I'm against this. The thing I dislike about it most is that it enables more funds to be lost from a one week powerdown by a hacker. It would be one thing if this was just a theoretical concern, but we know this happens quite often due to the many phishing attacks combined with all the new, inexperienced users joining Steem for the first time.

I agree with aggroed as far as the investment issue goes: if someone just wants to speculate in the coin, they can just avoid powering up (and indeed many such investors probably just keep their Steem on an exchange anyways, so that they can sell it at a moment's notice).

I don't think the current powerdown time is a big commitment for someone who wants to actively participate in the voting system and the mechanism creates some "solidity" to voter identity (someone can't just move around some poweredup funds quickly and vote "anonymously").

If it was 13 weeks before any funds could be obtained, I would probably feel differently on this issue. But with access to 1/13 after one week, I think the current system is sufficient.

In summary, I don't see any likely value-add from this change, and I think Steem holders who get hacked will lose more money as a result of this change.