I hope this article stops one of the biggest myths regarding the Steem ecosystem. My aim is to also show that Steem is doing something that no other blockchain is doing.
We all know Steem just celebrated birthday number 3. My time on here is a little over half way since I joined in August of 2017. I like to use that as my starting point, so all that I am going to illustrate spans just shy of 19 months.
The main attack against Steem is that the biggest accounts make all the money and everyone else is picking up scraps. We see the mindset is that only "the rich get richer".
Here I am going to prove that is completely false. I am also going to show that Steem's distribution is leveling out faster than other blockchains.
People do not seem to understand the power basis and how it is changing. Let us look at a few charts to start.
As always, all charts provided by @arcange. These charts are in MVest which, according to steemdb.com, is now worth 499.93 STEEM per MVest.
Here is what the breakdown looked like on 8/1/2017.
https://steempeak.com/statistics/@arcange/steemit-statistics-20170801-en
Wow. That is an ugly chart. It is easy to see how much power was in the hands of the 42 Whale accounts.
Now let us contrast it with the chart from 3/27/2019.
https://steempeak.com/statistics/@arcange/steem-statistics-20190327-en
One of the beliefs is the smaller accounts have no power, that it all resides with the larger accounts. Looking at these two charts, the thing that jumps right out is the amount for Dolphins and Minnows. Notice how the Dolphins now have more power, collectively, than the Orcas did on 8/1/2017. At the same time, the Minnows have a higher mark than the Dolphins had.
Think about that for a second: the Minnows have 3,500 more MVests today than the Dolphins did 19 months ago. This is a radical shift.
Another way to look at this is the totality SP held by the non-Whale accounts. On 8/1/2017, that total was 82,760; now it is 185,262. That means the non-Whale accounts grew by 102,502.
In 19 months, the non-Whale accounts grew by 51.24M SP.
This coincided with a decrease in the Whale totals by 21.3M SP.
In the past 19 months, the Whales to non-Whales accounts had a net difference of 72.7M SP.
Let us also look at the rich getting richer.
Here are the account charts for the two dates we are discussing.
I am going to use average here. Some might say that Median is more important but I feel that is not required here. Each category has a ceiling on it which limits the amount that an outlier can affect the average. The impact of a 1M SP account on a bunch of 500 SP ones is much greater than a 4900 SP one.
We will look at the average number of MVests for each category and the change over time.
This table shows two things.
The first is not that the rich get richer is not entirely accurate. What this says is that everyone on Steem gets richer (as long as they are actively participating). No group was excluded, each showed an increase.
We also can clearly see how the smaller accounts are growing at a faster pace than the larger ones. The further down the scale we go, the larger the jump.
While the average Whale saw a 2.78% increase, the average Minnow saw the MVest holdings more than double.
Not only that but the number of Minnows almost doubled over that same period of time.
In each non-Whale category, we see more average SP in a greater number of accounts. The growth is happening on both fronts.
According to @penguinpablo, this is the number of transacting accounts we see on a daily basis.
There are a little over 2,300 accounts at the Dolphin level or higher. That means there are over 45K Minnows and Red Fish transacting on a daily basis. That many accounts will skew the reward pool towards the lower end (especially since most of the Whales do not post regularly) which supports the increase over the last 19 months.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about how fear around finances should be ending. My reasoning is that we are entering a new paradigm which scarcity is not part of the equation. This post here proves it.
Steem is not the only blockchain out there. I am not going to be a Steem snob and say that it is the best and only thing going. That is untrue. There are many projects that are valid and will serve to put tokens in people's wallets. We are going to need the collective effort across tens of thousands of blockchains to help all of humanity.
That said, I want to emphasize the pace of change in distribution on Steem. While it might seem like we are going at a snail's pace, compare it to other blockchains out there. Steem has a built in mechanism that is changing the numbers: a reward pool with 800K STEEM issues each week.
As was shown, the lower levels are growing at a greater pace along with having more accounts. This is a trend that I would expect to continue.
Collectively, we see this.
Over the next 19 months, there are going to be tens of millions of STEEM distributed from the reward pool. How many people are going to partake in what is being passed out? Based upon the numbers shown here, we will see the bottom categories accelerating their growth rates.
There are many other blockchains but, as we are seeing here, one does not need any other. Steem is providing a mechanism to really increase the wealth and standard of living of tens of millions around the world. This opportunity is open to anyone. We are seeing a marked shift in the distribution, something that is going to continue as more people find their way to this ecosystem.
Please bear in mind, I only covered the stake in Steem Power in this article. We did not even touch upon all the other tokens that are being created for the various applications or using Steem-Engine. A few of them might really hit it big as the value of those networks grow. Many are engaging in activities that increase their holdings in those tokens also.
Steem is quickly becoming the epitome of Crypto-Economics. The centralized distribution that was present when the blockchain started is leveling out as time goes by. More accounts are holding more Steem Power.
Nobody who is on here should fear the future financially. We already have a head start on something that is going to be the norm 5-10 years down the road. Steem is providing the opportunity for anyone to amass a token that surely is going to be forced up in value as the network effect takes hold.
I hope this article both ends the mantra that Steem is only benefiting the largest accounts and motivates people to take even more action. The blockchain is going to keep distributing STEEM each week. While it will slow down, it will not stop for decades.
So the question is how many of those tens of millions of STEEM that will be put out by the blockchain over the next 19 months will end up in your account?
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and resteem.
You compared the difference between different number of whales. So, yes, they have less, but there are less of them.
Just like the plankton went from 24k+ to 110k+
The reward pool continues to fill, so it would make sense that everyone is still getting more rewards. More people in a certain category would increase that categories overall rewards.
What you need to determine is the difference of the percentage of holdings between the categories.
Agreed!
So here is the drop down! Great points and good stuff, as always. I am left wondering why i anticipated more interesting pictures and colorful word philosophies than graphs, numbers and plain facts. Haha i guess my imagination likes to think along the lines of paradigms erecting and all that is to come. What ever you do, keep on Steeming!! 😊🐞🌷💙
More power to the people. I just want to see more People making more rewards. And bring it to a point that even being a plankton can be a little bit profitable. 😉
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The direction that distribution is heading is encouraging and seeing the daily transactions improving is even more so as the opportunity for smaller accounts to grow continues to be attractive despite the increase in prices we have had so far this year. I believe that the table will fully switch very soon as more Dapps and communities get more involved and help with the retention of those users joining most recently.
It’s really promising to see such distribution happens. From plankton to minnow and now nearer to a dolphin, it definitely takes sweat and tears to get up the ladder. Love how we can move up and share the wealth together. Even though whales’ stake percentage has dropped, but in overall, the volume has increased which led to everyone Steem to appreciate. Plus with more and more token was adopted under Steem blockchain through Steem Engine, can’t wait to see how it will grow. As for me, I just keep on making contents :)
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Steem is a fascinating blockchain indeed!
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Well said. The process is slowly and all depend from from your effort and degree of understanding.
Down the line everyone gets rewarded.
Great vision.
Great post.
Keep on postin
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And you can see every month the transfer speeds up. For anybody following every month you can see the whales losing power as they sell and we all power up. It will still take a while bit in 6 months that gap will close a lot more.
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I agree wholeheartedly. The next step is for the Whales total share of SP to drop below 50%.
We could see that happen in the next few months if the pace keeps up.
I think its not that far away. A big factor has been the rise of the different apps which spread the votes around to so many different accounts. Before them all of the vp was in the hands of a few people and they kept it to themselves for the most part. Now even the smallest account cam start to earn from day 1 through actifit or steemhunt.
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That is a very good point. You have some large accounts delegations which upvite individual accounts and do hundreds of upvotes a day.
That's a one way trip, too.
....ever question why they are 'losing power ' ( they are not losing anything, the are relinquishing)
Altruism, or gettin' out...?
Some of them are selling as they live from that money. I know they have no altruism in their bodies and the majority have been taking for too long.
The good thing is that they cannot grow as fast as the other 45000 active accounts so they are not gaining from the reward pool which they used to have control over. While they still have the majority of power that is changing fast as all of the accounts below them keep growing and earning sp.
Them relinquishing will be good in the long run as the rewards get spread between a lot more people and a much more active community. While I have seen a couple of whales that use the site and interact with people, the majority just seem to sell their votes and sell steem.
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I posted below.
The SP breakdown is 53% to 47% (roughly) for the Whales/non-whale accounts.
The reward payout is 75% to 25% author to curator.
Even if the Whales wanted, there is a point where they cannot post enough content to monopolize the reward pool where nothing is given out.
As you said, most Whales are passive investors leasing their SP out. Plus, they tend not to be buyers of STEEM since they have so much. The last price drop saw a lot of smaller accounts adding to their positions.
Good analysis. Appears that the Steem down time was good for the smaller accounts. I am one of them anyway. 😊
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How minnows make steem by posting?
I know only about github + utopian-io works, when you make something that looks usefull and tag your post with link to github account.
Another way - contests and reposting
Incorrect .
The question is :
How many steem will the large stakeholders allow to go to which accounts.
This is not meritocratic in structure, its an oligarchical one.
.....Which begs the more important question....why are they selling....?
This is a very misleading statement and a major part of the reason for the mindset that is so prevalent out there.
The largest accounts control 53% of the SP. Let us suppose that there was 100% activity and upvoting by all accounts. That would provide the larger accounts with 53% of the take meaning that 47% went to everyone else.
The challenge with this is the breakdown of 75/25 breakdown for the author curation. Most of the Whales do not post a great deal. Besides, that small a number cannot possible keep up with the amount of posts that the other accounts can do meaning the rewards will be skewed in that direction.
The days of looking at this as "everyone but the whales are helpless" are passe. That view is a cancer on the blockchain that needs to be cut out. Even if the Whales did not power down over the last 19 months, the other accounts would have had a similar jump in SP.
We know a big part of it was Steemit Inc powering down for a variety of reasons but, in the end, who cares? Many did not like the existing power structure so, now, we see it shifting with powering down, and people question that.
A flip question is might be why are many Orcas powering up?
Orca's an' sheep have very similar habits...
(and just imagine how many of these accounts belong to the same people?...distraction to create a picture to suit a narrative is not a new strategy in financial maneuverings..)
Informative article,
thanks, upvote & resteem!
We will eventually start seeing the # of whales grow as well. It's only a matter of time before some of those orcas start becoming whales and it will be nice to see the average whale vests drop so instead of a few huge whales we'll have more smaller whales which should further help with distribution of Steem on the platform.
Highly rEsteemed!
Now this is very promising for the future and stability of this blockchain, and mainly driven by the 75% in author rewards it will continue to move in that direction, just because of the number of authors means it's impossible for the whales to create at the same pace as everyone below them put together.
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