Potential Bandwidth Issue Fix is in the Works - Softfork 19.1
There have been a lot of users running into bandwidth limitations recently. The Steemit dev team has been reviewing the issue and is working on changes to the bandwidth formula that will improve the situation. They opened GitHub issue 1257 to improve the formula. and have also already checked in a pull request to change. Based on what has been reported in GitHub, it looks like this will be available soon.
The bandwidth calculations are not done as part of consensus, so they do will not require a hardfork. Version 19.1 will be a softfork. Witnesses should test and review the changes, and upgrade to version 19.1 as soon as possible after the official release is made.
For those interested in the technical details, here is the text from the issue:
Disclaimer: This post is just a report on activity found in GitHub. There is not a 100% guarantee that this change will be implemented and put up onto the live blockchain. Since it was opened by one of the Steemit devs though, it is highly likely to be implemented.
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Resteeming this to 13,000+ followers.
Wow that is a lot of followers - thanks :)
She's got the most followers of anyone. Does good things like this with them too.
That's pretty cool.
There is apparently another aspect of this which is an integer overflow bug causing unintended bandwidth errors. It is in the process of being fixed.
Yes, I noticed that too. Could you point to any techie ref source that describes why and how this could happen? Thanks
@abit is on the case, check out steemit.chat #witness channel for their description of the issue, it's comprehensive
@smooth, can you explain the bots you use in the SBD/STEEM market? I can't figure out the purpose of the bot always trying to buy 125.000 STEEM, but adjusts the buy price every minute or two. I saw that @teamsmooth-mm likes this method. There's no rewards for providing liquidity, is there?
In any case, I am interested in the bot and how it runs... and why... and whether it is profitable.
The purpose is to provide liquidity to users who want to exchange small to moderate amounts of STEEM or SBD at a small spread. You are correct there is no longer any system reward for liquidity, but market making can still be naturally profitable. For example, the current market as I write this has the bot buying 102.067 STEEM for 125 SBD and selling 101.615 STEEM for 125 SBD. If one user were to buy the maximum and another user were to sell the maximum, the bot would exactly break even on the SBD side but earn a profit of 0.452 STEEM.
In practice the bot is not very profitable, and requires a fairly large stake of SP to keep up with bandwidth demands (also enough trading capital to insure that it never runs out of STEEM or SBD). I mostly run it as a service to the community. Perhaps in the future if volume were to increase a lot it could become profitable.
Man, @smooth, that helps a lot. I had to track down what was happening and scratch my head at it. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to someday make a post about it and maybe interview you about it. I have a couple comments for later. But for now, this one comes to mind: have you considered that it may be counter-productive at times to manual traders? I'd invite you to go to the market, come up with a plan, and try to set up some manual trades... there are times in which the bots just dominate as they swap/delete/hedge/buy/sell while the humans are sort of like... Huh? There is an aggravating factor to them. I'd even like to game your bots, but it's good to know about the bandwidth criterion.
Could you (at minimum) try a few different tweaks here and there and see if they can work and play well with humans? You may not think about the bots much, but if I get going with my idea, I think I could out-bot them when you least expect it. I'd like to discuss the particulars elsewhere, if you don't mind.
Also, what would happen if you shut down the bots? Have you studied that? Does the market all of a sudden go into meltdown or something?
Thanks again for replying, and thanks @timcliff for this post.
The bots are down occasionally, usually due to technical problems (server runs out of memory, etc.) or the account running out of bandwidth. What generally happens isn't any sort of meltdown but spreads definitely widen a lot and for casual users the cost of exchange goes way up. It might be good for other active traders though, I can't really say.
As for out-botting, go right ahead. It's a free market, and I have little doubt it is possible. If my bot loses at too high a rate I'll improve it or shut it down.
For discussion elsewhere, I'm occasionally on steemit.chat but the best thing to do there is PM me and check a day or two later for a reply. I try to not fall too far behind on PMs (not always successful).
@smooth
i vote you :)
Thank you for the vote!
you are welcome,,, @smooth
please vote my post
come to my blog :D
nice to meet you
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Flagged for spam.
mmm... here's a possible bug! I just replied to @smooth above, but my reply got auto-flagged just because it is now at the same level in the chain as the comment you did flag.
Not fair! Unless I'm the only one seeing this.
I see your reply also. Not flagged.
Sounds like a UI bug.
I've noticed that often when I upvote a comment, the next comment in line displays as upvoted by me as well. But it disappears when I refresh.
Yes, thanks, returning to this page it looks as it should now.
I don't see that you have been flagged.
Great news, it's been effecting me 2-3 times a day lately!
Me too!
Very interesting, thanks for the information @timcliff. I've been curious what would be causing this issue, since I have a good amount of SP and I've still been getting this indication.
This would be excellent news. The other day I reply back to someone spamming the same comment over and over. Down vote that persons comment as well. Went to post my next comment and was confused at not having enough bandwidth. So I took a look and was at -37.75% bandwidth.
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Yay! This has been bugging me over the last couple of days, glad to hear a solution is being worked out.
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bl
Glad to see the devs are responding quickly to this one...It has been frustrating a lot of minnows!
Good to hear. This has been giving me fits the past few days.
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This is a relief, I've been having this issue once or twice a day.
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Glad to see them react quickly to remedy the situation. Thanks for the update.