Recently there has been a wait for new users creating accounts. As most of you may have noticed since you can earn money on steemit there are a lot of scammers who try to abuse the system. Currently most accounts are created through steemit or by using a paid service to get an account created. Witnesses can also create accounts. Prior to HF18 all accounts were created using steem. HF18 introduced the ability to use steem and/or delegate steem power for creating new accounts. So about half an hour ago I had one of those random thoughts: Sponsorships. Why not let any user with enough steem power sponsor new people.
Sponsorhips would work just like a witness creating accounts with steem power only. It would work as follows:
- You tell someone about/invite them to steemit
- They come to steemit to register.
- When registering there would be a field for the sponsors name.
- They enter you as the sponsor.
- You receive a notification that you have a pending sponsorship request.
- If you have enough steem power you can approve the delegation of steem power to create the account.
- Account is approved and the user can start using steemit.
The downsides? This means additional interface changes for steemit but I don't think it's anything too complicated. Steem side I don't know if it's currently possible without a code change there. If it requires one that makes it more complicated as a fork may be required. There is always the possibility for abuse of the system too. People selling accounts for instance. That is already possible though.
This could also be tied into the referral system. Yes there is one, no it doesn't do anything except for tracking. This would be an area for future consideration and expansion.
