Account Creation Problem Can be addressed by Witnesses and Steemit Inc
Last week I published a report on the monthly new users. It’s a regular report, however when I was analyzing the data I spotted something that is a little problem when it comes to account creation. Changes to be made so it’s not a recurring problem and it's not to hard to make these changes.
You can read that report here
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@paulag/may-19-new-steem-user-report-1559482192612
HF20 introduced Account Creation Tokens. It was one of the big moves in the HF aimed at reducing the reliance on Steemit Inc to create accounts.
With these changes It was of my understanding that the Dapps would now have an opportunity to onboard new users. This gave them the chance to be more independent of Steemit Inc and being to push and promote sign-ups to their apps. Personally, I am disappointed that the apps are not so active in this area. I had long thought many of them are just like steemit inc, great devs, but aren’t really interested in running a social media type site.
Looking at the data, year to date Steemit Inc have created 80,671 account, almost 83% of all new accounts. However I noted in the May report that in May Steemit Inc had only created 72% of accounts. In that report, I made an assumption that Steemit Inc had fallen behind in account creation and could be sitting on a backlog of accounts. This assumption proves to be correct as a representative from Steemit Inc confirmed they are about a week behind.
Below shows the weekly new accounts set up by Steemit Inc. We can see the problem probably started around week 18
Why is this a problem?
We had a similar problem in December, where steemit inc were at an almost standstill in account creation. We can see a spike in week 2 of the chart above, that’s Steemit inc catching up on account creation. What resulted from this was a higher % of accounts in Jan that never became active in any way. People get fed up waiting a lose interest. Its such a bad start, first impressions and all that.
What caused the problem?
Simple answer – Account creation tokens. Steemit Inc has only claimed 17% of all new account creation tokens. I noted in the May report
We can see Steemit Inc has claimed almost 17% of these, yet they have set up 83% of new accounts year to date.
Simply put, Steemit Inc have used up all their account creation tokens and need to replenish. As of now, Steemit inc only have 2254 account creation tokens , and the number of accounts per week is increasing again, which is good. But we can prevent this happening again.
Solution:
Parameters can be changed in terms on how many Account Creation Tokens can be created. Right now we are creating enough tokens, the problem is the wrong people are claiming them. When I say wrong, I mean the people claiming them are not using them, just stockpiling. So maybe a discussion needs to be had between the witnesses, steemit inc and those hoarding tokens. I know the tokens are not transferable, but moving forward, maybe some people should back off for a while so steemit inc could grab a higher % of the new tokens created. Maybe it’s a case that steemit inc needs to be more efficient in the collection of these tokens?
Conclusion
This does not have to be a problem if the corrective actions are taken. Witnesses have it in their powers to make changes to the parameters, people are able to work out solutions. We have seen the impact of this problem already, no doubt there will be an impact this time around too. Let’s try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Steemit's RC is at 100% currently.
Not sure about other people, but my name's on that list because when STEEM hits $10 and everyone's Uncle is scrambling to sign up; I want to be in a position to quickly on-board hundreds of locals and secure our city as the home of Steem in Australia.
I think many people are doing it for the same reason, but right now, steemit is less then 40cent and we have a backlog of accounts to be created, thats not how is should be.
I'd be happy to share if I could.
Same boat here... !BEER to that!
so maybe part of the solution is an adjustment to the ode so they become transferable
Yep... just like tokens. You got that coming.
This. There are a lot of individuals claiming a token here and there but not knowing enough individual people to give them to. As Asher said in his post, if the apps not using theirs and even the individuals claiming tokens could transfer them to the apps who need more, like Partiko and Actifit, that would help a lot more with the onboarding. Hell, it could even perhaps be like delegating in a way, maybe - donate x new account tokens, get x Actifit or Partiko points. Win/win/win.
But yeah - Stinc needs to get their shit together regarding this. They also need to use their frikkin' upvotes, imo...
To view or trade
BEERgo to steem-engine.com.Hey @mattclarke, here is your
BEERtoken. Enjoy it!I think there should be a way to donate claimed accounts... I would be for that one! (20) to give if that gets implemented!
maybe the problem is there is no real demand in new stem accounts?
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well that would just suck now wouldnt it :-)
As pointed out by @mattclarke, @steemit could claim a lot more tokens if they chose to.
https://steemd.com/@steemit
The RC's on the @steemit account is at 100% when it could be used to claim many more tokens.
Of course I agree with you on the overall point that those stakeholders who are gathering account tokens should be using them to help on-board more users. The network (and thus the Steem token they've invested in) is more valuable the more people are a part of it.
Yeah @steemit could get their arse into gear -it's more of a concern for partiko and @steemmonsters and the former seems to be creating an account each time it has a new claim token (100% maxed).
yes, steemit inc could improve the efficiency of claiming tokens, but want the HF not to get them out of this hole?
The HF ensured that they don't have to spend their Steem on account creation. If they want to increase the amount of accounts they can create, they need to be spending their RC's on account tokens at all times.
I have tried to onboard new users... and I have only 20 accounts claimed. But apart from the excuse of personal life and what I have tried with @lovesteemaccount (which I am not proud or happy about necessarily... but it was something I tried...)... it's something that really needs to be "added" to the functionality of account creation and mandatory curated onboarding... we don't want RC's to be used for "wrong" things.
From my point of view the point out of this post is "People get fed up waiting a lose interest. Its such a bad start, first impressions and all that.". That's the great impact on. This is really bad for the ecosystem at all. When someone ask for SteemIt the first impression is "It doesn't work!". Great Job as always @paulag.
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You brought up the issue and hinted at a fix but definitely didn't dive into it.
What parameters do witnesses need to adjust? You say there are already enough tokens but they are going to the wrong people. Sounds to me like they are not enough tokens.
Steemit has many millions of tokens already powered up sitting idle in accounts doing literally nothing. They can, and did, delegate some of those funds to the Steemit account so it can claim more tokens.
There has also been discussion regarding the fact that changing the parameters regarding tokens might not even help much if it is not hitting a global limit. If they steemit account is merely running out of RC, they need to dedicate more powered up funds to creating the accounts.
Also, it seems that you are confused about the point of the account claim process like I was. The account claim process was not really created for anyone but steemit. Steemit didn't want to keep burning Steem when they created users so they came up with the account token feature that allows them to burn RC instead of actual STEEM
This is a "problem" that isn't actually a problem. Steemit could burn some STEEM to onboard users faster if they wanted. They don't want. Steemit could power up more tokens so they can claim more if they wanted. They don't want.
What does that tell you about the risk of having a lot of funds powered up with a 13 week power down restriction? It doesn't tell me that steemit is super secure and hopeful for the future personally but here's to hoping I am wrong.
If you could do a report on how changing the account claim params by the witnesses would actually effect the available token claims, how much it would reduce the RC cost, and how you plan to nicely ask users that are not steemit to quit claiming accounts, because apparently it's not right when they do it for their own reasons.
"Also, it seems that you are confused about the point of the account claim process like I was. The account claim process was not really created for anyone but steemit. Steemit didn't want to keep burning Steem when they created users so they came up with the account token feature that allows them to burn RC instead of actual STEEM"
I was under the understand STEEM was not burned on creation of accounts prior to the HF, however the fee of 3 steem was transfered to the new users account. Now one can purchase an account for the fee and the 3 steem is burned. Or one can use RC to claim tokens.
I have to disagree on the need for steemit inc to play such a big role, yes they can do all those thing you have suggested, but what other decentralized blockchains rely on a sole entity for wallet creation? Why do we want steemit inc to create all the accounts, cos they have more steem than us? other than that I don't see a valid reason. When steem hits its all-time low when can it to moral and stuff, I think it was generally agreed that one entity having such control was effectively a weak link. If we had more 'others' creating wallets we would have a greater degree of separation between steem and steemit.
There was always a minimal fee that was burned. If you created accounts without delegation the fee was 3 STEEM. If you created accounts with delegation the fee was 0.1 STEEM + 15 STEEM delegation.
Steemit still gives delegation, but it is revokable now within a week as opposed to the 30 days that was required when an account was created with delegation
BTW, I wouldn't compare steem account creation to any other Blockchain aside from maybe EOS. Every other major Blockchain has the ability for a user to transact without needing an account created by someone else.
If steemit wants to avoid burning Steem, they need to claim more accounts. If they don't have enough RC they need to power up. If they are hitting global claim limits, they need to engage with the witnesses in public and not behind closed doors.
finally, on your point about wanting steemit to play a smaller role, it seems you contradict yourself in your previous comment
We can't have steemit be less in control by asking others to kindly move out of their way so they can avoid burning Steem. We should all want steemit burning Steem
Twice is seven months this has happened. It's a poor show and if we as a community can do something to prevent it happening again, great. That's all my aim is but you are correct, I did contradict myself.
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Steemit can use more SP to claim accounts. This has the dual effect of giving them more and leaving fewer to those who are hoarding them. It has vastly more SP available which is not being used, and which can be used safely (without requiring an automated process to have access to the active key for very large account) using delegation.
I can not argue with the points you have made. Seems like many feel like its tough shit as its steemit incs problem. It's really starting to feel again like it's not the peoples blockchain, but steemit incs.
Thank you for stopping by @smooth, it's not often we engage.
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That's not exactly my view, however I do feel that at a minimum Steemit should make use of the resources already at their disposal first. Why they are not doing this I do not know.
Just a head's up.. that basically ANY one can change this. All you need to step in... and make you opinion heard! Together we all represent whatever STEEM might become.
Unless you are a top 20 witness and you understand the account claim parameters, you cannot do much.
If you are a user with millions of SP claiming accounts, you could stop and hope no one else starts and the cost of claiming goes down for steemit, but that seems like a shit choice imo. I wouldn't take that path unless steemit admits publicly that the account claim system would be best if it was only used by them. They won't make that admission of failure on how the system was marketed.
There should be no reason people have to quit claiming tokens if the system is properly configured.
I would argue it should be a pool in fact... everyone claiming should not own it, but instead give it away to a pool. Then depending on how much you "vote" / "stake" on it... you can get some back.
This would generate a new "economy" around it. Making it more sustainable. And if gamed by either who "does not claim and bets on it" or who "claims but does not care"... it would be harmonized by the demand/offer weight market. Everyone could suddenly have a much more "fair" stake at RC for account creation.
But I agree that making everyone understanding the parameters will be something hard to explain. Maybe my solution would alleviate being worth to explain it at that large extent.
Interesting.
I've just had a look at the numbers and Steemit have used 98% of their claims since the fork.
Others are sitting at pretty much 0.
Is it possible to 'gift' your claims yet?
I see other apps are pretty much maxed out too - will bash a post together on this now :)
Nice asher thanks, ping me with the post, it's a silly situation really!
Yeah not great. I don't think it's all the claimers faults though as there is (I think) nothing in place to easily offer your tokens to another app - SM and @partiko look desperate!
https://steemit.com/onboarding/@abh12345/steemit-steemmonsters-and-partiko-are-maxed-out-on-account-claims
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Nice post @paulag