Hey everyone, in the last months I have been thinking a lot about the future of Steem/Steemit and I've noticed a lot of problems with the fairness in rewards distribution and I also noticed that there is a huge discordance going through Steem resulting in Flag-wars and people insulting each other and similarly ugly things.
What is the problem?
This is happening since while some people spend hours working on their posts, others post a Poem and a "Merry Christmas" and get 400$ out of it.
While some people get rich with a few Bikini photos others post photos of amazing trips around the world and get $3.
There are even tons of people out there who don't get anything for their hard work and would be happy to get $3 per post.
But, while a lot of people think the problem are the people who vote for others I think that's not completely accurate.
A short case study:
Let's say, someone I follow posts something I like, I will leave him a like, and I most probably won't consider how many rewards he already got for it and if his post was really worth all of it.
And, to be completely honest that's also not the question the current voting mechanisms asks the users.
How the System works right now you are asked:
How much of the rewards YOU can give does this person deserve?
While the question it should really be asking:
How much is this post worth in TOTAL?
But, how do we get from the question a) to b)?
How I would solve it:
That's why I propose the following:
When upvoting in my "ideal future" you would be asked how much of your rewards you want to be used at max AND what you think is the max value you think the post deserves.
Let's say, my friend posts a merry Christmas post with a small Christmas video he found, I obviously want to upvote it but I also will restrict the reward I want him to receive, to 10$ since he spent no effort at all writing the text and posting the video.
When I read an immensely interesting post, on the other hand, I'll definitely upvote it and will want it to deserve as much as possible.
I believe implementing this system can result in a fairer reward distribution and can also help the people to decide how much a post is worth for them.
Definitely, this will change how voting works right now, this means that your vote power would not be removed already, it would be reserved and slightly paid back as soon as the value reaches or overcomes the value you think it is worth.
This way you will still be able to vote for something you like, but, make sure that the reward of the post won't be more than what YOU think it is actually worth.
Additionally, following the nudge theory (read more about it: here) the initial total value bar value should start off at the average value of the category and not at 100% to make sure users have to think before assigning a high value or assign automatically the average value.
But how exactly would that change the rewards?
The result would be the following, let's imagine someone made a post and 3 people upvoted it:
| Upvoter 1 | Upvoter 2 | Upvoter 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 50$ max 75$ | 50$ max 200$ | 50$ max 90$ |
In the current system that would result in 150$ rewards which is higher than what Upvoter 1 and Upvoter 3 had planned.
The new System would work as follows:
| Event | Post value | Secondary result |
|---|---|---|
| Upvoter 1 upvotes the post with 50$ | 50$ | - |
| Upvoter 2 upvotes the post with 50$ | 75$ | Upvoter 1 receives a return of VP in the value of 25$ |
| Upvoter 3 upvotes the post with 50$ | 90$ | Upvoter 1 receives a return of VP in the value of 25$ & Upvoter 3 receives a return of VP in the value of 10$ |
This way the payout value is way closer to what the majority of the voters thought it should be than it is currently the case.
I think this would be a way to balance rewards on Steem and to distribute them more fairly among the users.
This way a whale still can upvote a post with 100$ because he thinks other people should start noticing it, but he if he thinks the max value should be 100$ as well, he will start getting VP back while others appreciate it.
Concluding
This addition can help to balance the rewards on Steem and also help people to really think about how to distribute their rewards to create a fair competition without having to regulate anything.