Just posted this in the Insiders page, but thought it would be good out here in open discussion as well. Basically I would love something that gives you gold instantly, without the need for an outpost. Hear me out:
Imagine making use of the island caverns and underwater cave system by randomly dropping in a pile of gold coins. I don't mean the usual trinkets or treasure chests, I mean full on, massive heaps of pure gold coin.
Here's the kicker - you pick up one gold coin at a time from the pile and it will then gradually decrease in size as its monetary value lowers.
How do we track such a beautiful bounty to stop a single pirate or crew from gathering this wealth? - you have a system like the skull cloud, only slightly more subtle, such as a tavern keep providing a daily/weekly riddle leading you to the treasure hoard (like with Merrick it could be a tale from the sea),or perhaps a storm cloud (that doesn't grow or move) hovering ominously over an island.
Why is this a good idea? First of all it's accumulation of wealth, but not rep, so folks won't be able to moan about it being used to farm progression like they do forts.
Second of all, it's an obvious pvp draw and would be exhilarating as you race to gather as much loot as you can before another crew stabs you in the back or steals it for themselves.
Thirdly, it's a break from the main game wheel, so people have something different to draw them into the game, add to this that it could be limited to once per day, or week, at random times (to cater to all time zones) and you have a beautiful new game mechanic.
The only final question would be whether it could be a shared resource streamed across all servers, like the time, waves and weather currently are? Now THAT would be a fun race across EVERY server for EVERY Pirate!