I want to start off by saying I am agaisnt taking any % away from the upvote reward pool, and here is why.
Potential For Upvotes
Keep the % the same for reward pools, maybe tweak it 50/50 for curators and authors but do not take away % amount from the pool; the upvote is too mighty to mess with.
I think the upvote on Steem is highly underestimated. Upvote for a coffee, anyone? - That would make some sweet headlines!
How about an upvote for a Steem Monster booster pack? Upvote for merchandise on Price-breaker.com? These are all things that we can open up.
Unlocking Upvote Potential
It would be cool if the Steem/SBD from an upvote were deposited instantly into the authors account when one received an upvote; the upvoting period still lasting seven days. This would allow for a sorta "zero comp" payment style (similar to BCH/BSV) but in the form of an upvote. This could work potentially is if we have a dynamic upvote system where we can choose (up to 25%) how much of our curator rewards we wish to give to the author. If I wanted to give 100%, 100% of my upvote and the curators rewards I would have receive then go to the author. If I wanted to buy something with an upvote for instance, I choose 100% goes to the author, and then they get credited with the amount of the upvote. (I know the 25% curator reward is based off the 7days but we can brain storm something) We could even create a Coinpayments like app that converts an upvote instantly into BTC/fiat for merchants. Take Busy/Partiko UI where it shows the amount your upvote is worth, upvote to send the payment. The possibilities are endless.
- If we take away from the reward pools for upvotes, we lose a unique, powerful edge on what makes Steem, Steem. The ability to efficiently distribute crypto to people and places all over the world. If anything we should be looking to make the upvote as powerful as it can be.
Steem Upvotes & SMTs
When upvoting using Steempower, you get paid back in that platforms token, and the platform keeps the steem.
Example Busy.org creates a token, "Busy Token." I use the Busy.org UI, but I have a bunch of SP and no BP (BusyPower). So what? "I gotta sell some Steem for Busy Token to use Busy? Ffs, I gotta do this shit with Partiko too? To hell with that! I'm outchea." - This is the mental process of a new person trying to explore different dApps on the Steem blockchain. The answer is if I have SP and use Busy, I upvote someone on Busy; it gives Busy tokens in exchange for the Steem rewards. So Busy keeps the Steem, and The people get the Busy tokens. Or The Steem is burned, and Busy Tokens are minted in its place. The point is the Steem upvote needs to be universal and accepted everywhere, like Visa. To compete with other UI will depend on how much tokens the project gives per Steem upvote, the value those tokens provide and the overall token economy. This will bring out the best competitive environment where we should see some impressive dApps form.
Merchants and SMTs.
Merchants can create SMTs like coupons for their store, even some that expire if not used for a specific date. If they had a way to upvote people using their Steem power, and as a bonus they airdrop their "SMTcoupon" on top of their upvote, that would be powerful. Now merchants can attract customers via significant upvotes and give away their SMT coupon at the same time. People have this token; it's sitting there why not use it right? Or at least see what the store has to offer.
- This may "drain the reward pool" for curators. This is sort of a perfect world argument. What do people drain the reward pool with nowadays? Bidbots and selfupvotes. People wouldn't self-upvote if they could spend that upvote on a pair of Nikes. People will use their upvote as they please and giving a more extensive array of use cases for that upvote will only help, not hurt the price of Steem. It is the same as donations, Ninja on Twitch gets tons of donations from people because they like his content. This is how the world works. Creator great content and upvoting is just a much easier way of tipping then having to use a credit/debit card or Paypal etc.
Investors & Steem
To increase investor interest. Make delegation to projects lucrative IE. SMTs or community projects, etc. For this, we need delegation lockup periods, so both parties are protected. If we want to delegate to a project for one year in return for tokens/fiat, we need a way that no one can break that year contract; this will make delegations much more attractive to both parties involved. Why? Because dApps will be willing to pay more knowing that a delegation can't be pulled if a mutual lockup period is assigned. The investor is happy because they get more money for their delegations and thus have more leverage/negation power when working a deal.
- Inflation and Steem is not a big deal at all from my POV. Why? Because I know we have only one million accounts, and even if all of those were unique accounts it is also what would be considered the tip of the ice burg. Inflation right now is meaningless because the project as such room the stretch. (If Steem goes from 30 cents a token to 30 dollars per, do I care about the 9%ish inflation now?) The inflation will matter to investors when we have a billion users, and they were THEN looking for an entry point. By that time inflation will be lowered and the demand for Steem will be much more consistent; and not a bad problem to have when we get there.
Steem is the only platform where my tokens can mint new tokens but only if I give those tokens to another person/account via an upvote. That is a fantastic idea, and with that, we can unlock many things.
I wrote this now a little rushed as I am late for the gym, but wanted to start some discussion on this and see what you all think. Cheers.