Not so @smartsteem: Transparency and adherence to rules required?

The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability. - Simon Mainwaring

Absolutely. And with Blockchain technology, businesses and organisations will either offer full transparency and compete, or fail if they cannot do so.

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Background

Yesterday morning (UTC), technical issues made Steemit.com and other sites using api.steemit.com inaccessible, or out of sync - my feed was 2 weeks old, I'd lost a few 100 followers, and my Wallet looked suspiciously lighter.

steemitstage.com though was up and running, and so a couple of savvy users were still pushing out content via this interface. It was here where I noticed this post, and this is the focus of my blog today.

The post above, written by the developer of @smartsteem, received a vote from @smartsteem soon after creation. While other Bid-bot owners have stated they do not use their own service in this manner, I do not see an problem with doing so, as long as they adhere to the same rules as everyone else.

There are two reasons that I feel this bid and post, do not adhere to rules laid out on https://smartsteem.com or provide the transparency required in order to maintain the high level of trust required when dealing in financial transactions.

Where is the bid?

A quick scan through the bidders wallet https://steemit.com/@therealwolf/transfers shows no sign of a transfer to @smartsteem with the memo of the post in question, and yet we can see a 20% vote from @smartsteem in the voters list:

I wished to gain more insight into this, and following our initial exchange of 'pleasantries', offered the following questions to the poster:

The response was a little techie and unclear as you will see, but i think the summary of it is: I voted manually and at around 5 minutes.

The problem here is that neither of these options are possible for the customers of this 'service'. More on this shortly, but for now, where is the bid?

At this point, I am starting to wonder who the real customer is, and if my question is not being understood properly. And so I asked again:

The question is quite straight-forward, and I don't think it is unfair to ask for some clarity. Here is the response:

Numerous points to be noted here I feel.

• Who is the customer in @therealwolf's eyes?

• Where is the simple screenshot from any of the tools at our disposal which show the bid amount sent to @smartsteem?

• An abusive tone, and not for the first time

The summary of this is that a bid was not made under normal circumstances, nor is it clear how much was paid.

This is a financial transaction involving (although not exclusively using) Blockchain technology - everything should be in plain sight.

What about the 30 minute post age rule?

On the home page of smartsteem.com, the following text is displayed:

A 30 minute 'age of post' rule is present - Votes will not be cast before this time.

One of the positive features of this rule is to allow curators to be able to pick up some rewards on the post - a large early vote increases the author rewards percentage substantially, by reducing the curation rewards percentage.

And so what was the time of this bid which added $67 to the value of the post?

Post created: 10:42:27
Smartsteem vote: 10:44:09

I make that a minute and 42 seconds after the post was created and clearly, this is not in line with the rules stated on the www.smartsteem.com homepage.

In addition to the issue of a business not adhering to its own rules whilst lacking transparency, this early vote has reduced the curation rewards of all the users who trusted @therealwolf enough to be producing quality content and sticking to the rules regarding bots - particularly his own.

Conclusions

• There is still no visible proof that STEEM/SBD was sent to @smartsteem. Even if the money is going from 'one hand to the other', for transparency this transaction should be visible to all.

• A simple and clearly stated rule was broken which has allowed for an increased pull of the rewards of the post to the owner, away from the curators.

• The response focuses on the @smartsteem delegators, as if they are the only customers that should be offered transparency.

• The tone and use of language towards me whilst I inquired and asked politely for information was not of a person I wish to do business with, or support

This episode has left me with enough reason not to consider a vote for @therealwolf as a Steem witness.

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Thank you for your time.

Asher @abh12345

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Witness: @steemcommunity - find out about our project here