Hi @josephlwiess,

I'm in agreement with you. I don't think a solution to restrict people's choices, especially those of minnows helps validate the Spirit of Steem.

Note: I'm not avoiding the argument that the mathematical model and assumptions that a single (or syndicate of fund) could even do this. This is logically and not difficult to see *many* scenarios where this just would not work to buy Bulk % of Steem, Farm It, and dump it for profit.  

Ok...Dang-It..Now...I Have...To Say...Something:

**Firstly**:  Understand Steem already had an **Intrinsic Value**, $0.01 is nonsense, it cannot be brought down below minimum band of active users (currently it's around 0.60cents - I did this anlysis using the facebroke.com Series A & B-Round Investments). 

**Secondly**: For most funds, the math model will show that the buy & hold model is much more sustainable (think Warren Buffet style), and to mitigate capital risk by just recoup investment via dividends, and liquidating original capital gradually as Steem goes from $10-$100 (over years).....And Yes-$100 Steem is easily justifiable when Steemit.com goes sub 100 in Alexa ranking.....**That Ranking itself IS Intrinsic Value** (see examples below: **Ideas To Sustain Value of Steem and Motivating Organic Growth With Minimal Influence of BOTS**)

**Thirdly**: If I see any evidence of the math model that can show a $7 rise followed by a $0.01 cent drop, I will easily contest it's validity. As this is only possible in the world of penny stocks where there is zero to no liquidity and absolutely no stake holders (vs. tens of thousands of Loyal Steemians here)......and if by some chance a single big fund can pump Steem upto $7 and then bring Steem below $0.60, even for a short period of time......then 3 things can happen:

**A**. Any Serious Fund (or Syndicate) will lose alot of Money (and probably fold).....which begs the question why would they risk it?
*(less than 1% chance this will happen as this is > 5 Standard Deviation move - must be a very foolish fund manager)*

**B**. SEC can charge or fine any entity for any pump and dump scheme, or worst FBI can prosecute if they dump any assets (sold with United States Dollars) to another unsuspecting party (say a 2nd fund loses money buying at the top with falsified data and claims made by original fund)  
*(10-20% chance this will happen - but at sub ~0.6cents bottom alot of Steemians will start loading up) *

**......I personally hope this will happen for all our gains :) I really wish I knew about and bought 500,000 Steem at 0.20cents like @trafalgar -  https://steemit.com/@trafalgar/transfers**

<center>
![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1c/cc/c8/1cccc8245b2c82756ae747c8453dffd6.jpg) 
**Steem 2017: Giving Everyone A Fair Chance To Miss Out Again on a Blockchain Balistic Bull-Run!**
<sub>
source: pinterest</sub>
</center>


<center>
![striking it rich in gold.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmapf6AEAv1RqWvXTchMVjMH6ZEmse7ZusvaTMmgAd89AD/striking%20it%20rich%20in%20gold.JPG)
**Steemit: Your Once Chance in This Lifetime to Do an Epic Selfie with Your <del>Big</del>/<del>Mega</del>/Satoshit! Sized Crypto Wallet....and Post it to get Upvotes, and Replies, and Curations, and Resteemed, and Get Paid in <del>Cold-Hard-Cash</del>/Digitally Sparkly Steem, and also get Social Media Glory, and Freedom, and.....oh wait you didn't load up on Steem in 2017 during the crash to $0.60cents<sup>?</sup> oh well Sucks For You** 
<sub>[Link Source](http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/oz-and-some-nz-facts-continued.html)</sub></center>
<sub>Images & captions from my original reply to @acidyo post on past legendary bitcoin gamblers: **https://steemit.com/gambling/@acidyo/blast-from-the-past-some-legendary-bitcoin-gamblers#@dj123/re-acidyo-blast-from-the-past-some-legendary-bitcoin-gamblers-20171112t232405420z**</sub>


OR....

**C.**The Mainstream investment will take notice, outbid them (hostile funds) and Steem will go the Trajectory of Bitcoin and become a contender to even rival mainstream use of Bitcoin. Additionally the hype and publicity and high value of Steem will usher in millions of new users into the next gold rush of ever-day crypto. 

Note: A majority of of people in Steemit first experience of crypto currency is with Steem & SBD. This will just validate Steem as the litmus test of mainstream adoption of blockchain....something most long time Steemians has **suspected** all along.

*(50-80% - Mostly likely Scenario)*


.....**Ok...Now That I Got That Out Of My Chest**....lets get back to the Positive Topic of Ideas:


There are more than 1001 better solutions to a better Steemit environment, we just need to come together to refine, add to them, build, and support them:


**Some Examples of Ideas:**

Ok, here are some ideas to make things harder for Steem to get **rigged** originally shared in a reply to post by **@stellabelle**:


**Idea 1:**

When a whale (or anyone) refuse income -> 100% of the income goes to curation and replies

Not sure why this is not even the default...sounds like a no brainer when curation/feedback/reply/repost all add great value/encouragement/inspiration to the poster and others creating a positive feedback loop of additional proof-of-brain.

<center>
![U5dtrTSdJTkNJ1diaucrWfVxrnaEgBi_1680x8400 (1).jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSdMLoY6jyisRf6XWDGVkr5U8waAwfGsjtQt1m9y8fyii/U5dtrTSdJTkNJ1diaucrWfVxrnaEgBi_1680x8400%20(1).jpg)
**No Brainer**
<sub>source: pinterest</sub>
</center>




**Idea 2:**


The start time of max curation reward should be set by the poster (WITH option to set it to random)

(since peak/max start time currently goes 0-100%curation from 0min to say 30mins)

From what I understand it’s currently optimised between 20mins to 30mins, but what if the poster/writer knows his audience best? Why can't he/she set it between 20mins to 24hours (1 day), encouraging more participation from international followers (who sleeps and wake up at different time of the day) to upvote and also have a say and get rewarded for curation.

<center>
![U5dtEF4DPppo9UuwPheVTAhXy8jLydS_1680x8400.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmc9x7rBHRrvrvjPZtuaGpuaivmSgZzk6VfvFWPtCnuPuY/U5dtEF4DPppo9UuwPheVTAhXy8jLydS_1680x8400.jpg)
**Steemian's Bots Waiting in Line to take a Piss....ahem I mean Up-Vote on a Post** 
<sub>
source: homestead.com</sub>
</center>

**Idea 3:**

The pay out duration should be increase 3 blocks of time instead of just 1:

7 days - still paid at full value 100%
30 days
1 year

This will encourage more people to mine for all time great post, and also steer posters to create long term value in their posting.

This will also encourage people to upvote and reply to long term value added post after 7 days…and they can ignore post after 7 days for those meaningless ones


<center>
**How Minnows Feel Getting Multiple Payout for a Quality Post - They Will Most Likely Cum Back Again**
![U5duLkMZctfp8wX2BmqkDRe4ECreraJ_1680x8400.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfZJ8WY1uURCoovSSFpemW99DNbRf1Uf9Y1tGVFjeBUJP/U5duLkMZctfp8wX2BmqkDRe4ECreraJ_1680x8400.png)
<sub>
source: pinterest</sub>
</center>

**Idea 4: (This is the Important one)**

Use Multiplier on Payout with the Multitudes of Votes

I propose a scaling function that will allow multitudes of minnow to increase the income of many little guys posting content in competition for attention and reward (quality can be found naturally in greater number, this is not consensus, this is probability).


There are many ways to achieve this, here is just 1 example:

Introduce a concept like Key-Upvote to represent the upvote of the multitudes .

Summary: key-upvoted applies to only 1 account 1 vote once every 24 hours - so this vote factor is not just wealth dependent but had democratic brain value (if someone only votes 1 time for only 1 post by a particular steemian in 24hours then it defaults to becoming a key-upvote). So if 100 key upvotes = 1.01 x regular steem payout, 1,000 key upvotes = 1.1 x regular steem payout, 10,000 key upvotes = 2 x steem payout

It's like a bonus to reflect how many people took the time to recognize the poster, not just the wealthy ones. Last I checked time goes by equally for all.

Note: We can cap this multiple at 0.0001% of Steem market cap or currently about US$200, heck even better if it scales.....so if someday poster & top curator with 15,000 votes post and no whale participates, the poster still get extra x2.5 Steem Basic Payout (from everyone vote)

Ok...I'm making this a little complicated, but I still hope someone gets the point.

<center>
![U5drjoi6Pi1z5EzANkhKWTdJezsvNUE_1680x8400.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTGz8JQV4we1hVyDMQcfH5dx9eyxY9zeC7WYNR9EQPKsX/U5drjoi6Pi1z5EzANkhKWTdJezsvNUE_1680x8400.jpg)
**Steemit - Guarantees you a payday every week** 
<sub>
source: pinterest</sub>
</center>

**Idea 5:**

Limit automate bot curation to allow support of only minnow-ques size accounts:


This is *ONLY* a Programmatic Example: Automated cap on paid self upvoting bots, and have it programmed into the Steem code by say limiting paid bots to selfvote only on account with Total (steem+sbd+steempower+delegatedsteem) < .001% of MarketCapofSteem/SteemCurentPrice (About 2500 Steem currently, so when Steem=$10 and assuming still 250Million Steem token, it's 250 steem)

Full reasoning and possible implementation to verify human upvote for large steem account, see my reply here:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@michaeldavid/what-the-hell-a-fucking-rant-by-michael-david#@dj123/re-transisto-re-michaeldavid-what-the-hell-a-fucking-rant-by-michael-david-20171031t131127275z

<center>
![U5drKSHWMcf8kTfQsP1MUdX26A6y62j_1680x8400.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWdxs4DmuiR2aGgV6LT2hQxaVsPwMvcoAv6SgXXX8bA5T/U5drKSHWMcf8kTfQsP1MUdX26A6y62j_1680x8400.jpg)
**We know it's a Bad Bot but we all Still Paid The Tickets To Watch The Movie** 
<sub>source: pinterest</sub>
</center>

**Idea 6:**

Formalize pools of Steem to support communities, culture, nations.

Look, if Steemit and founders is going to own >50% of all Steem created - ideas like these needs to be considered. Come on @Ned, @Dan, @Sneak, please allocate 25% from @Steemit to Community SteemPower Delegation.

Example:

Consider concept lilke this @SteemPowerFor.NameOfNation start with 10K Stee, and will be delegated 100 Steem for approximate every 10k new users from each nation joining steemit. So if 100million people signup and identify with @SteemPowerFor.India then 110K of Steem will be delegated to support their bloggers and other people can also delegate to that pool to strengthen that resources to help the bloggers of that nation. Delegated the authority to a pool of national witnesses.


<center>
![U5dsV798RUuaWdmiWSE64Posm3MYJgG_1680x8400.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXc5csCcugENDTxQKtTcjtziUWD9zcMecE9KtggdCuMqc/U5dsV798RUuaWdmiWSE64Posm3MYJgG_1680x8400.jpg)
**How NewBies See Steemit Inc. Today** 
<sub>source: imgur.com
</sub>
</center>

**Idea 7:**

Landing/Trending Page should have Option of: Show Earning to Vote Ratio

This bridges the gap between Reddit and Stemmit. Someday someone will do this and make a supremely better landing page - like a lovechild between steemvoter & steemdb & landing page.

And make a ton more money than steemvoter (this should get the programmers excited...just charge $0.10 SBD a <del>day</del> / month....I guarantee all Minnow with more than 2000K will gladly pay for the convenience that made Yahoo and Aol BILLIONS!).


<center>
![DQmbFRB5Bvs6p2Uvv6ofeCtQJxbYeUG4LdXW67tniiEHbCZ.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmde6oc6EjbNygeiEDx7ZMTwdkE9Qc62MBMp76uWRayKsT/DQmbFRB5Bvs6p2Uvv6ofeCtQJxbYeUG4LdXW67tniiEHbCZ.jpg)
steemit production - amazonaws.com.JPG
**How Stemians Feel When They Get a Great Post Idea**
<sub>
source: steemit productions</sub>
</center>

My original reply to @stellabelle  to support her Post and Discussion: https://steemit.com/deathspiral/@stellabelle/is-steemit-in-an-economic-and-social-suicide-death-spiral#@dj123/re-revo-re-dj123-re-stellabelle-is-steemit-in-an-economic-and-social-suicide-death-spiral-20171108t131813969z