Some call it good. Some call it bad. But it's no doubt Fun!

Last week a new account called @randowhale was created made an immediate splash! Originally it was funded with about 250,000 Steem Power, it's up to 500,000 SP! But this isn't your standard whale...it's a cyborg! Muuaahahaha!

But more seriously...it quickly got attention with many users sending money from their wallets to get an upvote. Some people are big fans of this. Some have been calling foul with it being vote buying. Admittedly I've had fun having it upvote some of my own stuff as well as other peoples posts.

Q: What is @randowhale?

Long story short...send it Steem or Steem Dollars and get a whale vote at a random percentage.

Q: How exactly does this work?

If you have a post you would like to see get a whale upvote:

• Transfer 2 Steem or 2 Steem Dollars to @randowhale (NOT @randoMwhale!)**
• Put the link of the post you want upvoted into the memo field (in the transfer box)
• Receive a vote between 1% and 50% vote strength (i.e. the slider bar)
• @Randowhale can only cast one vote (I don't think you can send $ again for a better 'roll' if you get a low one. Though I've not tested this yet to be sure.)

Q: Is it worth it?

There are a few factors that effect this:

• How much you're post payout is (higher payouts get larger effect from this.)
• The vote power % of @randowhale (which you can check here: www.steemd.com/@randowhale)
• What vote % you receive

Q: Can I have @randowhale upvote posts of other people?

ABSOLUTELY! This is one of my favorite parts about it! There's not a much better feeling when you get to 'be a whale' (if you are lucky with a high % vote) on somebody else's post!

Q: Is this vote buying?

While it's new and fun...I still have to say yes. It's pretty much the definition of it. For a long time that's been something frowned upon by the community at large, but I've seen what's acceptable evolve over time on here. Many months ago, making 'betting' posts (like @steemsports) wasn't bound to get flags, but there was a turning point where it did become acceptable.

Q: Is there anything I shouldn't do with @randowhale?

This is worth saying again. DO NOT send your money to @randomwhale!!! The account for this is @randowhale (with no M)! The Random Whale account was created by somebody else to purposely try to get you to send your fund to it. It will not vote for you (at least with any meaningful SP if it actually did) NOR will it return your money! This is purely someone trying to SCAM you!!

Q: Who created, runs and/or funds @randowhale?

No idea. I have my guesses, but that's about it.

Q: What's @sykochica's take on @randowhale?

I'll admit that there are ways people could try to take advantage of @randowhale. While allowed, those with the highest payouts can make then even bigger (remember the higher the payout the larger the $ increase from this vote.) Now, we've already seen it be tweaked by only allowing votes between 1-50% (it was 1-100%) increase the cost to 2 Steem/SBD (it was 1), and double the Steem Power it holds up to 500,000.

Now, I do think that it has provided a different and fun spark for this place. It's nice to some degree be able to spend a little bit to get a whale vote cast where you choose it to go. But there are limits to what @randowhale can do since too many votes over a period of time will drain it's vote power to a point that it may not be worth it (at least until the vote power % regenerates.)

While this is somewhat similar to the new #whaleshares project, I do think there would be room for both of them. They each would have their uses and elements of fun. As a crude analogy I view @randowhale as paying for a lottery ticket and #whaleshares as paying for a food-stamp. (Yes, I know people don't actually pay for food-stamps. Call it a bonus multiplier if you want to.) I rather to expect to see both take their place in the community.

On the aspect of vote buying, I somewhat view this as a means for whales to actually make a return on their Steem Power (outside Steem price going up.) They lost their massive 'interest' to cover inflation, to some degree too a hit on curation rewards since having to reduce their voting power on votes (and overall r-shares), so it doesn't bug me a lot if they have a way to make something while being willing to hold their Steem Power.

As a final thought, there is always a way for users to exploit and abuse parts of Steemit. These projects are no different! Like everything else in the world, I expect things to be imperfect at the start...ideally getting tweaked along the way. As long as I see this sort of progress to close/reduce the ability to abuse, I'm OK seeing where these projects go from here. I'm sure it'll get thrown out "What if @randowhale can only vote on other people's posts?" Even then..talk of abuse can happen when people just vote up accounts also owned by them, or friends just having it upvote each other.

[NOTE: I know many Steemit users have passionate feelings against these projects. I can understand where you are coming from. This is simply my personal take on it, at least for now.]

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