Seriously, look in your wallet. Have you been invited?
You may discover some SBD and an invitation similar to this one from a fellow Steemian asking if you'd like to automatically exchange upvotes on all of your posts.
This invitation comes from a new service for the Steem blockchain called SteemAX, the "AX" stands for "auto-exchange".
What is SteemAX?
SteemAX is a way for Steemians (users of Steemit.com) to exchange upvotes automatically at an agreed upon ratio and duration. SteemAX has the ability to dramatically increase the number of upvotes you receive on each and every one of your posts (more on this below).
SteemAX was developed (with incentive and support provided by Utopian.io) because a lot of newcomers to Steemit do not feel like they have an active way to increase their potential. Without the intervention of a whale or a sizable investment from their own pocket newcomers feel like they have no avenue to pursue gaining the interest of loyal upvoters.
It takes upvotes to get seen, and it takes getting seen to get upvotes. It's a newcomer paradox.
Other social media platforms solve this need for their users by providing a function such as "friending", dissimilar to merely "following" an account.
SteemAX now provides a way for Steemit users to actively seek reciprocal support by inviting another Steemian to an exchange of upvotes.
I Received An Invite. Now What?
The first time you respond to an invitation you will need to sign into SteemAX using your Steemit password. Afterwards you can simply send the accept code to @steem-ax (more on this in a bit).
Visit https://steemax.trade to Login
SteemConnect is Secure
SteemConnect was developed by Busy.org and is owned by Steemit Inc. as a way of protecting Steemit private WIF keys (your very important password). If you trust putting your Steemit password into Steemit then you can trust putting it into SteemConnect. SteemAX never sees or stores your Steemit password and is instead given a temporary token that only grants the ability to vote. You may remove the permission to vote from SteemAX (or any other Steem based web application that uses SteemConnect) by logging into SteemConnect and revoking the access token. Learn more about revoking permissions.
Once you've logged in, you can see all of the exchanges that you've been invited to by clicking the "See Exchanges" at the top right of the screen.
Or Visit https://steemax.info/@youraccountname to See Your Exchanges
Notice the difference between .trade and .info
Understanding the Invitation
The left of the invite shows the two accounts that will exchange upvotes. The account on the left is always the inviter, one who sent the invite and started the exchange. Next, the invite shows the percentage, ratio and duration. The percentage is always of the inviter's upvote (e.g. If their vote value is $0.10, 50% would mean they exchange $0.05). The ratio always shows the inviter's proportion on the left, and the invitee's on the right. (E.g. using the previous example, if the invitee's upvote value is $1.00 and the ratio is 0.5 to 1, the values exchanged will be $0.05 to $0.10).
No Need To Do Math!!
By clicking either the accept or cancel buttons you will reveal the vote values to be exchanged along with the Memo Code. How easy is that?
Send the Memo Code to @steem-ax (Remember the Hyphen!)
To commence any action on SteemAX (accept, cancel or barter) you must send any amount of SBD (as low as $0.001) to @steem-ax and include the code in the memo field. Notice the hyphen! SteemAX was designed this way primarily for security, but also because a memo is a the most appropriate way to send a Steemian a notification. The best way to go about doing this to to have open in a browser both your Steemit wallet and SteemAX. Then it's simply a matter of copying the appropriate Memo Codes over to your Steemit wallet.
SteemAX Takes No Fees!!
The total amount of SBD you send is forwarded to the other party. How nice is that?
I Don't Like the Deal They Proposed. How Do I Barter?
To barter, click the barter button on the invite and a pop-up window will appear. Here you can enter a new percentage, ratio and duration. Remember, the percentage is always that of the inviter's upvote value. Click the "Create Memo Message" button and the new barter Memo Code will appear. Send this code in the memo with any amount of SBD to @steem-ax just as with the other actions.
OK, I Accepted. Now What happens?
Well, now it's time to start creating quality blog posts. Each exchange works on the most recent post that is less than 6 days old. When both parties of an exchange have new blog posts an exchange will occur, as long as the posts have not been voted on yet. That means that if you want to see the votes be exchanged it's important that you do not upvote the other party's post; just let SteemAX do it.
If the other party does not have a new post then an exchange cannot occur. This is why it's helpful to enter into exchanges with Steemians that post at about the same rate as you. In other words, if you post 4 times a day, but you invite those who only post 2 times a day, you're only capable of receiving upvotes from those two exchanges.
How Do I Create My Own Invite?
Log into SteemAX using SteemConnect.
Once you've logged in you'll be presented with a form for creating an invitation to an exchange. This form contains inputs for the account name of the invitee, the percentage of your upvote, and the ratio between you and the invitee's upvote, as well as the duration for which the exchange should last.
Account Name
After entering a Steemit account name press enter, or click anywhere outside an input box, or tab to or click to a new input box in order to validate the account name and retrieve the vote value for that account. Your vote value is displayed at the very top pf the page and the invitee's vote value is displayed above the account name input box. This will help you determine the best ratio between upvotes (if other than 1:1).
Percentage
Enter the percentage of your vote value that you'd like to exchange. Once entered, there will be an error message stating one of the vote values is too large since there is not yet a value for the ratio.
Ratio
The ratio is always presented as X:1, where X is the inviter's upvote, and 1 is the invitee's. When adjusting the ratio, however, the inviter is adjusting the vote value of the invitee. Previously you adjusted your own vote value, now you are adjusting the other party. For example, let's say you have a vote value of $0.10 STU, and the invitee has a vote value of $1.00 STU. If the inviter choses 100% of their upvote at a 1:1 ratio the exchange would be $0.10 to $0.10. If the ratio is adjusted to 0.5:1 then the exchange will be $0.10 to $0.20. If it's adjusted to 2:1 then the exchange will be $0.10 to $0.05. Notice the value on the right, the invitee's upvote value, is the value that is changing. If values are selected outside of a possible vote value the exchange will show an orange colored error indicating which side is too big.
Start It!
You must start an exchange before an invite is sent to the invitee.
Once you've created an invite SteemAX will redirect you to see all of your exchanges at steemax.info/@youraccountname. From here you will need to click the start button which will reveal the unique Memo Code that identifies this exchange. Now just simply send any amount of SBD to @steem-ax with this entire code in the memo field. (Notice the hyphen in @steem-ax!) The SBD you send is not kept by SteemAX but forwarded directly to the invitee along with the invite message.
Conclusion
This is a sorely needed application, especially in the light of the current drop in the price of Steem and the current drop in user participation. A very informative article from just a few days ago laid out very good analysis of the Steemit platform. The author writes:
A potential explanation may be that the drop off in users is connected with the recent downward price movements of STEEM, with users exiting the platform as they witness the value of their stakes diminishing, a possible negative correlation between Steemit usage, and STEEM price.
https://bravenewcoin.com/news/steem-price-analysis-running-out-of-puff/
A lot of newcomers to Steemit do not feel like they have an active way to increase their potential. Without the intervention of a whale or a sizable investment from their own pocket newcomers feel like they have no avenue to pursue gaining the interest of loyal upvoters.
SteemAX now provides a way for Steemit users to actively seek the same kind of reciprocal support when they invite another Steemian to an exchange. The initiation of the exchange creates the same two-party authentication, which is psychologically more bonding, and alerts both parties that a human is interested in their blog.
The exchange can be disproportional
allowing accounts with higher influence and more steem power to upvote at a higher value than is possible for a newcomer or minnow. This is a crucial feature as it helps "distribute the wealth" without having to revamp the entire system. And it gives a Steemian something constructive they can do to feel like they're not just a passive participant waiting for a handout.
SteemAX Benefits The Whole System
As an account accumulates more Steem Power the problem One may encounter is the inability to distribute their upvote consistently.
Think about how much Steem is not given out and left undistributed when an account with a lot of Steem Power becomes inactive, perhaps while the user goes on vacation. This is the exact problem that led whales to create bid bots in the first place. They saw the ethical/technical/economic need to distribute their upvote far and wide.
But who has time to upvote that many posts?
Unfortunately, bid bots are blind and will upvote anything and everything for the right price. Bid bot owners have set the ratio between the bot's upvote and their customer's bid so that the returned upvote has the potential to be profitable in and of itself. Although this may help whales distribute their votes, it does nothing for the quality of content on Steemit.
SteemAX solves this problem by automatically distributing upvotes in the same way that bid bots do but by individual, mutual agreement. I believe individual Steemians will only make exchanges with accounts they think will support them, and that they wish to support. By making exchanges a personal, one-on-one "invite" Steemians are unlikely to make exchanges with spammers.
For more detailed information please check out my recent post from my other Steemit account @learnelectronics:
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@learnelectronics/it-s-finally-here-steemax-1-0-beta-official-release
Awesome, I think I have it all figured out now, thanks, mate!
Yeah, there's a number of steps invloved to make it happen but that's mostly for security. Thanks for accepting my invite. Have you created any invites yourself?
Not yet. I was distracted for a couple days doing fun stuff for once. Hung out with some street people yesterday and went on an adventure. Today, work begins again. We will see what happens. I am going to try to sell my crystals to the shop to lighten my load and try to sell these two paintings today before it storms really bad again. I have been lucky so far that these pieces haven't been ruined. A lot of my other valuable things have been ruined by rain.
I invited you ;)
Accepted!
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 2 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 16 SBD worth and should receive 179 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePig