The value that @spinvest brings to the STEEM eco-system.
I feel compelled to write a piece highlighting the value and positives of the @spinvest program. It has come to light recently that a curation project has blacklisted everyone holding SPI tokens. There is one we know for sure, others maybe, but so far unconfirmed. I won't go in to details, not looking for any drama, but you can read this warning to all SPI token holders post for more information.
If you do have involvement in "newsteem" style curation initiatives, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the @spinvest set-up and the status of our members.
Spinvest, in my eye's, was set up to build a tokenised investment fund on Steem Engine. The premise is quite simple. The STEEM revenue from every token sold is powered up, and then the resulting SP is leased out for profit. Profits are reinvested into other asset classes, both on chain and off. So far, the club has bought some BTC, and is in the process of buying some Silver, and will continue to buy other assets as long term holdings.
So far, I don't see an issue. We are taking liquid STEEM and powering it up - long term. We are leasing it out. We are buying other assets with the revenue, adding to the Net Asset Backing of the SPI token. It is already fully backed by SP, and then the diversification adds further value.
It is important to note we are an investment club. There is a membership agreement, and votes are regularly held to democratically choose the direction. No roles for people actively participating are paid. Neither the founder, nor other people playing an active role are paid or benefit in any way from their time, beyond the general rise in SPI value that everyone benefits from.
What is the SP used for?
The STEEM power we have accumulated is leased out. Initially, DLease was the main avenue, but since the latest Hard Fork, direct, off-market Leases have taken priority. One of the highest profile Leases is to SteemLEO. They are using this SP to reward top quality, curated posts and people posting from their front end. This is two projects, building on STEEM and growing, working together to build for the future. SteemLeo is leading the pack with regards to tribe development, and setting the bar for other tribes to match. The SP they are leasing from us is being used for good, it is beneficial to not just LEO, but the entire STEEM eco-system - in my opinion.
I am not as familiar with other projects we lease SP to, so I'll leave it to others to fill in any details there.
I think it is very important to note that not one SP is used to directly reward token holders through votes. This isn't a "buy a token, get a vote" scheme. Even organisers get ZERO votes from the SP (unless curated by the projects receiving the delegated SP). No reward pool siphoning, circle-jerking going on here. NONE.
What about @spinvest-leo?
As some may know, the @spinvest-leo account is one I manage, on behalf of the club. It operates differently from the main account. It has been set up to accept LEO token delegations, and reward delegators with SPI tokens paid for from curation earnings. The account is passive, with voting set-up to follow official LEO accounts only. We were briefly rewarding delegators with upvotes, but have stopped this practice in favour of the SPI payments. Lot's of other projects on STEEM pay delegators. In fact, most "NewSteem" curation projects pay delegators. So nothing wrong here. Votes are following LEO curated posts, adding to the value of good quality posts on the LEO frontend. I see this as a win all round. The Leo curated posts earn some extra rewards, the delegators earn a reward for tokens they may not be fully utilising themselves for curation, the Spinvest program builds a side income and a second asset base with exposure to the most dynamic tribe on STEEM.
Again, no delegate-for-up-vote, circle-jerking and no rewards or payment for organisers at all. The only benefit I get from about 5 or 6 hours a week of my time, is the 7 SPI I will earn weekly for delegating 7000 LEO to this account. Same rate of return as every other delegator.
I don't see any downsides to this overall program. It seems maybe the wording of our description makes us sound like we are here to profiteer and gain unfair advantage:
Steem powered investments @spinvest has been set up to offer an investment fund based on funding from STEEM POWER. Investments are funded through extracting value out of STEEM POWER and taking advantage of STEEM's high inflation rate. The aim is not to get rich quick; the aim is to build a safe portfolio of investments that will stand the test of time while ensuring all investor's starting capital is not at risk.
It seems terms like "extracting value" and "take advantage" are drawing negative opinion on what we are about. Maybe that paragraph needs to be re-worded, to better explain our purpose. However, I do not see that we are doing anything wrong, and certainly don't think every token holder should be excluded from the chance of a curation up-vote, purely for holding the token. I thought curation was meant to be about the quality and effort that goes in to a post, with consideration to the actions and motives of the account creating the post.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, all feedback, both positive and constructive criticism is more than welcome.
Regards,
JK
"A project on the STEEM Blockchain, doesn't like one of my investments, so they have blacklisted me from reaping rewards of their stake. That is part of the beauty of the blockchain."
We are not being actively seeked out to downvote or to take any of our earnings, we are simply not a part of their reward system. Doesn't seem so bad.
I have a personal blacklist of people whose posts I will not reward with my tokens or my stake. I won't even read them. I have different reasons for them, mostly, its people who have written stuff that annoyed me, or were snarky to me in their comments. ITS PETTY on my part, and kind of funny when I somehow see them on my feed and purposely NOT look at their posts no matter how amazing it might be.. Its my choice though, and I can do that.
I can see how this affects @shanibeer in her role, but... the people who are investing with her should understand that this exists on the blockchain.
I don't think we should say this curation tribe is "nonsense" or "butt-hurt" or any of the other comments some of us have been making. They simply don't like our policy. That's ok.
If I find out a real-life person doesn't like me and won't come to any of my parties or give my children any gifts, I am not going to go out of my way to explain to them that I am not awesome. I am simply not their cup of tea.
Now, if that said person doesn't like me because something I said was misinterpreted (like our paragraph about "extracting value") then we have the option to change our verbiage. It might even bring more investors because we explain things more clearly.
It may all come down to language: the term "blacklisting" implies some wrong doing (which is why it is problematic for me) rather than a difference in policy. By the same token, I agree that the situation provides an opportunity to review and improve the language @spinvest uses to present itself.
I was surprised to learn I was on this blacklist as I'm the epitome of boring middle-aged propriety - support communities, delegate to worthy causes, including the odd curation project that puts people on a blacklist without telling them, far less having a conversation etc etc. On the other hand, I did get thrown out of the allotment society for painting my shed pink rather than the regulation brown or black so perhaps I am more of a rebel than I think 😜
More seriously, the blacklisting of accounts has an implication for people's public standing and reputation. There has been no approach to the @spinvest account to ask for a dialogue and investigate properly what Steem Power Investments is about and accounts have been placed on a blacklist without being aware of this or having any opportunity of redress.
I work with charities in England. I'm in a partnership with a UK University to bring 28 London charities with a combined wealth of £40 million each year to the Steem blockchain. In doing this, I have a public role where I I work with the Mayor's Office, London Councils - the umbrella body for the 32 local authorities in London - and the Greater London Authority as well as several other London Universities. I have never been blacklisted on Steem or anywhere else and, due to the nature of my job, I am now obliged to declare that I have been blacklisted whenever I am involved in discussions about the Steem blockchain. To say that this is not helpful is an understatement.
Its very strange, I think. At the end of the day, it's one person's opinion and they are taking an ideological stance for whatever reason. I don't understand it, but it is stake they control and can vote as they please. I'd love some public discussion about it, but would be surprised if they will even see these posts.
FYI. I reached out to the founder of Steemleo to check he is still ok with what we are doing, and he is. 100% supportive.
Well, if a person doesn't like me and won't gift me from their wealth because they don't like me, they shouldn't have to have a "public discussion" about it.
The spinvest people who delegate to them and are STILL blacklisted should definitely have a discussion, but its not public, its a personal investment, they can have whatever stance they have.
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"A curation project has blacklisted everyone holding SPI tokens."
Why did I not see any explanation for this blacklisting? Is this a state secret or only the newsteemians may know why?
I don't know. At the end of the day, everyone's SP (their own or delegated that they control) can be used as they see fit. I'm not asking for or expecting up-votes.
However these curation projects are quite influential and some public disclosure surrounding decisions like these would be nice. I have no issue with people deciding as they see fit, I just was feeling a little defensive and wanted to ensure what we are doing was clearly explained.
Thanks for all your support @ronaldavelino.
I heard about the blocking of SPI holders by accident. It seems to be a purely personal approach by the founder of the curator. It seems a bit to me that there is no need to add someone who has a long-term investment.
It is the founder's right. Just not mentioned in the conditions for getting a vote from the curator.
And they should let people who give them delegations know that there are blacklists, but, the general public, well, not so much.
This information is not really public. She is known only by a few chosen and now also by SPI owners
Great share here jk. This needed to be brought to light. Honestly, hope curangel sees this post, or they’ve already seen it perhaps. There’s no need to blacklist SPI holders. We have done nothing wrong and tbh most of us are doing good for the entire steemit community as a whole (including other tribal communities).
Should tag curangel but I bet they’d probably be butt hurt since you pretty much debunked the myth that SPI holders are rigging the system somehow or another.
People just can’t wrap their heads around what spinvest is, and there’s a misconception and stigma that we are “counting our cards,” when in reality we are just playing smart
Thanks for the awesome post, jk
And thanks for all your hard work and dedication to spinvest and the Leo branch.
I’ll be reaching out to you soon on discord 👍🏼
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The whole thing makes no sense. My impression is that they have read the paragraph I quoted and jumped to a wrong conclusion. Should run a competition to reword it so it more acurately describes what we are about in a "newsteem" friendly tone.
Cheers for sharing your thoughts and hit me up anytime you like, if I am not on I'll get back to you asap.
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Looks like our guy ssuk May have edited this paragraph in his most recent post. I also edited it in my most recent post as well. Could also have a running contest to describe this overview in the most friendly newsteem way as possible. I bet we’d get some pretty solid entries
Cheers bredda
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