RE: The Case for Showing Pending Rewards in STEEM
Thanks for your considered reply. In my first draft, I kept calling it a pseudo-$ as it doesn't match the real USD of the payouts; in the rewrite I dropped it as didn't want to get heavily diverted into the way pending rewards are calculated at the moment as it would have doubled the length of the article.
But, yes, I have no idea why the "$" is used.
After a few comments, I think the "simple calculation" is the simplest one for users to follow inasmuch as the numbers match the payouts more closely, that is, in my example of 8 STEEM payout, leave it as 8 STEEM so that 2 STEEM go to curation, 3 STEEM become SP and the remaining 3 STEEM are transformed into SBD. There will always be some mental gymnastics involved but this has only one transformation, from STEEM to SBD.
The comment by @steevc mentions that it is good for users to see their rewards rise, something that won't always be the case if shown in native STEEM. What do you think of that? I think in STEEM users can see whether their posts are truly rising due to more upvotes rather than just due to exchange rates.
I can also already see that smart contracts can create blockchain transactions that are new to the ecosystem - I'm thinking of @steemmonsters - and that if this develops into new financial instruments then it is best denominated in STEEM.
What we're asking ourselves is what should be the DEFAULT view.
If we have STEEM as the default then calculating related values in other currencies is a piece of cake. So just allow them to change or show side by side with a $ that is a real $usd value. haha
Another question... if curation is now consistently 25% then why show that portion at all?
What's the argument for keeping that as part of the value? Do you think users (specially new users) would rather just see the value that they're going to actually get?
Curation is defined as 25% in STEEM terms but this is not always the case when converted to $ or SBD; it is mainly the SBD distribution that affects the true % going to curation, and since HF20 some also gets recycled into the reward pool.
As for a default setting, I personally would go with STEEM. I have set up my steemworld settings to STEEM to 4 decimal places. (Thanks to @steemchiller!) Indeed, steemworld is a good example of how flexible a UI can be, with data to suit most people, including EUR as well as USD.
One thing to be careful of is not to overload the data calls on long lists, such as trending or tag pages, so have one default for lists and perhaps more visible data, maybe in a popup, on a post page.
As a plug-in and overlay, @steem-plus can, I think, already be set up to show different prices.
One argument that continues unresolved is whether to use the blockchain price for STEEM or the market price average. IMO those algos that specifically use the official blockchain price should be duplicated as they are; to calculate a real USD value will, however, require market prices. Also, in my example, selling SBD for STEEM requires market prices, but a "conversion" must use the blockchain price.
This is just how I set up my data for my fund - what is important is how much STEEM I can earn because that I can manage, whereas the $ returns are beyond my control.