RE: Your steem wealth - show or hide?
I don't consider myself as an orca/whale or even dolphin - But I know from a few ones that they operate multiple accounts for security reasons, not because they want to hide something.
Hacking one account with 300k SP is probably easier than hacking 10 Accounts with 30k SP - Especially if only one account is used on a daily basis and the others are just auto-following the main accounts vote. (F.e. @famunger posts and votes, @famunger2, @famunger3, etc. ... just vote the exact same things with the same VP as @famunger does.) Since the keys of the other accounts are not used on a regular basis, hackers will have a really hard time getting those ;)
Hiding something is in general a little contrary to what many see as the benefit of a blockchain I guess. Plus hiding such information would also make it way harder to discover abuse.
Does the knowledge of the wealth of someone effects on how many upvotes one gets?
For sure since people hope to get the whale's attention and upvotes themselves
Do circles of whales are created who upvote themselves as it gibe them the most incentives?
Well, those circles probably would be way worse if it wasn't transparent and they could operate without knowledge.
For people who know themselves also offline - is this a problem knowing the gains someone makes in steem? Envy?
From the meetups I have been to so far, I don't see that as a big problem. Whales were talking to minnows on the same level. But when there is money there always will be envy closeby, true ;)
What does it mean for cultures being very conservative in showing their wealth?
One the one hand it makes corruption possible way easier I suppose - on the other hand it can fight envy a little bit. But if you are wealthy and are not cocky but helpful I think you will fight envy more effective.
Great comment like always. Very interesting to read your opinion.
I don't see much of a problem with steemit community itself but more in the direction @s3rg3 is mentioning. Old friends you want to talk about steem immediately see how much you are invested. I mean you are not sharing your bank statements and investment portfolio with your friends regularly or do you?
Great comment @theaustrianguy!
That comment about security is definitely true. That how everybody should spread their crypto portfolio in general as well. Keep it safe.
This I think is a good point as well. I notice now at least bad/suspicious behaviour is addressed and can easily be checked and verified. It keeps more people in line (and gaming harder but even more sophisticated on the other hand as well).
I agree that this is probably true, but it's also a very silly behavior, because tens if not hundreds of people are upvoting those posts. After a while, people don't even pay attention to those upvotes anymore. If you want to get the attention of a whale, leave a comment that is worthy of attention, I'd say. Upvotes don't stand out at that level.
Very good answer! Without the transparency, the game can be rigged much easier.
That is true - transparency helps preventing or at least detecting "unfair" (whoever defines that) game.