Can We Change The UI to Display Rewards in USD?

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

Can We Change The UI to Display Rewards in USD?


Currently, the UI displays rewards in Steem Backed Dollar (SBD), which is deceptively low as the currency, which is meant to be pegged to the USD, is currently trading at over 7x that amount.

What this means in practice is that all posts that have selected to receive their payout as 50%/50% are getting roughly 5x the amount advertised!

One of the most appealing traits of the Steem blockchain is its ability to convert higher prices quickly into greater value by attracting more users through effectively displaying higher rewards on Steemit. But this doesn't work if the rewards displayed grossly under advertise their real value to the average person who stumbles onto the site thinking it's USD.

Right now, we're basically advertising for job openings at a salary that's only 1/5 of what we're actually going to pay them. Unless these new content creators are also going to help us smuggle heroin across the border, this is stupid.

Simple Solution


Let's just change the front end display to reflect rewards in terms of their USD value rather than SBD.

Now, my guess is some devs are going to point out that this isn't as trivial as it sounds because in order to do that they'll need to rewrite the source code of the blockchain and reboot the internet and build a flux capacitor etc. I do want to stress that this is fairly important in terms of onboarding and really helps the long term value of Steem.

I realize that there are some concerns around SBD and its viability in the future, but in the meantime coming up with a way of clearly displaying a relatively up to date USD value on rewards shouldn't be too difficult. Right now, the displayed reward is deceptive and misleading to our combined detriment!

If we display rewards in terms of USD, it will reflect their higher value and the entire ecosystem will stand to benefit whenever SBD gets pumped and dumped harder than a broken condom.

Tell Everyone About Steem


The bottom line is Steem pays well, and it's very much in everyone's interests to not under represent that by 5 fold. In the meantime, tell everyone about it.

You know those posts on trending? Well they're actually getting $1000-$3000! And those posts on hot? Well they're getting $100-$500! People should know this and spread the word so more will join Steemit.

Hell, you can tell them that every new sign up gets a free hand job from Dan, subject to his consent, for all I give a shit. Now I know that's a little redundant as 'a free hand job from Dan, subject to his consent' is technically implied in every moment of life, so while not insightful, it has the benefit of being true.

Anyway, tell everyone that Steem is better than you think!


If you enjoyed this piece, please Upvote, Resteem and follow me @trafalgar. Also, check out my new account @traf for short one liners and memes. I think good original short content is far more engaging, very difficult to create and should be rewarded accordingly, so please contribute to and support high quality short content on the platform.

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No need to change it. Soon SBD gets back to ~$1. We've seen how a couple months ago SBD was trading at premium and then stabilized after price of Steem is increased and covered the demand for SBD.

The rule is simple. Have some SBD - sell it! The community should keep SBD from rising above $1, protocol keeps it from falling below $1.

Yes No need to change it. but better We Can remove The UI to Display "NO Rewards" at all.. this Money-centric $ Pending Payouts distort the community and the purpose of all posts ....kill the $..

yes, it will be good idea, if we can to hide the rewards

I agree, the important thing is make networking, read good post and share.

You have a point but I would even say they should do it anyway even if the current SBD price wasn't so stratospheric.

And yes, the rule is simple 👍😊

Just look at the chart one more time. Do you notice we're even higher up this time? This volatility is not what the peg was for.

Steem is hard enough to learn and economically shaky enough without an extra pegged asset to consider. When it doesn't even work as intended, it introduces risk to users that were trying to and likely think they are avoiding it.

Get rid of SBD and focus on promoting and making the STEEM currency as good as we can instead. Posts only need to be valued in STEEM and display a conversion into USD or whichever currency the user themselves wants to display it in.

I wish SBD was never invented, but it exists and it is a fact. Removing it now is not an easy task. How would you approach it?

Would you bet on an event that SBD price will not reach $1 during next 3 months?

It could be faced out. How hard or if near impossible this is however, I do not know.

1 First of all we would need to stop giving rewards in SBD.
2 Next step would be to let the price of SBD stand completely on its own.
3 Then, as per our previousy designed automation, the transactions would be dropped or relabeled and transfered onto a new chain if that was considered preferable.

The order and execution could be very important, or else some might become tempted to keep it on chain in hopes that the price will keep rising.

Prior to doing any of the above an announcement would have to be made of course.

No, I have no idea where the SBD price is going. There's a lot of drift upwards, I'm sure, but it can also return to $1 and less very fast.

But the problems discussed here stem from volatility itself. Not that it is currently trading above or below USD.

Steem Dollars is one of the top transacted cryptocurrencies. There are twice as many SBD transfers per day as there are Steem transfers. There are more Steem Dollar transfers than there are total Dash and Monero transactions. Removing something which is proven to be in demand, both in terms of use and exchange buys, would be shooting ourselves in the foot.

https://steemit.com/steem/@demotruk/lifetime-steem-and-sbd-transfers-per-day-graph

I've already read a few of your posts on it, but I still think it ought to be removed. Demand alone is not reason to keep a product.

Think of the Steem economy as a business. The flight to SBD over Steem will tend to hurt the primary factor (the Steem price) in our economic bottom line, more than it helps. Primarily under certain market conditions that is, but enough of the time that harm will be the sum outcome of its influence.

It is of course perfectly reasonable to expect a lot of this harm to be hidden under price speculation and increased interest in both instruments, but it will still be there.

A lot of people have been asking for price predictions and I obviously can't give that. But I can tell you that if it wasn't for the risk of a very drastic counterinflation of the SBD supply or the risk of a sell off expecting it, I'd almost be more tempted to hold SBD than STEEM as things stand right now. Not at all for any sort of stability, but precisely because of the opportunities that the volatility gives to traders. Not for the short term in which it could drop below $1 even, but for the next 1-2 years or so. The upwards drift is very real.

The flight to SBD over Steem will tend to hurt the primary factor (the Steem price) in our economic bottom line, more than it helps.

I don't how you got to this point, which seems to be the basis for removing it. It seems clear to me that the SBD surge is bringing in capital and improving the bottom line.

SBD peg breaking above $1 essentially gives free capital for the network to spend on projects, content etc., while the burden of debt remains at $1 per 1 SBD.

Again, it's a comparison to "what could be". The fact that new money enters the system merely obscures the fact.

If this wasn't an issue and newbies didn't benefit from having a stable token, I guess we could just stop calling it a peg and treat it like any regular cryptocurrency.

The broken peg undermines the utility of Steem Dollars as a stable currency. It doesn't necessarily follow that Steem as a whole is undermined by this.

If we were to remove SBD we would remove one of the top transacted cryptocurrencies period from our system, one which does twice as many transactions as Steem. That's clear empirical usage (and thus utility) being eliminated. The currently broken peg is a double edged sword, it has negative and positive consequences. There's no clear positive consequence of eliminating SBD which couldn't be gained with front end changes instead.

The three blockchain-level options available are fix it, remove it or leave it. For you it seems 'leave it' is the worst option, but I haven't seen that it's doing enough harm to justify that, it is certainly doing good in drawing in capital. For me 'remove it' is plainly the worst option, I see no real upside to that and enormous downside.

If the peg can't be made stronger, yes perhaps we should stop calling it a 'stable' token. It wouldn't be a free floating crypto though even in that case, it's just a weakly pegged cryptocurrency with a stronger minimum value. It is a unique value proposition in the market, although failing the social contract.

If the peg can't be made stronger, yes perhaps we should stop calling it a 'stable' token.

This, as a first step. Then stop calling it "pegged" and "backed" as well. This only hides the fact that it can fluctuate wildly above one dollar. You can use the word "supported" if you want.

Otherwise we are just tricking new users into thinking they are recieving a currency more or less redeemable for the USD.

But, under particular market conditions and given that we are trying to make the SBD head lower by exerting effort, then making it not head lower in order to stay up closer to the dollar, the unsucessful peg must harm STEEM as such, as it must be attributed a cost to keep doing this.

As soon as the SBD pumps, which is very easy to have happen, all attention is also put on SBD, making it go even further.

I doubt that many of the people that trade SBD on exchanges a lot will come here as a result of discovering the SBD. All it does is confuse non-Steemians as to which currency is the main token and confuse new Steemians as to all of the different assets here.

Either way, I think we agree that we need to stop tricking users into thinking that SBD is anywhere close to a stable currency, by not providing clear enough terms and/or other information.

I remember reading a post from the great @dantheman - https://steemit.com/steemit/@dantheman/boost-steem-value-by-backing-steem-dollar

a comment he made on the above post caught my attention:

"I think we as a community can move Steem Dollar to a Steem Silver backing when the time comes. I think it would be worthwhile starting a discussion on when the Steem Dollar would switch its peg so that investors and speculators can factor in this added benefit.

It is clear that hyperinflation of the U.S. dollar is something that we should consider and any kind of "protection" that we can offer would probably help boost the value of Steem Dollars relative to bank dollars."

  • dantheman

We for sure need to open a discussion regarding the SBD. Not sure about changing the front end UI to display USD...interesting thought. Great post @trafalgar

I see no reason to change it.

The SBD generally never goes less than 95 cents. But it sometimes go to the moon because of moron speculators who have no idea of what it is for.

The problem is that the dollar is loosing its complete value when the cryptocurrencies are Skyrocking and people are leaving the dollar finally in the next 2 or 3 years.
I found a nice article, where the problem of the dollar is described very shortly but adequate:
https://steemit.com/dollar/@mathsinnature/for-those-who-are-interested-in-the-middle-east-and-the-dollar

Concordo! Tem muitos curiosos..que mal conhecem o SBD!

Actually this is an interesting and reasonable idea of dantheman! I think at the moment the term Steem Dollar has the advantage to win people who are new to the cryptomarket/cryptocurrencies , so it is better not changed.
But we have this (to my mind useless) Savings column, which could be substituted by a Steem Silver (participation). So we interconnect the value of this part of fortune to silver. As a result everybody on the steemit network can decide how he wants to story his Steem (in Steem Power, Steem Dollar or Steem Silver).

I think many people on Steemit anyway have other currencies so the fast tradeable steem dollar gives them enough to survive...

I agree did you see my previous response..

Lol it's nice, and I have been posting about this when it passed $4, $5, and even $7, but after getting paid out for a $15 payout.. I received $12.87 TOTAL as a payout..

Screen Shot 2017-12-07 at 10.35.25 PM.png

Which was 6.433 SBD and 4.445 STEEM POWER..

Screen Shot 2017-12-07 at 10.49.46 PM.png

The confusing part is how we only get "50% STEEM POWER" at 4.44 STEEM, but the other "50% of the payout" that is paid in Steem Dollars is worth approx 28 STEEM?

Screen Shot 2017-12-07 at 10.49.52 PM.png

So yes it would be nice to get 28 STEEM POWER also, but then again I'm thankful I turned 5.387SBD to 28 STEEM!!

However I do fear that this will cause a problem or a spike in STEEM soon.. Since SBD is programmed to equal $1.00 of STEEM..

Screen Shot 2017-12-07 at 10.43.20 PM.png

Sbd is only"programmed" that way on one direction, meaning it will always be able to be exchanged for $1 of steem. But not the other way around.

how could be brother will you tell me that ? its sames to be nice help me follow me follow you tell me

thanks a lot, yes I do think there are problems with fiat in the long term
but in the short term changing it display will help us attract more users as it'll show a much higher payout $
most new users think SBD = USD anyway, so they think the rewards are 20% of what they truly are right now
imagine how much new interest can be generated during times of these pumps if posts like this are showing $1000 instead of $250, much more users will join the platform, and investors like you and I can benefit greatly in the long run

thanks for your input thejohalfiles

I'm also a bit dubious about the three trading mechanisms presented to a new user. When you press "Convert to Steem" you'd assume it'd go at market rate. It actually goes around 1 = 1, meaning you're doing a cut price sale on your conversion.

Click Buy or Sell, and you're presented with Blocktrades. Click Market and you're presented with the currently best but also most baffling trading mechanism.

It's not that hot for the new user, like myself, and nothing really presents itself in terms of education. Only by poking around and asking questions can you get an answer. These answers should really be in tool, flagging visibly.

Anybody who finds steemit, is interested by the blockchain and wants to make high quality posts, should be able to find out what this stuff means...
Of course you have to search it...

My suggestions is to eradicate this saving category to install some kind of valuable metal or just eradicate it...

Does the savings account portion actually do anything? Anytime I've seen anybody with money in it the percentage is always 0..

I really do not know ;)
It's really useless...

Yep, and that’s what I did. But to a new person, there is little indication that there is anything to search for. Nothing in terms of native guidance. I’m thinking for your average mainstream adoption user.

Yeah a short information page would definitely help...

Saya benar-benar sangat menyukai postingan anda, follow me @tjunaidi.

I'd like to suggest that rather than attempting to fix the SBD and its related issues, we remove it and have all our valuable attention focused on making STEEM the best that it can be.

While I do see the value in providing SBD as an "easy in" to the world of cryptocurrency, this value is rapidly diminishing. Not only because of the peg not working properly, but because of how rapidly knowledge of crypto in general is spreading coupled with the fact that new users still have to deal with both currencies + Steem Power.

There is also a at least one potential economic backside to having a pegged currency dependant on STEEM, which could end up with us driving users towards using SBD as their primary means of exchange. This means - under certain market conditions at least - that there is less demand for STEEM than there otherwise would have been.

Fixing all of this would seem to require only one swift change: Stop issuing SBD. Something we could all live without.

Prices could then easily be displayed in STEEM and USD side by side.

I agree with your point that there is no use for a currency to make trading between dollars and Euros easier, because almost everyone exchanges Steem to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash if he/she is smart IOTA or to the at the moment because of this cryptokiddies-madness blocked/handicapped Ethereum.
So there is no reason to keep so mandy different categories.

But I disagree that it should be the Steem Dollar that should be omitted, because although the value is higher than the dollar many people trust this "term" that it has value because the are used/conditioned to it... This term definitely makes it easier to start steeming...

I even got a new idea while writing this: Instead of real silver, diamonds or platin the Steem(it) society/admins could also collect some Bitcoins and keep it the savings connected to the Bitcoin. So let's eradicate the savings column and make "Save as Bitcoin" -category...
But we almost have to keep the dollar to attract newbies to cryptocurrencies.

I also read many at steemit before I bought some Bitcoins because i wanted to understand this "crypto-trend"...

That's a interesting concept if I understood @dantheman's post correctly. SBD price gets driven up, plow it into Steem and Steem Power as a force-multiplier. This is awesome, such a great time to be on Steemit!

I think that there is always a discussion going on if something after a long time has been the same suddenly takes a different turn. In my opinion, it is always good to keep your eyes open and to see if the ideas that have ever been conceived are still applicable. On the other hand, you do not have to suddenly change a properly functioning system based on a one-time event to the system. Just my 2 cents on this

This isn't really a one time thing though. I predicted something like this would happen, maybe a few days ago or so. We have gone way over the $1 pegg before.

haha...... this is not just utopia.io worthy.....this is a special kind of keynesian genius, this is the new Spirit of teemgreed that we all need to deploy immidiately.

But to properly execut this, we need @ned to up the inflation to 1,000,000% so we rain down Steem until we out-mime Dogecoin, and out count all crypto (added together) in the process. When crypto hits 100 Trillion, we'll be 100 Trillion Steem as well.....and 1Billion in Zim-SBD.

:D

@trafalga I appreciate @dj123 his speech,,,

dang it @mohsin01 ..... now you did it, you made me go upvote myself

haha.... I'm such a pushover.

go see my reply to @rolams below if you like the idea of pushing the limits of Steem being used as large national currencies!

Actually, the whole Zimbabwe could run on SBD because it will be much better than what they are currently using. The dollar is crap. Bitcoin is a shitcoin now considering its fees.

Important note: People in Zimbabwe largely don't use their own currency and use dollars instead because of inflation.

Shoot I didn't see this reply until now..... agreed @littleboy, I just wish I did not have to buy bitshitcoin whenI transfer my moolah to buy Steem, also EtherSnailToken takes like half a day to clear, and the stress of endless waiting and wondering if my funds have disappeared into the Ether makes me constipate.

When bittrex or poloneix comes up with a great Cash to Steem solution I will rejoice.

Maybe we need to ask @TeamNigeria and @TeamZimbabwe to come up with an exchange to go from cash to Steem & SBD first neh?

:D

good suggestion ! it will be ok in Nigeria Naira (#) too

heh..... So let me understand the proposal SBD - Zimbabwe dollars, Steem - Nigeria Naira correct, that's an unbeatable combination.

haha!

On a side thought:

Note: Nigeria Annual GDP is about 500 Billion.....to support it they need a multi-Trillion dollar crypto! So would Zimbabwe :D

Actually theoretically this may work.....if Zimbabwe and Nigeria adopted SBD and Steem as their national currency, we'll clean up 2 countries financial ledgers as well and bring Steem within striking distance of the Trillion range...haha.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nigeria

This was the comment - I was looking for

Are Z dollars worth less than a single IOTA now?

Would you think over my proposal in these comments to remove the SBD entirely. Do you see any economical holes in it? Is there something I did not consider?

I value your opinion and think that this might be something for PAL and MSP to ask its new users about and discuss amongst the more senior users as well.

Yeah, this is an amazing time to be on Steemit.com and be able to post blog, vlog and so on and get 5X the rewards! This is insanely good!!!

The rise of cryptocurrencies, especially the ones relating to the Bitshares platform, Steem, EOS and Hero and the likes are slowly but surely getting the exposure they madly deserve.

Great article, as always, and want to thank you for your usual positive enthusiasm, the platform and everyone here gets to grow and gain from that.

Namaste :)

thanks
I think if we can make it really apparent that you can actually get 5x the amount advertised on the platform with a simple UI fix, many more users will flock to Steem, further increasing its value

I think there was once a chrome extension that shows the usd value of post and votes. I just forget the name, if im not mistaken, it was created by penguinpablo.

I think what should also be considered is the curation system on contents... because there are really newbies out there with bombastic contents and who voted for big whales as their witnesses, use hashtags like original-content, etc and yet they are not curated properly by the chosen witnesses and just get 0.10 SBD from other users.
To change the UI into USD might help..but when witnesses failed to curate great newbie contents then noobs will be reluctant to spend so much time to create posts.

Absolutely. The whole idea of marketing Steemit as a place to create your content is a sales pitch. If you're giving a value proposition in SBD it's okay provided people actually know what that represents, but they don't. Not if they're unfamiliar with the site. It certainly doesn't help that the amounts are represented by a dollar sign. If you're offering someone a value proposition, make your numbers look as good as possible while staying honest. I'm 100% with you.

wow. great information and well explained. superb writing. you giving price of steem and SBD But now values increased and now rate of Sbd is 7.73$ on coincapmarket.

I already tell everyone to don't sell SBD. Because its time to hold SBD and i also said that buy steem and SBD in my cryptonews post. That time rate of SBD was 5.59$.

steem is either decreasing or increasing graph. but value of steem will increase and now value of steem is 1.84 $ on coincapmarket.

LOL. SBD will go back to $1, sooner or later. I am selling every SBD which I am earning.

Only a moron would disagree with you.

This is a bounty

In fact a Nice incentive to buy a cryptokitty :D

Yep , got to get myself a cryptokitty. 🐱

Yeah, I think it will as well. This is a great time to get rid off any spare SBD in our wallets!

you are right about wrong numbers, but here is another question: if post show in sbd then why we receive 50% of it lets say 40 steem power and other amount 50 sbd ( from post of 100$ ) , because as i know in internal market steem now is like 1 sbd =5-7 steem, so we should receive from post 200 steem and 50 sbd this will be right, but somehow steempower is fixed on usd dollar ? any idea why its so?

The way I understand the situation, Steem and SBD are 2 different tokens tradeable in the crypto market..so they have different values. Some months ago when I joined steemit.com 1 SBD is almost equal to 1 Steem so that when you sell your SBD you know how much you will get in the terms of the exchange rate in the platform. Now, the market shows that steem´s value suffered a loss as SBD is up.

nice what you siad but could you help me how can be ? really it's nice dear

ys question is from post rewards we receive not the numbers of internal markets in terms of steem power. We should receive much more.

50% of the value shown is paid out in SBD and 50% in Steem.
For every dollar shown you receive one SBD, the Steem you receive is determined by the blockchain.

An example (curation rewards are not considered here: Your post is upvoted by someone with that much Steem Power, that you would get 1 Steem. 1 Steem is currently worth $1.92, so Steemit shows that your post is worth 1.92$.
After payout you get 50% in Steem, that means 0.5 Steem and 50% in SBD that means 0.96 SBD. It doesn't matter how much SBD is now worth in the markets.

ye before i thought that in your example 1 Steem is currently worth $1.92, i thought they show in SBD worth not in US dollar. And because sbd is always in system 1$ then its 1.92 sbd

It is shown in USD not SBD, right. That's why you receive so much SBD.

1SBD =5 USD to 7 USD. That does not mean it is equal to the same in steem. This is not how it works. These currencies are independent of each other. One is tied to USD whereas the other is not. For one SBD, you would get 3 steem if steem/USD =3

Help ful artical i always use 100%
Upvote earning
Thanks bro its great profitable stretigy

That would be great, but not quite sure how to get more engagemnt to a good contant that one creates :) ?

I am new here pls teach me how to tobe among the top earners too.

My brain could not comprehend the serious business-like nature of your helpful suggestion without any humor, until the relief came when you brought it home with a Dan handjob joke.

It was like sitting down on a nice Sunday with breakfast and a newspaper to read the comics, only to find the local business section in its place, ending with the "massage" ads.

haha
well I guess the wall street journal's reputation has taken a hit if they're mostly covering heroin smuggling and broken condoms these days

Disagree. The point is to go away from fiat.

Wait wait wait, You wanna tell me that if i get rewarded by 10 SBD i can trade it for 50 STEEM ?

I don't understand how can SBD be higher than the US dollar if it's designed to be around the US dollar price.

It's so weird can someone please explain it to me, I have no idea how all this system works.
I really enjoy the platform, But i have basically zero idea how the whole system works.
I know that STEEM is the main token.
STEEM POWER is your influence.
But what is SBD for and why it's higher than the US dollar if it's designed to be at the same price ?

Should i just keep my money in SBD, Rather than STEEM ?

Thank you for your help!
Roma,

yes, right now you get maybe 7 Steem for 1 SBD because SBD is trading at over $14 at the time of writing
so yeah, this blockchain is very generous with its rewards
lets advertise it and grow its user base

Wow that is so good to know!
Basically SBD is more valuable than STEEM at the moment.
But i don't understand how it's so high, i mean i'm not complaining. I just want to understand how all this system works.

Thanks.

It depends on the external markets and not on the internal markets. For example, SBD is traded lower on the internal markets because of less demand or trade volume. On Bittrex and hitbtc for example, it is traded at much higher volumes with more demand and so the price is higher there.

If you convert on the internal market, you will not get this same value for by your SBD.

This is why, although SBD has increased by much, the average value in USD on my account has not really changed.

20171209_083902.png

@trafalgar - this is definitely true and where else to look other than this post itself - while even 314 SBD (at the time I'm writing this) is fantastic reward for a post, when you think that same amount is equal to over $2190 - it's mind boggling! (damn I don't get that much from my fulltime job in a month) :)

Darn, can't think of anywhere else in the world you can get paid this much for a 500 word post ... Writers/Bloggers, are you listening?

Steemit rocks and rolls! :)

it's not quite that high as some of the rewards are in Steem and some are in SBD
but it is at $1500
of course things might change 7 days from now at payout, but it is true that currently this post is at about that value, and that posts made 7 days ago are also enjoying this surge in SBD

We should really try to advertise this more clearly to get more interest onto the platform. Steem is a very lucrative place to be, and it can easily convert higher prices into more users which in turn lead to even higher prices.

@trafalgar, yes, what you said is correct. Neverthless, this is the most lucrative platform ever for somebody who can write and post articles.

What is really confusing is that it shows the $ sign. Which let's you think it's USD

yes, that's definitely an issue
it was the idea in the first place to have a pegged currency so everyone can know roughly how much rewards are worth in USD, but that's been undermined by SBD getting pumped

So I think we should display rewards more clearly as this would certain attract more onboarders

Free hand jobs!

Have you got stickers?

hahahaha I like how that's the one takeaway you got from this piece
I guess I should've known my follower base better

Takeaway handjobs? - this is getting better!

Ah, if only my bus driver were that cheap.