The importance of minnows, or even new users seems like a misunderstood important factor in the lifecycle of steem and it's growth.
While many chase the whales, and write posts to lure them over, hoping to have a big payout, the importance of new and small users seems abscent. But what if we could look, let's say 2 years ahead and try to reverse engineer Steemit and it's users? We would come to this conclusion
Extrapolation
Whales like we know them today will no longer exist. At this very moment, most whales - if not all - are powering down their SP and distributing it amongst newer users. With targeted curations, they try to give birth to a new wave of whales that will soon join them. Looking at the paste my account is growing, and making an extrapolation, i should reach 100k SP within the next 6 months or so, and further extrapolation brings this close to 550k SP within the next 2 years.
But if my account can make such a progress, so can any account. The minnows or brand new users that are following me today may not have the weight needed to give me a big payout. But if we extrapolate their accounts, they will have some serious power within a year, or two years. This means that every small vote i get today, giving me a 0.01SBD reward per upvote, has the potential of making 10SBD and more per upvote. In reversed order, today's whales powering down, would give me less SBD per upvote in two years than it is today.
Right now i have some mighty whales that follow my posts and upvote them. This is mainly because my posts are related to contributions on this platform, not because i write exciting stories or organise fun stuff. Analyzing my post rewards, it's safe to say that out of 600 votes, only a handfull make the big difference in rewards today. But in two years from now, all those small votes will be worth a massive amount compared to a handfull of powerfull voters today.
Time for a change
All i'm trying to say is that we should care more about the future, and less about today. Treat new users like you would treat whales. The future will most likely depend on them, and not on today's whales. This is the biggest reason why today's whales are distributing their powers to have a more balanced system. When they retire, it's up to todays new userbase to continue their work.
Do you want powerfull whales in the future that make negative curations because you threated them poorly 'back in the days' ? Do you like to have whales driven by hate towards a specific part in this community? If the answer is no, it's time for a change and threat new users like your childeren, because one day you'll depend on them.
