I will be reducing my vote on SBD interest rate (APR) from 4% to 2.5% as of February 1 and reducing my account creation fee vote from 50 to 30, which is the current median. My price feed discount will remain unchanged at 2%
The APR is being reduced because SBD has been consistently strong during January and especially in the second half of the month. SBD has repeatedly traded above 1 USD, and rarely if ever below. My stability fund account which trades with a goal of keeping SBD at 1 USD has continued to see imbalanced conditions with demand for SBD exceeding supply, resulting in a steady drain of SBD from the fund and an accumulation of excess balances in STEEM and BTC. Given these market conditions and the ongoing cost of a higher interest rate, it is clear to me that the SBD interest rate should be lower. (In general, I believe the interest rate should always be reduced as much as possible as long as there is sufficient demand to keep the SBD price from falling below 1 USD, as this minimizes interest cost.) I would have reduced the rate earlier, however I am following the schedule of waiting to make these adjustments on the first of the month when feasible.
I am reducing the creation fee to the current median to cease opposing those witnesses who believe it should be lower. However, I don't really believe that any of these small changes make much real difference.
My feed discount is being maintained because the supply of SBD remains high, above the 2% "debt ratio" level where the system reduces creation of SBD in response to excess SBD in the system. Maintaining the feed discount continues offering an incentive to convert SBD into STEEM. (I have been doing these conversions, along with a few others, but the rate has been modest.) Long term I believe the feed discount should be lower (probably <1%, possibly as low as 0.1%), but only once the SBD supply has been fully normalized.
Rewards from this post (in whatever form received -- STEEM, SBD, and/or SP) will be converted to SBD and burned, as were previous witness post rewards. Proof of the burn will be posted as a comment reply