Self-voting and why it will not be replaced

There is a lot of discussion going on in the Steemit community about self-voting. Many of you will disagree with me, but I will do my best to explain why I believe it is here to stay.

What do you think sets Steemit apart from other social networks? Is it the fact that we don't have any advertisements? Is it the altcoin known as Steemit? Is it the fact that you can make money (which is certainly not how F***book is operating)? Whatever piqued your curiosity for being here, I think it is safe to assume you were drawn to the monetary incentive for posting and commenting and that's okay.

I think Steemit is a brilliant invention. Not an invention in the sense that it is completely new, but in the sense that it merged two things in a novel way. The first is obviously Reddit, a site that let users create content and let other users vote to have that content more or less visible to other people. The second is an altcoin like Ether. Sure, it isn't the first cryptocurrency on the block, but does that really matter?

There are several posts recently from users (with more clout than I) who are opposed to self-voting of users. I know it seems selfish to vote for yourself, but think about how Steem is creating value. Members are able to purchase more Steem Power, which gives them more rewards for their votes. This includes if they vote for their own content! This is similar to if you created a pizza business and spent your own money to promote your pizza business. Would it make sense to tell the theoretical pizza place entrepreneur that he (or she) could not advertise for themselves because it is selfish to the other pizza place entrepreneurs? Of course not! How else does Steem make money? Speculation! No different than other speculative bets, people can buy Steem with the sole intent of betting that it may increase in value. There are thousands of people using it and millions of dollars are now tied up into it. If you think Steem (and therefore Steemit) has a bright future, then feel free to get some Steem and hold onto it.

Maybe we are at a point to where we should just ban self-voting, but I think that would be a huge mistake. I think self-voting, at its core, is a huge reason why Steemit works. I don't have anything to lose if we switch to a different set of rules, but because I want to see Steemit succeed for the long term, I don't want to see things get so mixed up that we are really no different than a place like Reddit. Feel free to post your thoughts! Opposing views are certainly welcome.