While I haven't looked at the code it has to be number 2.
Making accounts accumulate "debts" towards the system from their posts being downvoted makes no sense and gives far too much power to whale accounts. If that were the case I could downvote your posts and give you a huge debt towards the system that you would have to "repay" through posts with positive votes before actually getting a payout.
In short: posts are evaluated on an individual basis, there's is no such thing as a negative payout and no global debt for accounts due to negative posts.
Yes I hope its the second option too, however you could still piss off a whale and get all your posts down-voted, getting your paid out to 0! ... I am not sure if this can be fixed, I guess for now best thing is to not cross any whales out there lol
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Ya it makes far more sense if #2 is the case. I just wanted to check for transparency purposes and posterity.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit