Earlier today I wrote an article about the impact of Hard Fork 19 on reward distribution and concluded that while there were many unknown factors, I believed the impact of this change would be material. But I didn't realise it would be as significant as it appears to be.
Just before the change came into effect the potential post payout was around $25, which I was very happy with. An hour later I looked in astonishment to see that payout had escalated to $105. I initially thought this was the result of a couple of huge whales upvoting me but i soon realised that all my posts from the last week had increased by a many hundred of percent and it dawned on my that I was seeing the impact of the change I had just written about.
I am delighted to see this happening because i feel this is what the platform needs to retain and encourage new users and more and better quality content.
I was getting concerned recently that mediocre posts were getting ridiculous rewards, not based on merit but by virtue of the fact that they were early users of Steemit and had built up a network of whales that appeared to vote for every post they published. I am not saying this is the practice of all whales but there are many who I feel are guilty of this.
For this platform to succeed on the scale we all want it to, it needs a hook that encourages new people to invest time and effort and reap the rewards of that effort. I've read so many excellent articles on this platform which have received 50+ upvotes, tonnes of comments of praise and yet the reward was less than a dollar. How is that good for the platform??
Anyway, apologies if this post is a bit like a rant but I'm excited about this change and wanted to air my view on what I feel is a significant step forward for Steemit.
Thank you for reading.
