Upvote Shares | Terms & Conditions

in #curation4 years ago (edited)

Upvote Shares is a Curation Project that started on the Steem blockchain 2 years ago and will now continue on Hive. The model so far has proven to be fair, extremely transparent, scalable, and sustainable over time. This is an update to the original Terms & Conditions also including Curation Reward Dividends, Improved Quality Requirement, and the Extra Account Safety Measures (See Post) along with Tribe Upvotes.


@upvoteshares is a Curation Project that aims to reward bloggers who are invested in the Hive blockchain and in it for the long run bringing decent quality content. There are many great curation groups on Hive, but if your content is not within their interest and you are not inside the curation circle it will be hard to get anything going. This project believes small consistent upvotes are worth more than getting the occasional whale vote. The mathematical model that is used takes care of this and fixes some of the major issues other upvote providing projects have (See More Details on Model Mechanics).


This project does not want to support vote farming in any shape or form and has some minimum content quality requirement rules. The basic idea is that each post should at least have something unique to it or serve a purpose that possibly benefits the Hive ecosystem. These are by no means crazy high requirements and the main factor will be the intention behind a post. Post who clearly indicate that they are made just to get auto-votes will not be tolerated, some examples of these are...

  • Standard Actifit Posts: They should at least have a custom image and title.
  • Splinterlands: Quick 'these are my rewards' or 'I reached this rank' posts with no real content.
  • Drugwars: Automated Fight Reports
  • All other Automated Farming posts that bring nothing to the platform.

I will try to keep an eye out that everyone respects the minimum quality requirements without making it into a witch hunt as it is not an exact science. Please feel free report anyone who is part of this project and does not respect these basic quality rules so I can put them on hold until they change their general approach and downvote them if you want. The same rules count for shareholders that end up abusing Tribe Token tags just to get those upvotes.


The @upvoteshares account is split up in equal shares that each represents a minimum daily upvote % from the account. All shareholders will get daily or weekly upvotes based on how many shares they own. The number of shares and the price of each share are directly linked to the Powered Up HP in the account which makes it all very measurable and predictable. There will be many mechanisms in place that increase the value of the shares over time.


  • Every time the @upvoteshares account reaches a specific amount of HP, 50 new shares become available (OPEN), so far 21 Level have been cleared successfully and Level 22 is next to open up

  • At any given time, the amount of HP in the account will at least be 10% higher compared to the amount of shares times the price of each share. (Example Level 22 Price = 4.52 HIVE | Minimum Powered Up HP in Account = (4.520 STEEM x 1150 SHARES)x1.1 = 5718 HP

  • Because of this mechanism, the price of new shares and the value of existing shares will always go up while at the same time providing the ones who join a similar entry value since a minimum of 10% will always be in the account on top of what has been sent to it.

  • Curation Reward Dividends equal to the Added HP will be paid out to shareholders each time a new level is about to open. (more on that below)


Hive allows for 10 full 100% upvotes that recharge every 24 hours which makes the upvote worth for each share 1000% divided by the total amount of shares in circulation.

This the bare minimum in case all shares are active and make use of their daily upvote. There will be a lot of "value-creating mechanics" for shareholders which should drastically increase this number. The program aims to give at least a net 10x self upvote value that could be done with the Hive that was sent for a share.

Some of the Value Creating Mechanics are...

  • Rising Share Prices
    Since the price of the shares always goes up, existing shareholders always see their minimum return increase each time a new level is reached.

    When you got in on level 3 the starting value of the HP in the account was +10% compared to what was paid. By now at level 22, this has grown to almost 50% meaning the returns for their shares increased a lot. This system rewards bloggers who are in it for the long run without punishing new shareholders as everyone starts at the +10% bonus and sees the returns on their shares grow each new level that opens up.

  • Added Funds
    At least 10% extra STEEM will always be added on top of what comes in, this has highly sped up the overall account growth and increased the value of the shares from existing shareholders.

  • 1600%+ Distribution
    All the upvotes from shareholders that are not being used are redistributed to existing members. This means the total daily account upvote percentage can be set above 1600%. Only quality Steemit members will be allowed into this group which means that missing an upvote supports solid accounts while each upvote you get includes support from the shareholders that did not use their upvote. We are now at Level 22 and many of the early shareholders are no longer active and have not sold their shares which directly gives extra returns to new and active shareholders.

  • Tribe Token Upvotes
    The @upvoteshares account also has different Tribe Tokens staked and shareholders who are part of these tribes also get upvotes there. Multipliers are applied to keep voting power from being unused so a 20% upvote on Hive can result in a 100% upvote on the tribes. Currently supported are LeoFinance (600 Leo Staked) | PALNET (1425 PAL Staked) | Sportstalk (250k SPORTS Staked). The project aims to increase these tokens over time

  • Inactive Shares
    The program will make sure there are always inactive shares that don't count towards the total amount of shares which increases the minimum upvote % for each active share. Inactive shares are reserved for future giveaways or simply just shares that get destroyed by the program. Right now there are 130+ inactive Shares (11% of supply) of which the upvotes get redistributed to active shareholders!

  • Destroyed Shares
    People who end giving up on Hive and sell their shares provide value to existing shareholders since part of their share gets destroyed. (See Below)

  • Pre-Funded Levels
    Every new level starts off close to the next level being reached since the first level got funded in advance and new steem that comes in directly Powered Up. In the early stages this makes a huge difference and provides a lot of extra value compared to the minimum promised upvote!

  • Extra Personal Investment
    The idea is to grow the account on a consistent basis and there will likely be more investments on top of the 10% extra to make this happen or when shares don't sell out to continue progressing as planned burnig the shares in the process.

  • Minnowshares Account Growth Delegation
    Every Upvote Share will come along with 1 Minnow Share that can be sponsored to a minnow (see below). These Minnow Shares will give the sponsored minnow upvotes for as long as the level runs from the @minnowshares account which has 500HP in it. Curation rewards from this account have been leased out to the @upvoteshares account and currently add up to 245HP extra which adds to returns of active shareholders.

  • The @upvoteshares account follows shareholders
    This will increase the followers_mvest a bit for each shareholder which is a number that can get you bigger upvotes from other projects that give out upvotes

  • Pormotional Events
    So far the program did quite well promoting itself and there are still 18+ shares inactive for future giveaways in case it is needed to promote the program. These promotional events will always be designed in a way that existing shareholders also can win Free Shares that were paid for by the program. (Example)

  • ...


When the blockchain switched from 75%-25% distribution to 50%-50%, this project introduced Curation Reward Dividends to compensate for the difference. An equal amount to the 10% HIVE which is manually added on top of what comes in each new level will be distributed to shareholders. Having at least 11 shares in the program is required to get these dividends and there is a multiplier up to x1.2 for shareholders who have a bigger stake in the project. The full details on how it is calculated can be found here

A minimum number of shares needs to be owned before a shareholder can benefit from these curation rewards and there will be a multiplier for up to 100 Shares. Having 10 Shares or less would not give curation dividends. Everything above would have a multiplier of 0.2% for each extra share. (Formula = 1+ "Amount of shares" x 0.002). The reason for the multiplier is both because bigger upvotes potentially give better curation rewards along with the fact that it's a good way to give back to those who have supported the project and give a good incentive to get involved into this project which increases the returns for everyone.

Every time the next level is reached and 50 new shares become available, a post will be made on the @upvoteshares account with all the info. Everyone who wants to acquire shares needs to apply for this in the comments and will get their request is granted or not.

Who Can Join?

The amount of Upvote Shares is very limited and only Quality Hive Members will be able to get in. This means having a long term mindset while making real content. Pretty much everyone who wants to get something going with their blog is free to join when new shares become available.

Maximum Allowed Shares

The maximum number of shares someone can have is limited at 100. Shareholders are also required to be invested in HIVE and need to have at least 40HP in their account for each share they are allowed to get. (Locked Shares do not count towards the maximum allowed shares.) The idea behind this is that rewards should go to people who believe in this blockchain and are invested and not to those who only look at what they can get out of it.

All accounts below 40HP can not buy any Upvote Shares until they reach that level. Someone with 4000SP can potentially get up to a maximum of 100 shares. Upvotes are limited to a 100% daily upvote. All the inactive shares will increase the upvote worth of all other shareholders.

The program is using Hive.vote to distribute the upvotes. They used to only offer daily upvotes but now also added an option to give 1 weekly Upvote. To make things simple and avoid really small upvotes I will split upvotes like this:

  • 1 Weekly Upvote if Daily Upvote % x7 is Below 100%
  • 1 Daily Upvote if Daily Upvoye % x7 is Above 100%

Entry Cost 0.300 HIVE / Share
Every Share will come along with a 0.300 HIVE Entry Cost. This amount will be fully used to buy a 90-day delegation to increase the initial upvote worth and it also allows for a Minnow Sponsorship (see below).

Exit Cost 0.200 HIVE / Share
Shareholders will have promised ownership of their HIVE that got Powered Up in the account. There will never be Power Downs until the project decides it's better to stop or is forced to stop somehow (see below). It is at any time possible to exit the group and get your invested HIVE back by selling your Shares to someone else. (There will be auction posts on the @upvoteshares account in the future to do that) As a mechanic to prevent too many of these time-consuming transactions and a way to create extra value for existing shareholders, 0.200 HIVE worth will be burned from each Share that is sold. Buying from someone else instead of from the program does not require an entry cost, so should always be a demand because it's cheaper and the supply is limited.

Example:

  • Someone got 1 Share at level 2 for which 3.62 HIVE (3.32+0.30) was paid
  • They want to sell their share at Level 8
  • The price of 1 share at level 8 = 3.68 HIVE
  • (3.32-0.200)/3.68 = 0.85 Shares at current Price
  • 0.85 Shares worth around 3.12 HIVE can be sold based on supply and demand.
  • The new owner gets 0.85 Shares worth 3.12 HIVE which he will also be able to sell with at a 0.200x0.85 = 0.170 Hive exit cost.

This is basically a small cost for shareholders that give up on Hive at the benefit of existing shareholders since the number of shares go down which increases the value of each share. It will always be possible to recover the majority of the invested Steem when exiting.


Every Upvote Share comes along with 1 Minnow Share that can be Sponsored to a Minnow. This Share will put the minnow on the upvote list from the @minnowshares account until the next level is reached. (between a 4 weeks and 2 month period). A minnow that manages to collect 6 Minnow Shares will be able to claim those for an Upvote Share that has been reserved [ See Level 0 ]. The amount of Minnow Shares needed to claim 1 Upvote Share will increase over time (currently it is set at 9). Everyone who wants to claim and Upvote Share needs to meet similar quality requirements but does not need a minimum amount of SP.

By now over 50 of these shares have been given out who continue to give upvotes to these sponsored accounts and this system will continue where it left off. There are a couple of rules that you can give a maximum of 2 sponsorships to the same person during a single level and the maximum free share conversion for a single account is 3. It is also not allowed to sponsor your own secondary account along with other forms of abuse trying to exploit this system.


This project does not promise "Upvotes for Life" but Upvotes for as long as the project will run. The intention is to continue the Upvote Shares Project for many years, but there are some scenarios I can think of which would make it come to an end. (The way Steem ended was not a scenario I could have imagined but didn't cause an issue)

In case it ever comes to an end, everyone will be able to claim their Steem back during the Power-down Period without any kind of exit cost.

Example:

  • Someone Got 1 Share at level 2 for which was paid 3.62 Steem (3.32+0.30)
  • After 3 years the project somehow comes to an end at level 34
  • This gets announced very clearly with multiple posts and personal messages to shareholders
  • The power-down is started.
  • The 3.32 STEEM can be claimed and will be sent back during the power down period.

The situation on Steem was handled in a way that everyone was and still is able to claim their Steem back without exit costs while the project continues to spread upvotes to those who continue posting but things aren't moving forward anymore for now there.


  • Downtime:

    The Project will be using hive.vote to spread around Upvotes which is the same as Steemauto that was used on Steemit proving the be really reliable. Downtime can always occur and I will do what I can to make the upvotes as consistent as possible at any given time.

  • Voting Power

    I rather give bigger upvotes which potentially brings the voting power down to 80% at some point and pause things to recharge instead of letting some go to waste. This will also be more optimal in case hive.vote has some downtime which gives time for a full recharge.

  • Voting Percentage

    The minimum required voting % is 1% and falling below that will see shares become inactive. Since the amount of shares is limited this will unlikely be an issue for the next years though. Voting percentages will be rounded up or down ( Example: The calculations show a 13,72 % upvote this will become a 14% upvote. In case of 13,42% it might become a 14% upvote.)

  • Self Voting

    The @upvoteshares account stopped self-upvoting the occasional posts when the post reward structure was changed to 50%-50% and has no intentions to start self-voting again.

  • Post Earnings

    Earnings from posts made on the @upvoteshares account will be used to grow the account by either sending them to the @minnowshares account or to buy up unsold shares and burn them which in both cases increased the value for existing shareholders. There will be no cashouts before level 34 is reached unless the project somehow ends.

  • Upvote Timing

    The timing for the upvotes will be set somewhere between 4 and 5 minutes after a post is made.

  • Rule Changes

    The objective of this project is to be fair and satisfy every shareholder at any given time. If there is ever a need for a rule change it will come with a proposal which all of the shareholders can give their vote on.

  • Sponsoring Upvote Shares

    It is possible to sponsor someone with Upvote Shares as long as the sponsored accounts meet the quality requirements needed to be part of this project. The one who sponsored will be the one who can get the Hive back in case the project was to come to an end.

  • Locked Shares

    All shares that are given away by the program for promotional reasons or as a way to convert Minnow Shares into Upvote Shares are locked and can never be traded or claimed in case the project stops.

  • Transparency

    This project aims to be as transparent as possible. At any given point it will be possible to find the number of shareholders, delegation, inactive shares which will all be kept in documents that are posted each time a new level is complete. At any given time it will be possible to calculate the upvote worth in relation to the share price.


This project for as far as I know has one major flaw which is the central failing point of the person who holds the private key. Hive needs to be sent in order to take part in the project and nothing but a promise that the Hive will be returned if the project ever comes to an end can be given. Unfortunately, there is no other way and it is a matter of your judgment if this project is trustworthy. I have no intention whatsoever to scam anyone and aim for everyone to be satisfied being part of this project from start to finish. The master password of this account is also kept offline at all times to minimize the chance of this account ever getting hacked. Both the Private Active & Posting keys are held by me @costanza and @roleerob as an extra fail-safe in case something unfortunate would happen.


I tried to be as complete as possible with these terms in conditions so they include everything needed to settle any potential dispute in the future. Please let me know if there is anything unfair, unclear or missing in this post so I can still adjust things before we move on to the next level. Also thanks to everyone who has been part of this project so far these last 2 years!

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Congratulations @upvoteshares! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 2750 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 3000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board And compare to others on the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!

Thank you for the last two years. I am looking forward to the next release. I do have a question however.

  • If I have no one I wish to sponsor, is there an account you hold for use of minnow rewards that I can pick as a sponsor? (basically donate my sponsored shares to a central promo account)

Hey @bashadow. giving out the sponsorships is optional. If none are given this means that the others that got sponsored during a that level get bigger upvotes from the @minnowshares account and the pace at which reserved shares from the @upvoteshares account slows down a bit.

So if 50 individual accounts get sponsored in a level and they all post daily they will only be able to get a 20% vote each. Some getting double sponsrships, some not giving out sponsorships & not all sponsored accounts usually allows for 80% upvotes. I do my best to also always publish the list of sponsorships that have been given out so fat with the accounts that are close to getting a conversion. You can give your sponsorships to one of those as it will for sure help them forward.

I hope this explains it.

Yes thank you. Looking forward the future. If any one doubts the sincerity of your program, all they have to do is look at how well you have handled the transition to Hive

Great to see an update to all of the UpvoteShares details here on the Hive blockchain @upvoteshares / @costanza! You have done a remarkable job keeping this program going for 2 years. A track record not many can match.

With the caveats I guess we all understand, given what has taken place since the "Valentine's Day Surprise," here is cheering for another 2 years and an ever more prosperous project! 💰 💥 🚀

Thanks @roleerob, I'm looking forward to continue things here on Hive. So far everything has pretty worked exactly as planned and I'm glad that the modelshows to be quite solid.

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