Steem Basic Income

Steem Basic Income is a social experiment to bring a basic income to as many Steemians as possible. Members join by sponsoring others into the program. Steem Basic Income is delivered through providing regular upvotes to member content.

The Paradox of Universal Basic Income

An article came out today in Wired about UBI.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-paradox-of-universal-basic-income/

This encapsulates the overall theme:

on a panel at a recent conference ... the moderator asked audience and panel members what they thought of UBI. The overwhelming consensus of the 500 or so people in the room appeared to be “we're skeptical, but should experiment.”

I am always bemused when I hear billionaires express support for Universal Basic Income. Don't just talk about it; go do it! If every billionaire that expressed support for the concept pooled 10% of their assets together, they could fund a massive UBI pilot the likes of which they have never seen. So they're in favor of UBI, but only if somebody else is paying for it?

Steem Basic Income as a UBI Pilot?

Steem Basic Income is still very small (we are currently able to deliver upvotes worth a total of $180 per week), but we have a bright future. As we move into full automation of our basic functions, we have a whole list of new features that will start coming online in the months and years to come. As we move forward, it will become more egalitarian, while continuing to deliver a fair return to the big accounts that have become our support backbone.

It's important for members to remember that this is a social experiment, not just an upvoting service with a really complicated structure! Delivery of a basic income, at sustenance levels, is our end goal. Each element of our design (along with the changes and improvements in our development pipeline) is intended to grow the program, to protect it from abuse, to establish sustainability, and to make it more egalitarian.

With that in mind, it's helpful to remember that shares are a tracking mechanism to ensure a fair distribution of voting power. We are a service that delivers income through upvotes, and when you enroll yourself and others, you are subscribing to a service. Shares do not denote ownership, they just indicate the extent of your subscription to upvotes.

A 'share' as we use it is shorthand for 'share of voting power'. Since shares do not denote ownership, we have the freedom to move people freely between pools, to reward bonuses for upvoting @steembasicincome, to reward temporary bonus shares for delegation, and to make whatever other changes we think are necessary to support the goals of the program.

This is pretty clear in every example we give in the Complete Overview, but I want to make sure that members are clear before we move into full automation... because there will be changes, and there may be winners and losers. The new design will have better incentives for you to support the program (through delegation or upvotes), but it will also be more dynamic in penalizing those who try to game the system (whether intentionally or inadvertently).

Member Content Quality

We rely heavily on the assumption that members are vetting the content of people they sponsor, and it seems to be working. Across more than 1800 members, we have less than ten members with recent flags from the top anti-plagiarism programs.

We do check member flag history to identify accounts that engage in plagiarism or other illegal activities. We don't take sides in flag wars, but if you're a pattern plagiarist, we reserve the right to remove you from the program. It's important for the longevity of the program that we not be perceived as supporting illegal activity. This is actually spelled out in detail in our original launch posts.

Help! I was removed by @josephsavage and he refused to reinstate me!

If a user disagrees with an administrative decision to impose a temporary or permanent removal, there will be an appeal process. The offending user can choose 1 member from the recipient list and @josephsavage will choose 1 member. Those members will review the elements of the case and decide whether the removal should be reversed. (Appointed members may decline appointment). If they are unable to reach a consensus decision, they may each appoint 2 more members (total of 6), and the case can be decided by majority. If they are still unable to agree, the original ruling from @josephsavage is upheld by default.

This process may be revised, but any revision must be approved by a majority of voting members. A voting post would be published with the new proposed rules and a yes or no comment. The comment with the most member votes (not highest reward) will determine the outcome.

Sponsored shares (registration fee was paid by somebody else) are not eligible for refund for any reason. (emphasis added)

I also spelled out in the Overview that 'dissenting members' may be entitled to a full or partial refund on their shares for which they paid the enrollment. If you feel that the program has changed significantly from what you signed up for, feel free to reach out to me on Discord. If the concerns you have are about changes that were made since your last enrollment, I'd be happy to calculate what your partial refund should be. But remember this is a public blockchain, and it's very easy to identify when your enrolling transactions were sent, relative to any program changes. Any enrollments submitted by any account after a program change is announced constitute acceptance of that change by the account submitting the enrollment.

On the other hand, if your concerns are that the reward is lower than you expected... I feel your pain, but the upvote values are lower than expected because STEEM is in a prolonged slump. I literally feel your pain: I have a lot invested in this program, and my own accounts are probably the most under-voted relative to their total shares! But this is a service, and we are delivering the service as described, the result just isn't as rosy as we would all like it to be.

Enrollment

If this sounds interesting and you want to get involved, or to increase the share of basic income that you receive, enrollment is pretty straightforward:

Just send 1 STEEM to @steembasicincome. Include the name of a Steemian to sponsor in the transaction memo. You and the person you sponsor will each receive 1 share in the program. You can sponsor any active Steemian, it does not have to be a current member.

The official currency for enrollment is STEEM. Until further notice, we will not accept any enrollments that are paid in SBD. Use the Market function in you Steem wallet; it's very easy and the spread is quite reasonable.

It's fine to send a list, but we prefer a comma after each name. If you send a list, please specify share amounts for each or we will assume equal distribution (e.g. 15 STEEM with 3 names means 5 shares each and 15 for you, unless you specify otherwise).

As we get close to automation for enrollments, we will tighten up the transaction memo guidelines. Please bear in mind that enrollments are currently processed manually, and we are prioritizing regular updates over new enrollments right now, so there may be some delay before you receive confirmation or adjustment to your voting weights.

Steem Creators Conference

We are pleased to have been invited to speak at the Steem Creators Conference in Las Vegas next month. Learn all about it at https://www.steemcreators.com/ Mark your calendars and book your tickets, this is going to be an awesome event! (Look for our name on the registration page to get a $25 discount on your tickets.)

Questions?

We broke down the mechanics for how the program works in the complete overview. You can check your share counts and upvoting weight in our spreadsheet explained here. If you have any questions, ask away in the comments section or join us in our discord channel.