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Hello Steemians, let's keep on learning new things about blockchain, especially the steem blockchain, which we use daily. This everning I learned something new about the steem blockchain from a valuable lesson given by professor @sapwood . I must admit that I am not so good at math, but I have managed to get a full picture of the steem blockchain and learned some useful skills on curation, and how to make the most of the steem mechanism. Many thanks to professor @sapwood , I really appreciate your hard work and the wonderful lecture.

Here is my homework for lecture Week 5: Steem Blockchain(PoB, Voting Window, Curation) , given by Professor @sapwood.

(1) What will happen if you vote before "5 mins age of a post" & after "6 days 12 hrs age of post" in Steem Blockchain? (Include your own experiences/Examples)

On steemit, if you upvote a post within the first 5 minutes after its creation, you will not get the full curation reward. Instead, you only get a certain percentage of the normal award. From 0 minute to 5 minutes, that percentage will increase gradually from 0% to 100%, where at 5 minutes, you get a full 100% reward. When you vote a post at an age between 6 days 12 hours and 7 days, you will not get full curation rewards either. From 6 days 12 hours to 7 days, your will only be rewarded a certain percentage, which decreases as time goes by. At exact 7 days and after that, you will practically get nothing at all.

Actually, I noticed the 5 minute window period a long time ago, because as I observed, few user or bots would vote newly created posts, which were not yet 5 minutes of age. However, after 5 minites, may users/bots wouldbegin to upvote. It made me suspect that upvoting in the first minutes wasn’t that good a deal. My guess was right. I read some articles about this mechanism and found out the reason. In this lecture, Professor @sapwood explained in more details.

(2)How do I check how much reward of a post has returned to the reward pool in Steem Blockchain? Include screenshots (Hint- Steemworld.org)

To find out how much reward of a post has returned to the reward pool, all I need to do is to go to www.steemworld.org/@inmylife , which is my account info page and click on a post I have published. It shows all the details of the post, including the payout returned, which for the post in the screenshoot, is 0.030$, or 0.63% of the total award. I can also check who has voted, commented, resteemed, etc.

• a general picture
  

• payout returned to the pool
  

• all the votes to that post
  

(3)Under what circumstances a curator can earn more than 100% upvote value as curation rewards?

On the steem blockchain, it is possible to earn more than 100% upvote value as curation rewards, given that he votes early and someone(s) with high SP upvotes after that. The math is dificult to me, but in my understanding the steemit is all about digging and discovering good content. If you upvote a post early and then a whale upvotes later, in approval of your upvote, or many more users upvotes the post giving it more rewards. Upi cam earn more than 100% upvote value. It is all about curation and finding good content early.

(4)Pick any random post you have voted in Steem Blockchain and indicate the time and position of your voting, what is the projected curation reward? (Include relevant Screenshots) (Hint- Steemworld.org)

Here is an article by aellly, that I voted a few days ago. From the page of steemworld.org, I can easy find out that the post was upvoted by me 1h 12m 45s after the post was created. My curation reward is zero because I did not have much SP left that the time of upvoting, though I applied a 100% share to show my support.

(5)What is the role of curation in better content discovery in Steem Blockchain?

On the steem blockchain, good content needs to be discovered and approved by individual users. By curation, one approves of good content with a percentage of their SP, and make it easier for others to read it well. Mass curation of the same content will make it trending and more likely to get more upvotes. As for not so good or suitable content, a down vote might be use. Curation is just like grading content, deciding where they should appear, and how much the author can be rewarded.

Note: All screenshots are from steemworld.org.

Thank you @sapwood so much for the interesting and informatiove lecture, which has taught me so much more about the wonderful steem blockchain.

Special thanks:
@Steemcurator01
@Steemcurator02
@trafalgar
@Steemitblog