I would like to know if there has been any discussion or thought around a more developed “burn steem” program.

There has to be a way to include some type of gamification to incentivize people to burn steem in order to gain something... like SMTS for example as @aggroed has suggested.

With inflation seemingly outpacing growth, I cannot envision STEEM gaining more value with consistent selling pressure such as the programmatic sell by steemit inc. I fully understand the selling is necessary to fund operations at this stage in the game.

but

If a new and improved burn steem program could be implemented this would raise the price of steem and steemit inc would require a smaller quantity of steem selling thus reducing pressure on the price, creating a virtuous circle.

It is very common for publicly traded companies to buy back shares and it seems with all the development and resources here on steem that a system to gamify burning steem to gain something else is completely possible.

Much like you ‘burn’ @steemmonsters to gain DEC (dark energy crystals), I envision some sort of similar system on steem to improve economics and incentivize folks to actually hodl some steem or steem power.

Is there anyone working on the economic fundamentals of steem?

My question Justine, is there any sort of economic advisor consulting or involved on the blockchain level for steemit inc or are they open to anything like that?

From my understanding steemit inc is strictly made up of devs and engineers, but what about the economics\gamification side?

It’s difficult to envision a case for steem bullishness if we are caught in and endless loop of inflation without incentive to hold the coin.

^all to be taken in context from a concerned stakeholder who <3’s this place :)