Steemit Crypto Academy- Steem Blockchain(PoB, Voting Window, Curation)- Week 5

Proof-of-Brain(PoB)

There is a reward pool in Steem Blockchain to incentivize various actors-- Content Creators, Curators, Witnesses, Steem DAO, Vested Token Holders.

Of the total reward pool, 65% is distributed to content creators and curators.

There is also a stake-weighted mechanism(SP) to allow users to distribute(upvote) or redistribute(downvote) rewards. More the SP more is the influence power to distribute/redistribute rewards.

Being a Blockchain-based social media, it is fundamentally decentralized, empowered by the wisdom of the people(the independent insights).

The reward pool(65% of the total), the stake-weighted mechanism(SP), the wisdom of the people, all put together is known as Poof-of-Brain(PoB).

To know more about PoB, Upvote, Downvote, etc please Click Here.

Curation, Curated Content, Content Discovery

Curation

Most of us in Steem Blockchain are blinded by the misconception that Voting a Post= Curation. Even though by definition voting=curation, in principles, it is not.

Because we don't even know whether a curator has gone through the content or not. We do not even know whether it is original content or not.

The Proof-of-Brain is empowered by the wisdom of the people(independent insights of people, Decentralized Social Blogging), but to manifest its objective engagement is necessary.

What does curation mean in Steem Blockchain?

• Read a post.
• Diligently check the trustworthy source of the content
• Does it add value to your life; if yes, then do engage to further dissect & disseminate the information, you can also add your personal take.
• If the content happens to be plagirarized/spam content, then indicate that in the post and let the community know the existence of such harmful content.
• Independently determine how valuable/harmful the content is for Steem Blockchain.
• Upvote it (if you find it to be useful) using the available resources(SP, VP, Voting weight).
• Resteem the content to share it with your followers. By doing so will create a network effect.

All these put together is known as Curation. When a piece of content is curated by many such individuals it is called Curated content.

Content Discovery

Finding, collecting, and organizing all curated content, empowered with a stake-weighted mechanism(SP) gives rise to Content Discovery. The Better Content Discovery is pivotal to organizational interactions of both individuals & the community, how good the curators are to filter out the noise, how good they are to unanimously agree on the best/quality content.

Better content discovery literally means that the best/original/relevant content is voted to the top of the trending list. In other words, you reach an agreement with the community on quality content structurally, monetarily, qualitatively.

The Reward Algorithm coded in the Steem Blockchain is Convergent Liner Reward, this also empowers the curators to reach an agreement on the brilliant content. Because when more people agree and approve the content, the reward curve tends to reach linearity. The more the number of curators, the better is the content discovery.

In convergent liner reward, the isolated judgment tends to reward less whereas the community judgment tends to reward more(linear reward). So the reward converges to linearity when the isolated judgment transforms to community judgment.

General Voting Window

Being a Blockchain-based social media, every publication/transaction/operation in Steem Blockchain is immutably recorded, with a time-stamp. So a Blockchain-based social media is always accurate and transparent to tell you the exact age of a post.

Steem Blockchain rewards the content creators and curators at 7 days age of a post. In simple words, the post payout matures at 7 days. During these 7 days, the post receives upvotes (or downvotes if any) and the net amount of a post payout is then distributed among the author and curator(s) in a ratio of 50%/50%.

Of the 7 days, the first 5mins of the post from the time of publishing in Steem Blockchain is known as Reverse Auction, in which a linear discount of curation reward applies.

So if you vote during the first five mins age of a post then you lose a certain percentage of curation reward(linear discount from 0 min to 5 mins age of a post, with 100% discount at 0 min and 0% discount at 5 mins age of a post). The lost curation reward returns to the reward pool.

Similarly, if you are voting after 6 Days 12 hrs age of a post, then your voting worth starts depleting at a linear rate with 0% depletion at 6 days 12 hrs and 100% depletion at 7 days the age of a post. Here the upvote worth depletes if you vote beyond 6 days 12 hrs age of a post.

In other words, the same resource(same SP, same Voting weight) does not produce the same result(upvote value) if you vote outside 6 Days 12 Hrs age of a post and it becomes zero at 7 Days.

Put simply, the general voting window is considered as "5 mins to 6 days 12 hrs age" of a post.

Note- Even if the general voting window is considered 5 mins to 6 Days 12 hrs age of a post, advanced and sophisticated curators do vote inside the reverse auction window to compete with other curators in popular and high-quality content & earn better curation rewards.

Curation Reward

_{Original Source of the Graph, I have imported the formula into the Graph for better understanding.}

The curator reward for a single curator depends upon the timing & position of the upvote and whether whale votes follow after your vote or not. So in popular posts where it gains significant traction, if you have voted before a whale, then you can earn a significant percentage of the total curation reward.

In general, 50% of the post payout is given as curation reward which is then distributed among the curators. The early voters(curators) generally receive a better percentage of total curation reward in a post, to an extent that they can earn more than 100% of their upvote value as curation reward.

How do you improve curation efficiency & What are the different payout scenarios that can earn you more than 100% upvote value as curation reward?

Now let's get into the formula of Curator's reward.

P_T= Post Payout at the end of 7 days
P₀= Post Payout before voting
P₁= Post Payout after voting

_{Assumption- All the curators vote after 5 mins age of a post. so Δt= 1}

This looks complex right. But it is not that complex, if we take the perfect square.

You all have been posting and curating in Steem Blockchain for quite some time. And you all have seen different ranges of rewards-- $1, $10, $20, $40, $50, $60, $100, $200, $300 and even more than that.

To simplify things, let's take the perfect squares-- $1, $4, $16, $64, $256

Let's say you visit a post where the post payout is showing as 0. Let's say your upvote value is $1.

So as per the formula P₀= 0 and P₁= 1
(Because before your vote, the Post payout was showing as 0 and after your vote, the post payout is showing as $1.

Further, let's say it receives upvotes from other curators over the 7 days and the post payout at 7 days becomes $4.

So, P_T= $4

You are the first curator so, P₁=$1

Now, P_curator= (1/2) * (√4) * (√1-√0)= $1

Result- Your upvote value is $1, You are the first voter, The post payout at 7 days is $4. You earned $1 as a curation reward. That's 100% upvote value as a curation reward.

In other words, we can also say, in a post payout of $4, the first $1 voter(s) earns 100% curation reward.

Let's say, the total post payout at the end of 7 days is $16.

Then P_T= $16,
P₀= 0, P₁= $1

Now, P_curator= (1/2) * (√16) * (√1-√0)= $2

Result- Your upvote value is $1, You are the first voter, The post payout at 7 days is $16. You earned $2 as a curation reward. That's 200% upvote value as a curation reward.

In other words, we can also say, in a post payout of $16, the first $1 voter(s) earns 200% curation reward.

Let's say, the total post payout at the end of 7 days is $64.

Then P_T= $64,
P₀= 0, P₁= $1

Now, P_curator= (1/2) * (√64) * (√1-√0)= $4

Result- Your upvote value is $1, You are the first voter, The post payout at 7 days is $64. You earned $4 as a curation reward. That's 400% upvote value as a curation reward.

In other words, we can also say, in a post payout of $64, the first $1 voter(s) earns 400% curation reward.

Let's say, the total post payout at the end of 7 days is $256.

Then P_T= $256,
P₀= 0, P₁= $1

Now, Pcurator= (1/2) * (√256) * (√1-√0)= $8

Result- Your upvote value is $1, You are the first voter, The post payout at 7 days is $256. You earned $8 as a curation reward. That's 800% upvote value as a curation reward.

In other words, we can also say, in a post payout of $256, the first $1 voter(s) earns 800% curation reward.

In a similar way, I have also calculated the curation rewards for Second voter(s)-- ($1- $4), Third Voter(s)-- ($4- $16), Fourth Voter(s)-- ($16- $64), Fifth Voter(s)-- ($64- $256).

I have presented all those figures in a tabulated format.

Now you can see how the early voter(s) gains a significant percentage of their upvote value as curation reward.

---

Let's go to Steemworld.org to find any random post where you have voted to check the curation efficiency and also to check the voting position of the curator(s).

I have selected a post of @besticofinder.

Here you can find that nutbox.mine has first voted with an upvote value of $2.66. Before him also few other curators have voted, but their vote value is zero. So we consider nutbox.mine as the first voter($0- $1).

P_T= $320 which is greater than $256,

In this case, nutbox.mine will lose a portion of the curation(approx 20%, as he has voted at 4 mins age of the post), despite that he can still manage to earn significant curation reward as he is the first real voter in ($0-$1) band. So for the first $1(out of $2.66), he will earn more than 800% curation reward, and for the remaining $1.66(out of $2.66), he will earn around 266%. Then finally the total reward will be multiplied by Δt.

Here Δt= t/5, t=4 mins as nutbox.mine has voted at around 4mins age of the post. So Δt for nutbox.mine= 4/5= 0.8

The P_curator will be multiplied by 0.8.

Let's check the projected curation reward of nuxbox.mine in this post.

Vote value of nutbox.mine= $2.66
Vote Position= 4th
Vote timing= 4 mins approx
Porjected curation reward= 16.548 SP(~16.548 * 0.46= $7.61)

So nuxbox.mine earns a curation reward of $7.61 against his upvote value of $2.66. That's (7.61/2.66= 286%) of the upvote value as curation reward.

Homework Task

(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)

(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)

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

(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)

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

Guidelines

• Your article should be at least 300 words.
• It is always better to gain user experience before submitting your article.
• Refrain from spam/plagiarism. This task requires screenshot(s) of your own experience with Steemworld.org. Use images from copyright-free sources and showcase the source, if any.
• This homework task will run until 14th-Mar'2021.
• Add tag #sapwood-week5 #cryptoacademy in your post and should be among the first five tags. You can also use other relevant tags like #blockchain #steem #curation or any other relevant tag.

Thank you.

(Please feel free to join the comment section if you have any doubt on Homework-Task)

Cc:-
@steemitblog
@steemcurator01
@steemcurator02

Unless otherwise stated, all the images, infographics, charts, tables, etc(if any) are my original works.