Downvote
The downvote was designed as a critical part of reward pool distribution. It has also established itself as a relatively effective tool in combating abuse.
Like anything, there are two sides to every coin. The same tool that is used to curtail abuse can be used to bully others on the blockchain. The same tool used to "disagree" with post rewards can be used to "silence" other people's opinions.
As one of the most downvoted people on the Steem blockchain, I completely understand how some people feel when they come under a sustained attack, especially from a whale or a curation trail.
Many people, including the emperor of Steem himself, have suggested removing the downvote function. Here on Hive, it has been talked about a lot too. Of course SMT's would have resolved all that. If you don't believe in downvotes, you could create an SMT without the downvote function.
There is, in fact, one such pseudo-SMT's called APPICS. There is no downvoting on APPICS. If recent memory serves me right, from reading the DTube whitepaper, the Avalon blockchain on which DTube will be running will not have downvotes either. It's also one of the proposed changes in Blurt.
The question then is this: Has the downvote function passed it's sell-by date?
What say ye?
Peace & Love.