Today, I was chatting with @abh12345 from @steemcommunity about what I see is of supreme importance, building a middle class of Stake holders. There are several reasons I see this as important but the main ones are that they will have the ability to demand and support much smaller niches and spiral their distribution out accordingly. People talk a lot about the importance of distribution and it is very important for stability and decentralized governance.
Previously, I had the feeling that the middle class we need is a large group of accounts that hold between 30-60,000 SP. I said to someone yesterday, that with just 100 community-oriented middle-class, this place would look completely different.
I don't know where this post is going to go now and I am a little annoyed so, there is potential for offence and blunt words....
@abh12345 pulled a number for the accounts that held between 50-60,000 SP. Take a guess at the number.
58
Yes, 58. 1 million accounts and that is the number. A few moments ago I asked him kindly(ish) to pull a more comprehensive list. Ready?
< 100 - = 980776
100-500 = 13026
500-1k = 3442
1-5 = 4275
5-10 = 776
10-20 = 511
20-30 = 191
30-40 = 88
40-50 = 57
50-60 = 58
60-70 = 35
70-80 = 20
80-90 = 19
90-100 = 18
100k+ = 147
Do you know what that means? There are 9637 accounts with more than 500 SP in their wallet and THEY ARE ALL 1 percenters in regards to total Steemit accounts. Yes, you there with that 10 cent vote, you are a 1 percenter too.
Now of course, not all of the 1M+ accounts is active (or human) but, many of those accounts in the 1 percent are held by the same people. Many of them are alts.
This post was originally going to be about the small accounts that claim to be community focused and powering up. Community is about a future position and if you aren't consistently powering up, your current position isn't one of community. That sounds harsh and I understand that there are various life situations but just look at those numbers.
I have been here since January 2017 and sit at the lower end of the 20,000 SP range. I have worked very hard but, with prices of Steem what they once were, the levels of earnings people were getting and the recent SBD Spikes, there could be a great deal more in the 1000-10,000 range, but there isn't. Perhaps if there were, this place would look a lot healthier than relying on 1000 accounts to cater for every other.
Once upon a time it used to be that networking well with the smallest accounts would be monetarily valuable as they would eventually grow into larger accounts but, that is no longer true as we can see from the numbers. So few of those accounts powered up. There was something like 20,000 active accounts when I started here. That covers everyone from 100 SP up. What happened? Why did So few power up?
I mean fuck. Really?
Take out the alts, the circlejerks, the self-maximizers from 5000 SP and up and what the hell is left? Are you one of the community talkers who could have powered up and balanced the books a little? Pulled some of the weight of the community that has supported you? Harsh? I don't think so anymore. There could be several more thousand in the 5 - 10,000 SP range but, they powered out however, there is still a great deal of entitlement and outspokenness on how this place should be more community focused. I am here, where are you?
We look to the top as they are the ones with stake but just seriously look at those numbers, if you have been here a year or more and haven't been able to earn 500 SP considering SBD had a ratio as high as 11:1 in December, you are seriously doing something wrong. But, there is less than 10,000 accounts above 500 SP....
How many accounts have had @curie knock on their post, @ocd, @utopian-io or @blocktrades tap on their shoulder? How many have had @steemstem support them, or random votes from @acidyo, @kpine, @thejohalfiles or @glitterfart types over the last 2 years yet... so few powered up and kept it there, so few thought that being part of the future of Steemit meant being able to support others to be part of Steemit.
Perhaps there should be another two indicator next to rep:
- Percentage of earnings Powered up
- Currently powering down
Why if I am a community orientated person would I support people who are not community orientated people at this early stage of the platform when I think that a healthy middle class is what is needed? Why would I continue to care for the thousands of others and struggle to grow myself if so few are willing to do similar? If I had taken advantage fully I would be in the 35-50,000 SP range, not the 20. Played for a fool...
I had an idea once upon a time about Steemit Loans where Steemit would give loans to community nodes who will in turn use it to build themselves and distribute to others and when at a resonable size, the loan would be cutoff and delegated to another. For example on a 100,000 SP delegation:
- 3 x 100% self-votes per day
- 7 x 100% value to the community
- 50% of liquids earned must be powered up (there must be some available to use)
- No voting on alt accounts
- A board to investigate actions (stop circlejerks etc)
This could also include safety net things like, identification for loan recipients and of course, any abuse of the delegation means immediate cut.
@abh12345 said that monitoring this could be largely automatized and done similarly to his engagement leagues.
Ready to build a middle class @ned? 10,000,000 SP gets 100 delegates and if chosen well, will become the most transformational force the community aspect of this site will ever have seen or is likely to see. With SMTs coming, this would build a foundation of very strong internal support. I can name 10 people off the top of my head who I can near guarantee would use that delegation well without abusing it. @ned? Still there?
With an extra 200 dollars to distribute each day, each of the 100 could effectively put 4 new 500+ every month. That is 400 new ones per month. They could support the community leaders and projects that are struggling to help the lower reaches again. They become serious nodes that distribute their 7 million of the vests each day to the community and grow with the other 3 so that soon, they can support unaided.
You wanted distribution? There it is. Oh, with 10 million SP being distributed into the community for free, the bidbots are going to have to adjust their numbers a little too. Not many commuity orientated people would need to buy votes to survive as the 100 will find and help them soon enough.
If there is ever a way to use the ninja-mined stake, it is to develop the community. Not going to happen though is it?
This place needs an engaged middle-class that can support the others higher and lower but, it just isn't happening fast enough. I have seen some numbers from @taskmaster4450 about distribution and the platform working as it should but, with the numbers of accounts in the middle reaches so low, 1-2 percent growth is relatively insignificant. It would be different if there were 5000 accounts over 10,000 but there are not, there are barely 1000 and 147 of them are whales who could also have alts that are orcas and dolphins.
I don't know what this all means and I don't expect anything to suddenly change or any significant number of people to actually care but, I do still. So, I am now going to have to rethink my rethink of my strategy to develop a healthier community. I know that if people aren't powering up something though, they aren't thinking about the community at all. That is fine, that is their path to walk and we must all live with the consequences.
There is a positive to all of this though. Ready?
There are a lot more 1 percenters here than people believed and pretty much anyone over 100 SP is a 10 percenter. Steem wealthy! Congratulations. But really, what it also indicates is if this place does go mainstream and onboarding happens at the level expected, everyone here right now has the potential to be in the 1 percent of wealth on the platform. Sure, not everyone is going to be a Steem Billionaire equivalent but, there can be many, many thousands of millionaires.
But, they have to power up and pull their weight.
Looking at these numbers makes me feel pretty useless here...
Rant over.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]