Steem Blockchain Account Creation Fee
Account Names Have Value
Account names have value, similar to how domain names for websites have value. Each time a new account is created, it uses up the account name forever. An account name that has been used once can never be used to create a new account again.
Account Creation Fee
In order to prevent people from grabbing up all the valuable names for free, the blockchain charges a small fee to acquire the name.
Fee Logic
The fee is set by the witnesses. Each witness votes on what they think the fee should be. The blockchain then takes the median value across the 21 witnesses in the round (20 top witnesses + one backup) to get the account_creation_fee to use in calculations.
The blockchain uses the fee from the witnesses to determine the cost of accounts.
- To create an account without delegation, it costs
30*account_creation_feein liquid STEEM. - To create an account with delegation, it costs
1*account_creation_feein liquid STEEM +29*5*account_creation_feein Steem Power.
(The liquid STEEM used becomes SP in the new account. The Steem Power becomes delegated SP.)
Note: After HF20, this math will be changing as described here.
Current Fee
For quite a long time now, the witnesses have had this fee set to 0.1 STEEM.
What this translates into for a new account is:
- 3 STEEM to create a non-delegated account.
- 0.1 STEEM + 14.5 delegated SP to create a delegated account.
Target Fee
Historically the goal for the witnesses has been to keep the USD cost of a new non-delegated account in the $3-5 range.
Updated Fee
With the current USD price of STEEM, the cost to create a new account has dropped below $3.00. Based on an effort led by @pfunk, many witnesses are updating their fee.
I am in agreement that the fee should be increased, so I will be updating mine to 0.2 within the next 24 hours.
Important for Account Creation Services
Account creation services need to pay special attention to this fee. Ideally they should have their services lookup the current account_creation_fee from the blockchain, so their software dynamically updates anytime the fee changes.
If this needs to be done manually, then it is important that they watch what the witnesses are doing so they know if/when they need to adjust.
You can see what each of the witnesses have set their fee to here: https://steemd.com/witnesses.
You can also see the current median value here: https://steemdb.com/ under the "Consensus State" section:
Most of the major account creation services (steemit.com, AnonSteem, BlockTrades, etc.) are already aware of this, but if you know of any smaller account creation services that may not be following this as closely - you should let them know.
The downside here, unfortunately, is that if the account creation fee doubles then steemit faucet abusers will get double the SP delegated for each account they create.
But, after much thought, I do support the change, if only because the top witnesses should set the fee to what they feel is best for the blockchain and not feel that they have to adjust it to account for the problems with the steemit (or any other) faucet.
The delegation amount is optional, the 30x is recommended for a comfortable experience. You can create an account with a delegation of 1 SP, 100 SP or more. Steemit used to create accounts with 30 SP delegation, whether the minimal fee was 0.1 or 0.2 STEEM. But since the on-boarding has been increasing they slashed that in half: new accounts are getting 15 SP delegated. Furthermore, they're reducing the delegations for old accounts, depending on the total SP; for example, if the user accumulated 5 SP, they would re-delegate 10 SP, to keep a total of 15 SP.
Right, that makes sense, I just hope they don't automatically start delegating ~30 SP when/if the fee changes.
They used to delegate 30 SP on account creation.
They won't, they're running low on their own SP every time they create accounts. The whole purpose of HF20 was to move away from that model to a better (cheaper) alternative that would allow more accounts.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitblog/proposing-hardfork-0-20-0-velocity
Steemit is already lowering the delegated SP to around 15 right after the account creation op, so the impact in that regard will be negligible. Even if the fee doubles, new accounts will have about the same amount of delegated SP when they start.
I don't think that is correct. Right now they delegate ~15SP with the account creation with delegation transaction. They don't delegate more and then reduce it (just checked this with some new steemit-created accounts).
If the account creation fee is increased to 0.2 then I believe they would delegate ~30SP with the account creation with delegation transaction instead. I don't know if they will then reduce the amount delegated automatically afterwards.
When a new account is created, the @steem account delegates 30,690.000000 VESTS to the account as part of the account creation. Later, redeemer updates the delegation to 30,282.282907 VESTS.
If the account creation fee is doubled, the account creation vests would double, but there would be no reason to update the redeemer limit, since this is in place to ensure the account has sufficient SP for bandwidth purposes and is unrelated to the creation fee.
But their is also a create free option there
If I want to bring about 10 new people onto the platform, is it better that I have them sign up on the steemit website or that I create their accounts if I want to maximize their starting situation? I realize this is a very junior question but I’ve never quite understood why people sometimes create non-delegated accounts for other people using their own steem instead of just having people sign up directly. It seems that with this change it has gotten even more expensive to create accounts for people oneself, but is the same situation for people joining on their own.
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In general, if you can get them accounts via the free signup faucet, that is the best option. The main reason people use alternative signup methods is either because their friends are unable to get an account via the faucet for whatever reason, or they don't want to wait.
@timcliff thanks for great information when I create account I can see 14.5 so but wasn't aware why is there find out today what is it from your blog.
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I already updated mine to 0.200 STEEM a few days ago.
How can I become part of all this?
I don't really understand the question. In the context of this post, the witnesses are the ones setting the fee. The account creation services are the ones paying the fee. The users are the ones signing up for accounts. How are you interested in becoming involved?
i have a better question along the same line. how can i turn my blender into a ricecooker? and how can i be a part of it. thanks.
LOL
Thanks for the detail and simple to follow explanation of the new fees. When I first started on Steemit, I encountered bandwidth issues with a delegated account. If a user gets a non-delegated account such as one from the SteemMonster starter pack deal, then will that user experience even more severe bandwidth issues?
Users who receive an account with 3 STEEM (and no delegated SP) will have less bandwidth than users who have 0.1 STEEM + 14.5 delegated.
If the fee goes up to 0.2 STEEM, then new non-delegated accounts will have 6 SP (instead of 3) which will technically give them more bandwidth.
Ah, I had it backwards, thanks for clarifying.
thank you @timcliff for your very useful information.
please support me
Regard @longberry
I think this is the best. in this way I am sure to reduce fraudulent accounts. Thanks you sir @timcliff
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Hi Tim, who can create an account with delegation?
Technically anyone. There is a guide here.
I will check, thanks! :)