What Steem Needs The Most: Something A Whale Like @fulltimegeek Understands: Dolphins! Dolphins! Dolphins!
We have seen throughout history that for an economy to excel, it cannot have a huge separation between the rich and the poor. A huge income inequality is a recipe for disaster which was repeatedly proven over the years. Some have a great deal of concern about the United States, once the model for a stable economy, since the last 30 years saw the elite get even wealthier. The destruction of the middle class is causing grave concern with many economists to the point they believe the economy could implode because of this.
The same is true for Steem. Since blockchains have a monetary feature to them, part of the ecosystem is economic. Hence, just like the U.S., if there is a huge gap between the haves and the have nots, a problem could be on the horizon. One benefit STEEM has that the U.S. economy does not, is that the system is designed where the percentage of the whole held by the large players is reduced over time. Last year alone, the top 10% saw their overall holdings diminish from 88% to 81% percent. The largest gain was made in the Minnow group who saw an increase of over 5%.
What STEEM really needs is a thriving middle class. This is the basis for any sound economic system. On this blockchain, it is the Dolphins who represent that group. They are the one who will ultimately make things go. Dolphins have anywhere between 5K-50K SP which means they have enough power to make a difference, both individually and collectively. Also, since it is not an outrageous amount of SP, there should be a ton more of them than there are Whales. This is what will help drive this ecosystem forward.
For those unaware, @fulltimegeek started the Stewards of Gondor program where he delegated SP to roughly 40 individuals. Through this program, he allocated 5K-10K to each person (maybe more to some) which instantly made them Dolphins. In other words, he basically created 40 Dolphins by spreading his SP around.
Certainly, he could have kept it all to himself which would have netted him a nice return. He could have rented it out in an effort to improve his ROI. If he so chose, curating at that SP would mean a very nice monthly income for himself. Yet he chose to give it all away in the form of free delegation. Why did he do that?
Without speaking to him directly, it appears that he understands what it takes to make things thrive around here. One Whale is not going to influence too many Minnows. There simply is not enough time in the day to interact with that many.
Looking at last week's stats that @abh12345 put together, there were over 23,500 upvotes, many of them, I surmise were given to Minnows. Personally, I gave 606 during that time period with a guesstimated 75% going to Minnows. Would I have made those votes anyway? Perhaps. But the difference is, because of the delegation, my VP was worth double. This means that each Minnow received essentially twice the SP from my votes than he or she would have otherwise.
Here is @abh12345 post:
This is what a thriving middle class does. It is able to reach large numbers of people because of the sheer numbers. Tens of thousands of Dolphins can do what 100 Whales never could do, help hundreds of thousands of minnows. Naturally, we are not to the point where we see these kinds of numbers but they are coming. We know that within the next 6 months, there will be hundreds of thousands of active Minnows. The question is how many Dolphins will there be to help pull them forward and help their accounts to grow.
And this is where the Whales come in. What @fulltimegeek is doing is one approach that is obviously proving effective. @stellabelle, @wwf, and @steevc did the same thing. An interesting aspect of this is that some of the delegates are starting to do the same thing. @wwf was a receiver of SP from @fulltimegeek and now he is delegating some himself. I saw others who mirrored that with some Minnows in an effort to get them ahead quicker. Again, we see the multiplication impact.
Everyone wants to go to the Whales for everything. After all they have the SP, so people constantly want to hit them up. Overall, I found most Whales are very dedicated to STEEM and are doing a lot to make it succeed. However, in my view, it is not the Whales job to help Minnows succeed. The numbers are stacked against them. When you have the amount of people signing up and posting (30K authors daily at last count), the Whales simply cannot view all that material. That is why it is best for them to support the Dolphins who, in turn, need to support the Minnows. One Whale, @fulltimegeek, assisted 40 Dolphins who are assisting who knows how many Minnows.
Quite frankly, Whales have bigger fish to fry (pun intended). Many of them are from the technical side of things meaning they are involved in the development of apps and on the blockchain itself. Others are involved in the witness program ensuring that this blockchain runs smoothly. Still others are involved in the development and consensus on the rules that the witnesses implement. And still others took it upon themselves to clean up the site.
Of course, there are a number of Whales who do go around upvoting content they like and believe to be quality. I see many who not only upvote posts, but the comments also. Some do very little posting themselves yet their blog is full of resteems. Through this, they are doing their part to make STEEM a thriving ecosystem.
I believe that in the not-to-distant future, we are going to see a time when the price of STEEM precludes most people from buying in at Dolphin level. Just using $20, that would take $100K for someone to get 5K SP. Even $10K would only get someone 500 SP, a long way from being a Dolphin. Since Dolphins are needed to keep the "economy" of STEEM thriving, where are they going to come from? It is only through the support of the ones with higher SP that this will happen.
Therefore, we need to do everything we can to make the Dolphins more powerful so they can touch as many Minnows as possible and get them heading towards the minimum of 5K SP. There will be a time when 500 SP is a lot meaning the Dolphins will be the new "power breed". Over time, we will see some Whales powering down as they cash out for various reasons. This will only further enhance the situation I am referring to.
The future success of STEEM depends upon a strong Dolphin base who is active and focused upon supporting the Minnows as much as they can. This is what is going to lift this blockchain to even greater heights. Fill this place up with hundreds of thousands of Dolphins and you have a blockchain that will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars (if not into the trillions).
And this, I believe, is the motivation for @fulltimegeek and others like him. The payoff at the end will make it all worthwhile.
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Totally agree with this. We need more Dolphins.
BUT we shouldn't just be relying on generous Whales like @fulltimegeek to artificially be cloning them by the dozen.
Aspiring minnows need to get down to work the works, stave off the temptation to power down when they get a few hundred bucks, and buy some steem while it is still just feasible to do so.
I made it to Dolphin at the end of last year buying the last batch of steem needed the day before the price shot up!
What I hadn't realised when I became a Dolphin was how few there are. To become one of less than 1400 in the whole world could make me feel endangered.
Suddenly I have been propelled into a somewhat mythical world. I am the only Dolphin in Wales, and I am one of only a handful amongst the Homesteaders community.
It is great being able to help the minnows with useful votes but there urgently needs to be more of us.
One Dolphin can't support all of Wales !
I agree with you about the aspiring minnow powering up whenever they can. I see so many who simply do not do that. Looking in their account we see SBD moved out.
Sure there are many who really do need the money and for them, I understand. However, people should keep as much as they can on the platform as they can.
Yes - hopefully with a rising steem price people will see it as more of an investment to hold on to it and power up.
I have come across quite a few who joined in last summers boom months, accumulated a few hundred and then come the darker, flater, slower days of October / November cashed out.
I suspect they regret that now 😊
Hi
I am a new dolphin (a couple months a dolphin, 10 months or so on Steemit) the grind to dolphin is real. How do I connect with other dolphins to help each other in the grind to Orca?
I see the value in helping minnows and plankton, no problem. I made my 8000 th upvote recently.
But I think my journey towards Orca requires more dolphin to dolphin interaction. Any ideas or suggestions?
My dear friend, I will be a dolphin in a few days. It took a lot of hard work but I am going to get there. :) You are not alone.
😊
I agree, @pennsif! It's taken me some time to become a Dolphin, all through posting. It's an interesting position to be in. I seem to constantly adjust my voting approach, but I really liked @jedau's perspective that we invest in Steemians like we would invest in cryptocurrencies. It's hard to invest in folks that don't invest, themselves, here on the blockchain as well. Especially homesteading folks, because the idea of investing in long-term production capacity is so central to homesteading. Our Steem Power is like our homestead soil.
The other part that's been interesting about being a Dolphin (still a small one) is finally understanding how much we can vote. I see so many Dolphins hoarding their voting power. This lets us bestow upvotes of a couple dollars on ourselves or a few other people. But we can vote over and over and over -- at 100%. Even though our voting power may go down to 30%, we can still give higher rewards than most people on this platform. The more that Dolphins vote (and even high-powered Minnows), the more balance there would be in the platform.
Hi @haphazard-hstead - thanks for the @jedau link - most interesting. Will definitely revisit my thoughts on this.
The idea of how invested people are in the platform has just come up for me in the context of a new monthly grant giving project I have just launched. Inevitably that will be a criteria I will have in the back of my mind at least when deciding who to award grants to.
I'm still trying different approaches with voting at the moment. I'm currently working on my #SignUp100 campaign to get 100 more people on to steemit this year - particularly in Wales. That brings with it some degree of moral, and practical, obligation to fully support the new people I am onboarding - at least until they are past the initial few danger weeks when rewards are generally very sparse.
But as the numbers grow, if I am doing my job properly, that will become an ever more tricky task to balance well. 5K+ SP is very useful but it can't work miracles !
Your effort to bring on 100 people is admirable! And it will require supporting them for awhile, for sure. It's a complicated ecosystem here on the Steem blockchain, especially now with more and more platforms and projects connected to it. We all have to keep adjusting -- keeps us on our toes! ; )
This is my position ^^^ I am trying to post quality content daily and comment/interact with other posts. I have been powering up everything I can spare trying to get to 500sp. I want to reach a point where I can help others succeed as well as invest in the platform and my future!
👍
I agree. The only way is to zoom through the lower levels, them grind it out between 55 and 60 (thats where I am now and it seems to take forever to inch up to the next level).
Just keep posting daily, post good content and eventually, it gets seen. Ive been lucky that Ive had several posts picked up by whales. In each case, though happy to get the rewards, i noticed an almost obscene difference between my normal post returns and these isolated cases.
Curating good content at every opportunity has earns a consistent amount. This is what we can do best at the lower levels of the Steemit ecosystem to help both ourselves and other minnows inch our way upwards.
Better to view whale curated posts as anomolies and stick to earning the rewards.
Yes, just keep at it is the only answer.
This is my position ^^^ I am trying to post quality content daily and comment/interact with other posts. I have been powering up everything I can spare trying to get to 500sp. I want to reach a point where I can help others succeed as well as invest in the platform and my future!
It's the only way. At least you will know thatvfollowets and upvoters are genuinely interested in your work.
I agree:)
I have written a couple articles about building and lifting the network and spiralling value outwards to those who are looking long-term and hopefully more with 'unused' SP will loan it outwards to do this. I call them community nodes.
I pay for delegation so I can be part of the community at a greater level but as some have mentioned, the smaller accounts need to spend some time developing good content and building their own wallet also. It is not good enough to rely on others for eternity nor to rely on bidbots and support programs.
It is getting quite expensive to keep paying for the delegation, though I can wear the costs better than many. 20 percent or so of my own SP is also delegated to others, some new starters, some for manual curators.
Lots of ways to help at every level of the ecosystem, it can't be left up to only a few though.
This is so true and often overlooked. So many people think they cannot contribute yet they can. There is so much going on here that it will take the efforts of everyone to really move this forward. It is happening before our eyes which is a wonderful thing.
I appreciate your comment @tarazkp. Yes not everyone is able to rent SP....in fact, it is risky for a great deal to do that since they do not understand how this all works.
As for the entire network, that is key....if STEEM is truly going to reach its potential, we need to see all aspect of the ecosystem improved and uplifted. Therefore, personally I am doing my part by posting and interacting with others. I leave the coding to the experts. LOL
I completely agree with you. As the platform grows, it will be harder and harder to grow the middle of the earnings curve, at least from a numbers standpoint. I appreciate what is being done already and the attention that segment continues to receive from posts like this. Hopefully we can continue to put an emphasis on it moving forward so that the overall health of the platform can continue to grow and thrive. I think the communities will really help diversify and grow certain sectors as they should be able to "specialize" in certain areas. We'll see how it goes.
I also think there needs to be a little more emphasis on upvoting comments rather than just new content. Both are important but I think people who comment are showing a much greater willingness to get involved and actually care about the health of the platform. Too many times I see authors with $100+ on their posts while the commenters providing the bulk of the upvotes (if not the dollar amount) receive pennies, if that, for their support of the author. It makes it a little frustrating to make the time to read posts. Just my thoughts.... Thank you!
I'm one of those guys who mainly comments.
I work long hours and I don't have much time. So for me I have to find the balance that makes most sense. I could spend my time writing posts that few people would see or I can spend it commenting on posts from authors I like.
This is the better option for me all around. More people see my comments than see my posts. I help add value to quality work. I make more from comments than I do for posts. That means that currently, me commenting is better for Steem, the authors, and myself.
This might change in the future if I have more time and as my SP increases but I can't really see me slowing down on commenting. If anything I will probably comment more.
Another factor I think about is that when I comment on a post my interests and the authors interests are aligned. We both derive satisfaction from acknowledgment and engagement in what we have written. I put effort into comments, just as authors put effort into posts. When others recognize that it makes it feel like our time wasn't wasted.
Thank you for your comment @dagger212.
I have thought about writing a post covering that same topic.
That is something I noticed a number of Whales do...not only do they upvote articles but they will also upvote comments. Yet, when I look at what whales and dolphins do, many of them will upvote an article yet not the comments. This is especially true in their own articles...you will see them comment back but no upvotes of the comments given.
I guess it is part of the educational process on here. So many come here looking just post...it is a process to get them to comment...then they upvote articles...then we need to condition them to upvote comments.
@taskmaster, I agree with you 100% on this post. Well written and I thank you for bringing light to my work as well. I was delegated 10K from @fulltimegeek as he loved my posts and hoped that the spirit of my message would influence the other Stewards of Gondor.
I found that when I started delgating my own steem away to build up those who were red-fish / plankton to help them become minnows, my own success increased. It was an amazing observation to see the rewards for giving and helping.
I suspect that @fulltimegeek is witnessing the same for himself, although he has not come out and said it. I have 8 people with whom I have delegated and committed to helping them become minnows. My help is not just in delegating steem, but I also help bring awareness to their blogs by created the 'Stewards of Terra Mater', similar to what @fulltimegeek did with his 'Stewards of Gondor'. The publicity helps tremendously and should not be ignored. But I also go one step further and I provide them with guidance and assistance to help them learn about the system, answer questions and mentor them through the journey. It is hard work, but I know that these 8 individuals will pay it forward and that is how we build a community and strengthen it so that the bullies don't tear it apart.
It takes a leap of faith to delegate so much steem away. At one point I had delegated 99.9% of my steem. However, the steem just keeps rolling in, so it is hard to keep giving it away! lol
I really do encourage people to build their own team. It really does pay off for ALL involved. Thank you @taskmaster4450 for writing this blog post. Well done my friend and fellow Steward of Gondor! May we influence this platform and may the ripples of our actions spread throughout the platform for all time.
Thank you as always @wwf.
And it is my pleasure to include you in this post and share with all the wonderful work you are doing with your SP and the following you are creating. It is truly magical how so many people are positively affected by the acts some are doing on here.
It is funny you mentioned a following...while only doing my first delegation last night, I have taken the approach I am going to help those who follow my by upvoting all comments (that I see...at times I get overloaded). The other day I was thinking I am the pied piper of Minnows since it seems I amassed a following of them. LOL.
That is okay, the regulars reply to all my posts and get between 14-16 upvotes per week from me. Over the course of a few months, that will have to add up. Hopefully they remember me when they become famous.
It does get overwhelming and my vote power is delicate as a result of me upvoting those I've delegated towards. I hope they remember me when they become famous too! lol
I don't know if it will help my friend, but I will remember you. 😁
VP is like gold...so precious and in need of guarding. It is best spread around but not too much...just enough is magical...a tad too much and it is diminished.
More art than science.
Indeed! I work hard to make sure it does not drop below 75% but mostly the point where it can recharge in 24 hours. That is the goal.
Beautifully and wisely said!!
Generally, the crypto holder or reach person can rapidly achieve the bigger whale and instant got massive reach, in thus situation for middle person or lower need just 20k-35, SP that's the enough, rather than yiu csn choose many thing! @taskmaster4450
Upvoted & Resteemed!
I am one of the users who've received a 5000 SP delegation from @fulltimegeek and I agree with everything you've said!
I want to build my account not only to become more powerful myself, but also to delegate others to grow our whole community.
840 is the number of unique authors I upvoted last week and I would've done that even without the awesome SP delegation too most likely, but the upvotes would've been worth just a fraction without the delegation, so with this delegation it truly feels that I make a difference.
And that's also one of the reasons I want to delegate others too in the future. To give back and to grow our entire community.
This hits the nail on the head. When you look at the number of people you upvtoed and the amount of SP they received versus had you not had that SP, it really makes a difference. Sure, for each person it isnt a huge number, although, if you are like me, you are hitting up the same people multiple times throughout the week. I try to upvote every comment on my posts meaning my regular commentors are getting 14-16 upvotes per week from me.
That's exactly what I've been doing too! 1881 is the number of upvotes and 840 is the number of users who got the upvotes, so many of them received multiple upvotes. Especially the users who comments on my articles regularly.
I'm a firm believer in the fact that I would be nothing without my readers and followers, so the least I can do, is to respond to and/or upvote each comment I get on my articles. Which is why the regular commentators will and can get multiple upvotes.
I agree @hitmeasap.
I often wait until my VP recharges so I can give decent votes out...even when hitting the better comments at 7%, with the price of SBD, it is decent money.
The whales often get attacked for circle but, when you think about it, that is the way to large scale success, both individually and collectively. If we upvote those who comment on our posts, then, over time, their votes are worth more which increases their votes to us which increase our SP...and so on.
Pulling up minnows with upvotes helps my own SP received on my posts since they will carry more weight.....hopefully they will all become dolphins soon (and remember me when they are lol).
Yeah, I've been struggling to keep my VP but it's a work in progress. I recharge slowly but steadily right now. While I continue to spread the wealth as usual. Almost.
People have to see the bigger picture, or at least try to see it. Short term thinking can be good for all of us, but long term thinking is what really will change everything for the better. Keep up the good work!
I agree. I guard my VP like it is the most valuable thing in the world...I will not let it get below 85%. To me, it is crucial I exert discipline. I see many with a ton of SP yet their voting weight is down to 10%. Suddenly a 100K SP account is voting like it is 10K...or a 10K like it is 1K....I am like, look at all that SP just tossed aside.
People need to understand how early the blockchain game is. We can truly change humanity through crypto tokens. STEEM is going to be a major currency to do that since it will be in the hands of people since they can earn it on here. It is up to us to get it to as many people in as large an amount as possible.
Plus an upvote from a Dolphin could well inspire a Minnow to keep at it....that could be invaluable.
Well said! I'm down to ~58% VP right now, but I was at ~50% when I got the delegation so it's not a mystery that I drained my VP.
However, everyone will benefit more if I get my VP back, which is why I'm trying to recharge it. Even though I do it slowly.
I just can't stop to upvote content to get my VP back faster, so I still vote but I do it with a little less percentages. Slowly but steadily recharging. :D
I see it as a win/win for everyone, and it will be an ever larger win when I'm back at higher VP.
It would be interesting to compare the total amount you give out by voting with a low %, but keeping your vote power high -- compared to voting at a high %, but letting your vote power drop to 30-50%. The way I look at it, I can give out lots and lots of higher value votes, working my way to a lower voting power. Our voting power only drops 2% of the remaining power, with each 100% vote. So the decline in value gets less and less as we vote more and more.
Great stuff :)
Nothing more to add from myself that you haven't stated in the post, or the discussion with @hitmeasap.
@fulltimegeek is a class act and one of a kind with regards to the size and spread of his SP delegations.
It would be great to see more follow and perhaps given time, they will. The additional nice part about it all is the 'sub' delegations that have started to appear. Lets see how far we can get with this, it could be epic.
Fine work, and thanks for the mentions!
Maybe you can tell me...how does one delegate?
What are the technical aspects in one's wallet of how it is done?
I use this tool, by Steem's number one witness: https://steemit.com/steem-project/@jesta/vessel-006-steem-power-delegation
Accounts, SP Delegation:
Additional account creation: https://steemit.com/steem-project/@jesta/vessel-007-account-creation-encrypted-memos-bittrex
Good luck :)
In addition to vessel that @abh12345 mentioned, you can also delegate from steemworld.org
But I am not aware of any way to delegate from within Steemit itself.
Thank you @preparedwombat.
That helped a great deal....very simple to use also.
I use this tool developed by @justyy to delegate.
https://helloacm.com/tools/steemit/sp-delegate-form/
I have a lot further to go in becoming a dolphin if the definition starts at 5000 sp, but I think that's the status I'll strive and be happy with if I get there.
You will get there @dirkboy41.
1K SP after signing on in December is a good start. You will get there by the Spring if you keep on going. You next goal is 2,500 SP...commenting can only help you in that regard....
There are so many different ways to bring SP into our accounts...it is wonderful when it starts to snowball.
Appreciate the encouraging words, but 99% of it is funded as an investment, but I'm already pleased with the earned SP from interacting on the site. Slowly but surely, I'll get there eventually!
Thanks for the information. I'm relatively new to Steem and am still learning my way around here, but you get it. By helping others, you help yourself. I hope to become a Dolphin at some point in the future. Steem has the potential to go up 50-100x if the community plays its cards right.
50-100x?
LOL You must have been reading my posts. Well to the land of lunacy where STEEM optimism reigns supreme.
Of course, those who dont believe might be the ones eligible for the funny farm since your prediction could well come true....I am of that belief too.
Even at that lofty valuation, Steem would still be worth only a fraction of what Facebook is worth today. You tell me, on which platform is it more profitable to spend one's time?
I am not in the Steemit is after Facebook camp...at least they arent going for it at this time.
Steemit is being geared to attacking Reddit. The features are similar (even the name matches) and communities are going to mirror subreddits.
Of course, all of STEEM is not just steemit...we know D.Tube is going after the youtube crowd and, in my opinion, will have huge success at doing that.
Overall, we are going to see much higher numbers.
The middle class is crucial. If it wasn't for a few people on here who have some decent SP I would be making nothing. You are chief on that list @taskmaster4450.
It is the difference between a vault with all the wealth locked in it benefiting no one and being surrounded by a world of abundance and wealth.
When I came here I found your posts pretty quickly and I realized that this is one of the few places that the whole abundance mentality thing is actually practiced by a substantial group of people. I have tried to apply these principles consistently and I have been steadily rewarded for it.
I do my best to share. I try to provide thoughtful comments to quality authors. I upvote a good amount of posts and comments. And I have engaged more than a few newbs in discord to try to show them the ropes.
I don't have a large account yet, but from my pov I am crushing it with this strategy. This all due to the generosity of others. We have an opportunity to raise people up here and show others what the world could be. That is what this place is all about.
Thanks to @Fulltimegeek for helping others do this work and for everything else you do. Thanks to all his delegates for actually doing the work of making Steem an awesome place for new Steemians like myself. And thanks to @Taskmaster4450 for continually lighting he way on the path to abundance.
Keep Steeming!