Steemvoter and MinnowBooster are joining forces
We have an important and exciting announcement to make today! Effective immediately, the teams behind Steemvoter and MinnowBooster are merging together to create one single unified business structure, which we call the Build Team.
Practically speaking, this means that both projects will be operated by the same people going forward, leveraging synergies & sharing resources between the two to allow for an overall better user experience. Steemvoter is a useful tool for improving curation abilities, while MinnowBooster functions both as an upvote bot for hire and a marketplace for renting delegated Steem Power that takes your voting clout to a whole new level. Taken together, they are two sides of the same coin, a veritable Swiss Army knife of tools to give any Steemit user (not only minnows) a welcome boost on their way to success.
So how does this affect me?
For the most part it won't, at least not right away. Ordinary users can keep right on using both Steemvoter and MinnowBooster. You probably won't even notice there's been a change in the management structure unless you are reading this post.
But there is one highly visible immediate impact:
A new tech support model
Steemvoter support has been migrated to the MinnowBooster Discord Chat. Discord is similar to Steemit Chat, with several different chat channels covering various topics of discussion. But we believe it's a superior system, less buggy and with a rock solid mobile app for getting help on the go. We look forward to seeing you on Discord in the new steemvoter-support channel!
Also, there are several other channels such as general for discussing anything related to Steemvoter & MinnowBooster, and mb-support for getting help with MinnowBooster specific issues. You can think of Discord as a new place to hang out and interact with a community of fellow Steemvoter & MinnowBooster users. Don't just use it for tech support; pop in and say "hi" whenever the urge strikes you!
Note: the old steemvoter.com channel on Steemit Chat will stick around for a few more days to allow for a smooth transition, but after that it will be closed. So we urge everyone to migrate to Discord at their earliest convenience.
Self payment votes
Another immediate impact is in the way our revenue model operates. Steemvoter users will be familiar with these snippets from the Terms of Service that every new user agrees to upon signing up:
STEEMVOTER uses customer votes as payment for “FREE SERVICES” by way of 1 (one) vote per day or a maximum of 7 (seven) votes per week. By subscribing to our services, customers nominate STEEMVOTER as duly authorized, limited proxy and cede the aforementioned vote(s) to STEEMVOTER to be used in accordance to the payment terms.
STEEMVOTER can use the payment votes in any way, shape or form; typically, but not limited to being used to upvote @steemvoter or associated company accounts.
Up to now, we have mainly been doing self votes on @steemvoter posts by convention. But now that both products are operating as part of a single business, we will also be using these votes on @minnowbooster update posts, and possibly other team related accounts from time to time. There is no change to the Terms of Service; this is merely a different way of exercising the rights expressed above, and we're mentioning it here in the interest of transparency.
Introducing the Build Team!
Our expanded business now has an expanded team as well. Here's a list of the movers & shakers that put in a lot of hard work to keep things operating behind the scenes:
@thecryptodrive - CEO of the Build Team
Our CEO is a Steem blockchain serial entrepreneur, with nearly a year under his belt as the first Steem witness in Africa. His diverse real-world experience in property, finance and business management serves him well in spotting new business opportunities on the Steem blockchain and putting together teams to capitalize on them.
@thecryptodrive is the idea man; he handles all the business related aspects of Steemvoter and MinnowBooster, smoothly charting a path forward through the minefield of Steemit politics so our tech people can focus on doing what they do best.
He has been involved in numerous other Steem related projects, including founding the @steemdrive billboard campaign and @steemsports, which currently has a team of writers and developers working to create an alternate front-end for the Steem blockchain with a global sports community appeal. He was also one of the first thought leaders around Delegation Lending over eight months ago, going on to develop a practical business model for the @minnowbooster Delegation Leasing Market (DLM).
@cryptomancer - CTO of https://steemvoter.com/
@cryptomancer is from Issaquah, a small town near Seattle in the United States. He graduated from the University of Washington in 2003 with a B.S. in computer science and a minor in mathematics. Seeking adventure, he immediately moved to Japan, and has been living with his wife & daughter in Tokyo ever since.
His day job: a software developer for a big global investment bank. But his real passion is cryptocurrency investing, through which he hopes to escape the rat race and secure a life of freedom for himself & his family. He joined Steemit in August 2016, looking at the platform as a promising new investment for his portfolio.
In addition to serving on the Build Team as the Steemvoter technical expert, he is also a major crownholder in the VIVA project headed by @williambanks. He has been providing early liquidity on VIVA's new TradeQwik exchange and helped draft the VIVA whitepaper.
@reggaemuffin - CTO of https://www.minnowbooster.net/
Our main developer & technical expert for MinnowBooster, @reggaemuffin is a German student of Computer Science who is passionate about approaching the Steem ecosystem from a social perspective. He wants to support the good work other users are doing and help onboard as many new users as possible.
His many Steem based projects certainly align with the above goals. In addition to running his own witness node, he manages @welcomebot which greets & provides helpful resources to new users, built the current version of http://whaleshares.net/, and serves as the CTO of @steemsports.
@reggaemuffin brings a lot of dev talent to the table. He is proficient in many programming languages including Java, PHP, Python, Javascript, and Ruby, to name a few. A potent mix for tackling the challenges of the blockchain.
@coinhawk - system design consultant
@coinhawk is advising us on a number of matters, utilizing his vast financial trading & business experience. He was a restaurant General Manager for over 12 years, overseeing 7 successful new store openings during that time, and is now a Regional Manager. He also spent the last 5 years developing https://coinhawk.com/ , a unique auction platform for cryptocurrencies and precious metals.
He specializes in data analysis, project management, business management, website development, and consumer trends.
@tech-trends - moderator for Steemvoter support chat
You'll find @tech-trends hanging around the steemvoter-support channel in Discord. Always eager to help out and answer any Steemvoter questions you may have, he enjoys keeping people updated with the latest trends in technology as well as helping Steemit newcomers. He has only been on Steemit for barely a month himself, but has already earned a solid reputation as an outgoing people person in the community.
We also have a few more staff who wished not to be listed here, but you might have a chance to meet them if you stop by the MinnowBooster Discord Chat!
The future's so bright, you gotta wear shades!
With both Steemvoter and MinnowBooster brought together under the management of the Build Team, we hope to be able to better serve our customers and make using both products a more pleasurable experience. To all our loyal veteran users: thanks so much for your continued support, you guys make all the hard work worthwhile! And to all our new users, discovering our services for the first time: welcome aboard & we hope you enjoy the ride!
So come along with us, onward & upward, as we work toward empowering Steemians everywhere to realize their full potential.
3... 2... 1... blast off!
What is Steemvoter?
Steemvoter is an automatic voting service that votes on your behalf according to rules you set. You can control who the service votes on, how much voting power is used, and when to vote. Steemvoter will work for you 24 hours a day, so you never miss voting on your favorite authors! Sign up for free at https://steemvoter.com/
Steemvoter review & introduction:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@cryptomancer/steem-voter-review-bringing-bot-power-to-the-masses
What is MinnowBooster?
MinnowBooster is a collection of tools for boosting your voting. It currently includes:
1. An upvote bot that offers a predictable upvote return in proportion to your spending.
2. A Delegation Leasing Market (DLM) where Steemians can rent Steem Power on a weekly basis from investors who have extra Steem Power they are looking to make passive income from.
Check it out today at https://www.minnowbooster.net/
The DLM is the first of its kind on Steemit. Demand from renters has been so high we are having trouble keeping all the delegation orders filled. We are actively seeking new investors who wish to participate in this brand new market. If the idea of a risk free return of 40% APR compounded daily on your spare Steem Power sounds exciting, then head on down to the DLM and start filling some orders right this very minute: https://www.minnowbooster.net/market
For an idea of potential returns, here is how much @cryptomancer made yesterday from his DLM investments:
That's some pretty decent passive income, no? If you'd like to get started with DLM investing, check out this post for more details:
https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@thecryptodrive/investors-earn-up-to-49-apr-with-minnowbooster-net-delegation-leasing-market-dlm
Latest MinnowBooster update post:
https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@minnowbooster/minnowbooster-update-log-3
MinnowBooster introduction (this is only an overview, some details of the service have since changed, see update post above):
https://steemit.com/minnowbooster/@minnowbooster/introducing-minnowbooster-beta
Image credits: graphics in this post include screen shots from @cryptomancer's desktop PC and sun clip art taken from Pixabay, which is used under Creative Commons CC0.
Steemvoter and MinnowBooster logos courtesy of the Build Team. MinnowBooster footer banner created by @ryivhnn. Team bio photos were provided by each respective team member and are used with permission.
Why? You have a revenue model for your "businesses," so why do you need to continue socializing the costs by taking from the reward pool that is meant for content creators?
If people do not want to pay for your services, then that is a sign that the business is not viable. Relying on self-voted posts with the stake of every person who is signed up for your services is not a revenue model. You offer premium services for a price. If you are not making enough money from that, then you need to re-work your business model, not post more often so that you can #rewardpoolrape with more accounts.
I do not understand why so many people like this? They are openly advertising that they are going to fakeupvote your post if you pay them?
Right
Hi
Not cool
Well, I assume it's the same reason BookingTeam's daily link spam for $1000's of the reward pool also gets ton of upvotes. People are idiots and just upvote anything with a lot of votes.
they do staff just for $ :(
maybe you just translate with google :D
it is not fake voting it is steemit
Yes you are %100 right!
noinonononono!!!!! 50% damn rigth
And add to that, their moderator is blacklisted by cheetah.
ee
Instant upvote your totally right !
They Took Our Jobs !
haha, thats funny
I was not aware of this, very good inquisitive information and I'm going to look more into this myself to be prepared
If people do not want to pay for your services, then that is a sign that the business is not viable. Relying on self-voted posts with the stake of every person who is signed up for your services is not a revenue model. You offer premium services for a price. If you are not making enough money from that, then you need to re-work your business model, not post more often so that you can #rewardpoolrape with more accounts.
Hello, Interesting post. I'm @evgenya86, nice to meet you! I hope you enjoy my blog, I will follow your account and vote, please follow me and vote ... Good luck in everything :)
@teamsteem PLEASE STOP USING THE VOTING POWER THAT @jamesc DELEGATED TO YOU TO UPVOTE THIS CRAP! WHY OH WHY? WHY OH WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? EVERYONE PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT @THEPROPHET0 AND @TEAMSTEEM AS WITNESSES.. GREEDY COLLUDING REWARD POOL RAPISTS. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS IS ENOUGH TO FEED 60 MINNOWS FOR A DAY.. I HAVE SAID THIS MONTHS AGO AND I SAY IT AGAIN. STOP. @Thecryptodrive.
How dare you preach to anyone or point fingers you bloody scammer ... you've set up fake accounts to capture minnow funds ... you are a thief plain and simple. Delete your account(s)
A bad messenger can have a good message.
Good point lol.
Steemvoter has 3000+ happy customers, it allows ALL Steemians to utilize auto-curation, not just those with the technical know how. A demand exists and it is being met at a fair price. If 3000+ customers are happy to pay a single up-vote for the service, it's quite frankly no body else's business. It is their up-vote and they choose to delegate it to Steemvoter, these votes don't go on comments or spam (a much bigger problem), they go on original content in the form of company posts. Posts costs time, servers cost money. "The good message" is slanderous libel.
If they have 3000+ happy customers, then they should figure out a way for those happy customers to pay for the service that they love so much, not have the other 250,000+ users* subsidize the costs of their "business" via the rewards pool.
And no, these votes mostly are not used on "original content." They are used on the same template post for another "guild" voting scheme.
*I know that these are not 250,000+ actual people, just as SV doesn't have 3,000+ actual customers.
I respect your opinion and your efforts on behalf of the community fighting spam and plagiarism, but I disagree on this.
Just because you don't like a business model doesn't mean it's a bad one - I hate big oil - but it's a great business model. The votes belong to the users, not me and not you, and if they are happy to pay for a premium service with that vote, I don't see the problem. The Steemit userbase are subsidizing the business to about the same degree as your original comment, and to the same degree as any other comment/post/service running on Steemit. In fact, I think comment voting is the biggest unnecessary drain on the rewards pool, it should be replaced with a tipping system.
You refer to subsidies and socialization, but at the end of the day, this is nothing of the sort: it is a free market enterprise. If there wasn't a demand for the service, it wouldn't exist.
I did try to discuss this with you on steemit.chat dm yesterday and I'm happy to continue there if you like, though I'm not sure if we'll be able to come to any sort of consensus.
Awesome, nice work expanding the scam so you can continue to rape the reward pool and take advantage of everyone using your service! Don't worry though, soon you won't be earning any rewards on your posts!!
The customers are made aware of the use of small portion of thevotes , and if they dont agree they just can discontinue delgating SP or renting , I fail to see how this would be a scam in any form
This a free market where people Rent out and acquire SP which i used to earn rewards , to restrict the free market regarding the promotion of content would be actually be harmful to the network
Also a necesary condition for a scam would be deceiving customers about how the service works , there is no deception and the rules are explained clearly . In fact this post is doing so , and being open with the community
A " free market " but not an open one. As a minnow looking for delegated power you can only purchase it at one price currently. Apparently the "UI" does not yet offer the facility to set your own price. Seems everything else made it onto the UI.
Currently renting the amount of SP that would give $1.50 per 100% upvote costs 400 STEEM. At 10 votes per day that's a total of $15 available to distribute per day, over the course of 4 weeks = $420 when 400 STEEM is currently worth $500.
So your claim that " minnowbooster " is deceiving nobody is untrue because the name itself is deceiving. Even the most selfish minnow voters won't get a boost from this. This only boosts the delegators who are giving the STEEM.
Excellent points.
#didthemath
That only makes it non profitable / a bad decision to use. And well , a name is just that a name for the product to be recognized, like anyone from a business would tell you
It doesent probably live up to the expectation of boosting people , but there is no ill-intent and it delivers the vote power acquired so i dont see it as deceiving
The numbers will vary with the steem value , Its just a underperforming marketing tool right now and that may vary
Also , in terms of money it might make a loss for people buying the votes . but it still gives the users exposure and increases the post ranking , so maybe if they focused on that aspect and not revenue it could work out
The name is undeniably misleading. Just because their intentions aren't bad doesn't make it ok to mislead. I am not referring to the vote buying bot but the delegation market. They could very easily implement an open market to allow competitive prices but it seems a competitor will have to do so before they do.
https://www.minnowbooster.net/market
Currently there are no orders on the market which is enough evidence to me for a demand for better prices.
I agree it would be good to allow people to specify their own prices, but as @reggaemuffin pointed out that is hard to do. We are working on it.
As to your other point, there were 20+ orders on the market a few days ago. They all got filled and just haven't been replaced with new ones yet. We currently have 300,000+ SP delegated with around 300 order fills, so the initial offering is proving quite popular.
We will continue to refine the service as we go along. Thanks for sharing your concerns.
Thank you for tolerating my complaints. Currently I'm helping out where I can in the discord. If it's ok with you I might suggest a simple change to the UI if I figure out an easier way to understand price.
Happy to change the UI if you have suggestions :) Just hit me up on discord if you have a plan.
We already had free pricing and people got madly confused. I already told you that in the discord, no need to talk trash...
If you can code up a good UI that makes selecting the price intuitive (and define a default price if the user does not select one), then I could right now enable it.
If not, congratulations, please give it time we are currently working on it.
Edit: We enabled the pricing again and @beanz will help out with support a bit :)
Watch out for on247. He's a scammer
Can you elaborate?
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by steem-kek from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
I believe that you are trying to give minnows like me, a leg-up (I really only have one, one amputated Lol.) as you describe what you are doing, as being like "a veritable Swiss Army knife of tools to give any Steemit user (not only minnows) a welcome boost on their way to success", I need assistance of any kind, so thank you. Regards, Andre'
Says the guy who makes multiple accounts on minnow support to exploit the bots. You definitely know deception. on247
Nice
Too bad you waste all your voting power abusing people or you'd be able to fix this shit. @BernieSanders
Can't really say that I like the sound of this. Content should be voted for based on it's quality, not because it was boosted by a voting group.
love it , the word
That's right
Actually, now that I think about it, I find this amalgamation disturbing. Too much power being put in the hands of one group is never a good thing. Those who don't share the ideals of that group, or who refuse to join it, will now be hammered twice as hard as they were before. Bad news for newbies.
$600 for this? You've got to be shitting me.
$10 for this comment? You've got to be pissing me.
You're right, it doesn't deserve that either.
as long as it stays in the pool and don't get cashed out...it's gonna come around. is good for steemit is good for u! coins crash when everybody pulls out especially like big pinocchio type of whale like @steemvoter ;)
I will power it up, don't worry.
lol
Sounds scary
Hello Mr. @steemvoter this amazing revolution in steem voter, Iam gladly to join it. I hope steemvoter always be good site for all steemians. I have resteem it and upvoted your blog sir. If you free I have latest post about travel in Aceh. Your coming very appreciate for me sir.
Thanks very much for your support and the resteem! We hope you enjoy using our services and look forward to what the future holds.
Ofcourse sir.
I love steemvoter.
If I got $100 SBD a month I will register to premium.
Honestly Iam very happy to join steemvoter.
please follow me then i will also back follow you
Great
amazing idea + amazing people = Steem to Moon... Nice article, resteemed it..thanks
This post received a 3.0% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @hiroyamagishi! For more information, click here!
Go Team Builder. Sounds great. Upvoted. Resteemed.
Joey Arnold Oatmeal
Thanks a lot for your support! It means a lot to us that so many people appreciate our efforts and are able to benefit from them.
Thanks Joey that's very kind of you!
Great business move @thecryptodrive @cryptomancer @reggaemuffin.
If you guys ever need a web designer to take the web design to another level...i've work as a Senior Front-End Developer in the industry for 7+ years and love to offer my services!
As it so happens we are looking for experienced web developers to improve our sites. If you're serious about wanting to help out, send one of us ( @thecryptodrive @cryptomancer @reggaemuffin ) a private message on the MinnowBooster Discord and we can discuss further.