Bellyrub Update: Bellyrub is Effectively Dead. Stop Sending SBD. @Zeartul is Trying to Payback Bellyrubbank Payments

After an overwhelming response to my Bellyrub Scam report, a large number of Steemians came out to support or speak against @bellyrub. I warned people not to send any SBD and it proved to be a timely warning in hindsight. Many Steemians have been saved from the trouble while many are still sending SBDs to bellyrub for votes.

Scam image is free from Pixabay

The controversy reached it's peak when @bellyrub starting 2x and 3x votes on minimum of 10 SBD investment. People started reporting the possible rogue state of the once booming voting bot. What triggered a backlash is the fact that bellyrub downvoted comments and posts which highlighted the issue.

Bellyrub is Dead!

Yes, as of now, the account has little SP and it's vote value has dramatically decreased after withdrawal of delegated SP.

It's VP also decreased after voting continuously (upvotes mostly but some flags too). So, if you have sent any SBD lately, try not to send again.

Besides, if you look at the account's blog feed, it is full of posts flagged to $0 payout. Such a big massacre indeed. My post is the last one on it's profile and I appreciate the resteem. Still wondering why it was done though.

Bellyrub has effectively lost it.

Voting Buyers Under Scrutiny

There has been a surge in the vote buying market lately. Part of the reason why there are so many bots around to buy votes from is the absence of alternative marketing mechanism. The available "Promoted" tab is highly ineffective. Honestly, I invested $10 SBD in the beginning to promote one of my well performing posts. If I knew about @randowhale or other bots in June, I would have sent those SBDs to those bots.

Nonetheless, @transisto is at the forefront of discouraging people from buying massive votes. He has actively flagged any post in the trending section which would not be there but for the votes bought from the boughts.

Steemit Inc. has work to do in this department and with the @bellyrub controversy in the news, it needs to be done fast.

PS: I personally think buying votes is same as buying SP and then earning big for curating any content (without check and balance) or self voting. Whie SP is Proof of Stake in the Steem blockchain, it really is Proof of Money as rightly highlighted by @hamzayousaf in his Steemit Roadmap 2018 post. If someone has money and buys upvotes, how's it different from someone who has money and buys SP? Except that buying votes really interferes with the reputation system.

Zeartul is Under Pressure

For obvious reasons. For once, read what he had to say in a comment on my post.

It really takes courage to accept mistakes.

People are heavily flagging @zeartul too. I am not sure if I am happy with that. I am not. A man is trying to recover from a very difficult situation. He's accepting his mistakes and trying to make up for his bad decisions.

Biggest massacre I have seen on Steemit really!

Does the man not deserve some respite? I think we're being too cruel. Bellyrub, yes. Gone. Dead. Fine. But @zeartul has pending payments to make to the community and downvoting him to $0 is not nice.

• ** He's powering down to make all payments owed**.
• His version of the story of bellyrub's death talks about the economics of running a voting bot.

I think we should care about a human being who's in touble. Whatever. The person is trying to make up for the losses he's incurred to others. I think we should give @zeartul a chance and repeal the downvotes to help him stabilize.

Edit:- Or may be we need further investigation. Things do not look nice. If he's a known scammer, I withdraw all my suggestions.

Found this on his last post's comment box.

What do you think?