Why is the value of my vote declining? Is it really 0.0 SBD?
When I joined STEEM this January, I started with 15 SP (STEEM Power) (14.5 SP where delegated from SteemIt) and a 100% vote value of 1 cent (at least I thought so). I figured, that I just had to double my STEEM Power to get my vote value up to 2 cents. Boy, was I wrong. Currently I am powered up to more than 80 SP and my vote value is still 1 cent.
Most calculators round your vote value
If you look on SteemNow or other sites that calculate your vote value, you must know that these calculators round the value of your 100% vote. So, if they show a value of 1 cent this can either mean your vote is worth 0.005 cent, 0.0149 cent or something in between. So what I thought to be 1 cent in January was just a tiny bit more than 0.005 cent.
I am currently working on new platform with statistics on STEEM accounts, which displays vote values with higher precision. So you may check out DeepSteem to see a more accurate estimation of your 100% vote's value.
The value of votes correlates linearly with the value of STEEM
When I joined STEEM in January, one STEEM was worth more than $7. As of today, the price dipped to about $2. Since the price of STEEM linearly contributes to the value of our votes, you'd need 3.5 times the STEEM Power for the same vote value as in January.
How does this affect author rewards
On default author rewards are payed 50% in SBD (STEEM backed Dollars) and 50% in STEEM Power. The share payed in STEEM Power is unaffected by the current value of STEEM, however the amount of SBD again linearly scales with the price of STEEM. So as before, if STEEM would be priced as in January, SBD payouts would be 3.5 times higher.
Moreover, there is a minimum payout threshold of 0.02 cents and all posts with an accumulated vote value below this threshold are not rewarded at all. Currently about 10 votes of newly created accounts (with 15 STEEM Power delegated) are necessary for a post the generate any rewards. This may be factor that drives new users away from the platform.
I just joined a couple weeks ago, so I haven't experienced any major losses, it was only $3.50 for 1 SBD when I was approved. I hope to see it climb up real nice and high again since I have some sp now though :) Good luck with your endeavors my friend.