RE: Another Steemit Rant, but I'm High and Mellow This Time
He put money into the system, in hopes to milk it try, and that's basically how Steemit works anyway.
I suspect that 99% of the wealth accumulating with 1% of users, and a few users getting the bulk of the rewards because of that accumulation, is the inevitable endgame of the financial part of Steemit, whatever rules you put into place, be it the original Dan ones or the new ones.
There is also no recourse against this, because the power and the witnesses are where the accumulation is, and at some point, no group of whatever size is powerful enough to stand up against the 1% unless they invest a lot of money (which they don't have) and violent revolution doesn't work well online and is frowned upon by many.
I don't understand how any AnCap, or any other super-duper Cap As Seen On Steemit, could have a problem with that. It is what will happen in all semi-unregulated Steemit-like systems; it is their economic belief system at work, whatever No-True-Scotsman arguments they throw at it.
That doesn't mean I myself have to like it, or even resign to it, as for me "cap" is just shorthand for "capacitor" and I find all economic theory equally ridiculous. To me, current happenings are not good for Steemit's image, they eat into other people's rewards, and it drives people away because the money is also attention and appreciation, apart from being useful to many as, well, money.
It's not about being somehow entitled, but about having a place that at least functions in a workable way financially also, like I think the original vision was. And dismissing "three-figure payouts"as "chump change" is too arrogant to consider as an argument, even when qualified as you did.
Because, as you say, if Steemit isn't very good at being social media, its one attraction would be the rewards. If the financial bit is also FUBAR except for a happy few, then eventually even those who are reluctant to build a new audience elsewhere because lazy will leave.
So I would still like to see some attempts to fix the financial bit, but I think that will not happen, because to the powers that be, it is working as intended.
And I don't disagree.
That's actually what I meant: that there probably never was another type of endgame.
And you perfectly described the dilemma at hand: nothing inherently "wrong" - according to AnCap theory - is taking place, but somehow the end result is still a negative for Steemit.
If we are to go with the AnCap theory, then the market decides. And what's happening with Mr. Haejin is indeed the result of the market deciding that this is what takes place.
Should the market react differently, we would see an increase in downvoting, but downvoting is simply not part of the accepted culture on Steemit. Powerful stakeholders are reluctant to do it, even though the downvote was added to the blockchain for the exact purpose of allocating resources differently.
And the chump change statement was not intended as an argument. It was a defense from what usually happens here when someone complains about a large stakeholder taking harmful action, which is that people say "You're just jealous".
My intention was to make it clear that I'm not.
I get it that it's not chump change for many.
And indeed, maybe Steemit was always going to end like this. Not with a bang, but a whimper. The code allows for what is taking place and there's no regulation in place, so it is what it is.
I love that you mentioned ancap theory. This is basically an ancap experiment, and I’m kind of enjoying watching it fail because ancap are all mostly good people who somehow don’t realize that centralized power is centralized power and is usually going to act the same, even if you don’t call it “the state”. The market doesn’t give a shit about any of us. A dramatic change in values is the only way people are only going to be decent to each other, and I would like to see as little rule and regulation as possible to foster that, and I suspect a healthy algorithm that fights against the tendency for money to attract money would be more than enough to achieve that. That’s all it would take to make this place real.
I didn’t say any of that though. I’m not afraid of expressing my opinion but I don’t want to get into heated debates that don’t go anywhere.
It doesn't have to be a heated debate. :)
It can be a civil conversation. That said, I'm off to bed now. I just wanted to acknowledge your comment and tell you I'll get back to you later.