Why do we stake our assets at all? Who would willingly give away the ability to liquidate his/her assets for any period of time? Staking is promise, and power-down is a prove you can keep your promise. In our case, this is the promise your money will be working for the good of community for a definite period of time. Staking also means these assets will not be dumped on the first opportunity. This gives certain level of sustainability and predictability to the whole community. This tool has intrinsic value in itself. I would dare to say this is one of the reasons we have so strong support level around 10 cents.
I see the power-down period discussion wrong on so many levels. Firstly, it's being given to a vote in the very emotional time of hossa, money is being thrown back and forth from one place to another, but somehow missing the Hive. Obviously we are trying to do something to change this, this might be one of the last cycles on the crypto-market. Clock is ticking, many might feel stress. Yes, this is not a new thing, power-down discussion is like forever-long, but decision of this significance shouldn't be taken with the pressure of the market conditions. This is the worst moment ever. Also, it will create a dump-friendly environment for the coming peak of alt-season. Do you want to go out? Just power-down. 13 weeks seems to be a safe measure for this cycle peak.
It's understandable we all want to maximize our profits, but let's call it for what it is. I'm far from pointing fingers, but it's obvious the parameter of engagement-length within the Hive community is not constant. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing bad, but we need to figure out the way to incorporate this variable into Hive workings to provide long-term sustainability for this community.
Secondly, there are many kinds of investors. Would these mythic 13weeks-afraid investors really park their money for any period of time here, when there is so many DeFi project bringing much more? I don't know, but I just see the focal point out of the issues impacting our popularity and the price in much greater scale. This is the trap of solutionism. Why not focus on creating the real value of Hive for what it is, instead of copycatting moves of direct competitors or just trying to fit in the herd of animals of different kind?
And lastly, any given period of power-down is strictly arbitrary, meaning any argument is just tug-of-war. Discussing "period X" vs "period Y" is a highly political game of influence, and I can't see it doing any good for Hive in the long term. Let's keep politics out of Hive, we can do better than some pseudo-democratic thing. This discussion should have been brought to another level. Or should we get prepared for the discussion about 1week power-down in the future? Staked funds bring value to Hive, but what has even bigger value is a chain being driven by a community. Any rigged power-down period should be just a temporary solution before figuring out something better. There was so many solutions for powering-up being discussed. What happened with these?
There was proposition of users choosing period of power-up with higher APR incentive. Hive-loans platform is being worked on to power-down instantly for a fraction of your stake. Proposition of creating system with power-down period changing in the real life based on the community votes was there and probably few more. Why do we end up with an arbitrary, political proposal written on the fly? 4weeks or 13weeks? What sort of hostage situation is this?
Hive is a great and fascinating social experiment which possibly might bring real change to how we do things on-line and can positively affect the lives of many. Beyond that I don't know what Hive is or might be, but I can see clearly which values are praised here. Decentralisation, sovereignty, community, engagement, vision, independence, let's not sell these cheaply. Without these, we have no chance in a direct competition with centrally developed chains. Choosing to build on values can bring us success of the unique kind. This is the long term perspective.
Anyway, this is my opinion, love it, hate it, argue with it, just leave your thoughts.
Cheers!