SEC S17-W5 || Whales In Steem blockchain

Hope you all are doing well and good and enjoying the best days of your life. This is me @shahid2030 from Pakistan and you are here reading my post. You all are welcome here from the core of my heart.

Source

This is my participation in a contest Whales In Steem blockchain organized in SteemitCryptoAcademy by @crypto-academy.

Whale is a term we use in crypto for dominant forces. It means the influencecial figure having more investment or capital in the market. They mostly drive the crypto market according to their own interest.

Source Detect Whales' activities Here.

Same is the phenomena is in Steem platform. Here Whales refer to those users who hold a significant value of steem Power (SP). They are given a considerable influence over the platform's governance system. Their prime responsibilities include; promotion of the platform, supporting quality content and new users, participating in community discussions, and helping to maintain the platform's integrity and stability.

They are the influencecial people often play a crucial role in shaping the platform's direction. In Steem whales always try to ensure sustainability with in the platform.

I know some accounts, which according to me are the whales here on Steemit. They hold significant value of SP in their accounts, even some have millions. Let me mention their accounts.

@rme : This person has 13.6 Millions STEEM Power (SP) in his account.

@steemcurator01: This account has SP of 12.6 Millions Steems.

@steemcurator02: This account has SP of 6.2 Millions Steems.

@trafalgar: This account has 2.57 Millions STEEM power (SP).

@cjsdns: This account share a total of 1.7 Millions STEEM Power (SP) in his staking.

@dodoim: He hold 633k STEEM Power (SP).

@rtytf2 : He has a total of 563k Steem Power (SP).

@amarbanglablog : This account has 494k STEEM Power (SP).

@kouba01 : He has 117k STEEM Power (SP) in his account.

We called Whale those, who hold large amounts of a particular cryptocurrency. Their actions, such as buying and selling in large amount have great impacts on the market. It influence market prices, because they have a significant impact on supply and demand dynamics. In currencies have small marketcap or less famous, when whales engage in large transactions, they can cause significant price fluctuations.

As for Steem blockchain is concern, whales play a crucial role in governance and content curation. STEEM Blockchain works on Delegated Proof of Staking. It has it's own platform called Steemit, where users can earn rewards for creating and curating content. Whales here have high staking of the platform's currency (STEEM), which make them people of high influence. They are given reward on the basis of this influence.

For example an account having 100k SP will get more and high reward then that having only 1k SP in it's account. It's compulsory that the 100k Sp account will get 100x more reward, but still it's reward ratio will be sufficiently high. These whales also get curation reward by giving upvotes to other.

In the context of Steem, whales are involved in various activities. They go through these different phases, let's discuss them one by one.

Investment Phase
A person become with huge investment in a specific project. In Steem blockchain whales acquire Steem coins through purchasing or mining. In result they get a substantial amount of Steem Power, which make them influencecial as well as whales.

Curation phase
Curation is an another task whales do here. They curate valuable content (posts) by upvoting process. This help to increase the reward of that vary post and the curator (whale) also receive a reward in the form of Steem for it.

Content Creation Phase
Not all, but some whales also create content themselves. They receive a reward for it too. Such Whales gain more influence and attention in the platform and Yes their reward increase also.

Community Building Phase
Many whales are engaged in community-building efforts, they support some projects and some users to foster growth and development on the platform

Community Building Phase: Many whales engage in community-building efforts, supporting projects, initiatives, and other users to foster growth and development on the platform. The whales running a community also get reward for it. In my opinion SteemitCryptoAcademy is a best example of it. It is run by @kouba01. He is also an influencecial figure here.

Whales' activities impact on common users (Steemians).

Visibility and promotion
Those posts upvoted by whales often receive more visibility in the community. It helps increase their reputation too. High curation on your post increase your reputation figure. If whales curate you, other users also visit and upvote your post.

Receiving Reward
Those who are Whales, their upvotes carry more weight. Receiving an upvote from a such accounts result in a substantial reward for the content creator.

Community Dynamics
Whales' involvement can shape community,s dynamic significantly. They suggest which type of content should a community focus and also look after users activities there. It isn't compulsory for a whale to do it, but if they show interest in a community they can give their suggestions.

Drawback of Whales activities in Steem

Whales' actions are sometimes perceived as controlling or monopolizing the platform's resources. It leads to a big question mark on Steem decentralization. Though steem whales are not found to be involved in such negative activities. They always try their best to rule and govern the Steem blockchain as best as they can.

Whales give tough time to all the users in every platform, because they are the people running the whole system. Pump and dump is in their hands, they are manipulating market according to their own interest. It can badly trip the normal users, if whales want to play with them. So manipulation could be one issue for normal steemians.

Other challenge, which users might face on Steem due to whales is the unequal distribution of power and their influence. It questions the fairness of rewards mechanism and decision-making. I think here SP is more important than quality. Let me explain through example. We have two accounts, one have 50k SP and other have 1k, both have written content of the same quality. The one have 50k SP will get reward or upvote and 1k account may not.

How to Cope up with this issue?

Here in Steem the priority is given on the basis of STEEM Power. To protect yourself, if you have small SP you need to diversify your activities. Do engagement with as many communities as possible. If you are their active user they will always support you. Try to build genuine connections with other users and focus on creating valuable content rather than solely aiming for rewards.

Additionally always keeping yourself updated from platform's dynamics and try to participate in discussion will help you navigate challenges effectively.

The presence of whales has significant impacts on ordinary users as in any other platform. It significantly impact their participation and engagement by influencing content visibility and rewards distribution. Whales have more Steems in their staking, which lead to receive more attention and reward than common users. It's a kind of overshadowing the contributions from smaller users. Whales have too many other impacts too, which are already mentioned above.

Encouraging a greater diversity of voices and contributions.

The reward distribution mechanisms
The playing field should be equal for all by adjusting reward distribution algorithms. It will promote fairness and equal opportunity for all the users, regardless of their stake.

Curation initiatives
Curation efforts implementing is important that prioritize diverse content creators and topic. It will help elevate lesser-known voices.

Outreach to Newcomers
Newcomers should be provided resources and support so they can engage more actively and confidently. It help them in their empowerment.

Encouraging collaboration
Collaborations between larger and smaller users should be facilitated. It will help come out the cream in newcomers which are having less influence.

Fairness in communities
Fostering a much more supportive and inclusive community, where users are valued regardless of their stake. Their good content should be praised and rewarded it will result in encouragement and participation from a wider range of users.

This is all about my blog for today, hope you guys have enjoyed reading it. See you soon with a new amazing and interesting topic, till take care.