RE: VYB Announcements: Rewards Pool, Governance, Project Fund

My hope would be that all general-purpose tribes follow suit and exclude all general-purpose tribe tags but their own, thus creating competition between all the general-purpose tribes.

Hive-Engine tribes and tokens are by default very centralized, as adeptly pointed out some months ago by @themarkymark. Centralization in and of itself is not bad, as long as there is healthy competition. Although decentralization is a noble goal and aspiration, at present we seek a highly-competitive environment within which to exist. If anyone and everyone can simply fork a general-purpose tribe and token but add nothing new, then we simply end up with a senseless quagmire of general-purpose tribes everywhere you turn.

As @themarkymark candidly responded to a question I asked during his recent AMA:

While one general purpose tribe is fine, a bunch of them just makes no sense to me (just my opinion). It just ends up being about rewards.

Marky's point is well-stated and well taken. Proof of Brain & Verify Your Brain represent a unique Layer 2 experiment (imho). With that said, we don't simply want everyone and his brother just adding the #vyb tag to every post, just to grab some extra rewards.

Instead, we want Verify Your Brain (& Proof of Brain) to be the go-to Layer 2 general-purpose tribe. So, for starters, we are intentionally creating a competitive environment where it is (at first, anyways) POB & VYB versus all the other general-purpose tribes. In other words, we are creating an environment where either we are adding something more than 'just more rewards' or we get (rightfully) ignored. If all general-purpose tribes follow suit, then each must add some unique value or fall to the wayside. This is the way it should be.

Everyone participates on the Layer 1 general-purpose 'tribe' that is Hive. Innovation comes from competition. We are looking to shift the paradigm for general-purpose tribes away from 'just another Layer 2 general-purpose tribe' to a place where folks can engage and build together something that is bigger than themselves -- and where they are forced to either innovate and grow or settle for the status quo and whither away.

Will I be penalized for this?

This is not meant to be punitive, although I can see how some might interpret it that way. We are creating something new here. No one is forced to use the #vyb tag. However, those who choose to use the #vyb tag will need to abstain from using any other general-purpose tribe's tag(s) if they want to receive VYB tokens.

... for example: leofinance. When I publish something related to finance, I always put it on their front-end and use the tags: pob and vyb.

Although there has been some discussion about reducing the VYB rewards associated with posts that use niche tags such as leofinance, there are no overt plans to do that and such action would not be taken unless there was overwhelming support within the VYB Stewardship Board to do something like that. And, FWIW, neither ScotBot nor the rewards-pool smart contract currently support anything like that.