So all the dust has settled and the blockchain is stable once more. Stemit accounts can be created, small stakeholders can vote, post and comment, the HF20 message has changed from red to blue, and all is well!

Of course there are still issues to address, however we are part of a disruptive technology movement here on Steemit and so a lot of these issues are in brand new territory for everyone.

If you use Steemit it means that you are a part of this growing community. Therefore you are contributing by using the system and by making suggestions and voting for witnesses who you feel improve the community with their actions and suggestions.

So with that in mind, I'd like to put out a question to the witnesses I support with my vote, and the wider Steem community.

Dealing With Blockchain Frustration

Before I continue, I'd like to just briefly touch on the best way I believe to deal with the inevitable frustrations that you will encounter from time to time.

HF20 represented a massive overhaul to the STEEM blockchain, and it had to happen whilst allowing us to carry on as normal.

In previous hardforks I have let these frustrations get to me. However I realised that once the dust has settled the blockchain just carries on and everything returns to normal. Sometimes the changes will work, sometimes they won't.

Everybody is different and deals with frustration in their own way. However I can guarantee you that the best way to deal with it, is not by getting into arguments and shouting matches.

I've done it myself . . .

and it get's you . . .

absolutely . . .

NOWHERE!

Defining The Wallet Spam Problem

First things first, let us define the problem of wallet spam. Exactly what it is, why it needs to be stopped, and exactly what to about it.

What is wallet spam?

There probably aren't too many Steemit users who have been around for more than a week who don't know what wallet spam is. However it is important to define it before we go any further, in order to make sure that we're all reading from the same playbook.

Wallet spam is (at the moment) entirely dominated by the resteem/bidbots. These are accounts who have seemingly gained a large following and whom offer to resteem your posts if you send them the link and some money.

The messages are always the same and they are pretty much sent everyday. In my wallet at the moment, the biggest culprits are [at]byresteem and [at]big-whale, who seem to have gone on some kind of spam frenzy. There are others, however these two are the superstars of the spam world in my wallet.

I say my wallet, because of course a lot of these spammers configure their messages to go to account holders of certain SP. So if you have more than say 10,000 SP, you will get different spam to somebody who has 1,000 or 100,000 SP.

It seems that I am in the resteem spam sweet spot, so I will mainly be referring to these guys.

Does Wallet Spam Matter?

Live and let live right? I mean, does it really matter that your wallet gets spammed? You are only ever on that page to collect rewards, make transfers and maybe link to the internal market. The wallet messages are 'below the fold' and so you don't even have to scroll down to read them; so who cares?

Well I for one think it does matter, for a number of reasons:

1. They drown out messages you may actually want to receive. - Now and again somebody you want to hear from might reach out to you via your wallet memo. If you have tuned out the messages because you can't stand the spam, then you'll miss them.

2. Perhaps you are part of ongoing competitions and Steemit programs that require you to send and receive wallet memos. In that case the spam just gets in the way, and as above, may cause you to miss a crucial message.

3. You are providing an advertising service for scam services. - This is a big one for me. I personally believe these resteem services are by and large a scam. The users that they have garnered are either bot accounts or simply follow-for-follow low value, and low usage accounts.

Therefore I don't see why you should be forced into advertising something that you don't believe in, or know to be a 100% scam.

The fact is the wallet pages are probably amongst the most viewed pages on Steemit. It is no secret that the more SP you have, the larger your vote will be. Hence users both new and old alike, tend to go to the wallet page of a user that they haven't come across before.

I don't think that new users should be exposed to this, as they are more susceptible to Steemit spam than say someone who has been around for a couple of months.

Eventually the new user will realise that they have been scammed out of their cash and it potentially leaves a bad taste in their mouths. Leaving them to spread bad vibes about our beloved community.

How Do We Deal With Wallet Spam?

In the latest @steemitblog post, (linked below) they talk about how the new system has moved from bandwidth to resource credits.

This in itself is fairly technical and I won't go into it here. Suffice to say that every action has a cost on the blockchain, from posting, right through to transferring
even the smallest amount (0.001) of SBD or STEEM. Those costs used to be covered by bandwidth allocated to each individual account, now they are covered by Resources Credits (RCs).

As far as I understand it (please more technical people correct me if I'm wrong), there is an algorithm in place that allows the blockchain to work out the cost of all these actions.

Remember, the STEEM blockchain also houses other decentralised applications (dapps) and so it is not just the cost of actions on Steemit it has to take into account.

So moving on we can see that sending a wallet memo along with a small amount of currency will cost.

The question is:

Can we make the cost of sending a memo such that it makes it prohibitive to spam. Without impacting on the experience of either current, or future legitimate users?

Things To Consider When Tackling Wallet Spam

So who might want to send legitimate wallet messages?

• Standard users who wants to message other users on Steemit.

• Competition holders who need to message details about their contests, including rules, winnings and announcements.

• Legitimate Service Providers who want to deliver and advertise their services. Some of these have not even come to the Steem-o-sphere yet, however we need to have them in mind.

Witness Invite

OK so that's the problem as I see it, in a nutshell.

Can we make the RC cost big enough to stop spam, but not so much so that it impinges on honest users?

Below is a list of witnesses I support and I would very much like to get their opinions on this matter. Plus of course anyone else in the community that would like to add their voice to this in the comment section.

If you would like to do a post answering these points, then of course by all means please do. However I would really appreciate it if you place a link, and short summary in the comment section so as to keep this particular debated focused.

Further Reading:

HF20 Update: Operations Stable - steemitblog

@cryptogee witness votes

@aggroed
@anyx
@arcange
@ausbitbank
@chitty
@clayop
@curie
@helpie
@lukestokes.mhth
@pfunk
@pharesim
@roelandp
@sc-steemit
@steemed
@steemychicken1
@themarkymark
@utopian-io

WHAT DO YOU THINK? IS THIS A PROBLEM WE CAN SOLVE? IF SO WHAT ARE YOUR SUGGESTIONS TO ALLEVIATE THE PROBLEM? OR PERHAPS YOU DON'T EVEN SEE IT AS AN ISSUE?

AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Title image: KS KYUNG on Unsplash

Cryptogee