Steemit occupied by the 1%

I am puzzled a little. On this platform anarchy is one of the popular tags. Anarchist together with hacktivists and left wingers where the front runners in the occupy movement.

For me personally cryptocurrency is a possibility to shape a new type of society. The option to pay each other without the need for banks. Banks as we all know are getting richer and richer at our expense. And they fund and rule with it.

And don't get me wrong. I have nothing against a society where some people have more money then others. If you risk something, have a great idea or just dumb luck you get a bigger piece of the pie. And besides that it is only money.

But now it gets more blurry.

A lot of the "real" world 1% also got rich that way. From there on they build a network with other rich people. Sometimes someone from the outside can join in. But in reality it is just a old rich men club. And they yield power because of there money. And that is what is so wrong in our society.

How is this different with steemit?
And I know I am not the first one who brings this up. But here we go.

I see posts of users earning hundreds of euros for just 5 lines and a url to the article on the web. While i see brilliant stuff getting a lot of votes from the smaller fishes and only earn cents. Sometimes i even see the same article (few lines and a url) from a high reputation user with the right friends and a low reputation user. You can guess how this may feel for the low reputation user to see the payout difference. Especially when he or she has more votes. Even from high reputation users but without the backing of millions of steempower.

Ofcourse you need the build a network first. But the power some have to make or break your reputation and earnings is wrong. This https://steem.io/getinvolved/paid-to-curate/ is the source of the problem.

The first thing people say to me when I show them steemit: Why do some crapy posts earn so much?

I know it is only beta. But a lot of people (the people who are part of the 99%) are sick of how it works in the "real" world. Would they join and especially stay on a platform that does exactly the same to them?

Ofcourse everyone can get an higher reputation. But you need to be noticed by the rich first to become one (faster). Because trending topics are based on money, so when you popup in that list you are more visible. How is this any different than the "real" world? It should be about quality, volume of voters and not about money.

The fact that I read tips on this platform to find a whale friend instead of posting better quality is very bad. In that sense I am not doing myself a favor right now. And sites that let me checkout when the whales (rich people) are active, so i can post at the right time. I mean take a step back and repeat that. That is really wrong or not? Self censorship?

But I do not think the whales are the problem. It is just how the system works. So the system is not right. We are the system right?

Solutions are not easy.

I do not have the illusion that I can figure it out in a day. But I do know we could do better. Well here are some options that I can think off.

First vote power should be based more on reputation then on steempower (what equals money)

Second after a period. Lets say a year all reputation points should reset to 25. For the people who are still loved and have a nice network this will not be a problem. They will gain it back soon enough. It will not solve everything but it keeps it fresh. Otherwise it will be a grind for the new steemers.

I can imagine that the founders want to keep a stronger vote or a veto right. That is there prerogative to steer the platform. But i don't think that should apply to up or down voting articles.

Just imagine that this could be done in the real world. So Bernie Saunders would have had a real change against the big money backed Clinton.

And how nice would it be that all people in power would lose it once in a while. A fresh start.

I love steemit and I love cryptocurrencies.

But how it works now can really become a problem. Or maybe i am mistaken and steem(it) it is not any different from what is already a big part of cryptocurrencies. Greed and power to the early adopters and the old rich who can buy in. Same shit , different 1%? I hope not and I don't believe that either.

Thx for reading and remember. It can be done.