need to take place.
We need to work out the governance model and improve it greatly. The flaws are on full display right now and were exploited.
Posted via Steemleo
Perhaps now is the time to turn off the inflation, make steem the base layer coin, let smts run on top (assuming they are going to completed still?), change witnesses votes from 30 to 3-5, what am I forgetting?
I agree with changing the witness voting. I am not a fan of turning off the inflation. One of the values of Steem is the distribution model. Ultimately, we need to get STEEM in the hands of more users since that does apply to Witness voting.
There is also the discussion of 1 token, one vote....split the witness voting up even more.
I do hope we see SMTs coming out. They were basically done so they should see the light of day.
Posted via Steemleo
Yes, that is actually a better solution but that requires significantly more coding challenges than just changing the number of witness votes. For the time being just changing the number seems more do-able.
We should promote Steem to everybody under Lockdown because of the virus. If you can't go to work and have to stay at home, why not earn rewards on Steem or Splinterlands :-)
Posted using Partiko Android
That is some good advice. We need to get this drama sorted out with Justin Sun first.
I don't think we should allow exchanges to stake. With that much steem, enough exchanges staking could still control the chain.
With them only having 3 votes, it would greatly reduce the likelihood of a single entity controlling the chain.
But not colluding exchanges.
Not if they have declined voting rights.
Or if they only have 3 votes like was mentioned in the post...
I honestly think exchanges should not be voting at all. It's just safer that way.
Well there is that. :)
Let them stake, just don't let them vote. Simple.
Yes, there is that as well. Having only 3 votes would greatly reduce the likelihood of them being able to control the chain. I actually would prefer if we had some large companies as top witnesses as they have tons of resources that could theoretically be put to use. Having mom and pop witnesses or kids that live at home in their mom's basement has its limitations...
Absolutely, but they will be voted there based on their contribution to the community, not their stake size. So the kid in mom and dad's basement, working hard and developing things for the community off the sweat of his own back, has equal chance of being a top witness and gaining reward.
It's a nice thought, and no offense to the kid, but if we are talking about securing a multi-billion dollar project (hopefully), I would prefer it being done by a company or business as opposed to a kid in the basement. However, if this person was really able to demonstrate their contributions to the community beyond any shadow of a doubt as well as their extraordinary abilities, perhaps there could be an exception. In general though, if this were ever to grow up to be a big project we would want professionals running the controlling witness spots.
Oh, for sure! That kid would most likely then be picked up by one of the companies on the chain. Big business does end up running most shows, but without the chance of an equal footing, great talent can easily never be seen beyond the corporate curtain.