I almost don't want to bring this up in regards to what is happening on the Steem blockchain with the witness at the moment, but I guess it has to be and I haven't really seen or heard much discussion about it, yet I am sure there has been somewhere. I have noticed 
This is in MVests, so you can half the amount to get an approximate of the Steem delegation. The last four are exchanges.
There was always the discussion as to whether the ninja-mined stake should be used at all, but this usage was generally considered acceptable, especially the usage to limit the spam and plagiarism on the chain, Spaminator, Steemcleaners, Mack-bot.
The others are applications and interfaces that use their delegation to reward their user base and the difference between having that delegation and not is quite clear. However, it was always meant to be that the support would be for the applications to get off the ground and then find their own feet and support, but with the bear market being what it was, this didn't really go to plan.
The problem that faces all of them now is that with the stake changing ownership and into the hands of someone that doesn't understand (nor seem to want to) anything about Steem at all, the delegation will likely end, sooner rather than later. This will have a fundamental effect on not only the applications, but the entire ecosystem.
While some of the community want to get rid of downvotes because either they think they are mean and hurts feelings or, they are trying to protect their own staked circle jerks, they do not know what else goes on here. If the Steemcleaners team led by 
A chain full of spam and reward pool abuse is not nice, but do you know what is worse? A chain full of spam and reward pool abuse with no way to combat it at all. You see, removing downvotes doesn't just mean that users don't flag each other, it means that 4 years of abuse fighting experience gets removed with it. You might not full appreciate how ugly that looks, but I have been here long enough and delved into enough of the content garbage dumps, that I know what it could be, minus Steemcleaners.
However, without a delegation, they can't do what they do effectively and that means, it suddenly becomes up to us. There are plenty of people who don't want to use their downvotes and don't see them as necessary, but take away that delegation and see how fast the spammers and scammers get to work. Will you start downvoting for a better user experience that supports real users?
Ownership and responsibility of experience, remember?
And this goes for the applications too, the ones that people like to use daily and don't mind getting the support from when it arrives. For example, 
Private support is a massive advantage in this situation as it means that they can stand on their own two feet. However, they are also have a great deal more skin in the game when it comes to the potential for loss, as while both have had to develop their interfaces at a cost, if Steem goes to zero, the privately invested will lose a lot more than the ones who have got "government" funding.
There are obviously other applications there that do not necessarily have the same potential for large private equity funding through delegation, which means it will be up to the community to decide the future of these applications. Are you going to use them even if there is no chance of an upvote from them? Will they be able to survive if their curation returns are slashed?
The dynamics and complication caused by this stake means that there are many, many moving parts in play, and while the idea of getting rid of it completely might be attractive, it is going to be highly distruptive to many users who are only still here because they are getting support indirectly from it through applications. Plus, the applications who are funded through Steemit Inc delegation are going to suddenly find themselves with very little stake backing them.
This might be a good thing long-term of course, as it means that applications will have to learn to fend for themselves like any startup, meaning attract investors. This could lead to better quality applications and continued development upon them. Yet, the short-term view is going to be highly challenging and it is not only going to affect the application owners, but also the thousands of users who participate daily on this blockchain as they will not only have to find new avenues of support, they will also have to contend with a lot more spam and scam as the
As said, I don't really want to bring this kind of stuff up, but at the same time, it has to be thought about by all those affected, which means, all of us.
You don't know or appreciate what you've got til it's gone.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
