The Total Value of Bidbot Upvotes on Steem Bot Tracker [$816.16!!]
So, lately I've been wondering about what kind of an impact bid bots have on the total amount of upvotes "circulating" on the Steem Platform. While, I wasn't able to figure out how to compose an SQL query to get the total value of daily upvotes, I did manage to calculate how much the total amount of bid bot upvotes was worth.
This was a lot easier, just a matter of copying every listing on steembottracker.com and pasting it into a Google Sheets document. Then I just had to select the entire 'Vote Value' column and apply a SUM function.
The current total upvote value of every bid-based voting bot on Steem Bot Tracker is $816.16. Given that each bot has a different voting schedule, we can't really calculate how much their daily vote value is.
Less Organic Votes
As I mentioned in my intro, my first plan was to calculate how much the total value of upvotes was, just to have some idea how much of that value comes from purchased votes.
I wonder what the impact is of those upvotes that are basically "lost", due to voting bots selling their votes.
Since these upvotes are only available for purchase, it means that there is less 'organic' value to go around. It basically reserves bigger upvotes for those to choose to pay for it.
Bid Bots + Vote Selling
Aside from bid bots, there are also services like Smartsteem and Minnowbooster, which allow regular Steemians to sell their votes. We'll add those upvote values to the total bid bot value as well.
$816.16 + $14.38 (Minnowbooster) + $127.79 (SmartSteem) + $43.39 (Tipu) = $1001.72
SmartSteem's numbers might be incorrect, since I'm not sure if the upvote value includes the Smartsteem bidbot upvote value.
Still, it's around $1000 of upvotes that's only available to people who pay for it.
Conclusion
I don't think it's very productive to try and fight the existence of these bid bots. Some of them also contribute to the Steem community with part of their profit and I do see legitimate uses for them. I know that a lot of people might disagree with me on this, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I would rather have that the amount of organic upvotes increases and that you sometimes vote for a random good post you've found on Steemit. Especially the owners of high-SP accounts, which funnily enough are usually owners of bid bots.
I wouldn't want any newcomers to think that it's all pay to play here.
This is really interesting! Thanks for compiling all of this. Personally, I actually thought it would be a lot higher. I know that might sound funny, but $1000 doesn't seem like a ton when you look at the trending page and see multiple posts getting upvoted for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Maybe I am not understanding it right. I still like to grow my account as much as I can and manually curate as much as possible. Maybe one day I will sell my vote, but right now I can't.
Hey @daan what % is this bid bot vote of the total daily value of votes? It doesn't seem like it would be very much or am I off base here? It would seem it couldn't be but a fraction of a % unless the drop in number of users has really fallen dramatically lately like people say it has after HF20.
Yeah that's actually something I would really like to know myself, but I have no idea how to even start calculating the total value of daily upvotes. I was kinda hoping that someone a bit smarter than me would come in and explain how to get that data.
I wouldn't be so sure to say that it's just a small percentage, I mean it could be, but it could also be like 5 or 10%. I have no idea.
My feeling is that a fight is not needed, but instead an option to identify oneself as a carbon based life form upvote as opposed to a non-organic bid bot and to give a higher value to the rewards of human generated votes.
This issue was covered in an old blog post of mine whose link is included below for your reading pleasure.
https://steemit.com/steem/@novacadian/a-decentralized-capcha-annonymous-proof-of-brain-verification
Great idea actually, I hadn't thought of that myself. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to a solution like that.
Thanks for this post @daan I too was wondering about bid bots. I personally prefer doing my own voting.. I think making that personal connection is what makes steemit so special for me. Great job on research...and I agree, we certainly do not want newcomers to think it is all pay to play here...however I think some are more than willing just to get their reputation up and be seen. However if we instill in them that good quality posts and a lot of networking will move them up much quicker than a bot...then just let them decide if they choose to put out the costs...I have no problem with them myself..just don't have enuf steempower to waste on non-personal votes. Giving you a resteem,
Yeah I agree, I've sold my vote for maybe 2 - 3 days in the past, but I just didn't really like it. It was draining my VP and caused me to give out less votes overall.
Definitely preferred to just vote on whatever I liked instead of getting small amounts of profit. I mean vote selling is almost the same as exclusively voting on your own posts and comments.
I think that newcomers will have to use the bidbots I for sure found it a bit weird why you should use it. But now I see that it makes a difference if you use them you can get more exposure on steemit. So it is a necessary evil. I would like to have like you say some more "organic" interaction with the steemit community also. Even when u use bots and stuff a comment with actual value does mean more then the actual bids... And maybe it will be easier when you are longer in the community and engage a lot but I can understand many come here with great intentions but leave because it feels artificial and not like a "real" community
Great Info! It seems like they are exponentially smaller than before. I don't really care for bidbots but I have come to the conclusion that this is a free market and if people want them then they will exist... whether I agree with them or not, so I try not to think about it anymore. ;0)
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