Steem is a great idea and a great product.
There is just a "little" problem:
Steem isn't decentralized, but all the Steem supply is in the hands of just a few accounts.
One of Steem creators, Daniel Larimer, is developing EOS, a great project.
With this project, he isn't repeating the same mistake made with Steemit: EOS is being distributed with an ICO that lasts one year.
Steemit was heavily premined, and this is shown by the fact account "Steem" holds most of Steem Power, and the 2 founders are in the top 10 whales list.
This imbalance was created on purpose when Steem was created, and with Dan Larimer leaving ten months ago, there seem to be no signal of change in Steem governance.
I can understand the reasons that lead to this choice: without a solid community at the foundation, delegated proof of stake could be exploitable.
Steemit was created totally centralized because at the time it was too difficult to do in a different way.
But this "original sin" is leading to a series of problems, that can be summarized in one statement: everything is being made to favour speculators.
Instead of making an active monetary policy (spreading wealth among Steemit users) and fighting vote sellings, all the choices made by Steemit management are focused on increasing Steem value.
This may look a nice thing, but actually increases the gap between "normal users" and whales.
Steemit cannot be reformed, because most of Steem Power is in the hands of persons that have different targets. (Actually different also from what written in Steem Whitepaper.)
It's the time to start imagining a new project:
a social network based on DPoS technology that is really decentralized, that borns from an ICO just like EOS, and that uses the EOS blockchain to work.
This project should be fully decentralized, governance should work like a DAO. This would allow the users to take monetary policy decisions and every other important strategic decision.
The tokens of this new social network should be distributed in various ways:
a) airdrop for all the Steem accounts that earned rewards (excluding, if possible, votes that have been bought from known vote-sellers)
b) some "proof of humanity" mining or airdrop for those who don't have money to invest
c) an ICO like the one made by EOS
I created a telegram channel to start talking about this project