Can we entertain the idea of using the Steemit account funds more liberally if, through a witness vote, a % of the inflation funds is also allocated to development and marketing? The rates would be up for discussion but this should speed up development considerably and be beneficial to all. What we need here is a concept of 'ongoing funds'. You can support an Ongoing Fund by sacrificing some of your voting power, and your votes would be continually applied to it. This could be done in a hacky way now, without changing the protocol, but would probably be much more straightforward to simply make part of the protocol. We could then have a development fund as an ongoing fund, a marketing fund as an ongoing fund, etc. etc.
Great post! I'm excited to see where this goes. I've been trying to finalize my own thoughts about this stuff, but haven't put anything down yet. I do think clarifying who we are and what our unique business proposition is matters. Network effect and platform loyalty are really important hurdles for us to overcome in the attention economy. Many people use Facebook, for example, to stay connected with friends and family. Until those friends and family are on Steemit, they will continue to use Facebook because it currently enjoys a natural monopoly on that attention due to their massive network effect and the quality of the service they offer. How can Steemit compete with that? Many who I've introduced to Steemit still post on Facebook for those reasons. The rewards aren't enough for them to post here instead because they don't post things for rewards, they post to stay connected. I came here and built new relationships and new connections. Many are unwilling to do invest more time and attention to do that because they are already spread thin. If Steemit isn't comparing itself to Facebook, then is it more like Reddit? Or maybe Medium? Understanding ourselves is the first step towards a clear vision to what we will become and how we will get there.