What happens when the whales come?
We're still a relatively small platform, here on Steem. Sure, we already have a few small celebrities, many of which has only come and gone. But what happens when quite a few big names join? What happens when some huge celebrity joins and brings hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers, many with cash to burn.
What happens when the real whales come?
Sure, we have a few whales here already, but what happens when we get a whole new group of whales that buy in?
$1000 post shilling some sneaker brand. $6000 bikini shots from some celeb that went to the beach, and just so happens to love this name brand designer bikini she's wearing. Will we see some people turning celebrity as their art or photography gets recognized and rewarded? We're sure to see more people getting rewarded insane amounts for posts because they happen to be friends with some whale.
Will we all have to sell out to succeed, or will it be easier to make it big without having to? It's not like celebrities and musicians didn't have to sell out to make money before. Will that become the norm though?
Will some rich oil baron flag the fuck out of some people because he doesn't like their message?
Will a celebrity ensure a children's center in some foreign country can keep going another week thanks to their upvotes, resteems, shoutouts, and the upvotes of others?
What will it really mean? How will this place change?
Will celebrities use the upvote bots even more than normal people do? Will the companies buy in to have huge upvotes and sponsor content and such? Will the celebrities upvote their fans? How will this place change?
Honestly, I'm a little afraid. Were people foolish to this place could work? Will it become even more corrupt? Or will it become a place where people and self-publish all sorts of things and actually succeed?
What do you think?
Three Beached Whales by Johannes Wierix 1577 public domain (source)
I think you should calm down and stop worrying. Everything's going to be fine, maaan.
I think that as long as certain activities remain transparent, the community will fight any huge amount of gaming that goes on.
Take a retrospective look at the debate that led up to the BCH/BTC split. The Bitcoin community was so fed up with the miners' refusal to activate Segregated Witness that they actually threatened to run alternative client software in order to ignore mining power from miners who would not comply with their demands.
It's the nuclear option for sure, but I expect the same sort of thing to happen to Steem at one or several points in its existence. I expect us to eventually have a large community debate (maybe like the one we're having about bidbots right now) which will eventually lead to a UASF-type situation.
Time will tell.
Maybe I should be more lighthearted, so I can sit back and laugh at the flagging wars.
It will drive up the value of Steem and eventually most will be paid only in SBD, few cents of SBD per post. Even more so if those whales, celebrities, have social media managers who discover bidbots.
In fact, I vaguely recall I already saw a social media celebrity (YouTuber) whose team had discovered bidbots but AFAIK they didn’t stay. That’s not to say that DLive and dTube don’t have their fair share of bidbot using YouTube celebrities already.
That’s the future, yes. 357 Gazillion upvotes, rewards making everyone look ridiculous and always less from the pool from ye ol’ small minnow. When Facebook and Instagram are monetized... on Steem.
I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Welcome to the ancap world of .self in which even high profile curation management members write about how to improving maximizing returns for held SP.
The platform will adapt (...or perish). The precedent has been set, YouTube and other shilled out social media are already undergoing exodus so we'll be finding out what's in store pretty soon.