Introducing @powerbot - a simple delegation service (Trial Run #1)

I am starting a limited trial run of a new service bot, @powerbot, that I developed for the Steem blockchain. The bot will be active for the next week or so (or until it reaches capacity) to test functionality under real world conditions. Details of it's permanent launch are still to be determined, largely off the results of this trial run and discussions I hope to have with many of you.

Preface

I am not here to sell you on @powerbot - I don't have words to convince you to use this service. The goal is to explain to you how this system functions and let the users decide what they want to use it for. It's a utility at it's core and I look forward to seeing what creative applications this could be useful for.

This post also operates under the assumption that you are versed in Steem and have a basic understanding Steem Power and its function of the blockchain. If you're unsure as to why you'd want a delegation in the first place, this post won't answer that for you.

@powerbot - simple delegation service

The premise of the bot is simple:

a transfer of STEEM or SBD will grant the sender a lease of Steem Power (using the delegation features of Steem)

Each lease has a set duration and once completed it removes the delegation.

It also has a website: https://powerbot.io (which I may do a blog post about, because it was pretty interesting to build. The bot and the website have no direct contact with each other and communicate via the blockchain).

Trial Run #1

This is a trial run and there are no promises this service will continue moving forward. This run may lead to some sort of critical flaw that prevents this service from making sense and continuing in the future.

The SP being made available is made up 100% of my funds currently, so the supply is limited. Once this supply is exhausted, the test is over! I imagine the bot itself will be active for a week or so, but could be much less. Any requests made while it is active (and has capacity) will be honored and run for the full duration (set at 14 days for this test). At the end of the trial run, the service will be disabled until further notice. Any transfers after that point will be returned to the sender for the first couple days, and then likely be deactivated for further development (no automatic returns).

This isn't a full service yet so please be conscious what's happening with the trial run before any transfer. I'll do my best to ensure everything works as intended during the trial run.

Parameters

The powerbot.io website will always have the most up-to-date parameters. If you are reading this post at a later date, the below values will likely be incorrect.

• Available: ~32,000 SP
• Rate: 50 SP per 1 STEEM
• Duration: 14 days
• Minimum: 1 STEEM (50 SP)

The current rate of delegation is set at 50 SP per 1 STEEM sent for a duration of 14 days. The price is on the high end of it's likely market value. The rationale is that I can always lower it to gather more test data, but if it delegates 100% of the available balance immediately because it's too cheap, there's no getting back that test data since it would be honored at that rate.

Example Usage

A user, @jesta, wants a delegation of 500 SP for 14 days - @jesta would send 10 STEEM (or 10.76 SBD) to the @powerbot account with no memo.

transfer jesta powerbot "10.000 STEEM" "" true

Once the block is irreversible (about 50 seconds), the account would receive a delegation for ~500 SP. The powerbot.io website will update and display the details after the delegation operation is irreversible (2-3 minutes after transfer is sent).

In another scenario, @jesta wants to give a delegation of 250 SP for 14 days to @paxmagnus - in which case @jesta would sent 5 STEEM (5.38 SBD) to the @powerbot account with the memo of @paxmagnus.

transfer jesta powerbot "10.000 STEEM" "@paxmagnus" true

The request would process the same as before, except with the delegation instead being leased to @paxmagnus.

If user @jesta from the first example wanted another 1000 SP delegation - @jesta could then send an additional 20 STEEM (21.52 SBD) to @powerbot account with no memo.

transfer jesta powerbot "20.000 STEEM" "" true

This would increase the amount delegated from 500 SP to 2500 SP, combining both requests. Both of these delegations act as independent requests with different expirations, but can stack onto a single account. At the end of the first delegation, it would decrease to 2000 SP, and then as the second request ends, decreases to 0.

To view all of the activity related to your request + delegation on the blockchain itself, I'd recommend using either steemdb.com or steemd.com and looking up your account history. The powerbot.io website, while also being tested, will also display much of this information.

Feedback and Problems

I'll be watching this post over the next couple days and engaging in any discussion that needs it. I'm curious to know what everyone has to think about the service, reactions, ideas, etc. So far it's been a really interesting project to work on that I think has some merit, depending on how it's done.

Where did this project come from?

I have been thinking about the introduction of SMTs for the past few months and how they would impact the projects I'm working on. There are a ton of potential applications for SMTs and over the next year and I'm sure we will see some great use cases. For me, it's too early to know exactly how I would use SMTs. A lot of the concepts I've considered had one thing in common though - they would benefit from a simple leasing service like this. That's when I decided to sit down and build out the prototype for this service.

This project also came from wanting to launch a product that is useful today, that will then also benefit the entire SMT ecosystem of tokens (that also support vesting). I want this to be a common theme in the development I do from here on out, that all my projects should hopefully benefit SMTs in some way. I have a few projects that I want to do related to SMTs, but most of them aren't super valuable today or are already complete (for STEEM). I plan on adding SMT support to Vessel, SteemDB (v2) and someday to chainBB (once I figure out the best approach).

Delegation Markets

Big shout out to the @minnowbooster team, @thecryptodrive, @reggaemuffin, and anyone else I'm unaware of pioneering this concept with minnowbooster.net. The entire concept of a delegation marketplace is very interesting especially as the concept of "power" increases in utility, either as Steem or a SMT. Having the marketplace also gives investors a new reason to hold and a the potential to increase one's holdings.

If you're looking for more than what I have to offer, I'd recommend checking them out!

Some random/useful notes:

• This is a trial run of the @powerbot software, things may break.
• All transfers should only ever be sent to the @powerbot account. Never send to any other account name variation. Only transfers to @powerbot will be processed.
• You can specify who should receive the delegation by entering their @username in the memo field. If you want to delegate to @jesta, use the memo @jesta.
• Both STEEM and SBD are accepted by the bot. All requests are processed in denominations of STEEM. SBD is converted to it's equivalent value of STEEM using sbd_median_price.
• All transactions are processed once they have become irreversible, which is normally about 40-60 seconds after submission.
• You will receive multiple delegations from bots named @powerbot-1, @powerbot-2, @powerbot-3 or @powerbot-4. If you're curious to see the activity on the blockchain, there's your starting point, along with @powerbot.
• The minimum amount accepted is 1 STEEM (or SBD equiv., ~1.076 at time of posting)
• The funds will be returned if the bot cannot complete your request.
• The funds will be returned if you send too little.
• The funds will be returned if the bot doesn't understand your memo (don't write anything in the memo unless you know what you're doing).