Thanks for your support @samic! I agree there is some risk involved with the paid votes due to the market fluctuations. The votes by @minnowbooster however usually come with a return of more SBD than spent AND additional SP in the rewards.

Of course, if the USD value of STEEM would completely tank in the next 2 days, we do see a risk of losses. According to y calculations: if STEEM goes below ~$5 we will start loosing a little SBD in the cash-pool (but we'll still have gained SP for the delegation pool). Steem would have to go below $3.5 before we would make actual net-losses. I think that's a very acceptable risk.

Either way, I don't think of this as a permanent solution but more of an experiment. I'll publish the detailed results of this in a post after the rewards have been processed.

Also if the #GooglyFamily should decide they don't feel comfortable with paid votes, I'd stop this experiment asap.