It's a cool idea, but it has it's "issues". Whales would be able to power down, power up a new account, and then re-vote for the same content (over and over). Also, the rewards pool is fixed, so over time there would be less and less (as a percentage of the rewards pool) available for new content. That said though, having some form of long-term revenue model would have it's plus sides too. I think a lot more 'big time' content creators would see the value in moving here if there was more potential to earn.
RE: Passive income?