I have been on the platform well over two years now and through all the rise, falls, hardforks, FUD and dummy spits - one thing has remained constant. It is the fault of the large accounts not distributing downward.
Yesterday I wrote a piece about more even distribution of stake on Palnet.io and I think it is going to be very interesting to see how the users are going to "spend" their stake, a stake they were given.
Besides the few that I have noticed with large votes already who I assume are part of the development team, Most people on PALnet.io have something but there is not a great deal of variation between them. The max airdrop was 2500 no matter the SP and it worked its way down from there. With the "gap" between 0 and 2500 not too much and there being so many airdrops between the 500-2500 range, it means that manyusers have something to curate with, something that most users don't have to start with on Steem. As said, this is also why 50/50 curation makes sense from the beginning and why it makes more sense for Steem now too.
(side note: even though you might not see a vote value when voting on PAL, it is the UI having an issue and it is being recorded on the blockchain.)
But, with a more even dstribution in play on PALnet.io, human behavior comes into play and we will get to see how many of the community who have claimed about bad curation distribution on Steem will actually curate on PAL and how many ill spend a lot of their time *"curating themselves" in the corner.
With 50/50 curation, there is incentive for those that don't necessarily want to blog, to not blog and rather curate the content they enjoy and consider valuable. This split means that a lot of shitposters can be avoided as they can still get the value of their vote without having to post at all. However, not posting means they can't gain from other people's votes. This means that those who contribute and build a network will outperform those who purely vote and those who are good at production, should attract decent community support.
But remember, people are people.
You have likely heard this line many times but what it comes down to is that everyone is some kind of maximizer and will maximize themselves over others. The sad thing that most complainers about the whale and orca voting habits is; if they were in the same position, they would likely do the same thing. What many people don't want to recognize on Steem is that most people are doing exactly the same thing and no distributing too far at all, they are acting like "the whales".
But now, with such close stake and so many active users with stake (since thy are the ones who got the airdrop), what is going to happen? Are there going to be active curators now or are they going to continue along the same path thy have had on steem? Perhaps, with people having more voice over content reward, they will form circles and "old boys clubs" just like many did on Steem.
The interesting question is going to be,
what will this look like in 3 years from now?
With no ninja mine and many early adopters, this should look like the Steem everyone says they want but I believe that there is still going to be the "people are people" effect and while it might look better, the generations to come are likely going to feel and complain much like the ones who feel and complain about Steem in its current form as it is still going to be difficult for them to get traction in an established community that has been curating each other for years.
But, this is the way it goes. Changes in cultural behaviors don't happen over night, they are incremental shifts in experience. And when people begin to see the advantages of collaboration instead of competition, community instead of individualism - the effect can snowball and pick up velocity. The world we come from and currently inhabit is not one where peace and harmony is the status quo, but it doesn't mean we can't build a society where it is.
As said, the learning that will come from PALnet.io is going to be invaluable in many ways as it is going to teach all levels of participants about how others behave and, how we behave ourselves. So many people with near even stake at this point, my prediction is that in a few years from now, there will be clear variation. Some will have earned it through valuable contribution, some through self-maximization. Which will you be?
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]