RE: Voting Abuse and Ineffective Curation: A proposal for blockchain-level change
If a content creator deems his/herself too good for that reward layout, someone else will happily step in. And, if that much higher curation payout makes owning SP sufficiently attractive (and it WILL make it more attractive to own SP), then those content creators that opt out will be very disappointed in their decision to do so.
I hear people talk all the time about "what if Steem reaches $10, $100, $1,000... what would these payouts look like then?", well, I don't see Steem reaching those types of prices with the current parameters, but making it far more attractive to own SP (buy and lock away Steem) is certainly a step in the right direction.
People aren't going to be complaining about "only making half of the rewards" as content creators if Steem does a 10X price move based on SP becoming a more valuable commodity.
If a content creator currently makes $100 at today's Steem price (call it $1.50) and today's payout parameters (85/15%), they will be making ( { [100 / 0.85] x 0.5 } x 10 ) $588.24 if Steem 10X in price (to around $15) and the parameters are changed to 50/50%, all else being equal.
you'd make a wonderful fiat publisher as they do their best to drive the proceeds to the writer lower and lower while their intake of proceeds goes higher on the backs of the creators.
What I say is true. If curators make roughly nothing, then how is Steemit any different than a site like YouTube (only content creators earn)? What's the point in holding SP?
If you want Steem to be an attractive investment, make this so called "Steem Power" actually powerful. Right now it's more like "Steem Weakling", if you ask me.
If, on the other hand, you're glad with a flash in the pan, short time window to cash out on your content before this all collapses in on itself, by all means keep curation as being paid in peanuts for holding a boat-load of SP.
You gotta realize that holding a high amount of SP is a fairly risky thing and it's those very people that have taken this huge risk who're making it possible for these content creators to be paid (in anything more than mere pesos) in the first place! Don't bite the hand that feeds you!
Should all these high SP holders get fed up enough and they all start to sell, guess what happens to the author payouts? Don't be too myopic in how you view this.