I think what Steemit and by extension Hive did was a great start. It was the first of it's kind.

It is actually quite beautiful until you realize that the promise it uses to sell itself is tainted by this mechanism that can only result in gradual consolidation of power.

Those that happen to be in the right place at the right time and get to be the chosen oligarchs of the platform will tell you. Simply purchase enough power and it solves the problem.

Yet it doesn't. Such a large purchase would drive up the price so much that these powerful few would gain a lot of wealth.

They can then turn around and make sure that they retain the power.

They also will claim you are not censored on the platform while they arbitrarily will pick people saying things they don't personally like and claim it has no value to the platform. They will vote it down so the person can earn nothing.

Let's face it the ability to actually earn for engaging on this platform is one of the main things that truly set it apart.

If you take that away then there are better places to produce content.

I remember when HIVE was being forked and I didn't get involved. Some time later I found out all of my stake in Steemit had been grandfathered into HIVE. That was of course after I'd mostly divested myself from steemit. I had 20K+ Steem Power at one point and was in the top 100 most powerful accounts. All which I acquired through actually producing content and engaging.

After trying to fight this issue and seeing how the power was accumulating and being used I eventually realized it was a flaw in the platform that wouldn't simply go away.

If this was ever forked again something would need to change. I can't tell you how that would work or what should change.