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We have seen throughout history that for an economy to excel, it cannot have a huge separation between the rich and the poor.  A huge income inequality is a recipe for disaster which was repeatedly proven over the years.  Some have a great deal of concern about the United States, once the model for a stable economy, since the last 30 years saw the elite get even wealthier.  The destruction of the middle class is causing grave concern with many economists to the point they believe the economy could implode because of this.

The same is true for Steem.  Since blockchains have a monetary feature to them, part of the ecosystem is economic.  Hence, just like the U.S., if there is a huge gap between the haves and the have nots, a problem could be on the horizon.  One benefit STEEM has that the U.S. economy does not, is that the system is designed where the  percentage of the whole held by the large players is reduced over time.  Last year alone, the top 10% saw their overall holdings diminish from 88% to 81% percent.  The largest gain was made in the Minnow group who saw an increase of over 5%.

What STEEM really needs is a thriving middle class.  This is the basis for any sound economic system.  On this blockchain, it is the Dolphins who represent that group.  They are the one who will ultimately make things go.  Dolphins have anywhere between 5K-50K SP which means they have enough power to make a difference, both individually and collectively.  Also, since it is not an outrageous amount of SP, there should be a ton more of them than there are Whales.  This is what will help drive this ecosystem forward.

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<center>@abh12345 post listed below</center>

For those unaware, @fulltimegeek started the Stewards of Gondor program where he delegated SP to roughly 40 individuals.  Through this program, he allocated 5K-10K to each person (maybe more to some) which instantly made them Dolphins.  In other words, he basically created 40 Dolphins by spreading his SP around.  

Certainly, he could have kept it all to himself which would have netted him a nice return.  He could have rented it out in an effort to improve his ROI.  If he so chose, curating at that SP would mean a very nice monthly income for himself.  Yet he chose to give it all away in the form of free delegation.  Why did he do that?

Without speaking to him directly, it appears that he understands what it takes to make things thrive around here.  One Whale is not going to influence too many Minnows.  There simply is not enough time in the day to interact with that many.  

Looking at last week's stats that @abh12345 put together, there were over 23,500 upvotes, many of them, I surmise were given to Minnows.  Personally, I gave 606 during that time period with a guesstimated 75% going to Minnows.  Would I have made those votes anyway?  Perhaps.  But the difference is, because of the delegation, my VP was worth double.  This means that each Minnow received essentially twice the SP from my votes than he or she would have otherwise.

Here is @abh12345 post:

https://steemit.com/stewardsofgondor/@abh12345/fulltimegeek-delegates-350-000-steem-power-to-stewardsofgondor-in-steemit-retention-and-community-support-drive

This is what a thriving middle class does.  It is able to reach large numbers of people because of the sheer numbers.  Tens of thousands of Dolphins can do what 100 Whales never could do, help hundreds of thousands of minnows.  Naturally, we are not to the point where we see these kinds of numbers but they are coming.  We know that within the next 6 months, there will be hundreds of thousands of active Minnows.  The question is how many Dolphins will there be to help pull them forward and help their accounts to grow.

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmajVs9fNRtR8GnvtymqB4jzUom4nBnkk6hF6x5qkLFE5L/image.png)</center>

And this is where the Whales come in.  What @fulltimegeek is doing is one approach that is obviously proving effective.  @stellabelle, @wwf, and @steevc did the same thing.  An interesting aspect of this is that some of the delegates are starting to do the same thing.  @wwf was a receiver of SP from @fulltimegeek and now he is delegating some himself.  I saw others who mirrored that with some Minnows in an effort to get them ahead quicker.  Again, we see the multiplication impact.

Everyone wants to go to the Whales for everything.  After all they have the SP, so people constantly want to hit them up.  Overall, I found most Whales are very dedicated to STEEM and are doing a lot to make it succeed.  However, in my view, it is not the Whales job to help Minnows succeed.  The numbers are stacked against them.  When you have the amount of people signing up and posting (30K authors daily at last count), the Whales simply cannot view all that material.  That is why it is best for them to support the Dolphins who, in turn, need to support the Minnows.  One Whale, @fulltimegeek, assisted 40 Dolphins who are assisting who knows how many Minnows.

Quite frankly, Whales have bigger fish to fry (pun intended).  Many of them are from the technical side of things meaning they are involved in the development of apps and on the blockchain itself.  Others are involved in the witness program ensuring that this blockchain runs smoothly.  Still others are involved in the development and consensus on the rules that the witnesses implement.  And still others took it upon themselves to clean up the site. 

Of course, there are a number of Whales who do go around upvoting content they like and believe to be quality.  I see many who not only upvote posts, but the comments also.  Some do very little posting themselves yet their blog is full of resteems.  Through this, they are doing their part to make STEEM a thriving ecosystem.

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmc1AW1FTsZWQA4r3EytJuLT27b6G2U5J7GjFFDFVkT9oi/image.png)</center>

I believe that in the not-to-distant future, we are going to see a time when the price of STEEM precludes most people from buying in at Dolphin level.  Just using $20, that would take $100K for someone to get 5K SP.  Even $10K would only get someone 500 SP, a long way from being a Dolphin.  Since Dolphins are needed to keep the "economy" of STEEM thriving, where are they going to come from?  It is only through the support of the ones with higher SP that this will happen.  

Therefore, we need to do everything we can to make the Dolphins more powerful so they can touch as many Minnows as possible and get them heading towards the minimum of 5K SP.  There will be a time when 500 SP is a lot meaning the Dolphins will be the new "power breed".  Over time, we will see some Whales powering down as they cash out for various reasons.  This will only further enhance the situation I am referring to.

The future success of STEEM depends upon a strong Dolphin base who is active and focused upon supporting the Minnows as much as they can.  This is what is going to lift this blockchain to even greater heights.  Fill this place up with hundreds of thousands of Dolphins and you have a blockchain that will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars (if not into the trillions).

And this, I believe, is the motivation for @fulltimegeek and others like him.  The payoff at the end will make it all worthwhile.

If you found this article to be helpful, please give it an upvote and resteem.
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