Does Burning Author Rewards Improve HIVE?
In response to the dip in the price of HIVE, @buildawhale has been running a series of burn posts. It looks like they've run 112 posts. I scraped the values from PeakD this morning. The posts have received over 9000 upvotes. PeakD reports that the posts received over $2,500.
NOTE: Anyone can create a burn post in PeakD by setting the beneficiary to "Burn."
A burn post only affects the author rewards. The curators still get curation rewards.
PeakD shows a little fire symbol next to burn posts. Always check for the fire symbol before upvoting a burn post. Some miscreants run "burn posts" but keep the coins.
This Is NOT a Burn Post
I am not burning the rewards for this post even though the post asks a question about burning.
I am greedy that way.
There are good reasons for burning the rewards for a post. This is especially true if the post is about a controversial subject and the author does not want to appear to be pandering.
Burning Alt-Coins
Burn posts also burn the author's alt-coin rewards. I made a table of coins being burned from the different tribal sites for the @buildawhale burns. Note, I could not access Archon's site:
| Ticker | Tokens | Burned | USD Price | USD Burn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HBD | 2496 | 1248.04 | $1.0000 | $1,248.04 |
| POB | 2947 | 1473.5125 | $0.0050 | $7.43 |
| LEO | 657 | 328.88 | $0.0588 | $19.33 |
| VYB | 2043 | 1021.685 | $0.0009 | $0.89 |
| PAL | 29 | 14.94 | $0.0002 | $0.00 |
| ASH | 13 | 6.795 | $0.0000 | $0.00 |
| CENT | 637 | 318.865 | $0.0044 | $1.40 |
| BEE | 18 | 9.1315 | $0.2105 | $1.92 |
| CTP | 1121 | 560.623 | $0.0078 | $4.36 |
| Neoxian | 596 | 298.049 | $0.0004 | $0.13 |
| SPT | 12,491 | 6,245.51 | $0.0004 | $2.62 |
| Total | 10,561 | 5,280.521 | $1,283.50 |
The alt-coin rewards pale in comparison to the HBD. Yeah, the system burned two thousand VYB. The USD value of the burn was a whopping $0.89. PAL and ASH seem to be negligible.
I Often Upvote Burn Posts
I like that there is an account with nothing but burn posts. I waste a huge amount of time reading HIVE posts. I often find that I haven't used my full allotment of upvotes by bedtime. The existence of a burn account means I can cast burn votes and sleep soundly knowing that my voting power won't return to 100% as I snore into my pillow.
I especially like upvoting burn posts in down markets as burning the rewards might decrease the float of HIVE on the open market.
The Argument Against Burning Author Rewards
Upvoting a burn post destroys the author rewards but keeps the curator rewards.
HIVE needs to have decent rewards to attract quality content creators.
The creation of quality content is not easy. Most HIVE authors receive well under minimum wage for the time spent on their posts. Artists, photographers and videographers need to buy equipment and materials for their work.
Photographers need to travel to take pictures. Researchers need to buy books and subscribe to journals.
Many HIVE creators are in the red. They have spent more to create posts than they have received in rewards.
Content Creators Hurt in Down Markets Just Like Curators
The rewards for authors drop in down markets just like they do for curators.
Dedicated authors on HIVE power up most of their rewards. In some ways the creators are hurt more by the bear market than the creators as some of the creators may have been spending money on their creation based on the amount of HIVE they had in their account.
Burning author rewards helps by reducing the float of HIVE rewards on the market. "Reducing float" is a rather abstract concept. Is it not?
Diverting upvotes from creators to burn posts directly affects authors. Remember these authors just saw a huge drop in the value of the past earnings that they powered up along with a drop in their current earnings.
Reducing upvotes for authors during a bear market might discourage HIVE authors.
The statistic page by @arcange seems to be showing a troubling drop in HIVE users for the last several months.
NOTE: Different HIVE coins have different reward policies. VYB gives all rewards as staked coins, POB and LEO give rewards in unstaked form. About half of the rewards come in staked form. So, authors have to unstake the rewards before selling them on the open market. So, removing author rewards does not reduce the float as much as one imagines.
What Is Your Opinion on Burning Author Rewards?
I appreciate your comments on burning author rewards. Do you think that it positively affects the price of HIVE or do you think that it is better to get the rewards to authors during bear markets to keep the platform active?
The Picture
I snapped a picture of my rocket stove. I cook on a rocket stove during the summer to decrease my consumption of fossil fuels. I am burning sticks that would have been hauled away as yard waste. I was going to draw a picture of burning coins, but realized that drawing the picture would not be worth the rewards.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
