VPNs are trivially easy to use to bypass anything based on IP addy's. Rate limiting VP just won't work, because there are thousands of socks owned by some users. Even if you limit upvotes to .01 Steem one user could upvote it over 20 Steem by using 2000 socks. Rate limiting posts will work, because it doesn't matter how many socks you have, or how much stake you have, you can't push a post over the chosen limit, say 300% of the median post payout. Since the median post payout is about .05 SBD, there's no reason for greedy bastards to plunder rewards. They'd have to have thousands of socks posting to generate what they can today from one post, and that is easy to counter with hordes of free flags burning in the pockets of outraged Steemers looking to curb bots. Hell, it's right up their ally.

Even shit posts are something, and their posters tend to be actual people, however bad at writing and making posts they are. There's a lot that recommends having hordes of dummies comprising the market for your products. Just ask PT Barnum. If we want 2 billion users, like Fakebook, we need to accept that we're not going to see 2 billion 'Moby Dick' quality posts. All those users, and their posts, do add value to the Steem ecosystem though, and even pics of their stomach contents after being pumped full of narcan contribute something to those that want to see those pics.

By rate limiting posts, instead of VP, it would be easy to detect botnets seeking to profiteer from rewards, because the same thousands of bots would be upboating given posts, allowing them to be identified with profiteering users and those users to suffer the wrath of rampaging peasants armed with free flags.

Even shitposters are part of society and deserve some reward, which is why no organic post deserves less than 3% of the median post reward. Between 3% and 300% is three orders of magnitude, and this allows more than enough room to preferentially reward content of good quality, and it's 3x the rewards most people get on their posts. Since the median post reward serves to attract content creators, 3x that is good enough to keep good content creators around, and as the rapine abuse of stake ends overinflating circle jerk and self voted posts, the median will rise up to 15x, towards the average post payout that is currently that much higher than the median, as profiteers are prevented from overpricing posts to suck rewards from. Then factor in Steem price rising orders of magnitude, and even rate limited rewards might well exceed what was possible during Steem's early days of $1000 payouts.

As for self voting, it's not a good idea to create a market for your account, because you only get 10 100% votes to attract gratitude to your account with, and newbs with low stake are a lot better off using those votes on the content of other folks rather then giving themselves tiny upvotes. Substantially staked users that self vote are just not well socialized people, and it's just as bad an idea for them to self vote, even it it's worth more than a tenth of a pfennig, because it just rankles folks. Society is built on mutual support, and greedy bastards tend to be universally reviled, the more so the more greedy they are.

As to Steem price, frankly the lower it goes the better for Steem, as profiteers aren't here for any good reasons involving the metaphysical improvement of society, but only for their own enrichment. A stupid low price will drive them off, but won't bother me one bit. Once they're gone we can institute the Huey Long algorithm, and keep them away, while investors will observe the extremely cheap Steem, the new direction that encourages capital gains, and allow the content creators to ride that moon shot they fund.

I'd love to see Bernie, CHBartist, all the ninjaminers, and the rest of the folks whose only reason to be here is to suck all value out of the system sell off all their stake and go fuck with EOS. I'd love to see them buying back in a year from now, chastened by the humongous loss they suffered and eager to ride that moon rocket THEIR profiteering has heretofore prevented. We'd be front row audience to the earnest speeches regarding how much better capital gains are for Steem than rapine profiteering, like ex prostitutes that become nuns, or ex smokers, or any reformed degenerates. I would beam with glee at their conversions, my enjoyment epic.

For a taste just observe how former bidbots are proselytizing for manual curation today. Clearly they have felt the Hand of God, and now are the most faithful of curators, having been before suffering from devilish lust for ROI, they now see the light of honest valuing of quality content.

At least until they start to get caught for selling votes off chain to manually curate here. It is with great anticipation I await the serial Tammy Faye moments as they repeatedly avow their honest conversions, this time, for sure, and promises to never, ever stray from the light again.

I'm not selling my stake, and don't care what the tokens sell for. When they're properly valued due to their technical superiority to BTC, and the premium use case of social media (once cured of the disease of profiteering), Steem can reasonably be priced back amongst the top 5 cryptos again. Maybe then I'll spend 5 Steem on a new car.

Probably not though. I don't want a new car. I'd prefer using that stake to fund voluntarist government through upvotes. I reckon that is an actual useful thing to get from my VP.