Yesterday I have reached the level 47 on Steem and have also reached the marked of 300 posts (301 with this one). This week I have jumped 2 levels if I recall correctly, started on level 45, I am on level 47 now.

Thus, I was curious and had a 30 minutes read about how actually the reputation system works and what are the advantages of having a higher level. I won't bother you with numbers, and if you want there are, maybe, hundreds of posts talking about how the system works, how is the reputation calculated e so on and so forth, this post isn't gonna be about math.

So, to sum up what I understood from my quick research on reputation and what will be the benefits of growing the reputation:

• Reputation does not make the rewards you produce higher, it does not change anything money related on Steem
• Reputation does not (currently) make your posts more visible (but it can make it less visible if you have a very very low reputation)
• The resource usage on posts, commenting and voting does not change with a higher or lower reputation

Personally, I am divided myself if the platform should consider the reputation, even slightly, to increase the rewards generated from and to users with more reputation, so users with provenly better content can curate and give better rewards for other good creators and receive better rewards for their efforts, this would make the platform less "freemium", less "pay to have privileges" BUT!
On the other hand this will make the value of Steem lower, and Steem is the core of this blockchain, the platform is "freemium" exactly to make the currency valuabe, you have value on holding Steem, you have value on powering up. If reputation had a monetary value, this value would compete with the Steem coin value itself.

Well, as it is the platform is working great, nothing to complain, but more discussion about the role of reputation can be useful. Right now it is useful so users see your level are are more likely to read it because they think it might be better quality, and is working fine, but discussing different approaches is always great, though I don't believe I would change it if I could, I would leave it as it is, for now.

Hey, I am Witness, did you know?

To vote for me, go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses

(note, it is /~witnesses, not /witness)
Scroll all the way down to "If you would like to vote for a witness outside of the top 100, enter the account name below to cast a vote."

type igormuba and click vote