Perhaps I should have just called this post "DON'T POWER UP YOUR POSTS WHEN SBD IS WORTH MORE THAN USD! (Part 2)"...!

First of all, for a slight addition to my "POWER UP" post, @happyup asked some good questions in a quest to better understand the math and logic behind the premise. If you're interested in the full thread, you can check out the comments in "Part 1". Here's the key part of it, with an additional example to help others better understand as well.

First of all, it doesn't matter what the current rate of STEEM is. Right now, if you choose 50/50, you're getting half STEEM POWER, and half SBD. If this eventually changes (ie. SBD is around $1 USD again) and you're getting half STEEM instead, then there's no real "edge". Now, regarding vests, and SP, and growing, there's nothing to stop you from immediately selling those SBD on the STEEMIT market and exchanging them for STEEM (and then STEEM POWER), as I've explained in a few other comments. In fact, minnows should grow faster if you do! And I did find one example to show you the difference, as @michellectv did have two similar posts, one of which was powered up, that I could use as an example:

• 10 days ago 0.000 SBD, and 6.623 STEEM POWER for michellectv/kick-off-your-week-with-this-healthy-drink-carrot-ginger-grapefruit-juice-recipe <-- PAYOUT WAS ABOUT $16
  ...
  steem=2.41 ... 6.623 * 2.41 = $15.96 (POWERED UP, and what we expected)

• 8 days ago 10.015 SBD, and 4.306 STEEM POWER for michellectv/super-fast-and-easy-pizza-dough-photo-how-to-and-recipe <<-- PAYOUT WAS ABOUT $20
  ...
  let's say steem=2.41 again (may have been a bit lower though), and sbd=1.75 around that time ...
  (4.306 * 2.41) + (10.015 * 1.75) = $27.91!!! (50/50, and 40% more than expected!!!)

Thanks for posing the question though, as it gave me the opportunity to better clarify with an actual example!

Are RANDOWHALE and WHALESHARES still worth the "quan" after HF19?

I've gotta say that there definitely was a much greater advantage to using both pre-HF19, as the exponential n^2 algorithm really kicked in the more votes you received. Since HF19, while we're all extremely thrilled with our newly acquired "vote power", the whale rewards are much more "linear" now, as would be expected. Such as it is, I will attempt to re-quantify as best as possible the current "benefits" you may find from using them.

Let's get one thing right out of the way. Gone are the days of getting a 60% randowhale vote on a $250 post and watching it go up to $320 for your 2 SBD spend. Under HF19, regardless of votes or current payout, each Whaleshare is worth about $2.50 (or probably around $3.50 USD with SBD around $1.75 USD each on a 50/50 post payout). I tried it on a $5 post, a $34 post, and a $240 post. Each time, 2 Whaleshares (equivalent to a 2% upvote) yielded just above a $5 payout bump (or around $7 USD on a 50/50 payout). It also didn't seem to matter much if it was within the first hour, or 3 days later.

I managed to buy some more Whaleshares on the bitshares exchange for around 4 BTS each (or around $1.25 US each). I may be shooting myself in the foot for saying this, but at that price or below, you're basically sitting on a 100%+ arb opportunity based on the current prices of the WHALESHARE token, STEEM, SBD, and BTS for those steemians savvy enough to take advantage of it. I was going to try and convert some more SBD to BTS via blocktrades, but the exchange rate they were offering today looked pretty crappy, probably because they're still using bittrex, since STEEM/SBD trading has been down all week at poloniex.

It now appears that poloniex has resumed STEEM and SBD trading! I'm hoping that once blocktrades re-integrates poloniex into its pricing mechanism, the rates offered will improve, since SBD appears to trade about 10% higher on poloniex versus bittrex. I also hope that fellow steemians who were stuck in poloniex "limbo" with their STEEM/SBD transfers were finally made whole. Please comment and share with us any updates you may have on the issue.

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POLONIEX UPDATE: It would be wise to stay FAR AWAY from Poloniex. Even though STEEM/SBD trading has resumed, all those who've had their STEEM/SBD "Temporarily Disabled" remain in the same boat. Even worse, we are now hearing reports that Bitshares holdings are also (possibly indefinitely) "Temporarily Disabled". While STEEM/SBD may be trading at a 20%+ premium on Poloniex versus the STEEM Market, none of that matters if they block access to your holdings, and can't even give you the courtesy of a timely "stress-relieving" update on top of it

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For more on this, be sure to read @matt-a's post: EVERYONE NEEDS TO START USING BITSHARES!!! POLONIEX: The Scourge Of The Cryptocurrency Exchange Space Is At It Again . . .!

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Now moving onto randowhale, @michellectv and I were gifted a few randowhale votes by @world5list and @theywillkillyou (thanks guys!) on some recent posts, and while we remain grateful, the rewards are definitely lower than what we experienced pre-HF19. steemnow.com is a terrific tool to check how much a user's current vote is worth vis-a-vis current voting power as well as vote strength. Currently it shows that a randowhale vote with 21% voting power will yield an expected payout from 1% = $2.71 to 5% = $8.13. So even if you win a 1% vote, you should still end up positive. If you got the full 5% vote at 21% VP, you could expect a nearly 3x bump versus what you spent.

In fact, here's a recent example. This post received a 4.2% randowhale vote with VP around 21%. After two hours, it's showing a potential payout of $5.75 over 7 votes: SteemitPhotoChallenge Week44 - FOOD - Baked an excellent piece of meat (hey, there's another benefit, I just sort of "resteemed" @anri-avgustino's post!)

HOWEVER, randowhale has just "regrouped" once again with a new model. You may now receive a vote from either @randowhale or @randowhale1 (BUT YOU CAN ONLY SPEND ONCE PER POST, and to @randowhale ONLY). @randowhale or @randowhale1 will now place a vote with a random vote power of 0.50%-2.5% on your post. Here is the update: Updated changes to @randowhale. Please read.

If you want to get an idea of the current potential payout range, for both randowhale and Whaleshares, again you can perform a quick check on steemnow.com first.

OTHER BENEFITS

Now, we've talked about all the potential monetary benefits here, but are there any other advantages as well? I brought this up in the last Beyond Bitcoin Hangout "after party" hosted by @officialfuzzy, and there are still several potential benefits. First of all, there is a chance that @officialfuzzy will also see your post, and possibly add additional vote weight, along with a resteem as well. Some others at the hangout also weighed in, saying that they did notice that by adding some Whaleshares shortly after posting, it helped them land on the hot/trending posts page. If any of you have more examples of this for either WS and/or rando, please share your experiences as well!

IF I WANTED TO "KILL" MY PC, I'D START MINING ME SOME BITCOIN!

Now, just a few tips if you're buying Whaleshares through the openledge / bitshares app. For some reason, each time you switch tabs, it clears your transfer form, and you have to enter all the information again. Somehow, even though I thought I had triple-checked everything several times, I still managed to send BTS instead of WHALESHARE! Quadruple check everything, and make sure you are also sending the right currency! Also, make sure you have BTS available in your wallet, otherwise the platform will attempt to use 1 Whaleshare as a transaction fee! If you have some BTS, it'll cost you around 0.24 BTS whether you spend 1 or 10 Whaleshares. 0.24 BTS at around 8 cents U.S. still seems steep for sending 1 or 2 Whaleshares, but it's still much better than wastefully tossing $4 bucks of value potential out the window!

(after hitting SEND, you'll still have another confirmation window popping up, which for some reason also shows a higher xfer fee of around 0.24 bts.)

Also, notice the "U" for Upvote or "D" for Downvote before the url in the memo field! To be sure you're getting the MEMO field correct, it's also recommended you ALWAYS use the WhaleShares.net Tool to avoid mistakes!

Additionally, be careful leaving the bitshares app running for too long. On my Windows 10 PC, twice I came back after several hours and it had maxed out all my cores. One time it happened, I didn't even realize it at first, and if it weren't for my trading platform tymoraPRO tradeSCAN fritzing out and complaining that it could't handle all the incoming data, it may have resulted in some costly trading mistakes. Immediately after shutting down the bitshares app, everything was running great again. So, depending on your PC, just be aware that it could be an issue.

WRAPPING UP

Once again, this post seems to be getting a bit long, and I still have yet to introduce you all to my WhaleBoT in the Whaleshares Discord Chat! I suppose I'll just have to give you all a bit of a break, and save a few more updates for a "Part 3"!

WhaleBoT - @NewBuddy, warning: vote/follow begging is shunned upon, watch out or I'll EAT YA!

In the meantime, I could use a bit of a break myself. I think I'll go for a stroll on the terrace and have me one of these delicious looking mojitos, courtesy of @michellectv!

Link: MOJITOS in MIAMI BEACH + How to Make a MOJITO COCKTAIL 🍹 (VIDEO HOW-TO + RECIPE)