With Utopian-io's announcement about getting 500,000 liquid Steem from ned to be allocated for account creation within the Utopian.io platform, I wanted to understand the trend and distribution of account creation, as well as the fees involved in the process. This analysis will cover the account creation monthly trend (in count from inception in March, 2016), the distribution per account creator, the day of the week distribution, and some insights on fees involved in account creation.
The data points used in this analysis were acquired through the use of arcange's public SQL server database; Steem SQL and an excel spreadsheet.
Monthly Account Creation Trend
The count of accounts created by month peaked in June of 2017 after it tripled the previous month's 20,482 sign-ups in May, 2017. There's been a steady decline however for the past five months since the peak in June, closing October at 40,250 accounts created (38% less than the peak in June, 2017).
While this is still higher than the twelve months' running average at 26,600++, the decline in trend can have negative implications depending on interpretation. To some the decline can mean one of few things; there isn't enough promotion going on within the communities (not to mention that this seems to be not a priority of Steemit Inc. today, but there may be really good reasons for that), there is in increasing doubt about the longevity of the platform, there is a growing dissatisfaction about the many issues around (the amount of time it takes to sign-up, many forms of abuse, and variations in opinions about the distribution of rewards). I have seen really sensible arguments about how the user-base should only grow at a rate where a good and balanced symbiotic relationship between investors and content creators can be maintained. From this perspective, the reduced account creation will be seen as a natural correction in trends going back within control.
With the hope that Smart Media Tokens on the Steem Blockchain will allow new money flowing into the economy of Steem in early 2018, this trend may well reverse if things happen as planned.
Account Creation Distribution By Creator
I had to remove steem from the chart below. We would otherwise not appreciate the data visually. This is to show the distribution of account creation outside of those created in the normal sign up process.
Here is the data in table form including the ones created by steem.
| Rank | Creator | Account Created | Share in % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | steem | 441937 | 98.803% |
| 2 | anonsteem | 2730 | 0.610% |
| 3 | register | 273 | 0.061% |
| 4 | protected | 249 | 0.056% |
| 5 | sqube | 217 | 0.049% |
| 6 | jl777 | 141 | 0.032% |
| 7 | bago | 100 | 0.022% |
| 8 | psychic | 96 | 0.021% |
| 9 | customnature | 93 | 0.021% |
| 10 | abit | 79 | 0.018% |
| 11 | smooth.witness | 71 | 0.016% |
| 12 | kebek | 70 | 0.016% |
| 13 | kommienezuspadt | 60 | 0.013% |
| 14 | leomichael | 53 | 0.012% |
| 15 | skenan | 52 | 0.012% |
| 16 | alex90342fastn1 | 40 | 0.009% |
| 17 | hastla | 38 | 0.008% |
| 18 | oflyhigh | 37 | 0.008% |
| 19 | ludorum | 36 | 0.008% |
| 20 | dab | 34 | 0.008% |
| 21 | collabovestor | 30 | 0.007% |
| N/A | others | 854 | 0.191% |
anonsteem is the first service that enabled sign up skipping through the email and phone verification, the service was created by someguy123 in August, 2016. Today the cost of sign-up is 10 Steem via anon.steem.network. In October 2017 anonsteem created 323 accounts for which they incurred a total of 1938 Steem to create, they collected a sum of 3230 Steem in fees from the users. It is difficult to say the real margin of anonsteem's operation between the cost of the infrastructure to maintain their services, and the time someguy123 is spending to keep their operation.
pharesim recently created steeminvite.com allowing existing users to trigger account creation using their existing account. The service costs .2 Steem and a temporary delegation of 29 Steem Power. I have created littlesteemitph and dandalioncub for our two daughters using this service.
Fees Incurred by Account Creator
Like in the previous chart, I had to remove steem from the chart below. We would otherwise not appreciate the data visually. This is to show the fees incurred by account creator outside of those created in the normal sign up process. I will have a table below after the chart that will include the data for normal account sign up created by steem.
I did not include the delegated Steem Power in this analysis since that can be reversed after the seven days. Although seven days might not be enough time to allow the new user build influence within the platform. The below statement is taken from pharesim's steeminvite.com.
To create a steem account, you need to fund it. A minimum amount of Steem Power is necessary, or the new user would not be able to transact. The STEEM you send are a gift. The Steem Power is delegated, which means you can call it back any time. But please wait until the new user has earned a bit to sustain herself!
steem create accounts with .5 Steem fee and 57,000 vest delegation (27.77 Steem Power), anonsteem create accounts with 6 Steem fee (converted to Steem Power for the new account) and 0 vest delegation, and pharesim's steeminvite.com allows user to create accounts for .2 Steem fee and 59,533 vest delegation (29 Steem Power).
Here is the data in table form including the fees incurred by steem.
| Rank | Creator | Fees Incurred | Share in % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | steem | 2182615 | 96.958% |
| 2 | anonsteem | 24307 | 1.080% |
| 3 | register | 15482 | 0.688% |
| 4 | steemit | 2150 | 0.096% |
| 5 | sqube | 1302 | 0.058% |
| 6 | kebek | 1050 | 0.047% |
| 7 | protected | 747 | 0.033% |
| 8 | smooth.witness | 660 | 0.029% |
| 9 | affiliate | 600 | 0.027% |
| 10 | bago | 600 | 0.027% |
| 11 | customnature | 558 | 0.025% |
| 12 | noganoo | 420 | 0.019% |
| 13 | jl777 | 403 | 0.018% |
| 14 | kommienezuspadt | 360 | 0.016% |
| 15 | tdv.witness | 330 | 0.015% |
| 16 | dab | 323 | 0.014% |
| 17 | sigmajin | 314 | 0.014% |
| 18 | schmarn | 300 | 0.013% |
| 19 | abit | 293 | 0.013% |
| 20 | psychic | 288 | 0.013% |
| 21 | nicnicy | 267 | 0.012% |
| N/A | others | 17724 | 0.787% |
Day of the Week Distribution of Account Creation
Out of curiosity, I wanted to see the day of the week distribution of account creation from inception. The distribution is surprisingly pretty flat. I was expecting a lot less accounts created on the weekends.
Here is the data in table form.
| Day of the Week | Count | Share in % |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | 44096 | 9.82% |
| Monday | 69073 | 15.37% |
| Tuesday | 76828 | 17.10% |
| Wednesday | 66876 | 14.89% |
| Thursday | 59966 | 13.35% |
| Friday | 72243 | 16.08% |
| Saturday | 60186 | 13.40% |
With the 500,000 liquid Steem utopian-io got from Ned, they will be able to create roughly 83,000++ accounts following anonsteem's method, or 100,000 following steem's method (although it will also take temporary delegation of Steem Power.
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors