Off the top of my head, I was easily able to come up with 5 frontends for Steem and list them as my tags for this post. What's my point? My point is that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the incentives here are unsustainable.
I'm writing this post using the Busy frontend/tag because they are going to give me an upvote worth like 70 cents. I'm using the Palnet tag because I have to in order to receive PAL rewards. The other three are just there to make a point, but how long until three other frontends pop up that also incentivize the use of their platform with an app/tag?
This topic is especially relevant in the context of PALNet.io
Palnet currently only shows posts that are tagged with 'palnet'. It also only rewards coins to posts with the palnet tag. It is an extremely quarantined system at the moment.
Palnet is currently running in tandem with Steemit. Upvote a post using your Steem Power and it will create both Steem inflation and PAL inflation in the same operation. This is a slight problem, because it's a lot easier to spend Steem voting power than it is to spend PALNet voting power.
This leaves accounts like mine in an awkward situation. Say I upvote half Palnet tagged posts and half not. Say I cast 10 votes. Now my Steem voting power is at 80% and my Palnet voting power is at 90%. After 12 hours my Steem voting power will be 90% and my Palnet power will be 100%.
As one can see, it's impossible to regenerate my Steem Power without allowing my Palnet power to sit at 100%.
This puts me in the awkward situation of powering down my Palnet stake and transferring it to another account (
Conclusion
PALNet has only been out for a week and none of this matters because the platform is highly experimental and will likely transition through monumental changes over its lifespan.