SEC S17-W5 || Whales In Steem blockchain

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We are all citizens of a country and all these countries have governments which have a huge influence on things done in the country and they provide a huge support and influence on the country, this is similar to whales in steemit BlockChain. You might have always been wondering what whales are, I will bring enlightenment to what and who a whale is so keep a tab on this post to learn more.

I was very confused when I came into cryptocurrency newly about all these terms like the whales and so on, I know most people out here in steemit are still confused about it and I would love to make a very simple illustration which will last long in our memory.

In the real sense we know whale as a very big Fish in the sea or should we say the biggest amongst all other fishes, they're other fishes in water with varying sizes also living in the same sea. Steemit is a very large sea which holds different fishes with different sizes and influence in water, take note that even whales are in these sea. There are things that differentiates these fishes and they're powers and influences which they have in the sea, this powers in the steemit world is known as STEEM POWER(SP).

With the help of the steem tool I was able to know the ranges and positions of these ranks/Fishes. The range was from plankton up to the whales.

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When I came across the word "plankton" it immediately brought back the lessons I had from my biology classes in highschool. Plankton are small fishes which don't have much power or influence in water and they are moved with water currents. In steemit plankton's are users especially newbies which their steem power is below 1k steem power. These plankton's users have less influence on steemit like voting powers compared to other ranks of users.

Not like the plankton fishes, plankton users on steemit can grow to become Minnows by buying steems and powering up and also accumulating more steem powers through posting and engaging on steemit platform. It seems tough to grow from the plankton to minnows

Minnows are small fishes which also have less importance compared to the bigger ones in the platform, they have greater strengths and power compared to plankton's but are less than dolphins.

Minnow has from 1k steem power up to 4,999 steem power, they are always growing speedily to become dolphins.

Dolphins are friendly and big fishes that play a crucial role in steemit, they're mostly moderators are also curators that help make steemit grow. Dolphins in steemit are users with 5k steem power to 49,999 steem power.

As you can see above is a screenshot from my phone a friend which has 9k plus steem power, which all together sums to 10k steem power that shows he is 2x dolphin. This dolphin ranges from 1x to 9x dolphin with every 4,999k points. Like 1x dolphin from 5k sp to 9,999k sp and 2x dolphin from 10k sp to 14,999k sp and so on.

ORCA is a big fish bigger than the dolphin, they have great influence on steemit and their voting power is felt. Orca has a steem power from 50k to 499,999k steem power. They have played a very crucial role in steemit.

I took this screenshot from my phone, an account of @wilmer1988 a huge orca that has has a very good effect and influence on steemit.

This is the main reason for all these explanations, Whales are huge influencers on steemit that plays a very important roles in the growth of steemians. Their influence on steemit has helped improve and made steemit more fun for small users. The examples of such users are @rme, @hungry-griffin, SC01 and so on, their voting power is very heavy. The feeling you have when you receive a vote from whales can't be measured.

To become whales you need to attend 500k steem power and above.

Since we now have a good knowledge of who the whales are, We will now look at what their Responsibilities are on steemit.

• Curation support: Whales support users through curation support by using their large steem power to vote users, this has helped many users to achieve their goals.

• Motivation: How do you feel when you receive notifications about a support from a whale?, you always feel happy and excited throughout, this simple act from them has motivated a lot of users to keep making quality posts. Whales motivates users

• Support: Through their influence whales has supported many projects and also many people in steemit . One of the main responsibilities of Whales is to support.

• Promotion: if a Whale supports a content it brings more users to that content and the user so the influence of Whales can help promote.

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• Influence of Whales on the value of cryptocurrency

Whales have played a very important role in the value of cryptocurrency, their work on crypto also determines the value of cryptocurrency

• Inflating market price: Whales have huge influence in making prices of cryptocurrencies go up, when they buy a certain amount of the currency it makes the price of the crypto pump.

• Deflating market prices : whales can also deflate a crypto value by dumping, this is mostly seem in many crypto tokens that came out newly, you will see the value at 1$ per token then under some hours it will dump to 0.01$ per token. This means that the investors/whales sold it making the value to drop drastically.

• Roles of Whales in Steemit Blockchain

As steemit is a part of cryptocurrency, the whales in steemit has played a very crucial role in steemit and I'll be listing their roles on steemit Blockchain.

• Buying and selling of steem: Just like other cryptocurrencies, when whales buy enough steems it makes the prices of steem to go up and vice versa

• Support: Whales supports other users to grow in steemit, they give hope to many people to become huge like them one day and they motivate them. This is one of their best role which is to support.

• Promotion: Whales promote projects and brings many support from the user, they have great influence in bringing more people to see and support users and also projects which will bring more people to the project.

• Guidance: Whales helps users and also new users guiding them in steemit to succeed and also delegating steem power to them to help them grow in steem.

There are different phases or life cycle of a Whale, just like a whale is born as a small one and he accumulates to become a big one, it is quite similar to cryptocurrency.

• Accumulating/increasing phase: This is the first phase and the Fish here accumulates more steem, increasing the steem power to be a bigger whale, this is a steady and promising movement.

• Curation phase: after accumulating a huge amount of steem these whales vote quality contents made by users on steemit, even comments.

• Support phase: The whales then go on to support big projects suggested and brought forward by other users to make sure this project stands out in steemit. They also support users that make contents about surgeries and so on, paying the bills and giving support.

• Influence phase: Whales have a lot of influence on steemit and this stage makes sure they create enough impact on steemians to bring out the motivation in them to keep growing.

This different phase a whale attends is of great benefits to the users in steemit because they bring a whole lot of support to these users, they sponsor their project and also make sure they're supported. This whales has made the price of steem to increase which is also an advantage to other users, in all areas whales have made activities that affects other users.

In every advantage follows a disadvantage, the presence of Whales also bring challenges to other small users on steemit, what could these challenges be?

Lack of Votes from Whales: Many people are often depressed and left steemit due to the lack of votes they received, the felt cheated on when they see other users being given full support many times they feel so left out and they leave.

Strategies: To overcome this, users should create quality comments and engage with other users and communities in order to stand out to get supports from whales.

Market volatility: The whales seems to have huge influence on the steem market and they can decide when they want to sell or buy their steems which means the price of steem sometimes depends on them which affects the investments from other users.

Strategies: users should focus more on also investing, with time they grow to become orcas and one day whales.

Centralized View: The power and influence whales have in controlling and doing things on steemit makes it look like it is centralized, this makes other users feel left out from the things done in the steemit Blockchain.

Strategies: since steemit is a decentralized platform, users should also speak out even if they have a small steem power rank, they can voice out and also make suggestions.

Making more quality contents and also engagements with other users will make it so easy for Whales to notice them, don't just sit, engage!.

The presence of Whales has brought a huge engagement on steem. When my friends then saw one of my posts which I got curated by SC01, they were every eager to join steemit. This shows that the presence of Whales can increase more participation in steem.

• Making contents trend : Going through trending topics on steemit you'll notice that contents supported by whales tend to trend making it visible to large number of people, who wouldn't want his contents to be seen by lots of people?.

• Rewards: Whales rewards users on steem through their upvote and support. This helps to motivate users to keep creating good contents. Voting on engagement challenge posts will make more users want to engage and gain rewards which will bring a higher engagement and participation in steem.

• Visibility: Whales makes your contents very visible, a comment from them on your content will make it very visible to many users.

Making engagements and posts from different communities and countries brings about encouragements to diverse voices and also brings enough contributions from them. I have learnt a lot from other people's cultures and traditions just from their engagement on steem and I learnt that from the comfort of my home. More engagements and contests from other people's culture will encourage diverse voices and contributions.