RE: What needs to happen to reach $10 STEEM in 2018? (Discussion)
That sounds smart @acidyo.
Regarding middlemens:
While there are many who simply don't give a f* about content, blacklisting & whitelisting -blacklisting users removes potential customers and overbidders, if you know what I mean (There was a time for Smartsteem when the number of bidders got pretty small due to our strict blacklistin) - I believe middlemen, in general, aren't the problem. There will always be good actors and bad actors.
Now, I'm very much interested in your opinion as one of my biggest concerns for Smartsteem is the longevity of the promotion-market on Steem, which makes it difficult to scale, plan and advance the service. What if oracles & communities decide that promotion-services aren't allowed? What if Steemit Inc changes the algorithm?
So I want to do as much as possible, to create a fair and transparent service for users to promote their content, without getting abused (which is pretty tough - as we can't look into the future and say: yes, that person is going to stack bid-votes to 1000$ with a low-quality post). But when they do - we'll make sure to blacklist them.
And most importantly: working on a business model that has a future on Steem.
Now - as I said before - I'm very much interested in hearing more about your thoughts, so when you have time and of course; if you want: let me know on discord @ therealwolf#2442