A more granular look at Steem's account classifications

In May, last year, I asked @steemchiller about an SDS query to break down the Steem accounts in a more granular fashion, basically drilling further into the "plankton" (below "redfish") category and the "whale" category.

He responded quickly with an update that let us query the API with our own boundaries, but I haven't yet integrated that change into any of my reporting. Today, I took a quick look at some one-off graphs.

I broke "plankton" into "plankton" and "nanoplankton", and I broke "whale" into "whale" and "blue whale".

Here's what I found.

First, the overall numbers:

Type (VESTS)	Number	Percent	Ratio	Running Pct	Min SP
nanoplankton 0-10k	1,728,723	90.11%	11	90.11%	0.00
plankton 10k-100k	157,003	8.18%	6	98.29%	5.89
redfish 100k-1m	25,846	1.35%	5	99.64%	58.85
minnows 1m-10m	5,357	0.28%	4	99.92%	588.53
dolphins 10m-100m	1,250	0.07%	4	99.98%	5,885.29
orcas 100m-1b	291	0.02%	10	100.00%	58,852.90
whales 1b-10b	29	0.00%	7	100.00%	588,529.00
blue whales >10b	4	0.00%	-	100.00%	5,885,290.00
Total	1,918,503	-	-	-	-
STEEM/MV	-	-	-	-	588.529

Note: Ratio means the number of accounts in the current category divided by the number of accounts in the next category. i.e. 4 "blue whales" * 7 "ratio" gives ~28 "whales" (actual = 29). How many accounts are in this category for every account in the next one (roughly)?

And here are some summary charts:

All accounts by percentage

All accounts by raw numbers

Plankton and above by raw numbers

Redfish and above by raw numbers

Minnows and above (the top 0.36% of accounts)

Things that surprised me:

1. We're now up to 4 "blue whales" - and only two of them are owned by Steemit (AFAIK). When I first mentioned the concept about 3 or 4 years ago, there was only 1 blue whale, and it was owned by Steemit.
2. The cutoff for "minnow" is much closer now to 600 than it is to 500. We need a new "rule of thumb" - or, at least, I do.
3. Minnow accounts and above are solidly in the "top 1%"

Food for thought: How do we get to 6,000 minnows?

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Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

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^{Pixabay license, source}

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