I have been promising such a post for a few weeks; have written about this in our weekly reports, but here is a longer version with some key dates.
A few reasons have come together to make winding down the only real option. On a good day, there are maybe ten active users who post and receive MAXUV upvotes. That in itself makes it too small to be profitable. Each individual member would still receive similar benefits, but the non-linear reward curve on Steem means that such rewards are not as high as, say, a year ago.
Indeed, a lot of our VP is now supplied by our investor-delegator. At the start, this was a great way to boost initial votes as MAXUV grew. Even at our height, it meant votes were larger than the sum of tokens plus the delegator was earning some extra rewards. However, with Steem facing an uncertain future and STEEM price lagging far behind HIVE, it is time to claim back that delegation. I fully understand this, but without it we would be almost restarting from scratch.
The final nail in the coffin was the sudden issue with Steem Keychain - without it we have problems. Looking at Steem-Engine overall, there are very few active and genuine tokens left. MAXUV has very little actual money on the exchange, but without it we would have to trade via messaging.
So, with some sadness it's time to close down.
The mechanism will be very similar to that used with MPATH on Hive. The weekly rewards have already dropped and are calculated in line with the Steem blockchain's own gross vote yield; this ensures nobody is really losing anything in the process. Any excess income will be used to buy back the tokens.
What you will also see, and has already been announced, is that the buyback price will drop by 1 cent per week. This means it is very much a member choice as to the value of the upvotes compared to the tokens. It also means paying attention as the price drops, as just leaving tokens for open sale may just mean they will sit there for 30 days. This is really to encourage sales - I don't wish to be here in 6 months still processing buybacks!
The upvotes will continue for 1 month and then stop. Looking at the calendar, the last votes will be on Sunday 3 April 2022.
The rewards will then stop on Sunday 24 April 2022.
The powerdowns on Steem are only 4 weeks, so I trust we can complete this in two cycles, so approximately two months.
Thanks to all MAXUV members for your support over the many months. Let's also not forget we all got a nice bonus of MPATH tokens too!
Stay safe!