A Modest Proposal: Instead of Forking, Create a Development Fund

Over the last day or so I have been immersed in the current controversy that has now resulted (apparently) in @steemit powering down 34M Steem. I have read that 2M Steem have now been transferred to an exchange.

IMHO, there's good reason for the powerdown, because of discussion of a fork that could impair Stinc's ability to wield it's stake as it sees fit. All of the potential horrors that could arise from such a fork, including migration to a new chain and recreating relationships with investors, exchanges, and the community itself, are unnecessary. We don't need to fork, and we're better off simply solving the actual problem, rather than creating all the new ones forking does - not to mention the ethical challenges of dispossessing someone of their personal stake, and the optics that has for investors.

A lot of folks are up in arms, and if you want to know more, there are numerous posts regarding the power down, and earnest requests for @steemit to stop it.

I have contributed comment, and read many posts on the matter. @jesta has also posted some straight dope on the genesis of the kerfuffle, which clarifies a lot of the issues that led to it.

In the comments @spectrumecons mentioned offhand that a development fund could create accountability that seems to be highly desirable to many that lament it is not applicable to Steemit Inc., due to the massive stake it holds.

While I read the rest of the comments there, his comment kept pestering the back of my mind, until I realized such a fund makes it possible to route around the development bottleneck folks feel is due to Steemit Inc. being unaccountable, and not performing nominally.

We don't need Stinc to be the sole developer of Steem. That's how things have been done to date, but there's a strong sentiment across the community that has not been optimal. Indeed, many have suggested that Stinc outsource some development work, for a very long time, from bounty proposals to @blocktrades recent offer.

Well, here's what I propose, based on @spectrumecons' remark:

"Instead, of 10% interest, 15% witness, and 75% rewards pool, could we have something like 10% interest, 15% witness, 25% development fund, and 50% rewards pool?"

We can haggle over the numbers, but let's use 25% as initially suggested by @spectrumecons for the purpose of this exegesis. Just as folks delegate to various endeavors, or I typically (lately) use the benefactor function to provide 25% of my post rewards to some good folks I reckon have demonstrated being worthy of it, we could do the same for a development fund.

It doesn't require a fork. No one's account is gonna be hacked or stolen. Folks like @personz who are gonna leave due to this fiasco might instead become active devs. @jesta himself is considering departure, despite devoting years of his life to Steem, and is also a dev. @blocktrades has already indicated willingness to undertake development that hasn't yet been completed by Stinc, and could participate as well.

A lot of competent devs have developed Steem dApps, bidbots, and other bots for various purposes on Steem and presently depend on various mechanisms for compensation, such as client delegations for User Authority and @scipio, a portion of post proceeds for @heimindanger and dTube, or simply periodic posts, like @ginabot and Steemworld.

I'm leaving a lot of folks out for brevity, but these are good examples that Steem has a crying need for a mechanism that funds development, not just of the core blockchain and SMTs that Stinc is undertaking, but every kind and stripe of service and dApp.

I'm not in the business of doing business on the blockchain. I'm content blogging my rabid opinions, and drawing flags, so I'm incompetent to more specifically detail funding methodologies nominal to support development, or mechanisms to hold recipients of those funds accountable for measurable product.

Plenty of folks on Steem are, and already do here, and off chain in their employment and entrepreneurial empires. @dreamryder has proposed helping develop business for Stinc recently, and I am confident there is no end of competent folks that would whip such a mechanism up in no time.

I've tagged a lot of folks in the post already, so I'm not going to keep doing it, but any that find this idea interesting and think of someone that might be interested and competent to tackle refining the idea, implementing it, and undertaking development funded by it, please let them know and see what they think.

Lastly, I'll here thank all the witnesses who have brought this issue to all of our attention over the last week or so, and all those that have contributed to the discussions about it, upvotes and development that have brought us to this point already - without a development fund other than ninjamined stake. I am a pretty big fan of the Steem ecosystem and the very underlying concept that has created a new paradigm in social media. I believe we are involved in changing the world for the better today because of what you have done.

Thanks!

Edit: of course, if Stinc has sold out to Samsung, as @kaliju is reporting, then we can probably disregard this, as our new robot overlords will nurture us safely into the arms of a glorious future. Caveat emptor!

IMG source - Ytimg.com