I crave a system where upvotes are stored in a decentralized graph, like the PGP Web of Trust. No reason to even bother counting upvotes, because Sybil.
This is not a website, service, or company; it's just a protocol like NNTP was. My client would crawl the graph, showing me identities with interests similar to mine and the content they like, plus a sprinkling of random stuff. I would read that random stuff for the same reason we occasionally do janitorial duty in the the "new links" section on HN. I have ideas on how to tune my own client's definition of "random" towards "eclectic".
Nobody knows I upvoted them, or even how many upvotes they got (because Sybil, again). Nobody cares. It's not about upvote count, it's about flow.
I've wanted this for a long time, and like most people on HN could easily build it, but fear I'd wind up alone there. Also, I loathe promoting things.
Surely I can't be the first to think of this.