A solution to Multiple Problems

Usually when you write a proposal like this you’re supposed to put forth the problem first, so that the user knows if it’s a problem they care about and will continue reading. But this very simple idea solves so many problems that I can’t give one preference, the solution comes first and I think your imagination will recognise problems that it solves from the start.

Steem Patronage is the ability to send a recurring payment denominated in Steem or Steem Dollars to another account, as long as you have the funds. That’s it! Very straightforward. It could be done with a trusted third party (bad), with a bot you have running on a server (awkward) or built into the Steem Protocol (ideal), all three options would do the job but the third is by far preferable.

Timeless Content

Problems that this solves: rewarding creators of “evergreen” content. There was a recent change to the voting reward algorithm which meant only content which was created in the last 30 days can ever be rewarded with the voting mechanism. There are understandable reasons for this, but we need some way for the community to support content which is consumed and appreciated over a much longer time period. Outside of Steem, Patreon has gotten quite popular for this purpose, but the fees extracted by Patreon, PayPal and your credit card together can generally be pretty extreme. This would be better than Patreon and encourage more creators onto the platform.

Supporting Charity

Those of you who donate to charity likely already do this with your bank account. A monthly donation is very common. This is an easy way you could support your favourite charities inside the crypto ecosystem without banks, intermediaries etc.

Voluntary Basic Income

There are many proponents of Basic Income on this forum. While this would not work for Universal Basic Income, it would be a very easy way to get started with Basic Income without having to involve a state, or face the hurdle of gathering majority support before anything can be tried. I have been doing a Voluntary Basic Income experiment for the last few months (I may write a post about it), but this would actually make it easier. I could for example provide a few dollars every month on a voluntary basis to my friends and family. If enough people were doing this, we would create a literal virtual safety net where as long as you have some social connections nobody is left with nothing if they lose their job. It would require no permission from a state nor would it require a third party organization to hold funds or to administrate. This could be used as a ramp to something more Universal as people start to see the benefits.

A Simple Will System

Following from the above, your Steem Patron commitments will continue after you've passed away, as long as there is still money in your account.

Other Recurring Payments

You could even use this to pay your rent or your phone bill. It may not be the ideal platform yet for you to do this, but you could, and it would be free.