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RE: Steem whales are a joke. Look at the steem power this account has!! (it's a bought and sold account)
I think this is a reasonable topic of discussion so I upvoted it.
Surely if money is used to buy them then they would be bought for the sole reason of money
This logic (particularly the suggestion that someone having a financial interest is harmful) seems highly flawed to me. If someone buys into Steem, particularly in a big way, they are invested in the success of the system. The idea that people with an investment in the system would act to maintain and improve the system is very much built in to the design and discussed extensively in the white paper.
Why do you think this is a bad thing?
@smooth Ok I'll bite :)
My opinion is that PoS suffers from the mistaken belief that
all shareholders will work in the best interests of the company they hold shares in.
It's almost never true. Instead...
Stakeholders will work in the best interests of whatever they have stake in so long as it is more inline with their interests at the moment than some other action.
For example. I have some bitcoins. I see evidence that causes me to believe china will dump. I open a short position and I'll scream what's about to happen from the rafters if I have to. Not because I believe any less in bitcoin, but because I stand to make substantial gains from my short and I know I'm right.
In this case, what is being said is that reputation matters here. People are building accounts, building rep and then selling the account. This is exactly the same as buying a fully decked out World of Warcraft account from ebay. A nice high powered warrior with all the epic raid gear and a solid reputation.
The thing is that no one will sell a thing that they believe is going to make them more money if they hold. So there are two reasons to sell. Immediate cashflow is needed for some emergency, i.e. my car just died so I'll make a new alt and level up later. Or they have lost faith in the platform as a whole. They are "quitting the game" as it were.
Eitherway this is dangerous when combined with the new rules coming into effect because a whale selling out externally like this means that the guys who are serious about winning this can pick up an epic level character cheap and totally own or grief the game. They have a reason for doing this and it's not financial at all. The incentive is personal satisfaction.
So how about we get those kinds of players to do something much more useful and appreciated by the community. Because the financial incentives aren't the issue, personal satisfaction is.
But any potential sale of an account or reputation that comes along with it is recorded in the blockchain as an update of the keys to the account.
People change keys for all sorts of reasons. Seeing that on the blockchain means very little.
I agree ... a more complete observation is that a change of keys does not necessarily imply a change of ownership, but that the converse does (or one would hope).
Well if they actually change keys yes. But if they just sell the account for cash on ebay and hand over the username and password or the wallet file directly then no.
Now you and I might not be stupid enough to do that. But vanity bitcoin addresses are traded like pokemon.
could you have a look at my advertisement post i made? ambitious but it is a goal of mine!
Okay then, thank you for confirming that this isn't an issue worth being particularly concerned about. World of Warcraft is extremely successful.
@smooth Sorry wasn't trying to minimize it or play it off. Mind has been turning to old addictions lately, WoW being one of the hardest to break.
The point is that over all it's fine for the person selling, they get cash and they get to leave without powering down. The reputation and steem power travels with them. This is stake, but the person buying existing stake in this fashion is unlikely to have the best of intentions which was my actual point.
People buy things for personal reasons. If accounts become tradable commodities, then it is can be bad for the community. Some of the upcoming changes could make this much worse since someone could easily buy a miniwhale and then use it censor anyone they feel like.
I agree with you that Steemit is unlikely to implement an effective and useful reputation system that does more good than harm. Unlikely does not mean impossible though, so I'm willing to keep an open mind.
"Some of the upcoming changes could make this much worse since someone could easily buy a miniwhale and then use it censor anyone they feel like."
exactly what I'm also worried about! thanks for voicing this!
Exactly. Whales are as selfish as the next guy. Or as noble, same difference.
Time is money!- it is an old truth
Or time or money?
when people chase solely money they become greedy. That means you and i will suffer. (our posts and the community as a whole) Money is one think, selling and trading accounts for that purpous to me is worrying. (my own opinion though)
i like william. i hope you stay on steemit man!!! :P
@egjoshslim Thanks man, yeah I'll be staying! Here's hoping you stay too!!!
Turns out this is more relevant than ever before. 1% owning 90% of all SP? Steemit = the same as every other system