Buyers, delegators, @ocdb and community

Sometime back around March I think, I delegated a portion of my stake to @ocdb, the whitelisted bot that supports @ocd, the manual curation initiative. The original idea behind the bot was to give proven quality content producers a chance at getting some support on their work for as we all know, there aren't many curators out there at the moment and the price slide hasn't helped matters.

#21 active steem Power

Since that time though, the bot has grown quite heavily in power and now votes with almost 1.4 million Steem, which makes it one of the largest voters on the platform. It is not a bidbot per se as it returns a set rate of 150% on a queue based system that votes when the bot is at 100% VP, which means that after curation, it will nearly always be positive. Recently the massive fluctuations and the haircut affected it and the bidbots, for a few days but it has been reprogrammed and delivers quite accurately now using different sources for pricing.

Non-profit means better returns for buyers

One thing that sets this bot apart from the others is that it is a non-profit bot, meaning all proceeds go back to the delegators of it. What this means is that the bot operator (@ocd) gets no direct benefit for running and maintaining it. Cutting out the middleman operator profit means that it can offer a higher return than the bidbots to the buyers, and still return a decent amount to the delegators.

This is not a perfect system by far, but with curation incentives so misaligned on the platform, content creators (especially new) have essentially no chance of getting seen, let alone voted on. While @ocd keeps finding new content to curate with their main account and manual curators, the curated account gets added to the growing whitelist, and that user has an option for some support if they choose to use it. The delegators can be more comfortable with where their vote goes because of the whitelist of previously curated content producers, and still earn well on their stake.

Use it to power up

With the return offered to buyers, it is possible for a user to make significant inroads into increasing their Steem Power, something that is very good to do at this point considering the low price. On top of this, @ocd and @acidyo go through and occasionally upvote some of the content that goes through the bot too. I actually started doing the same as I found that a lot of the content that goes through the queue is pretty good, and I wouldn't likely have found it otherwise.

While @ocd's reach was limited each day and is unable to consistently keep rewarding users, the bot acts as a resource that an be drawn upon by the whitelisted users to earn a little on and, keep them engaged. When prices increase and there are a flood of new users in, it is going to be vital to have more staked users from varied backgrounds to support them in various ways, not just in voting.

More users, more distribution - not return for delegators

There is a cap on the vote buying (currently 15 SBD or Steem equivalent / one vote per 24 hours) so that it isn't maximized by only a few accounts. The idea was always to distribute as widely as possible which means, the more users, the lower the buy cap and subsequent vote will become, while still returning at 150%. At the moment, the queue is often empty or close to, so if interested, you might want to see if you are on the whitelist. @ocd also have an open discord channel if you want to ask questions.

Because of the queue and set rate system at 150%, it doesn't matter to the delegators how many people buy, unless the bot is sitting idle. What would be awesome to see is that a whole lot of users use the bot so that the distribution of Steem would get increasingly spread to decent content producers and more importantly, those who are looking to develop a long term position on Steem by powering it up. The more vested users there are, the healthier the system becomes. With prices this low, the chance for users to add SP to their accounts is very good at the moment.

Power up for empowerment

The future is unknown for Steem as a project but with all of the coming changes to the system, the new applications, the SMTs (one day), the Resource credit pools (one day) and in what I consider the inevitable bull run that will drive the entire cryptosphere to huge new highs, having extra Steem powered up now will be a huge benefit for later. Having more decently staked content producers and long-term thinkers will help greatly.

The more applications there are, the more support they are going to need and those with Steem power are going to be the core of the entire Steem ecosystem as voters, investors and Resource credit suppliers. That foundation is built now and the more diversified the user base and Steem Power spread, the wider the network can support.

Community and responsibility

I don't know what @ocd has planned for the future but they have consistently tried to support the community's content producers the best they can (another reason I delegated) through the thick and thin of the platform and price. The last months have been particularly challenging for many here for many but I am confident that when the corner comes, those who have invested themselves into the community and the platform will be very happy they stayed through the troughs.

Here is the discord again if you want to ask questions from @ocd, or add a comment below and I will ask someone to drop by and answer directly. Oh, I don't work for them, I just like what they do and many of them have helped me out in various ways over the last year and a half, so support them too.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]