I have come to believe the downvote pool is a critical aspect of the EIP and HF21, because it is necessary to allow the whales to eliminate potential liability that will remain a threat to their profits after they move on to the next profit center. Of the whales whose stake resulted from the ninjamine, @berniesanders has acted as the enforcer, and while he has been able to force people off the platform, the downvote pool will add to his ability to remove accounts. In the execution of these activities Bernie has committed crimes including death threats, extortion, and sexual harassment. Since those acts were committed on the blockchain, he is faced with potential liability, and as a member of the original ninjaminers and profiteers on Steem, I am confident he will not alone accept that liability.

In considering the history of corporate profiteering I recalled the example of Bain Capital, still embroiled in expensive litigation due to their fraudulent extraction of the value of eToys, for example. Since flags have proved nominal to drive users off the platform, the downvote pool might be a mechanism able to destroy the Steem community, and thus enable witnesses to cease operations insufficiently productive of financial rewards to justify. Once the servers are wiped, the evidence of those crimes no longer exists, and only this enables that potential litigation liability to be eliminated.

I am not going to be benefited by the downvote pool, and only a fool would expect that. It will certainly be interesting, though. We do live in interesting times.