Can Witnesses Share Their Reward With The Ones Who Elected Them?
This post is just for the purpose of discussion. I’m not saying that witnesses should or should not share their reward with the ones who elected them. I really don’t know. Just trying to make a discussion.
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The witness voting is a bit random on Steem. Everyone has 30 votes and can use them as they wish. The majority of the accounts probably don’t bother much about witness voting. Especially the ones with low SP. As you get more SP and more influence probably you will start looking to whom to give your trust to. And the thing is there is 30 votes to give.
Now the next question is to whom to vote for? You may have heard for some of the witnesses and know some very few facts vote for them. Other then this I really don’t know how people decide who to vote for. The big boy’s aka whales probably have more facts when they do there voting.
TRON Block producers (Witnesses) are sharing their rewards with the ones voting for them
Yes, the Tron Block producers are sharing their rewards with the ones voting for them. Sometimes in a different token. There is a different ratio how much of the rewards will be shared with the voters. Some share it all, some a part of it.
Witnesses are very important!
Yes, witnesses are the ones who maintain the system. They are the key element for the blockchain to work and are of systemic importance. No witnesses and it means that the blockchain is in danger.
How much are the witnesses earning
According to the reports from @quochuy the top 20 witnesses are earning around 2160 STEEM per week. That is just above 9k STEEM per month. In todays prices 0,41$ per STEEM it is around 3700$ per month. Is this enough to run a witness server. I don’t know. If there is someone to give more info on this please do.
This is not a large sum of money, but it is something that for the regular Steem user can be hard to achieve.
But what if the price of STEEM is 4$? The witnesses earnings will be 10 times the ones that are now. Will then they will be able to share something? Probably yes.
Let the market decide who will be a witness
This is probably the main point of the post. I find the witness voting clumsy and without incentive for the regular user. Why should I bother to vote for witness at all? Ok maybe there is something cool that the witness is doing but is this enough. We all know that the financial incentive can do a lot.
I have mentioned more then ones that I don’t know is running a witness server is profitable at these prices. Also having a reliable witness is of essence of the blockchain as they do the most fundamental job and secure the blockchain. They should be rewarded for that.
Since we don’t have any witnesses that are offering to share their reward with the community at the moment maybe this means that it is not possible in the moment. Probably this is the case. But will it still be if the price of Steem is 10x from what is now?
All the best
@dalz
Keep in mind that it is $3700 worth of Steem Power per month, not liquid STEEM.
Rewarding voters didn't work out well on Lisk and led to the creation of cartels. To be fair, it's difficult to compare because voters have to pay fees on Lisk. And they're trying to improve their DPOS system.
Well it always nice to look at someone else experience.
Looks like finance are involved people act as much as they can get out of it.
In this case concentration of all block producers earnings.
$3700 is enough for a top20 witness to run one witness node. But top20 witnesses also have a backup witness node, maybe a test one, maybe a seed node, maybe a full RPC node, plus pays taxes and have more expenses and not counting their time for maintaining the system and attending to issues and upgrades. A lot of top witnesses also have servers to run projects such as Steem Engine.
Sharing revenue with voters would be:
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3700$ is more than enough for the infrastructure, but as you said correctly, it takes much more than "infrastructure" to be a
goodgreat witness. The invested time is quite high, especially since witnesses are supposed to be involved in everything related to Steem, as well as providing/developing tools.On top of that, it's also somewhat risky to "become" a witness. At the beginning (2016), it might have been easy, but over time, the requirements have only risen and it has become more and more difficult to reach the top (especially TOP 20). The amount of shuffling among the TOP 20 is very low (which is good for stability), but bad for newcomers. (Many backup witnesses can sing a song about that).
So regarding the post's question: If the revenue would be as high as before the 80% witness-cut, then sure, rewards could be split. There are pros and cons to that subject. But right now, economically speaking, it's not viable. And there is, of course, the question, how low you can go before talented witnesses decide it's not worth their time.
Yes .... this are all valid points. Not just infrastructure but time is needed as well.
I guess there is a certain point when this can be possible, but not now. Where is that balance remains to be seen.
Thanks
Thanks for the replay. Appreciated.
I'm just exploring the subject and open for any possibilities. If it is not possible and is a bad idea than OK.
Do you think in different market conditions this will be an option?
Or it will be still a bad thing to do?
If market is right and rewards are more than enough and Witnesses start to share their revenue, who will you vote for? The one who shares the most? Even though he/she does nothing for the platform other than producing blocks?
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The question have the right answer in it already :)
I get the point where this can lead. But what about now? Voting is totally random and with no incentive at all for the small accounts. There maybe a better way, not just sharing revenue.
Yea just look at the orcas/whales who post dummy content, pays bots to get $$$ and people are all jumping on it curating it in order to grab the CR not because it's a good content (because it is not). When $ gain is involved, quality choice is rarely present.
If every small accounts vote for witnesses, they can together make a big difference. How to incentivize them to vote for witnesses? If I knew the answer I'd be in the top20 already 🤣. The witness maybe should be involved in the Steem life of the new member from the beginning? Such as onboarding them?
How to choose a witness to vote? I can't tell you how to choose as this is very personal but your choice will dictate who you trust to ensure the security of the Steem network.
When I joined Steem, I chose to use a vote proxy first as I didn't know who to vote for so I set as a proxy Jerry Banfield from whom I learned a lot about Steem from all his posts and videos. As I learned about Steem I started to recognise more names and discover those who were also witnesses and had an impact on my knowledge of the platform and has influenced my Steemian life. I progressively made my own choice for the 30 witnesses and also discovered more about Jerry and removed my vote for him before he disabled his own witness. As time goes by, my witness votes have been updated too.
Yea I don't know the right answer as well. But sometimes out of discussions people can draw useful conclusion.
The pro from the financial incentive is that it can lead to a lot more people voting.
The con is it can put in charge witnesses who are just sharing revenue and not doing much for the system.
So maybe a limited sharing is a nice options. Lets say 50%. Witnesses cannot share more then 50%. This will guarantee a base income for all the witnesses, and still give small Steemians incentive to vote. Just an example.
Only top witnesses will be able to do that.
I'm currently ranked #93 and last week I made USD 15.73 which is around USD 66 per month... I can't afford to share anything.
For a new witness it will be even worse, the bottom witness is currently making USD 0.45 per week...
It's the new witnesses that needs more votes but it's them who can't afford revenue sharing. If we start sharing witnesses revenue guess what happens? Higher ranking witnesses will get more votes because they can afford to share revenue...
Another con :)
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