Why Steem witness @blocktrades continues to sponsor contests

in #utopian-io6 years ago

With over 2500 participants and over 2000 SBD in prizes, the @blocktrades World Cup competition was one of the biggest contests on the Steem blockchain to date.

I took part in this competition but a bit like England, failed at the final hurdles and am not amongst the winners listed in this post: https://steemit.com/busy/@worldcup-russia/winners-or-the-blocktrades-world-cup

Congratulations to all of these people, especially @alexicp who collected the humongous first prize of 600 SBD!

Repository

https://github.com/steemit/steem

blocktrades-wc.png


Introduction

The competition was sponsored solely by @blocktrades, a Steem blockchain witness and owners of https://blocktrades.us/ - a website in which digital currency can be exchanged and other services are offered, such as the purchasing of a Steem account and delegated Steem Power.

Contests are a good method of increasing engagement, but they are also an opportunity to raise the profile of an account, and indeed a Steem witness. This analysis is a look at how the World Cup competition has potentially raised the awareness of https://blocktrades.us/, and the @blocktrades witness.

The initial contest post was released on the 31st of May 2018, under the account @worldcup-russia. To date, 58 top level posts have been created by this account, and these posts contain over 3450 comments - almost 60 comments per post. Entrants to the contest were asked to use #blocktradesworldcup as their first tag, and (excluding author @worldcup-russia) 7188 top level posts have been created to this criteria.

The data collected covers the period from the 2nd May to the 30th July.

@blocktrades Witness votes - prior/during/following contest

As stated, the initial @worldcup-russia post was submitted on the 31st May, looking at the chart below which shows the witness votes cast/removed for @blocktrades for the timeframe analysed as mentioned above, it is possible that there is a link between this opening post for the contest, and a sharp rise in witness votes for @blocktrades.



The red circle covers 3/4 days following the initial contest post, the witness votes rising sharply compared to the two weeks prior.

On grouping the witness votes cast for @blocktrades into the two weeks prior to and following the initial contest post, there is a noticable rise in the number of votes cast.

WeekVotes cast
wk 3 May160
wk 4 May156
wk 1 June214
wk 2 June194

The witness votes cast/removed only tell part of the story. On the 6th June 2018, I produced an analysis which listed the number of VESTS voting for each witness. At this time @blocktrades had 59925.46 MVESTS supporting their witness, and were positioned at number 12 in the active witness ranks.

Today, the @blocktrades witness has an active rank of 6, and is supported by 64,167 MVESTS source. This a percentage gain in MVESTS of 7.1% since the 6th June, and is the 2nd highest increase in supporting MVESTS, during this period, of the current top 20 witnesses.

RankWitnessMVESTS 6th JuneMVESTS Today% gain/loss
1gtg7570474511-1.6%
2jesta7458071402-4.3%
3roelandp7147270453-1.4%
4timcliff6965569331-0.5%
5good-karma6801967670-0.5%
6blocktrades59925641677.1%
7ausbitbank6402863661-0.6%
8aggroed61033616261.0%
9curie58595610424.2%
10clayop61002609870.0%
11smooth.witness60398609781.0%
12someguy1236131860368-1.5%
13lukestokes.mhth59831599990.3%
14followbtcnews58183590521.5%
15thecryptodrive6185458684-5.1%
16anyx5897557047-3.3%
17xeldal5652655153-2.4%
18pfunk5492554543-0.7%
19cervantes49432539939.2%
20riverhead5269051736-1.8%

The chart below shows the loss or gain in MVESTS for the current top 20 witnesses, over the past 90 days. @blocktrades is one of only 6 to gain MVESTS, and is a clear 2nd in the number of MVESTS gained.

Although there are many other factors to consider, it certainly looks like the #blocktradesworldcup has raised awareness for the @blocktrades witness.

Number of transfers To/From @blocktrades - around the time of the contest

Taking a look at the transfer activity around the time of the event, the data suggests that there is little correlation between transfers and timing of the #blocktradesworldcup contest.



Around the beginning of June, there are two peaks which show higher activity than the previous weeks and the rest of June, but this isn't a strong case to show that the contest boosted the number of transfers.

Summary

The transfers to/from @blocktrades around the time of the #blocktradesworldcup contest seemed unaffected by the contest. However, the support of the @blocktrades witness, both in number of votes and supporting MVESTS, has certainly increased over this period.

Around the time of the opening post for the contest, @blocktrades listed Monero as a option to buy and sell. It is possible that this move generated additional witness votes, but I would like to think that the #blocktradesworldcup has had the greater influence.

Script and Tools used to generate the data and produce the analysis

The charts used to present the data were produced using MS Excel.

The data is sourced from SteemSQL - A publicly available SQL database, managed by @arcange, with the blockchain data held within.

The SQL queries to extract the data have been produced in LINQPAD 5 SQL Server Management Studio and are as follows:


-- Votes added
select left(timestamp,11), count(*) from TxAccountWitnessVotes where approve = 1
and witness = 'blocktrades' and timestamp > getdate()-90
group by left(timestamp,11)
order by left(timestamp,11) desc

-- Votes removed
select left(timestamp,11), count(*) from TxAccountWitnessVotes where approve = 0
and witness = 'blocktrades' and timestamp > getdate()-90
group by left(timestamp,11)
order by left(timestamp,11) desc


-- Transfers To
select  left(timestamp,11), count(*) from txtransfers where [to] = 'blocktrades' and timestamp > getdate()-90
group by left(timestamp,11)
order by left(timestamp,11) desc

-- Transfers From
select  left(timestamp,11), count(*) from txtransfers where [from] = 'blocktrades' and timestamp > getdate()-90
group by left(timestamp,11)
order by left(timestamp,11) desc

blocktrades.us website: https://blocktrades.us/

Witness voting: https://steemit.com/~witnesses


Cheers

Asher

Sort:  

There seems to be a shift happening in the witness voting arena in general as community/project/service witnesses are starting to gain traction. Previously, individuals were the main target of witness voting. This is likely a good thing as a project team is somewhat more decentralized than the opinions of a particular individual.

The projects are also gaining traction in visibility and are therefore more likely to gain support by those who use or are supported by them. Again, this is a good thing in my opinion as the projects that perform the best are also likely to get more influence over the system in time.

@blocktrades has been and is both a controversial account due to vested interest but, also an account that has shown time and time again (often with decent supporting arguments) that they are not only invested in Steem but, are doing what they think is right for it.

One thing that also supports their witness (I support them for disclosure) is that their service has been one of the most reliable services on Steem and has been that way for a long time now. Their updates are always relevant and, they have never as far as I remember updated/posted without some kind of need. That in itself is rare here.

As for the world cup contest (and besides me not doing well), it created a massive volume of engagement as well as a fair bit of fun at a time when prices were low, engagement was low and the atmosphere was depressed. Those involved did a good job of running it at a time something like this was needed.

Thanks for the detailed comment!

I agree with the first paragraph, and think it's the direction things are heading also.

...[blocktrades] their service has been one of the most reliable services on Steem and has been that way for a long time now. Their updates are always relevant and, they have never as far as I remember updated/posted without some kind of need.

This is true, updates are less frequent that most and they do seem to have the approach of only post when there is something to say.

And yep, the contest was great for engagement and came at a good time. The prize pool was monster too, that certainly helped! Hopefully this analysis shows that their witness also benefited from the contest, and not just the guy taking home 600 SBD!

Cheers :)

Hopefully this analysis shows that their witness also benefited from the contest, and not just the guy taking home 600 SBD!

I wonder if you factor in the payout values of all posts that took part minus the ones supported by blocktrades, what kind of distribution and, what size accounts took part and benefitted.

Ouch, more work!

Can i put this on the list I keep telling you about (that little seems to get removed from)? :D

Good point. Between author and curation rewards flowing from so many posts, it was clearly a fairly wide reaching event.

It may be a reflection of the people I engage with here, but in a recent post that came into my feed asking for witness recommendations, there was a strong leaning toward community oriented witnesses rather than bidbot operators, who are beginning to be seen as more self interested than community focused (this may not be true of them all, but they are somewhat tarred with the same brush).

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I couldn't participate in the contest :/
@blocktrades and the team is really doing an awesome job pushing and motivating Steemians.

I would suggest all the Steemians to please don't forget to vote as a witness for @blocktrades.

You missed the contest? oh no!

The amount of funds/votes they puts into contests is pretty impressive, and it seems like a positive move for the witness based on the above.

Hi @abh12345, very impressive to see the rise in the number and value of witness votes shortly after starting the contest! I agree that this is a great publicity boost for blocktrades and for witness voting in general. It would be interesting to check how much additional witness rewards the boost in voting VESTs brought. Not sure if this could be calculated easily?

From Utopian perspective this contribution unfortunately doesn't fit very well with the current guidelines. blocktrades is a single account in Steem and the contest itself is not an open source project.

Your contribution has been evaluated according to Utopian policies and guidelines, as well as a predefined set of questions pertaining to the category.


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I was one of those who voted for them after realising that the contest was super legit and incredibly interactive.
They definitely made a big bet sponsoring the contest, but all this votes received require new contests because that´s part of what they promised to everybody when we voted. Besides that their work as witnesses is also good I would say.

Yes the contest produced a huge number of posts and good level of engagement, the prizes likely had a major influence in this.

Hopefully the analysis shows that putting on the contest was a good decision for the witness.

Yep, such a big prize pool definitely can boost a lot of things.
The analysis was great, really good job.

As always a very nice post!

Also very popular with the bots! 😋

The most important lesson learned from this is that you need to host a contest with at least 2,000 SBD price money. Any ideas how to pull that off? 🤔

😜😆😋

hmm, I'll get back to you on that! Maybe 5000 SP delegation would wet a few appetites :D

I was thinking perhaps can I help you?
But so far I always thought I can't. Cause let's be honest, look at my account. I basically have no followers that are not also participating in your league. And even the few I do have, those have 15 SP.

But the only thing I could do to help is if you like to organize a soccer poule in the same format as Fullcoverbetting hosted his world cup poule. Could be such a poule for the champions league.

Otherwise I just wait to see what surprises you will have.....

Don't worry about it😊

You are participating and engaging, that's all I ask!

Nice analysis of the tangibles; the outcome does seem to speak for itself.

What we will never know is the "value" in the long term of some unknown number of people thinking "blocktrades" instead of "bittrex" (or one of the others) when they need to engage in some kind of transaction. Not just now... but perhaps for months, or the rest of the time they spend on Steemit.

=^..^=

Thanks

Hmm, yeah, they are different though I guess?

@abh12345, Yes, World Cup Contest was really trending and for sure the contest by Blocktrades was biggest one and most successful too.

And really World Cup Environment was great and everyone was excited because there were many contests were going on and which gave opportunity to many Steemians to get some profits.

And in my opinion in future we will going to see more exciting contests and particularly when it's about Steemit Contests then we will going to see amazing collaboration.

Can you please let me know how to check characters entered into the Steem Blockchain till now?

Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂

Hopefully many more contests will be introduced!

Can you please let me know how to check characters entered into the Steem Blockchain till now?

Would you like Posts/comments/or both?

Just want to know if we can get to know whatever we are performing in the form characters (Posts/Comments/Reply) if possible.

Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂

It was an interesting article for me who translated and took part in @blocktrade’s worldcup. Thank you. I resteemed this article.

Thanks, and thank you for the resteem @yasu24 😀

It would be interesting to see if the SteemitBoard World Cup Contest had any significant effect on it as a witness and its sponsors as they were all witnesses too ;)

Perhaps I can look at that soon :)

Thanks for this. Btw, I'm trying to vote for you as witness by write in, but it never completes. Are you one of the witnesses?

Hey, no worries :)

My witness is @steemcommunity, I think we are around 76 in the list :)

Thank you!