As the price of steem triples or even quadruples, I've noticed the impact that the price is having on the platform and my interactions with people here.
My votes are worth more
Despite me delegating 96% of my steem to other people, my voting power continues to climb. My voting power has remained constant as a result of me delegating any steem I do collect. So as the price of steem climbs, it appears that our voting power also climbs too. That is great news for everyone, especially the plankton and minnows who are working to build their influence.
With the sharp increase, a significant spread happened between Steem and SBD
I'm sure everyone noticed, but there were times that I traded a single SBD for ten steem! What took me over a month to build up a million vests in my first month here on Steemit, I have been able to build up five million more in the last month. Even now, the spread is about 4:1, so it is still a great time to build up steem if you want to increase our influence on this platform. My goal is ten million by January. If I accomplish that, then my account will be a dolphin and I would have enough steem to bring on another 3 or 4 Stewards of Terra Mater. As it stands I now have six! I just invited 
What the system does with the unused steem
Over the last few days I noticed that my totals would increase by about .001 steem every 20 minutes or so. At this rate I calculated that I am receiving about .16 steem a day automatically. I did some research and it turns out that the steem pool that people draw from when they upvote does not get emptied. When there is extra steem, the pool then distributes that left over steem based on the amount of shares (mvests) that you have. So as your mvests increase, so too does the amount of steem the system gives you if there are left overs. I noticed this increasing with the sharp increase in the price of steem. I don't know how the system algorithms work, but it seems to me that as the price increases so too does the size of the pool, or perhaps people are voting less right now. Either way, steem will flow into our wallets when there is leftover steem.
So I hope that helps. Just a few observations that I have found over the last few days. If anybody has anything more to add, please feel free. I'm just exploring how this system works and sharing the research that I found. I hope it helps with our experience here.
Peace to you.
