Shadow Token potentially coming!
We are considering a concept where Shadow Rank will be measured and issued in a token (Shadow Token). One of the big concepts we believe would be neat about a Shadow Token is the ability to transfer them and have them blockchain verified. Shadow Rank would directly be calculated by the amount of outstanding Shadow Tokens and number of Shadow Tokens you have. This system would allow the transfer and sale of your valuable Shadow Rank while also creating a decentralized mechanism for the supply of Shadow Rank all far more transparent than currently available with the current system.
With the envisioned Shadow Token, members will earn newly issued tokens when being given a Shadow Rank increase. These newly issued tokens are then able to be exchanged on the blockchain (steem) and are controlled by the rules everyone can publicly see. This ensures Shadow Tokens are fairly created each day and preserve their value while also making sure no one can abuse the system to gain new tokens.
We will issue a white paper and allow some feedback/input before we decide to actually implement this. We just want to get the discussion going.
I like the idea, but a danger to consider will be that it gives a secondary incentive of converting liquid steem/sbd into tokens from someone that is presumably 'cashing out' from being a shadow caster, so the person increasing in rank is essentially moving SP to someone that values the system less overall, instead of powering up. Of course, the opposite can also happen where new investments come from outside of steem simply for this token, but I thought it's worth mentioning the scenario because it might happen relatively often compared to the other, it's much easier to access steem/sbd than to deal with exchanges and such and most people will take the path of least resistance or friction: having less SP but higher rank.
The second problem I anticipate is the ranking itself could (under current system) be farmed using multiple accounts then taking that one step further - consolidating those tokens into a single account. I will shamelessly admit I have added a couple of my spare accounts as shadowcasters since they are mostly idle anyway (another reason I think rank~curation should have strong correlation is it promotes piling up inactive accounts into the pool just to get curation), however I see they gain some ranking over time and if I were to have all my accounts waiting around, which I'm positive several people have done based on some metrics I see, then a token being linked to current ranking would significantly favor multiple accounts rather than steem power (at least assuming 10+10+10>15)
I would not be opposed to having some advantage or incentive to add the rest of my accounts too, but feel like it's playing with fire to distribute tokens based on current ranking, so I guess my concern here could be negated by distribution based on steem power which then leads me back to where I started only an even worse version - the cashing out problem would mean that a large amount of SP leaving the pool creates a vacuum effect into the internal economy of the token, causing others to gain an edge potentially by selling their steem/sbd in exchange for the tokens the person leaving had from having SP in the pool. This can be stable and have equilibrium only until someone with a large percentage decides to sell which increases in probability the more it's worth. The potential to entice investment mentality comes along with the downside of a volatility slippery slope cascading trap where people start having an increasing incentive to leave their position as a shadow caster for some monetary gain, damaging the pool and rewarding the people that leave based on the number of people that want to increase in ranking, like a treadmill.
Finally, this would break the idea of ranking ever being a curation bonus mechanism if people could just buy ranking the pool might be voting on things that never have payouts other than from the pool itself. Of course, if giving curation rewards to the pool with large post payouts is generating the tokens that can be good for an individual, but considering the pool itself as an entity being able to buy ranking places the pool curation rewards outside the realm of the ranking algorithm.
I don't see only downsides, there is actually a huge potential for gain, (returning to the google analogy this would relate most to ads), but the potential aside I would say don't rush into anything even remotely quickly because it will be a rough path full of invisible hazards! These kind of problems come from nowhere and damage things beneath the surface.
Anyway it's just my thoughts, I hope this helps in some way ^_^
I agree with you. Now that all these have been written, @shadowbot should look for a way out. I love @shadowbot idea better but @alphacore points are realistic and it is something we should look into seriously.
To all these points, this is why we are opening up the discussion before we even finalize a white paper. It is a concept that we may land up doing IF we can find a way that is fair and beneficial to all. We are considering a concept where the length of ownership of the token could also be used to weight shadow rank. So if you buy Shadow Tokens they are worth less for your Shadow Rank today than they would be in a year from now (pushing people to hold them).
I propose a hybrid system where the core ranking is based on average curation payouts of the shadow caster (for optimal passive growth of the pool), while tokens are distributed via contributions to the pool through voting and generally having more SP. Then tokens are consumed/burned for a temporary promotion-like effect or traded to other shadow casters in some market system. The promotions would not completely bury everything else but instead work similar to the way voting on individual authors works by a rate-limited mechanic such as only ever voting on X promoted posts per day, which can then be leveraged to create an auction mechanic surrounding the promotion itself where people are bidding shadow tokens for the promotion spots and dragging the value of the tokens up along the way. This would create a symbiotic relationship between gathering the tokens and buying them where contribution to the pool has the guaranteed benefit of either gaining some promotion or selling that promotion for some return based on demand of the promotion, while still allowing the overarching rank system to evolve for governing the primary incentives of powering up and increasing curation rewards for the pool.
This of course is a tall order because there are many moving parts that would need to work together, but the end result I think would be worth it as a good alternative to replacing the ranking entirely, and could even be safer in the sense that any damage done could be isolated by altering the promotion mechanics while leaving the core unscathed. Tokens being used as a temporary promotion utility through auctions also means any damage done from the buying of tokens on an account that otherwise would have very low rank is relatively minimal because the problem expires rather than having a lasting impact on the pool and potentially causing chain-reaction harm where people leave because the highest rank people bought their rank but don't deserve it. This also means high rank shadow casters can sell their shadow tokens without damaging their rank in the queue. (although if the strategy at that rank is linear they would always be selling and push down the value, so there would need to be an advantage even for rank #1 in buying tokens such as the promotional effect bypassing the author rate limiting as a separated thing, or the tokens could have some extra utility added.)
I think this kind of system would avoid most of the traps and make it easier to recover from unexpected problems. I hope I didn't ramble too much and detract from the important bits, but I am very confident you understand this kind of thing so I write it all ^_^
Hi @shadowbot I haven't received any votes from shadowbot members in many days, despite being level 16 and active. Is this correct? Are your queues very full? Any chance you can look into this please?
Ya same here...:/ Pls do something about this...
@shadowbot this is a good initiative as always,nice post ,please keep this up
like the idea, looking forward to it, followed :)
hello I am registered on shadowbot several times and I do not understand why each time my account and blocks after 1 or 2 weeks and I subscribe to new.thanks
This is amazing. Btw, what is the maximum rank per caster, is it 100?
Regards.
This would be a major improvement and help people to better understand shadow rank! Very cool!
hi there, i'm new to steemit and the bot. there's a message that came up that said if i have a testimony that shadowbot will upvote me. is this message accurate and what type of testament would you like?
It's not good for minnows. Whales will buy tons of tokens and get richer and lex minnoxs will not be able to buy them. it goes against the basic idea of @shadowbot.
hi, shadowbot I haven't get any upvotes from shadowbot members in some days days....please help me sir....
