Sovereignty changes - TL;DR version

Today a new Dev Blog by CCP Abathur sheds some light into the upcoming changes to Sovereignty mechanics expected to come into effect with this winter's expansion (Dominion).

I highly recommend reading this blog, but for the "TL:DR Crowd", here's some details in short:

• No more Sov levels, you'll either have sov over the system or not
• Sov will no longer be tied to starbases (we knew that much already)
• Fuel costs for Sov-upholding towers will be swapped with costs (not necessarily financial) for running Stargates
• CCP will let capsuleers do "some really cool stuff" in order to increase revenue from their held space - "Through the investment of time, money and effort at all levels, an alliance will be able to directly affect the value of and develop the space they hold."
  
• Shooting stuff will still be an essential part of gaining (and defending) Sovereignty
• A new interface, called "Sovereignty Dashboard" will allow players, according to their position in the alliance, to see real-time information on what's happening in any part of your alliance's controlled territories.
• For a future expansion CCP envisions the introduction of treaties - formal contracts between alliances. These may include such features as "renting" of space, formal military treaties and so on.

These changes will not spell the end of gigantic power blocs in Eve Online, but a major shakedown is certainly on the horizon. Those entities with too rigid a structure, those who don't deserve their space, or those unable to adapt to the changes will find themselves removed, remaining only as a footnote in the EVE cluster's history, only to be replaced by new, more flexible entities.