Why do we use SBD as our preferred currency here on the STEEM platform? Shouldn't STEEM be the currency of choice?
There is a lot of money changing hands here on the STEEM Blockchain. STEEM and SBD transfers number in the tens of thousands every day, and a lot of those transactions are to and from the bid bots. At the moment those bots accept both STEEM and SBD as bids, but the bids come mostly in SBD because that's what the rewards we get a given to us in. We have very little choice. SBD is our pocket change, and STEEM Power is our savings. We don't get STEEM to spend.
Yesterday there were 52819 SBD transfers to the value of 114054.741 SBD, and 10228 STEEM transfers valuing 312593.3 STEEM. Considering there is a circulating supply of 10,913,536 SBD, and 271,026,429 STEEM, it is clear that SBD is used for a lot of smaller value transactions, and STEEM for the higher value transactions. SBD are the coins, and STEEM is the banknotes, so to speak. But why? They are both worth roughly the same right now. SBD is just more readily available.
So what if all the major bid bots had to change their bidding currency to be exclusively in STEEM?
I'm talking about the bots like @upme, @sneaky-ninja, @jerrybanfied, @postpromoter, @buildawhale, @smartsteem, @promobot, @upmyvote, @therising, @rocky1, @appreciator, @boomerang, @booster. Perhaps all of them? These 13 account for, conservativley, over $620 per hour in bids. That is about 258 STEEM per hour. I say conservatively because this is based on incoming bids up to 75% of the upvote values of these accounts. More often than not the bidding gets above that threshold.
Here is a little table of info I pulled off @yabapmatt's really neat Steem Bot Tracker, with a few calculations thrown in.
What if bids were only accepted in STEEM?
For one, there would be a drop in demand for SBD, and an increase in demand for about 258 STEEM every hour, or just over 6200 STEEM per day, and that's just on these 13 account.
Accepting STEEM only would encourage people using these bots to go to the market, and buy STEEM with their SBD, causing an increase demand for STEEM, and an a lower demand for SBD as they are sold off.
I wonder if this change would make any significant impact on the price of either STEEM or SBD. I could definitely see the internal market prices being affected, and SBD dropping back down towards the $1 mark. But would the external markets follow suit at all? I don't know if the trading volumes inside the platform would be high enough to influence the prices externally much, or would it?
This is just a thought that popped into my head. Why don't more services make STEEM their primary method of payment, just like STEEM Power delegation leases through @minnowbooster are? If we had more services taking STEEM instead of SBD, that would naturally push demand for, and therefore the STEEM price up, right?
My challenge to those taking both is to stop taking SBD for a while, and only accept STEEM. If enough services do this, it could help to keep SBD at the peg, and send STEEM back on its way up again, making it the primary currency on the blockchain. As long as SBD is used as a primary method of payment, STEEM will be held back from reaching new highs independently of the SBD price.
Is it just too inconvenient to get liquid STEEM?
Is that the problem? Rewards are paid out in SBD and SP. It's just too cumbersome to go to market and traded your SBD for STEEM. Add to that the removal of the conversion function in our wallets, and SBD is hands down the most convenient currency to transact with. STEEM seems to be locked away, difficult to access quickly. It's like having to raid the piggybank for a few coins at a time.
So, how about we also introduce a 25%/25%/50% Reward distribution between SBD/STEEM/ and SP? I can see the need for SBD in some places, when the 1USD=1SBD peg is actually functioning as it should, but right now SBD is the currency of choice, and I don't thin it should be. I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are on this.
Have a great day!
Steem, SBD, upvote bots... it is all such a maze BMJ. We would simply like to see those with influence out there curating just like us, and just as Steem was intended.
Sniff and Scurry
There are mny who do... you just have to scurry around and sniff them out😉. Thanks for sniffing around my post👍
SBD is used because it was designed for commerce. A stable peg to $1 makes it easier to have a consistent currency for products and services.
If you want to sell a $20 baseball cap, would you rather use a currency that is 10 STEEM one day, 8.5 STEEM the next, and 9 STEEM 5 minutes later?
Unfortunately, the system is currently broken and SBD is not properly pegged to $1, partially because external influences and because witnesses were not given the tools to properly peg SBD down, only to push it up.
I understand SBD more as a gateway between fiat and STEEM, from a costing point of view. With only a 5% SBD/STEEM debt ratio target, and with rewards being paid in both SBD and STEEM now to keep below that 5%, STEEM is obviously meant to be the medium of mainstream transactions. We can pay with BTC, LTC, ETH, and all those are just a volatile as (if not more than) STEEM. SBD is probably more volatile than STEEM right now too.
I'd say for commerce SBD is more of a cost reference where you can easily convert 1SBB into STEEM using Witness price feeds, and then make price changes in STEEM on the fly quite easily directly on the platform. So if 1USD is =1SBD, converting to STEEM from USD wouldn't need a 3rd party feed coming into the equation.
I absolutely agree that the broken peg is a problem, and hopefully can be addressed eventually to bring some stability to it. It has been a great run in terms of higher post rewards in $ value, but that is where the barrier to entry is for commerce, and growth in the long term. Has there been any further developments on that front, or are we still in "wait and see" mode?
Can someone tell me if bots are used to find and upvote quality content? If not, why do we still allow them? And if not, can anyone list Witness candidates willing to eliminate them? I'd sure like my votes to go there.
There are many uses for bots other than just auctioning off votes. Quality content is also a very subjective topic. I'm not debating either of those subjects here, but rather moving the preferred payment currency on Steem to be STEEM rather than SBD.
As for the Witnesses; many of the witnesses use bots to automate various tasks which may include, but certainly isn't limited to, using some of their voting power on autovotes for various communities, or also selling votes via a bidbot service. Some bidbot owners are actively monitoring their bidders and blacklisting abusers. @sneak-ninja is one such bot.
I'd be interested if someone could tell me a way in which a bot can be used to curate quality content. I can't think of a way for that to work if the bot is the one doing the upvoting.
Thank you for your continued support of SteemSilverGold
SBD is unique and must be only for steem users on this platform... if not so why is the payout not steem only but rather for steem powers and sbd...
Your post has been written by many beautifully.
I see many posts but there is something in your post that I did not
get from another post.
A smart writer that you can understand about your writing
I will try to write as you like and share the sentiments of the post
in such a way.
So that people like me and vote in my post
you are a spammer and risk to be flagged to zero reputation soon
A lot of logic in your reasoning and it would seem to make sense to me