A delegation progress report: Week 2

I was just on my way to bed and realised I have forgotten to do the update for week 2 of the delegation experiment. Hasn't it been an interesting week! Who would have thought SBD would reach 20 dollars before Steem?

This has made keeping track of the delegation effects tricky because I have been trading SBD for Steem which has definitely covered the delegation costs but, it is a highly unusual situation and one could never rely on being able to trade 1 SBD for up to 7 or 8 Steem.

Most of mine I traded around 5 and some around 2 times. It seems that SBD is starting to correct and after highs at Bittrex of around $18 US, it is currently around $7, which is still incredibly high and because Steem has dropped too, the exchange rate is still very, very good. Remember to use the internal Market - NOT the convert to Steem tool, quite a few have made this error.

It has definitely thrown an interesting idea into the pool though as people are starting to see what the future might look like for Steem if it gets supported. Work hard, think long and 10 dollar Steem may be not far away with SMTs coming.

Anyway, for this progress report, I think I will focus more on the curation side of it as that pays out in SP making it relatively stable. My curation for the last 7 days is, 51.403 STEEM POWER which is a touch over half the cost of delegation. This is an important indicator as to get that return, I have been voting often on @ocd posts, usually before the whales come in with varying degrees of power (averaging 15% probably). The return on them is relatively good for minnows, less so for dolphins but I like supporting their suggestions. I also vote on friends and family and those in my feed when I come across content I like.

But, this means I have to make the other half of the delegation out of self votes on my own content. Since I am not going to self vote my comments (unless in the most extreme of circumstances) this leaves my post. I mentioned earlier that I don't mind voting on my content but, when my voting power is generally around 80 at all times, when Steem has been low, it means I would have to self-vote around 20-25 of my own posts to get the return. That is a lot in a week for most people, I am okay with it.

This gives me a curation return (I usually wait to near the 30 minute mark) and the 75 odd percent return for the author. My vote for most of this voting period I estimate at around 3.00 which means, I would get approximately 2.25 per post plus curation (which is already included in the above curation figure). So out of the 70 100% votes per week, around 20 went to myself, which steemreports confirms with a self-vote rate of 27%.

This means that 20 posts x 2.25 avg. return + 51 curation = 96. But, half the 45 would be paid in SBD which is 'normally' around $1 and the rest on the Steem price which has been above a dollar. This means that there is actually (normally) quite a big shortfall between return and delegation unless Steem price is low or like the last two days, SBD is very valuable.

It is after 5 am and I am doing this in my head but, I do not see how a normal person can get a return on their investment without only self-voting around 40 of their posts. I don't think for the average user, 40 posts a week is possible while still remaining quality. Plus to do so, it means that there is very little spread value of the wealth, no community.

For me, this means that the only way to profit from delegation is if I spam post and self-vote or, sell my vote to cover the shortfall, which is something I disagree with and see as harmful in the long term interests of the platform.

There would be value however for, like someone commented below the first report, a curating program that is looking to grow a tag or similar but wear the cost. The reason is that I could vote 70 (full votes) a week and add about 210 dollars to a certain tag and get a return of bout 20 percent, 40. That means that for the community, I would wear a shortfall of 60ish so they could get a windfall of 170. There may be value in this.

I really enjoy being able to add some value so I will continue the experiment until I cannot justify the loss, but I do not see how this can work for the average user to cover the costs and still be a valuable member of the community.

Again, I apologise as this is quite a dry post but I am fading fast. I will go to bed so if my maths is wrong or I have missed something critical, please mention it below and don't crucify me over it. My hope is that through these, people can get a picture of what is involved and how it does not seem to add up in the best interest of both voter and community. At least in the short-term, it isn't a win/win situation ( I think).

I know there are some very smart people who may read this and perhaps they can give me a hand and take part in any conversations that may come below, as I must be up again in a couple hours for a kids birthday party. Thank you.

And again, numbers are not my strong suit. Be gentle. :)

EDIT: Dammit. Great ideas while brushing my teeth. I forgot to factor in that I already have 10000 odd SP and a vote of about 90c which was giving around 15 SP in curation a week. This makes the situation look even worse for delegation.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]

Report one:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@tarazkp/a-delegation-progress-report-week-1