Steemit at the moment is starting to look a bit like the picture above. We're seeing the emergence of a lot of what I'm going to call 'natural whales' - those who have acquired a large amount of Steem entirely by posting, and seem to make thousands on every post they make by virtue of that reputation - and an increasing number of minnows fighting for the chance to be seen. A lot of us smaller fish write plenty of quality content that never gets seen, and while I understand that's how the system works a lot of the time and am not put off by it, I'm beginning to wonder whether upvoting the same post or author time and again, instead of directing some Steem to the rest of the community, is what's best for Steem as a whole.
Now, it would be easy to assume that I'm saying this out of jealousy, but on the contrary, I'm thoroughly impressed by those who have managed to leverage the Steemit network to the max, and have reaped the financial benefits - particularly where this has been done entirely on the basis of their well-written and interesting content. I've made a little money too and am positive about Steemit's future. However, I'm beginning to see the same names on the trending page again and again, and I know from spending time away from this page that there's plenty of other, often better content being created that goes unnoticed.
A possible pitfall
While it's somewhat inevitable (and in many cases, well-deserved) that a popular author will develop something of a following and be able to generate large amount of upvotes on almost any post purely by the power of his/her reputation, I worry that this may end up creating a serious income gap that has the potential to damage the Steemit economy. I've also noticed a disturbing trend of whales upvoting other whales, and being upvoted in return. If this continues, I fear we may end up in a situation where the 2% (the whales) continue to earn all the money while the rest fight over the scraps.
Sound familiar? I am, of course, talking about the global economy. Isn't the whole purpose of Steemit and cryptocurrency in general supposed to create a new financial system where this kind of thing doesn't happen? I certainly hope so. I suppose it's up to the users (especially those whales who have the best interests of the Steemit community at heart) to vote with their fingers on this one. Sure, let those who continue to create consistently high-quality content be rewarded for it, within reason, but if we want Steemit to achieve healthy growth and be a beneficial network for all dedicated users, we need to vote the same way we spend - consciously.