The people casting votes are validating the value of that content

General

“The people casting votes are validating the value of that content by rewarding it with cryptocurrency”? – @steemitblog

Is that so? Really? It doesn’t seem like things are working that way. Is that what buying votes does now?


Source
I finally got around to a post I had open in my tabs, posted by the @steemitblog account: Ned Talks: Steem, Steemit, and SMTs. I read the quoted part, and recognized how things are supposed to be, how they were intended to work out on the platform, but they aren’t actually working out that way for valuing posts that get the most rewards.

Here is the section in question:

Because of Steem’s unique characteristics we didn’t have to limit ourselves to regular, run-of-the-mill Bitcoin-type cryptocurrencies, and could consider cryptocurrencies like STEEM, which has special properties like Proof-of-Brain (PoB).

With PoB, tokens are created at regular intervals and distributed to those who submit content to the blockchain, based on the stake-weighted upvotes of other users. Through this mechanism, the people casting votes are validating the value of that content by rewarding it with cryptocurrency.

So STEEM has “special properties” like Proof-of-Brain, where the content being put out is being evaluated by others with brains to allocate rewards? Hmmm… Not much anymore. So many of the heavy-hitting high-SP accounts have sold their votes for others to buy through bidbot services, rather then actually doing what Steem was made to do: vote content that is evaluated by the voters brain.

People are validating the value of content? Not on the majority of highly rewarded posts, which are not validated by a high-SP voter to give those rewards. Those votes are bought for, not voted on by evaluation from the account holder.

Proof-of-Brain has a big boot on it’s face. People casting votes to reward posts is mostly not being done in terms of the proportion of the allocated rewards on high-payout posts. Those people/account/users aren’t voting, their votes are being bought. There is no evaluation being done by them. And it’s not only high-SP accounts that can do that, but anyone an delegate their power to sell their votes and not even engage in Proof-of-Brain to value content that gets rewarded.

The result is the shit show of the trending tab. The trending posts are not determined by “people casting votes” that “are validating the value of that content by rewarding it.” The votes are being bought by authors. The actual voting account doesn’t do any validation on the content through Proof-of-Brain.

I’ve had issue with bots on the platform since I got here in 2016, as it diminishes the value of a social media site actually evaluating the content on it’s site. If the bots are doing the voting, then people aren’t. “The people casting votes are validating the value of that content”, was failing to be true then, and it’s even worse now.

Is Proof-of-Brian heading down death-row on Steem due to the power of buying votes for people to make easy-money? Will we ever see a return to curating content where it’s actually being evaluated in order for rewards to be allocated to make posts trending? Or is it just the rare post that gets that privilege now…