It's been a posters platform since inception, why the price is nearing a level that lets curators drive Steem forward.

We are about to enter the age of curation.

The falling price and ongoing distribution of Steem have combined to leave us at the doorstep of a new era. Currently vest (Steem power) holders receive 90 percent of Steem produced. Steem Power holders hold 90.3% of Steem supply.

When this goes below 90 percent, Steem power holders will increase their stake in the network by doing nothing.

This is a huge incentive to turn off power downs and even buy more Steem power. Steem power holders will increase ownership while doing nothing. Any curation rewards will simply add to the increasing ownership nhip stake.

But When Will his Happen?

Currently the biggest drivers are the Steem dollar balance and the price. Currently it takes 7.5m Steem to back the 2.11m sbd in existence. There is another 11m in liquid Steem floating around. If we add 174.1m of Steem power, we arrive at a virtual supply of 192.58m. When this hits 193.5, we should be at 90%. This should happen soon!

1. If steem price falls 11 percent to 0.25 or and Steem dollars remain the same the supply increase by about 1m, enough to take us below 90%.

2. If Steem dollars hit 2.3m we will also get there.

This might be why the price picked up in the last week or so.

So stop promoting post, convert Steem to Steem dollars. And get ready to power up!

Why do you call it the Age of Curation?

Now that incentives encourage powering up to people who don't have time spend all day on Steem, the question is how much to power up.

The power function that governs the worth of votes, means the bigger you are the more powerful your vote is.

When you have powerful votes people start trying to predict what you'll vote for ( remember Bernie sanders and the photo and Mary Jane posts.)

Since powering up is soon to be a no brainer how much should you power up?

I see three important levels.

1. Power up enough so every vote guarantees some payout. I think this is around 5k Steem power or $1.2K)

2. Power up to influence "hot" and "trending". I am not sure how much you need here but I think it's between 5k md 25k in Steem power. Theoretically this will put you in the category where bots follow your voting and votes try to predict what you like.

3. Power up to maximize curation rewards. Neoxian one of the smallest whales on Steemdown has 50k Steem power roughly $13k at current prices. His votes are worth 6cents. He makes 30 Steem per day about 10k a year (ex inflation). That's a 20 percent return. With 400 Steem I make about 15 Steem a year for a 2.5 percent return. Many of my votes are wasted! Imagine the return is somewhat linear 25k Steem power ($7k) might earn a 10-12percent curation reward.
   

So there you have it the age of curation

I think this era will result in

1. more stable Steem price,
2. more active curators,
3. more hero and super hero accounts.

The market for curators is much larger than the market for writers.