Rethinking Delegation (Spread the Love far and Wide)
Over the last few days, as my long awaited Steem Application is nearing finalization, I have been talking to some people about development of Applications for the Steem Blockchain. It hasn’t surprised me that some long term advocates are exploring alternative platforms.
Pastures Green...
Competition is healthy but let's not dismiss even one advocate or creator getting disillusioned and looking at alternatives! The spark that has driven Steem since the beginning will fizzle out if we only attract 9-5s and lose the real heart of the platform. The people I don’t want to lose are the passionate ones, the ones that eat and sleep Steem. This passion is what drives innovation and inspiring visions of the future.
A Gamble on The Future of Steem
The daily reward pool is distributed to content creators via votes and voting power. A significant portion of this voting power is delegated, but delegated to just a few projects. These projects have become the flag bearers for the platform, and concentration of delegation and voting on such a small few could be a huge gamble on the future of the platform.
Is there an alternative less risky approach to delegation?
Money
The big sell at the moment for Steem and the flag bearer apps is just the money. I have tried out one of these popular applications and I was disappointed with the outcome.
I got a huge upvote but that is not what I was looking for. I was hoping to get help with my project and make connections. The money would be a bonus. Maybe it is naive but I am passionate about building a bright new future here for users of the platform.
Money is important and I have no problem with that being a selling point but there are many other places (outside the Steem platform) to get funding for a project or application and I would propose a less than certain upvote is not the most attractive form of funding.
For completeness I will mention this post by @jerrybanfield from some time back that outlines methods available on Steem for Funding
but when I look at projects like @utopian-io, @dtube, @dlive, @busy et al., delegation of Steem Power is a significant component for their business model.
Pipeline Funding
Projects like Ethereum, Eos don't have delegation (yet) but they do have plans to use capital to fund investment in applications for the platform. This directed mechanism has the potential to drive a huge network effect. I am not close to the detail of the funding projects, there may be other issues but the point is there is a dedicated, directed funding mechanism available.
People in general and businesses in particular do not like uncertainty. If you plan on devoting significant resources and investment at something (out of your own pocket and time) you need some degree of certainty, at the very least some milestones.
Diversification
There are a few big projects which have become the flag bearer for Steem, mentioned by @ned & Co at every single event. This post is not a dig at those projects (or @ned) but rather the scale of the investment in delegated voting power for these projects.
- Is this justified?
- Would this delegation be better spread across many projects?
I mean these projects may be immense and game changing but there are already significant competitors for some of them on other platforms.
Delegation is a form of investment. In fact it is one of the selling points of Steem. You can invest your Steem in a project without counterparty risk! This is new but that is not to say we cannot learn something from traditional investments. The mantra that is difficult to argue with is simple
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.“
Concentration of Power
The following graph shows the votes that contribute to the payout for a post by a random author using one of these flag bearer applications. Each dot represents a vote.
This particular post application may be worth it but the point is that one vote has decided the majority of the funding for it. Sure the crowd has spoken with many small votes but if your developing an application small votes don’t pay the bills. Maybe you could say the big vote is a reflection of the many small votes, but as I said at the beginning this is a huge gamble.
Do we need a more reliable less centralized funding mechanism for Steem Applications and Content?
Let me know what you think...
Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Travel.
Images: pixabay.com
There are projects like promo steem which have put significant effort into building decentralised distribution of rewards to a movement that directly increases the steem price. They are highly credible projects and have not been delegated to in any significant way. This example alone makes many of ur points above highly valid. Nice blog @eroche
I completely agree @starkerz ! I saw @ned speaking on bloomberg how people earn money on Steem. It is good to see Steem is mentioned on this type of main stream media!
Regarding #promo-steem I made the latest post 12 of the series yesterday:
https://steemit.com/promo-steem/@gold84/post-12-of-12-of-the-series-other-proposed-activities-to-promote-steem-earn-rewards-on-steemit-with-promo-steem-even-if-you-just
Regards, @gold84
I guess the underlying question is how to spread the delegations in a way that won't be counter productive to Steemit and still achieve the desired results.
As you correctly pointed out, mass delegations go to a select few.. the @dlive, @busy, @utopian-io et al, but the truth is over time they have proven the delegations to be rightfully vested.
I would suggest formation of more groups. Not as big as them, but mini groups that can spread out to more genres and reach more users. That would significantly boost the sense of belonging on Steemit.
Example
If we had 30 mini groups, it's more likely one of them will come accross that hidden gem than the entire writing community waiting for that rare @curie upvote.
The smaller groups can even face specific subject matter, eg new projects, medical news and tips, cultural integration, etc. This way those who want to help minnows can actually reward them significantly (a 1 in 10 chance of getting $4 upvote is preferable to 1 in 1000 chance of $50 upvote)
My humble opinion.
I think @utopian-io is a good model for curated rewards. Imaging forking utopian to create a platform for rewarding creative commons stock photography and art, for example.
I believe EOS will have something like delegation once it launches. Obviously as an ERC20 token it doesn't.
I can see where you are coming from on this subject. Even though I am a minnow, I do delegate to a couple of projects I support and plan to a little more. I also have about 150SP locked up in 3 failed attempts to create an account, when steemconnect kept adding or deleting characters from my chosen account name without warning! But that is a different story. I understand I can claim that back after a month.
I think part of the problem here, is that whilst there are many projects worthy of delegation, it might be hard for most of them to attract the attention they deserve from those with enough power to delegate.
You hit the nail on the head here I think.
The question then becomes, how to curate a project to curate the best projects, bringing them to the attention of whales willing to invest? But that project would itself need to attract the attention of some whales. Breaking out of that catch22 would be the important step such a project would need to bridge. Probably after it has proved functional with smaller delegations.
On a positive note @jerrybanfield has launched his growth proposal, he also outlines many other initiatives in his post linked above. There is also another project @steem-bounty.
Nothing seems to have attracted the attention of the big delegators like the top 5 or 6 projects we all know about. I ask myself why is this and I cannot find a good answer.
Delegation is an investment. How do you compete for this investment and how do you attract these big whales in 2018? I would love if someone would shed some light on this for me.
I feel your pain with steemconnect. I ended up with four accounts when I wanted two because steemconnect chopped off part of the username. It happened to at least one other person that I know of.
Yes, I finally got @blockpress set up, but only after creating blockpresss, blockpre, and blockpr. I also tried
steempy, but just got errors I couldn't debug. Probably a missing library or something, but I couldn't work it out.Well, at least now I know about @blockpress. I’m following the development now. I’m working on a steem/wordpress integration too.
BlockPress is not an integration with Wordpress, but its own themable platform. ;) See https://blockpress.me for a demo of the alpha. Or https://anton.blockpress.me for the same code with a different config and theme...
@tipu send tip!
This is so much better than an integration with wordpress. Very interesting. To be honest I didn't look very long and I just assumed WordPress. I'm now following your GitHub repo. This looks like something I'd like to work with.
Great! The beta will be released soon. Just got to get permlinks sorted, some styling/theming issues, and some documentation. Will be happy to assist/advise in theme/palette and content module creation. We have a channel on steem.chat now also, #blockpress. Really new and shiny and unused. But it is there. :)
Hi @antonchanning! You have received 0.1 SBD tip from @nikema!
@tipU is looking for SP delegators: pays out 100% of profit to all investors - more info here.
Hey @eroche
I think you picked out the key comment thus far regarding visibility to other, smaller projects by @antonchanning.
@roelandp has done his part by putting together this site: https://www.solicitingpower.com/
If you look at the major delegation areas, you could argue they have that 'gamechanger' potential, but I think another key element is the return of rewards via curation. They all have systems in place to reward the delegators, something which is very tricky to implement for some of the 100% non-profit projects.
So while I might sound cynical, it does seem to me that money for some, is again ahead of prosperity and abundance for all.
Cheers.
I haven't visited that site in ages, it's really good. @roelandp has some great ideas.
The incentives are certainly there to get a return on investment, but I am not so sure there are great shorter term incentives for promoting development of the platform.
I am going to work through some of the current incentives and limitations of the current payout structure, hopefully to stimulate some discussion. I hear little discussion, and there is even less experimentation with the incentive structures on steem. Now is the time to do that, not when we have millions of users.
Yes I agree with regards of getting to grips, and perhaps a foothold in the 'market' with regards to incentives/beneficiaries.
@starkerz mentions the lack of funding for @steem-ambassador, it seems a no brainer for Steem inc to give a little out to this one.
That goes without saying. I am yet to hear a plan for Steemit Inc's stake. Of course they don't have to tell us and they can do as they wish with it but hundreds of millions of dollars of stake could go a long way to promote and incubate projects on the platform.
If we assume their stake is passive, the other active delegators may be persuaded to spread their delegation.
The problem for them at the moment is they get an income from delegation which can pay the bills but is there any way to share, supporting the platform and paying the bills, or have the large stake holders just given up on the platform altogether and decided to take their money while they can?
I am a bit cynical myself.
It would be nice to see the likes of dtube perhaps offering stake to a marketing team like @steem-ambassador, who could promote them whilst they seek new accounts. A kind of, join steem and vlog or ulog your introduction post.
As far as the last point, it would not be unreasonable to suggest STEEM has been traded out in recent months to other tokens seeking to venture into the same space - diversification is a reasonable investment strategy imo.
I have been studying Steem for a while now and blockchain. It really gives me headaches but I am super interested to learn more of it and to fully grasp everything that it could offer. I am planning on delegating my Steem power someday too.
What I think is delegeting steem power to another trusted user is more useful to build this community stronger and stronger. It is simply because they will use the power to give upvotes to their community. But the most complicated problem here is to select who has enough criteria to receive delegating steem power. It must be chosen carefully base on their activity on giving upvote @eroche
Delegation on the platform is a really amazing and incredible way to invest. You give money to the project and at the same time you do not spend money from your wallet. The delegation works, remaining unchanged. And also at any time you can return it back. It's like a magic inexhaustible pot of porridge from a famous fairy tale. Just incredible. Of course, I think as an average user, I don't know much about technology. But in my opinion, it works this way. And that makes me wonder about the level of technological progress.
This particular post application may be worth it but the point is that one vote has decided the majority of the funding for it. Sure the crowd has spoken with many small votes but if your developing an application small votes don’t pay the bills.
I agree with your sayings, small bills don't pay the bill. I too have gone through the same, a single upvote may really decide the majority of the funding rest of the votes ain't do a thing
I have been wondering what these newer alternatives will mean for Steemit. One project I'm particularly interested in is APPICS. I think the interest is due in part because it feels like an opportunity to be noticed at the ground level. It's becoming increasingly more difficult, in my experience, to be noticed and build Steem here on Steemit. I'm not sure if that's due to the number of people now on the platform, or the reward pool being shared between a much smaller minority, but other alternatives will certainly appeal to content creators who struggle here.
The big elephant in the room is what happens economically when Steem scales? Will there be any money to be made here when we have millions of users? The reward pool will be spread even thinner.
It's a good question, and judging how it's getting more difficult already, I think that will probably continue as a smaller number of users effectively monopolise the vote power. If you look back at introduction posts for a year or so ago, some of them were earning rewards up to $5000! I believe my introduction post earned less than $1 in upvotes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I deserve more per se, but it's easy to see how some could be frustrated. Earlier posters could build their status up to dolphin with much less effort, and without investing.
There was also a unique feature back then. As now you would get paid half in liquid steem and half in steem power but you could not power down for 2 years. The liquid rewards were not being distorted by SBD value either. That meant that these people who got huge payouts still had a big stake in the platform (even if they got it for little effort) which is a powerful incentive to make it work and promote the platform.
Looks like some of the whales are still thinking about minnow like us. Most of the whales, do not care about minnows. They talk like they do, but they do not. I have experienced this situation and saw some of its. Hope you guys can have a good heart to do some social work for minnows. 👌
I feel you pain @shuvomahfuz , motivation can be a huge factor. New uses don't like seeing the Whale Wars and the self aggrandizement that goes on on a daily basis.
Maybe, we do not know everything. I can tell you only what i have seen and experienced here. Still good people are here. Without them, it would be not worthy to spend our effort here. Hope for the best days. Thanks