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# We have been so focused on winning this latest war with Justin Sun that we may be missing some things...

Earning staking rewards has been very popular in crypto for much of the past year.

Exchanges are allowing users to earn staking rewards by voluntarily staking their coins on exchanges.

For coins that are having trouble getting listed on more exchanges (like steem), this might be something we should be paying attention to.

Right now, there is an all out war going on with Justin Sun, and in some respects perhaps rightfully so. There have been numerous missteps on both sides, but I don't really want to get into that here.

One thing that Justin Sun has mentioned a few times lately is allowing exchanges to stake steem.

It's very popular in crypto right now, and Sun sees an opportunity for steem to jump on the bandwagon.

However, with the current witness voting setup, it's really a non starter.

We already saw what can happen when exchanges use customer funds to vote in witnesses. Keep in mind that wasn't exactly the same thing as staking, in fact it's very different, but the end result could be similar.

A large centralized exchange controlling large amounts of steem potentially casting votes.

However, there is couple things that can be done to help counter this...

One idea being tossed around is changing the witnesses votes from 30 down to say 3 or 5. While it is more of a quick fix than a long term solution for the governance model, it would in one full swoop eliminate one of the main hurdles with allowing exchanges to stake steem.

It would prevent one large exchange from completely taking over the governance model. At most they would be able to get 3 of their 'witnesses' voted in.

The other change is that of a faster power down...

There is a reason Justin has been pushing for this. Yes he is trying to help is friends at the exchanges get their steem "unstuck" as quickly as possible, but he is also trying to make steem more attractive for staking.

He is doing this because he knows that it will be an easier sell to get exchanges to list steem if it has the ability for staking rewards as well.

Not only that, but the coins that have the ability to be staked often become quite popular once they are on an exchange, generating more trading volume,  which of course is a positive for a listing exchange.

The power down time frame that is gaining some support as of late is something like a 4 week power down.

I am not sure if that is short enough to allow for staking, but it is long enough that it mitigates some of the security risks associated with an account being hacked.

We can't really go much shorter than that without really sacrificing security as well as potentially muddying the waters for content discovery on steemit.com.

Which perhaps is yet another signal that we need to move to make steem a base layer with minimal inflation and have SMTs deliver the POB rewards for different communities and front ends.

Either way, while we are in the midst of this current stalemate with Justin, perhaps it is a good idea for us to understand exactly why he is pushing for some of these changes.

Changes that could help drive more demand for the steem coin down the road.

We would likely need to make broader sweeping changes though for most of the changes not to completely mess up what we currently have.

Either way, hopefully we can come to some understanding before this stalemate drags on much longer.

As of right now though, Justin Sun @justinsunsteemit could you please update your witness price feeds? Not doing so will continue to cause problems with your investment.

Stay informed my friends.

Image Source:

https://medium.com/@TronFoundation/the-truth-behind-steem-takeover-38179feba963

-Doc