But it DOESN'T discourage exchanges from voting, ...

But it DOESN'T discourage exchanges from voting, does it? The exchanges first need to give a damn about Hive to even care to stake. They do not. Proof of point being steem with Binance and huobi having so little interest in Steem staking that they had 0 clue they were locking up customer funds for so long. .

Another counter to the silly notion: "It deters exchanges from voting thus its justified" is the fact that you HAD to add the 30 day waiting period. That is a far better detterant and guess what... the justification for locking up funds for 3 months over the fear of exchange voting after this is implemented goes out the window completely.

giving long term investors more say...

Another poor justification. You're doing this at the price of completely alienating non investors. Why do this when you can have both? You can "easily" adjust the governance model so those that stake for longer have more say. You can even adjust the reward system to encourage it.

There is simply nothing that justifies the 3 month powerdown time that cannot be replaced with a smarter system. I feel that all it stems from is fear that people will sell and that's the stupidest position to take.

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