I work with the Telos blockchain, (a DPOS chain), which has a number of similarities to Steem:
- Telos had no ICO
- Telos is 100% bootstrapped.
- Telos has a functional Worker Proposal System
But there is one thing Steem could adopt from Telos and it is this: Telos doesn't allow exchanges to vote on anything in Telos. They have it written in their operating agreement which you can see here: https://www.tbnoa.org/details.html?docid=6§ion=21
This operating agreement was sent to all the exchanges. They all understand that they would be in serious breach of Telos governance if they used customer funds to vote on the Telos blockchain. That is why a Justin Sun takeover would not be possible on Telos. Telos also has rules about new block producers (witnesses). New block producers have to be active on a testnet for 7 days before they can go to the Telos mainnet. This is done so the existing BP's can observe the behaviour of any new BP's. For these reasons, a takeover would not be possible on Telos. Steem could adopt these rules to prevent such a takeover in the future. But now we gotta get Justin Sun out, as to save this chain.
Document: Telos Blockchain Network Operating Agreement
- Proxies
Members may delegate their votes to another Member as a voting proxy (“Proxy”) using the “proxy” contract included in the EOSIO software. Only a token’s true beneficial owner or a voting Proxy recorded on the blockchain may vote tokens. Any Member holding tokens in trust for another beneficial owner, such as a centralized exchange, may not cast votes for or assign to a Proxy such tokens.
As you can see on Telos, no one can vote using tokens if they don't belong to you. That's what the rules are made for: to stop exchanges from taking over governance. Telos created these rules after seeing what happened on the EOS mainnet, with exchanges and corrupt BP's taking over the chain. This document could be used to craft a similar one for Steem going forward (after Justin Sun leaves the Steem chain).