There's a user on here named berniesanders who is worth 5 million dollars. He's made 1 post, and replied to a few things, but isn't super active in terms of speaking. Most people probably wouldn't give him a second glace. Well, maybe they would, just because of his name. But as far as I can tell, he's one of the most wealthy users on the site (in theory, he has it all as steem power. He only has 17 steem dollars). Upvotes from him are worth something like 400-500 dollars each.
There's something inherently weird to me that someone who wields such monumental power, who is such a huge force in the community, is completely indistinguishable from any other user unless you dig into his profile and look at his wallet. It got me thinking about what would happen if each of us had a little indicator next to our names that said how much an upvote from us was worth. A wealth indicator, if you will, and whether or not something like that is a good or bad idea.
Pros
- It can be highly motivating
When I see bernie's million dollar worth, it fills me with determination, it makes me want to keep posting and hanging around on Steemit. It's a success story, something to aspire to.
- Allows those with power to more easily wield it.
One of the things that a great deal of steem power would afford someone is a degree of authority. A user who has a lot of power attached to their votes has the ability to sway the actions of others if his power is known. Advice, ideas, criticism, encouragement, all these things take on a hell of a lot more weight when they're coming from someone who is clearly successful. When someone with a lot of obvious steem power, they can get things done and guide the community. Which is great for them, because they're so heavily invested in this community.
- Makes the wealth distribution and vote power more transparent
Right now there are posts running around that have 100 votes and are worth a buck. Where as a post with 5 votes can be worth thousands because those three votes came from powerful users. A lot of newer users don't really understand the fact that its not the number of votes that matter, but who is doing the voting. And many more are under the impression that there are just a handful of hyper rich individuals running around while the vast majority of users are destitute. An easily visible indicator of vote power and by extension personal steempower could help people get a better idea of both the way voting works and the way power is distributed.
Cons
- It has the potential to create legions of beggars that cling to whales
When someone is seen to have a massive amount of wealth, they inevitably attract people who want some of it for themselves. These people, lets call them remoras, are those users that would attempt to target powerful users and beg for upvotes or just straight up transfers of steem power. At best they would probably start stalking powerful users, keeping tabs on when these users were around and what they liked to upvote. As soon as "Hashking" with a vote value of 50 bucks logged on, you might see a sudden deluge of 100 posts about what kind of weed people are smoking today. At worst, they might become harassers who attempt to beg or blackmail their way to an easy score.
- Wealth disparity outrage
When the exact distribution of wealth is more visible to the public, it has the potential to cause outrage and a feeling of being disenfranchised among those of low power. Especially if that number is very very large compared to those that do have higher power. If there is a sizable "middle class" of posters with vote power somewhere between less than a cent and several hundred dollars, this probably won't be a problem. But if the distribution is 500 to 1 and the disparity is high, it has the potential to cause a lot of anger.
And of course it goes the other way as well: Should you be able to look at someone else's wallet? Should the people who upvote a post be visible and what are the long range implications of these two things? If steemit continues to grow exponentially, I think we have to consider the implications that various levels of transparency will have when it comes to how the community behaves and interacts.