If curation does not return to 100% human "proof of brain", both steemit and STEEM will fail. If the creation of new STEEM can be gamed, it WILL be gamed, and that will destroy the expected future value of STEEM.

What we might be seeing here with whales selling their votes is that whales are realizing that STEEM is going to fail and are rushing to find a seat in a game of musical chairs. The early ones to sell their votes will take in large revenues and will try to initiate the 13 week power down just in time to not lose much when STEEM collapses. The whales who are now rushing to get into the vote selling business will take in less money before the crash, and will by their actions hasten the crash. The whales who refuse to sell their votes and who are determined to be faithful to 100% human curation will be the ones who take the biggest hit; they will be the last ones standing when the music stops, having collected no spoils from raping the rewards pool and then losing everything by never powering down at all.

So, how can the situation be saved?

(1) Support @transparencybot and any other similar initiatives.

(2) Permanently mute all bots that undermine 100% human "proof of brain" curation, as well as all users who use such bots or who attack @transparencybot.

(3) Powerdown immediately. Get out of STEEM. Your curation vote is already worthless for its intended purpose. Forget about making money here. Focus instead on building relationships, for now. If 100% human curation is restored, steemit might again become a place to self publish professionally (for money).

(4) Do not flag for any reason other than that a post is spam. Do not flag because you disapprove of what is being expressed or how it is expressed. Do not flag speech that you deem to be "hate speech". Do not flag as a matter of policy against particular users.

(5) Selfishness ruins everything. I've seen it my whole adult life. I became an activist because of this. Steemit and STEEM are worth fighting for. But make no mistake; this is war! It is going to be an all out war between those who are selfish and those who are unselfish.

(6) There are three possible outcomes: (1) If unselfish people here do nothing, steemit and STEEM will fail. If unselfish people MUTE the selfish people and refrain from flagging, some of the selfish people might learn from the example and convert to being unselfish. If the ones who convert the earliest powerdown quickly, they will lose the least, and the ones who remain selfish and who continue to game the system will lose the most, if steemit and STEEM fails. And it is possible that if enough unselfish people act in concert, this platform, and STEEM, might be saved.