Introduction

First of all I would like to wish all my American friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

This is just an idea I've had that I wanted to share. It is not something urgent and I am just putting it out now because I wanted to share it and discuss it with the community.

We have had a lot of discussion regarding changes to the Steemit/Steem ecosystem lately. One thing which hasn't changed is the voting power regeneration time.

For those of us who vote a lot the 5 day period seems a little on the long side.

I know the Steemit team is still looking at the change to higher power voting i.e. the system where 5 votes per day are equivalent to the current 40.

I was against it previously but I have changed my mind after considering it over time.

I feel there may also be some merit to reviewing the voting regeneration system too.

I understand it may not be something that matters much to others but I personally feel it would be another means of improving things and also encouraging people to power up and invest in the system for the longer term.

The Basic Idea - Tiered Voting Regeneration based on MVests

Lower power accounts would have the same 5 day period but accounts with higher vests would be able to regenerate faster. The regeneration rate would therefore be tiered based on how many MVests an account holds.

An Example of How to Do It:

This pyramid graphic illustrates a way of tiering users:

In case the graphic is hard to read (e.g. mobile) here is a summary in text form:

1. Less than 10MV = 5 days

2. 10MV-30MV = 4 days

3. 30MV-60MV = 3 days

4. 60MV-150MV= 2 days

5. Greater than 150MV = 1 day

A few points to note

The figures are arbitrary for the sake of illustration. The actual figures and bands could be derived using some statistical analysis of voting behaviour.
People have been discussing using badges for "gamifying" purposes, this would be a perfect way of implementing badges too with each tier getting a different coloured badge to signify level.
Also I am not suggesting this change immediately.
It would probably best be done on it is own (or at most in combination with the voting freqency changes) AFTER the currently proposed changes to SP inflation etc have been implemented and stabilised.

Incorporate Reputation to Reduce Abuse

One alternative way to tier things would be to base it on people's reputation score:

e.g. 25-40 = 5 days and so on decreasing with different levels.

This might be considered fairer by some people.

Further the two methods could be combined to reduce gaming the system further:

e.g. for the 24 hours regeneration you would need both >150MV and reputation above 72.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

Advantages:

You create a new incentive/reward to power up which helps with "gamification" and tapping into psychological reward mechanisms.
People who vote more often and are more active curators have a means to encourage them to continue and even increase that behaviour if they want to.
It could be done for a trial period as a means to collect data since we are still in beta. If it is found to be detrimental we could revert to the old system.

Disadvantages:

This adds extra complexity to the system and will require work to implement.
People with a huge amount of SP could power it down into mulitple accounts and potentially increase their influence - particularly if combined with the use of bots.
Tiering should reduce this but the risk will always be there. The number of accounts that could do this to any significant degree are very small though.
Adding reputation into tiering might help to reduce misuse but adds an extra level of complexity.
There will likely be other issues that I have not foreseen.

For me the potential advantages outweigh the disadvantages but that is my opinion:

What do you think?

Is it worth exploring or trialling?

Previously the idea of changing the SP dilution and rewards was considered something that could not be changed and now we are not far away from a HF that will implement those changes.

Should we not take the chance to explore all possibilities whilst we are still in the early stages of the platform?

Please have your say in the comments.

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Idea for Steemit - Tiered Voting Power Regeneration According to Vests