It recently came to my attention that some are using bidbots again and of course some are upset about it.

My position on the bidbots was always if they were well run and set some standards they would be a benefit to the community and also create buy pressure and support the economy.

When people spend money on a bot that money is spent in the community more than once. Person A earns the token, uses them to send to person 2 for a vote and that owner likely pays a dev... and the Steem stays in the system longer. Rewards are paid partly powered up so it is a win.

The problem with the last attempt at bidbots is the owners refuesed to set any standards and they refused to hear the community feedback about how they were allocating too much of the reward pool to posts that didn't add any value.

But imagine others coming here to promote exciting things that are happening in crypto, launching projects, etc. They have to buy Steem and when they get rewards they get paid back.

After the EIP went through the bidbots were smashed entirely and did very little to up their game and get with the times, so the businesses were smashed, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea.

Here was my view of how they could have worked. It's not all about the content it is also about creating a sustainable business environment where people can earn grow and build.

We Already Have A Viable Marketing/Ads Platform

A few savvy people understood a long time ago we already have the ability to buy and sell ads on Steem.

Some haven't recognized it.

Some dislike it, because it leaves out the Content Creators who do not have the ability to see the business value behind it.

Those who quit looking at Trending missed that it has become a place to advertise a New Project, Excellent Articles and even make announcements for up and coming blockchain projects.

It is functional and working. Each day on Trending we see people pitching an idea, announcing a project or attempting to gain visibility for up and coming events.

The community even has the ability, if not the desire, to curate which ads we want to see via our voting power and up and down votes. It is a beautiful thing.

Each and every day people are creating ads, making accounts and buying Steem to market their work to a "warm audience".

It is a great deal for those who have figured it out because if one buys a Google Ad on twitter to pitch a project it is a "cold market" meaning there is little control who sees it.

On Steem, Projects and Devs can rightfully assume that the audience is people who have at least some interest and involvement in crypto.

The person who markets their product here also receives a certain amount of their investment back if the community loves what they are pitching and upvotes it. If the community dislikes it enough they can lose their investment.

I recently heard someone who is presenting themselves as a business leader say that he thought Bidbots were adding sell pressure. I spit my coffee.

The balance we need to achieve is for there to be enough demand for this coveted space that there rarely is an ROI on the post without community support and we need to community to use their stake to remove value from the posts that are clogging up space and do not hold value.

It is up to us.

Also, a fair point that many make is it diverts a lot of the reward pool, and this is true, but it also is one of the few operational, real market values of Steem. With an honest supply and demand

The balance has to be carefully maintained, if we can not retain enough users to have eyes on the site, there will be no reason to purchase Steem to present projects to our users.

Adding users is also the key for keeping the price of bidbots high with low ROI so it truly works as a functional economy for Ads and Marketing.

Summary:
Bidbots are a valuable means of marketing to a crypto community.
They add buy pressure for Steem
The ROI is in the hands of the community
To be more valuable we also to retain users
It is a unique and amazing advertisement opportunity
In that the community can decide what types of Marketing we see value in and use our stake to curate it.

@whatsup