Although some of you may only see the good parts of the Steem blockchain, we shouldn't dissregard the negatives but, should rather try to find and fix them appropriately. That's what we need to do first if we want to have any chance for mass adoption and Steem taking over the world. Muahahahaha! No, seriously. Without addressing the flaws, imbalances and setting the right incentives, Steem has no chance of ever becoming the go to blockchain, that it deserves to be. I've touched up on a couple of the most notable ones in some previous posts, but today, I would like to mention all of the major issues Steem currently has and how one project alone could swiftly solve them all.

• user onboardiong (will be fixed soon in the upcoming HF20 )
• user retention
• uneven token distribution
• a terrible trending fake page plagued by bidbot promoted content
• a broken and gameable reputation system, see ex. @haejin and @chbartist
• reward pool abuse/uneven reward distribution
• discovering great, undervalued content and rewarding it appropriately (this is true not only for planktons and minnows but for dolphins and orcas aswell)
• content consumption and engagement

I'm sure there are some that I failed to mention so, if you know of any, feel free to drop them in the coment section.

Looking at the above-mentioned problems you might think that I was pulling your leg saying that one project could solve them alone but, trust me, I wasn't. Being a bit shy of two weeks old, this project has already gained unprecedented support of the community. From planktowns to minnows, dolpins to orcas, it has even caught attention of some of the most influential Steemians and has won over the community by storm. Not only that, but they managed to collect more than 400k SP in delegations! And you know what? Every supporter of this "program" is getting a daily dose of Hopium. Wait, what are you saying? Hopium? They are doing drugs now? No, they are not. Calm down. We will talk about this misterious thing called Hopium a bit further down the post.

The beacon of light in a bottomless pit of circle jerks

Behold, the mighty @steem-ua! It is disguised as being the new reputation system, while in fact, it is so much more than that. It is a glimmer of hope for this place. One that could quite possibly, shift the tides in the sea of tokens and finally allow planktowns, minnows and those that just feel that way, to catch a break and earn some STEEM/SP. Consequently, that will even out the reward distribution, offer a fairer way of rewarding what is supposed to be quality content and offer a base layer of support for hardworking Steemians.

What is @steem-ua

Simply put, it's a delegation driven, quality content curation bot, that upvotes posts based on the authors UserAuthority (UA) score. The UA score is calculated by using an ever-evolving algorithim which I won't go into the nitty-gritties of but, I'll give you an basic idea of how it works.

What goes into your UA score

The biggest part of the score is comes from your Follower Matrix, which is basically a calculation of the UA scores of your followers, their followers, and the followers of their followers, and so on... The other big factor is looking at how much you interact on the blockchain through comments and what kind of interaction it is (checking for abusive behaviour like spam). There are many more layers that go into your final UA score and new ones will constantly be added and tweaked but generally, these two are the most important ones.

View your UA here.

How to increase your UA

Users can increase their UA score by producing more interesting/engaging content and interacting with others more often and on a deeper level. With more interesting content comes the possibility of gaining a new follower which will increase your score. Same goes for interacting with others which, not only offers a chance for a new follower but, it further increases your UA score.

For more information about the technical details and the ins and outs of @steem-ua I would suggest you to read this post, and this one.

How @steem-ua will reshape Steem/Steemit

• First of all, we finally have a decent reputation system, with rep that can't be increased through buying votes. Your reputation is just a result of the amount of rewards you received over time. It's meaningless. Although it wasn't like that before, when there weren't any bidbots around, it's broken now. It serves no practical use, other than to see who got the most rewards, the fastest.

• Most importantly, @steem-ua will change the wealth distribution on the platform for good. More planktons will be empowered to become minnows and some minnows will even become dolphins. By fairly distributing rewards based on the level of trust the user has with the blockchain, @steem-ua will shift the tides in the favour of the less influential. Soon, we will have tens of thousands of ex planktons with 50 SP becoming 500 SP minnows. Some of which might have given up on this place if it wasn't for the @steem-ua support. Who cares about the minnows, we need more orcas and whales. Rght? Wrong!

More accounts with less SP will always overpower a couple with high SP. Just look at the above-mentioned situation and throw the numbers win the calculator. 10 000 users x 500 SP = 5 million SP!!!

• A wave of users that would usually Power Down and cash out their earnings, bringing the STEEM price down, will now want to Power Up and delegate to @steem-ua. Consequently, these kind of users, that are typically playing a big role in STEEM's downtrends, will now actually increase the price of STEEM.

• Some of the users we are currently losing because of various reasons, which I won't go into now, are going to stay and keep producing valuable content. Carried on the wings of @steem-ua voting them 2,4 or 7 times per week (depending on their delegation), they will have one less reason to leave and a big one to stay.

• A good amount of users will stop with the boosted shitposts and will concentrate more on producing meaningful content that people want to read and engage with. Voilà! The terrible trending page is semi-fixed. It is still occupied mostly by bidbotted posts, but their quality is significantly higher than before.

• Finally, with @steem-ua implemented, the right incentives are beeing put in place. Content quality and user interaction being the two most important ones. These incentives will change over time but imo, those two will always be the most valuable ones. They will push our whole community into a higher gear, and the right direction!

It's pretty amazing to see that one project alone can have such a huge impact on the community. The before-mentioned problems are currently destroying the fabric of Steem, but @steem-ua is an angel that will heal this ecosystem. It puts focus where it really needs to be (content quality, user interaction, powering up), sets the right incentives and most importantly, it spreads the wealth far and wide.

Oh, yeah, and one last thing, the hopium. Something most of us need moree of here. Something that will make you stay and strive to be better every day. Hopium for a base level of support. Hopium of motivation. Hopium of love. Hopium for a better, fairer, more evenly distributed, future.

How to get that sweet @steem-ua upvote

Being a delegation based system, you will need to delegate at least 25 SP to get 1 upvote per week from @steem-ua. Give it a go with at least 25 SP and if you like the hopium, increase the amount delegated to fit your needs.

Amount of SP delegated only affects the number of potential votes a user can get, not their value. The value of the votes is determined based on your UA score. Obviously, the higher it is, the better the votes you are going to get. This is a innovative concept, that unlike traditional bidbots, that merely want to make a profit, actually cares about the quality of the content that is being published and supported. I personally, can't wait to see how this projet evolves in the future and to see how it will change this place for the better.

Quick Delegation Links: 25 SP | 50 SP | 100 SP | 250 SP | 500 SP | 1,000 SP | 2,500 SP | 5,000 SP | 10,000 SP | 25,000 SP | 50,000 SP | 100,000 SP | 250,000 SP | 500,000 SP | 1,000,000 SP

I started with 100 SP delegation, but very soon after increased it to 250 as I've realized the potential of the project, and my personal need for hopium.

The ROI

Yasssss, the ROI, something everyone is interested in nowadays. Although it was not my main motivation to delegate, or to increase my delegation, ROI plays a crucial role in deciding if, one should delegate to a certain project. So, let's take a look at what kind of returns @steem-ua is currently giving to its supporters.

The lowest value upvote @steem-ua handed out in the last voting round (at the time of writing this post) was worth 0.1$, and it was sent to a user with 0.0 UA who ranked last in the Algorithmic Curation Round. The highest upvote was sent to a user with 8.535 UA and it was worth 0.6$. If we look at an average @steem-ua vote of, let's say 0.3$ we can conclude that:

• 25 SP (max. 1 upvote per week) shamelessly selfvoting 10x a day gives around 8 cents per week / UA gives max. 30 cents

• 50 SP (max. 2 upvotes per week) shamelessly selfvoting 10x a day gives around 17 cents per week / UA gives max. 60 cents

• 100 SP (max. 4 upvotes per week) shamelessly selfvoting 10x a day gives around 35 cents per week / UA gives max. 1.2$ cents

• 250 SP (max. 7 upvotes per week) shamelessly selfvoting 10x a day gives around 90 cents per week / / UA gives max. 2.4$

The votes I received ever since I joined the project ranged from 0.3$ to 0.9$

Calculating the exact ROI for each level of delegation is close to impossible as the equation contains too many unknowns and what ifs but, I can tell you that it's definitely worth your while. What I would suggest everyone to do, is to delegate 25 SP, or 50 SP and give it a go. See what kind of returns you will receive and how high your posts are ranking in the Algorithmic Curation Rounds. If the results are satisfying (which, they surely will be) , bump that delegation up by one level and wait out another week. Rince&Repeat until you have delegated at least 250 SP.

If you are still thinking about if you should delegate to @steem-ua, I don't know what else to tell you other than to stop thinking about it. Just hop on the Hopium train, work on increasing your UA score by producing more interesting content, engage with your readers more often and enjoy the ride!

What are your thoughts on @steem-ua?

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