Fun and Profit with SteemWorld

For the last several weeks I've been playing with the curation trail on SteemWorld.com. As I understand, this tool was created and is maintained by @steemchiller

To view your curation trail simply enter the URL steemworld.org/@steemchiller and replace the word steemchiller with your account name.

You will need to scroll down to the section called "Coming Rewards." This section has several tabs. Click on the "curatin rewards" tab, then press the "refresh" button that appears under the tab.

After a brief calculation, the page will now show the curation rewards for the last week. It also calculates the reward total for the last week.

This information is extremely useful for optimizing your curation rewards. There is a little "pie chart" icon for each curation post. If you click the icon you will see details about the upvotes.

SteemIt has a Stupid Reward Formula

I really dislike the SteemIt reward formula as the formula gives bots a huge advantage over humans. On examining the details of curation rewards. It is clear that bots dominate the early voting.

The SteemIt FAQ notes that the order of the votes matter and that the system gives special weight to the five minute mark. When you upvote before the five minute mark, the system will give a higher percentage of the reward to the author.

If your goal is to support a particular author; then you should upvote before the five minute mark as that increases their reward. If you want curation rewards, then it is usually best to vote after the five minute mark.

So, the five minute mark is magic.

While playing with SteemWorld I realized that the time figure shown on the SteemIt.com interface is a display value. The display value uses the round() command instead of the ceil() command. So, 4 minutes and 31 seconds will round to 5 minutes.

If your goal is to maximize your reward, then you need to wait about twenty seconds after the interface starts displaying that the post was entered 5 minutes ago.

Since the robots use the real time on the blockchain; they have a huge advantage over humans.

Now, for the part that I really don't like. The system gives some of the rewards from later voters to the first voters.

Since robots can follow the blockchain 24/7, this aspect of the formula transfers a large portion of the rewards from humans to bots.

For that matter, I would say that if your goal is to maximize your curation rewards, your best bet is to subscribe to a voting service. The voting service would then place your automated votes on the posts chosen by the robots for maximum effect.

While examining curation trails, one finds that thare are robots that will drop a hundred upvotes at a time on given posts.

Humans that use SteemIt quickly become frustrated. They conclude that the system is rigged and leave the platform.

The Upside of the Formula

The upside of the curation formula is that small accounts can receive huge rewards when they successfully "front run" a whale.

I have 706 SP. The base value of my upvote value is $0.008. When I front run a whale, the value of my upvote can jump ten fold to 0.08.

I admit that it is exciting to front run a whale; however, I don't believe that it improves the platform

My Account

I started talking about my account. SteemWorld.org indicates that I have 706 SP. I've dropped 386 posts and 1,106 comments which adds to 1,492 posts.

I've dropped 12,862 upvotes. I received 3,337 upvotes. I admit, I used to upvote my posts. A third of my upvotes came from myself and from the @dustsweeper account which I had hired to upvote my posts.

I gave up writing SteemIt posts and concentrate on curation.

My Curation Philosophy

I try to support under-appreciated accounts. Since my upvote value is less than the $0.02 minimum payout, I've lost a huge portion of my rewards.

Personally, I think that the best way to do SteemIt is to buy enough STEEM POWER so that your upvote is worth more than the minimum payout.

During my experimentation with SteemWorld, I developed the following curation approach. Since my goal is to front-run whales, I start by looking at the SteemIt Created Page. I look at the recent history for the posts that are under 5 minutes. You have to go to the post page and not the blog for the user.

Since my upvote value is under $0.02, I ignore the accounts of users who do not receive regular upvotes. This reduces the change that my upvote will be washed away as dust.

If the user has a history of receiving upvotes, I will wait until the publishing time clicks to 5 minutes. I will count to twenty and reload the post. If the post had received a slurry of upvotes I will ignore it as I don't want to feed the bots. If the post hasn't receive a fury of votes, I will place my vote hoping that I will receive an upvote.

When I play the game well, I the curation reward will be more than if I upvoted the posts based on the content of the post.

I Don't Like The Game

I really don't like the game. I think people should upvote based on the content of the post.

For example, I discovered that I can receive a consistent reward when upvoting those content free "play poker" posts. The play poker posts don't provide anything of value. They do not reward humans for actively engaging in the platform.

They consistently pay off.

While I dislike the playpoker games, they are somewhat useful. For example, I might find my self staring at the computer after midnight. I need to upvote a post. Clicking on something mindless that returns a reward is better than letting the reward expire.

Unstaking a STEEM a Week

I decided that I really want to start earning an income from SteemIt; So, I decided to power down and withdraw one STEEM a week. I am also powering down 10 HIVE a week. This gives me about $3 a week in income. I actually sent $12 to my bankaccount this week. This helps pay the interest on my credit card account.

Yes, I know have credit card debt. Receiving an income is really important to me.

I want my income to come from curation. So, I powerup 100% of my author rewards (which isn't a lot). I will increase my power down to 2 STEEM a week if ever my SP increase beyond 2000 ... which is unlikely to happen.

I generated the image for this post with Night Cafe.