I have been selling most of the SBD that I have been earning, but not for fiat. I have been using it to buy Steem Power.
I fail to see how that’s a bad thing.
And I don’t get your “extracting value” argument. In what sense is the Steem blockchain less valuable than it was when SBD’s were trading for 1 USD? It’s not at all as if a company has been taken over and had its assets stripped and sold. That “Chainsaw Al” method of extracting value doesn’t seem to apply.
Your course of action is precisely what I suggest at the end of my post. This maintains some sort of equilibrium in the system. Converting SBD to fiat extracts value from the network which is what I am not in favour of.
I don't agree with you conclusion that trading SBD for Fiat extracts value from the network for one simple reason...it does not put downward preasure on Steem which is the core token.
Whoever is buying SBDs is incurring on a huge risk and that is on them. Since this is very likely just market manipulation on the price of Steem Dollars it will come crushing down at some point and whover is holding will have to settle to hoard them or convert them for steem at the 1 USD peg.
In this case we will be back to "normal" and not worse off then before. In the meantime content producers should just enjoy the ride while it lasts.
The point I am making is content producers are getting money for their work, if they cash it out to fiat they are withdrawing it from the system. That is their choice of course but because of the crazy price of SBD it's possible now to cash out at a much faster rate than is intended by the setup of the system.
This withdrawal will deplete the economic value of the system which is not good for Steem longer term. The only way to stop this drain is to convert the "bonus" to Steem instead of cashing out.