One of the basic concepts of Steem coin generation mechanism is to encourage users to produce quality content which are to be evaluated by the community and the users may get reward depending upon the value of upvotes they receive. This is ‘proof of brain’ concept. For this purpose total payout of a post (including comment) is divided in two parts- author and curation reward -75% for the author and maximum 25% for the curators (upvoters).
- The biggest problem with the reward distribution system of Steem blockchain is to encourage people to upvote quality content. Normally, large Steem Power (SP) holders like to upvote self or some friends’ posts, irrespective of the quality of the content. Self-voting and circle-jerking is a big problem of this platform. Some users are busy in promoting their own posts by using bid-bots. Some larger SP holders sell their votes. These things are against the concept of ‘proof of brain’ concept. So, some users, including some witnesses, have expressed opinion to change the proportion of author and curation reward to 50/50 from 75/25. They think that it will encourage users to upvote others’ posts as they would have fair chances to receive curation reward. According to them, this will also discourage vote selling and use of bid-bots as use of bots will not remain profitable.
However, there are some concerns over this proposal:
- Many great quality content creators are not gaining enough reward for hard work. Limited number of user upvote their posts. 50/50 reward will hamper their earning greatly. This will not be good for the platform as it will discourage them.
- It will encourage curators. Most of the curators are not active content writers. This platform has limited number of active quality content creators compared to Facebook and other social media platform. We human beings are lazy animal. If one can get enough reward for upvoting, why will one strive to get smaller amount by working for many hours to produce a post? Definitely, 50/50 reward distribution will discourage people to create content. This will further reduce the engagement on this platform.
- It can escalate vote selling as 100% jump in curation reward will tempt people to sell their votes and earn without any work here. It will not discourage bid-bots as it is being depicted. In fact, it will increase these activities.
So, it can be said that 50/50 reward distribution system will not do any good to this platform. In fact, it can decrease the engagement on this platform and mar the quality contents. Hence, in my opinion any change in reward distribution should be done after considering all the facts. Otherwise, this idea can backfire.
