The Epic Failure of Steemit, and Why you Should Care
It appears that I have Stumbled Upon the Most Interesting Self-Voting Work-Around Scheme
Brief Background: Whales have been discouraged from spending their votes on themselves (and others) due to the significant dilution it would create in the rewards pool. In turn, they have been limited in their interaction on the Steemit Platform ... Until Now.
And it turns out that I didn't even need to run any SteemSQL Analysis to do it ...
Have you noticed how many NEW voting bots are popping up?
There is absolutely no need for these things. How many bots do you need on this platform where you send them Liquid STEEM / SBD and they give you an up-vote!?
All they do is continue to dilute the Steem Rewards Pool for everyone. We should only allow REAL PEOPLE to vote, not Bots. Votes affect the Rewards Pool. Bots should not be affecting the Rewards Pool.
Imagine that.. the platform which was built for the everyday person and meant to not be a "Pay to Play" platform, has become exactly that.
If you're a small fish in the giant Steemit Ocean, you are likely using [or have tried using] one [or many] of these bots to get your posts some recognition and to share in the Rewards Pool. Of course, in order for these bots to succeed and provide a considerable value, they need to have a considerable amount of Steem Power, or in other words: to be run by Whales [or possibly Dolphins on occasion]. Whales and Dolphins are the only ones on Steemit who have enough Steem Power to make this scheme work.
Now if you're the average user who signed on to Steemit because you truly believed in its underlying values, you might be thinking "I'm not here for the money, I could care less about sending my hard-earned SBD to a bot just to receive a measly reward!". I'm right there with you. But I will admit that I stumble every so often when a post of mine doesn't get much recognition, despite a considerable amount of effort on my part to create original, interesting and useful content.
On the flip-side, if you're one of the individuals who set up a bot, you might be thinking "I'm not here for the money, I set this up in order to help Minnows get a larger share of the Rewards Pool." The problem with this line of thinking is that you're looking at Steemit as a Platform to Earn Money as a First Priority. Earning money is the "added benefit" of Steemit, not the function ... Or at least that's what I got out of reading the Steem WhitePaper.
Unfortunately, it appears that this is what Steemit has become, and it may be the growing trend of the future. If the platform truly discouraged and punished the "Pay to Play" attitude, these bots will be weeded out and banned.
Here's the Amazing Scheme being used:
- Create a bot.
- Delegate 70k or so Steem Power to the bot; whatever the going rate is for a 3-5% upvote yielding somewhere near the fee being charged to receive an upvote from the bot.
- Have the bot accept bids for votes (you can literally Copy the Code for this from Github, so there's effectively no Technical Expertise Required).
- Send your SBD to the bot as part of the normal bidding process like everyone else.
- Profit from your SP without Self-Voting.
- Profit from others' Liquid STEEM / SBD that they're sending to your bot -- because, well, Votes are Free to Make for the Bot!
Coming up with a Resolution:
I don't feel that the accounts who created the bots need to be directly punished. The bots should be disbanded and whatever Liquid Steem / Steem Power / SBD currently exists in the bots at the time of dissolution should be redistributed to the overall Steem Rewards Pool.
After-all, we live in a Capitalist Society and these individuals were simply Seizing the Opportunity in front of them!
I simply want the playing field to be leveled out a bit, as opposed to seeing the Rich get Richer and the Poor get Poorer...
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Steem On, Fellow Steemians!
If you want to read more, please take a look at some of my other posts:
- All of my Posts!
- Evolved08gsr's SteemSQL Analysis - Post #002 - Working to Identify and Eradicate Spam Accounts Follow-Up
- Evolved08gsr's SteemSQL Analysis - Post #001 - Working to Identify and Eradicate Spam Accounts
- Evolved08gsr's Steemit Navigation Tips
- Steemit Goal(s) for this week and beyond!
- The True Minnow Challenge
Great post. I'd like to know more about this subject.
How do all the Trending folks go about upvotes?
Trending people typically have powerful followers, and many of them. It's possible that they are also on a "curation trail" where many people auto-vote on their posts.
Thanks for your comment! What would you like to know more about specifically?
Good perspective, from what I have seen there is not even a good reward for using upvote bots most of the time.
Many use them expecting to get a positive return on investment (ROI) this doesn't always happen when they figure in curation portion of 25% that is not the authors reward.
One way to look at is is not to expect ROI and just use the upvote bots for EXPOSURE of your post, to get you name out there for (hopefully) more attention and upvotes
These bots are a big earner for the WHALES who operate them, some operators even speak of it being a BUSINESS, and what is the aim of a business...PROFIT.
They are asking a certain price for them selling a product that in fact costs them nothing (the product is deducted from the total rewards pool, not from the capital of the business), it is a perfect business, like selling invisible rainbows....someone will buy.
This is why there are so many upvote bots arriving on Steemit, it's a perfect business model....is it a fair busineess model, that is very debatable.
Your explanation describes exactly how it is not a "fair" business model. The upvote bot is performing a service (upvote) at no cost to themselves and providing a measley amount of consideration. The only way you get ROI when using these bots is if the value of Steem appreciates enough by the time your 7-day payout period ends. In many cases, you will lose more because of the depreciation in the value of Steem.
Upvoted! Great content! Hmm. Rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. Sounds like real life. I'm a novice on this platform and have yet scratch the surface . There are still a lot of things I need to learn like lingo, how to get my content out there, etc. I do see some posts with literally 1 picture copied from internet that get so many upvotes and SBD and I scratch my head thinking how can that be relevant content? I try to post content that I would like to read and I do enter the occasional meme contest or photo contest to make it fun. But yea, I guess some people know the tricks of the trade and as a minnow, I have to swim in the shallow end and learn before I can swim with the sharks...or whales. Lol. Keep on Steeming I guess!
Thanks for your comment! Keep on Fighting the Good Fight :)
By no means is Steemit a "get rich quick" platform. To me, it is meant to be a Social Network First (with a Reddit / Blogging appearance and atmosphere - minus the negativity) ... then a long way down the line towards the end of the purpose of Steemit is earning money.
Upvotes should come from real people who find your content interesting, not from a bot because you paid it some SBD to receive a vote and some Steem/SBD ...
AGREED!
Actually, what you said is right, long before i stop voting myself, bot really helpful too in some occasion but not profitable to those who want to send sbd to it.
The main reason for interaction losses more and more everyday! And more bots rises everyday to interact with humans, that is sad
I have seen more bots reply to posts lately than real people. Some of them have been "Spam Bots", but several of them are effectively doing the commenting and voting for the average whale so they can sit back and reap the rewards.
It's sad for me to see such a terrible thing happening to this amazing platform. Around the time when I joined Steemit (less than 2 months ago), I saw tons of people who genuinely care about each other. Within the past month I can't tell you how many more bots I've seen, as well as the noticeable decrease in the number of real people interacting on Steemit.
I am hopeful that enough people on here do care, and want to fix the problems that we're experiencing during the "growing pains" of Steemit.
Thanks for your comment!
Awhile ago, i posted the same issue as yours. The same view as what you said. The rise of steemit bots but i carefully addressed the issue coz whale might see it or flag the story
If a whale flags this post (or any of my other posts), and they "get away with it", then I know the Steemit platform is truly dead and has no future.
I was also concerned about being flagged, and originally I had a note about my concern in the post, but I decided to remove that comment. I have high hopes for Steemit's future, but if the bots continue to take over and steal the Rewards Pool from real people, then there is no future.
The only way these voting bots make money is by people sending them SBD. It's basically a Pyramid Scheme and the bot is the top of the Pyramid.
Amen to that!
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STOPThis is actually a bot that I like :)
It motivates real people to continue being active on Steemit, and provides you with goals to achieve! Gamification at its best!