Rewards on Hive: All You Need to Know

in #hive-1538503 years ago

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If we are all being honest, most of us were attracted to the Hive blockchain because it promised to be rewarding, a promise sold to us by a friend or family member, and we were like, "since there is nothing to give and nothing to lose, why not give it a try?".

So, we found ourselves on the Hive blockchain, and slow and steady, we could confirm that the Hive blockchain is truly rewarding, and thereafter, our passion for blogging grew over the roof.

Compared to other blogging platforms, the Hive blockchain provides the quickest monetization process, you are basically rewarded for your first blog post.

While these rewards are appealing, there is a need to understand how they work better. So, in the second edition of the Hive Library #HLIB series, we will be discussing extensively on the rewards of the Hive blockchain. Here are some key areas of focus for this #HLIB article:

  • What are the rewards on the Hive blockchain?
  • Why don't you get the rewards as you see them?
  • Where do Hive rewards come from?
  • What is the role of delegation in the Hive rewards system?
  • What role does joining a curation trail have in the Hive reward system?
  • What guarantees how much reward you receive?

What are the rewards on the Hive Blockchain?

There are a lot of rewards that could be earned by engaging on the Hive Blockchain, for simplicity, I'll break them down into four (there could be more):

  • Author rewards
  • Curation rewards
  • Community & Frontend tokens
  • Benefactor rewards

All rewards on the Blockchain are retrievable only after 7 days from when the reward-initiating activity was performed.

Author rewards

These are simply the rewards you earn by sharing content on the Blockchain mainly in form of posting, but also including rewards earned through comments.

When your posts or comments are shared on the Blockchain and voted, the half of the monetary value of the vote rewarded as an equivalent of both Hive Power and HBD is the author's reward.

Curation rewards

These are rewards earned from the curation process. Basically, one earns these rewards when they upvote posts shared by other users on the blockchain.

Half of the total monetary value expressed in a post is the curation rewards. These rewards go to the curators, in essence, those who upvoted the post, in a manner commensurate with the number of votes applied to the post.

So, if you are fond of upvoting posts, you are more likely to be receiving some curation rewards, especially, when your upvote value is about $0.04 and upwards.

Community & Frontend Tokens

Most communities on Hive as well as some frontends own their special tokens, which along with the author rewards and curation rewards, could be used to reward users who are active in their respective communities.

A common example of this is Leo, which is for the Leofinance community, POB token, which is for the Proof of Brain community, and much more. Most of these tokens are tradable of some decentralized exchanges (DEX), especially, Hive-based DEX and can even be swapped for Hive or HBD.

Frontends like Ecency have their Ecency points which could be used to carry out activities such as promotion and post boosting on the frontend. Most Community and frontend tokens can only be obtained through the use of the frontends, and being active in these communities.

Benefactor Rewards

These are basically shared rewards. When making a post on the Hive blockchain, you could set a user to be a beneficiary. This is commonly done when two users collaborate on content.

By setting a user as a beneficiary, he/she receives a percentage of the rewards as set by the author of the post.

Why don't you get the rewards as you see them?

When you make a post, and you receive votes on them, you may find that your post is let's say, 70 ($70), but at the end of the curation window, that is after 7 days, you may find that the reward for that post when summed up in Hive and HBD is about 35 ($35) or an approximate.

What went wrong? Are there some bad actors trying to steal your rewards?

As I have explained earlier, the sum of a posted reward is usually halved between the author and the curator, with the curator taking the most part. This halving is usually 50:50.

However, you may not find an exact 50:50 equivalent when you calculate. This is because the rewards for a post may go more than between the author and the curators; some frontends have automatically set a percentage value of all posts made on these frontends to go to a specific user as benefactors; so have some communities.

This can be edited and removed, but it is usually an insignificant amount (as little as 1%), so, you may choose to allow it to support the community or frontends. The benefactors are usually considered co-authors, thus, they share the author's rewards.

The table below could give you a picture of how these rewards could be spread

Post rewardAuthor rewardCurator RewardsBenefactors
100%50%50%Set % shared between authors and curators
100% but 1% for benefactor49.0%50%1%

Note: I've carefully used numbers and numbers with the dollar sign in a bracket, since the value of your post may not necessarily be and is most often not an equivalent of the US dollar value as expressed in the post.
The dollar sign is most likely used to show that the post has a monetary worth (or reward), and not that the worth expressed is an equivalent in US dollars.

Where do Hive rewards come from?

The rewards on Hive blockchain can come from several sources. However, basically, a user will earn rewards through the curation processes. This is achieved when other users on Hive upvote on your posts, especially, those with significant voting power, and those assigned the role of a curator by communities.

To earn so much voting power, a user must own a lot of Hive tokens (which could be bought with real money or crypto on exchanges), with which he or she can increase their voting power, which is more appropriately termed, Hive Power (HP), through a powering up process.

The more power-ups done, which is in essence more investment and staking, the more the upvote value of the user.

This can go more complicated than as I have presented it, I am just taking a simple approach

What is the role of delegation in the Hive rewards system?

According to the Hive Whitepaper, 2020, Delegation is the temporary lending of one's Hive Power to another user.

The consequence of this is an effective increase in the recipients voting power and more resource credits. Little wonder you find some communities and front ends imploring your delegations, to increase their curation strength.

However, it is important to note that a delegated HP can be retrieved at any time without necessarily obtaining permission from the recipient. But for some reason, a person can be averse to delegating HPs, but still want to support a curation course, here is another option, joining a curation trail.

Note: There are other reasons for delegation other than supporting a curation course.

What role does joining a curation trail have in the Hive reward system?

A curation trail is a means through which the voting power of several users on the blockchain could be brought together as one to increase the overall voting power of a trusted curator.

This means that, once the lead curator in a curation trail votes on a content, you are automatically voting on the same content. This could help you earn more curation rewards; however, there is more to be learnt to help you decide whether or not it will be a worthwhile move for you.

More details on delegation and curation trail will be treated in future editions.

What guarantees how much reward you receive?

I will answer this question with what I will call the four W's of curation rewards:

  • W1 - Who is being rewarded?
  • W2 - What is being rewarded?
  • W3 - Where is the reward coming from?
  • W4 - Why is a user being rewarded?

The above may not cover all the facts associated with rewards on the blockchain, but it should go a long way.

Who is being rewarded?

This has to do with the author, who is he/she? Is he/she a newbie? Is he or she known in the community through active community engagements?

There is a strong correlation between an individual's status on the chain and the value of rewards being received.

Some individuals who have stayed long on the chain have built a lot of connections, with some users that have even seen them to be worthy of an autovote from them.

Your reputation, your Hive power, and the quality of your engagements and connections will all influence the value of the reward you receive.

What is being rewarded?

Another important factor here is the quality of the post or even a comment. Trash and spam posts, some with very little or basic content, will always earn very little or no rewards (but there is an exception, few times, depending on the who and how habitual this has become).

Posts that are impactful, well formated, and well-articulated usually earn the unsung attention of curators and other users and in effect, earn more rewards.

Where is the reward coming from?

This, first, has to do with the community and how rewards are distributed. Some communities are very conservative with their reward system; some also have micro-communities to which you must belong to before you are eligible for reasonable rewards. Most others, will favour long-standing members of the community than newer members.

Other times, the users voting on the post matters. Users with very high HP will bring in more votes rewards than the combination of users with low HP.

Why is the user being rewarded?

Trending topics and contests may earn more rewards than some organic content. So, you may wish to join more contests as they receive more attention than just posting something in an organic manner.

Also, there is always love for virgin novel contents, so, you may want to go outside the norm sometimes, in a safe way.

Final Words and Outlook

So far, a lot has been revealed about rewards on the Hive blockchain. "A lot" I mean, as there could be more. However, we can all agree that the Hive blockchain is there to reward those who deserve to be rewarded. The more value you add to the blockchain, the more rewards you earn. So, do more than just post, collaborate, engage, upvote, and build, then, your reward is sure on the Blockchain.

In the next #HLIP episode, our focus will be solely on delegations and curation trail. I hope that with the next episode, you will be able to decide whether or not you should delegate or join a curation trail.



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Your feedback is appreciated. Is there something I haven't said correctly? Is there an addition you feel is important? Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment below.

Please, tag your friends to be part of this series. Hopefully, there will be an #HLIB episode weekly.

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This has cleared up a lot for me.

Awwwwn! I'm so happy my efforts paid off well. Trust me, if you have questions, just share it, or if there's a topic you'll like me to cover, I'll try as much as I can to cover it extensively.

Seeing such feedbacks really elate me, and makes me want to do more.

A very helpful and detailed post on how Hive works. Awesome job!💗

Thanks @ifarmgirl. Nice to have you around.

Cheers and thank you too.

What about 2nd layer rewards?

Thanks a lot for mentioning this. I covered them briefly under the Community tokens and frontend tokens, but didn't cover it up with the appropriate terminology as you've used here, the 2nd layer rewards. I'll surely do more research and detail extensively on this soon!

Thanks mate!

This is detailed nicely. I'm sure newbies would find it easy to understand. Good job mate.

Thanks a lot mate. I tried my best to put my heart to it.

Excellent post, it’s certainly cleared up a few things that I was unsure about. Thanks ever so much for this 😁

Thanks mate for finding it useful.

This is really wonderful Thanks for the Nice write up

Thanks dear for finding this useful. I hope to do more in the future.

You will.

Wow. I have been interested in learning about these HIVE rewards, wallet and all but I didn't think I'd find such a lost that'll straight up download everything into my brain.
As you would have figured by now, I am a newbie.
I am so eager to learn a lot about HIVE and I am glad I have found you.
I am definitely looking forward to future posts now.
Thank you for sharing!

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This is really nice, newbies have nothing to worry about when it comes to curation you have simplified it for them.

Thanks a lot mate. As a newbie myself, I believed that it was really worth it to go out of my way to explain some of these nitty gritty. Thanks for finding it helpful.

I am a newbie on this platform and this post has enlightened me so much! Thank you so much. I have a question; How do I increase my hive upvote value?
I am not still not clear about somethings but I believe with time.

Yea. Welcome dear for finding the post useful.

For your question, I can guess you're asking one of this two things:

  1. How you can increase your upvote value so that when you vote on people's posts, they gain more curation rewards?

For this part, you have to allow time play it's role here. As you must have significant Hive power to be able to do this. Though, you can hasten this process by buying more Hive coins and staking them through the power up process.
The more your Hive power the more your vote value.

Another way is to have people delegate Hive power to you, the more delegations, the more Hive power. But gathering delegations will be easier when you have a huge presence on the chain.

You could also build a curation trail so that you basically gather the hive power of numerous users into one under your purview, and when you vote on a post, everyone on your trail votes on it automatically, thus, increasing the vote value

  1. How you can increase the rewards you earn through upvotes

This also takes time and work. The longer you stay on the chain, the more connections you build, and the the more your presence is felt, then you'll likely receive more votes. You may also join some communities and post boosting and promotion services at your discretion.

Hope, I've answered your questions!

Yes you have answered my question perfectly. I am most grateful.

Welcome dear!

This is so interesting and you just detailed most of what I needed answer to. Very well explained especially the reward part. Thank you for sharing and I believe others would benefit and learn from this.

Thanks Princess.

I really enjoy positive feedback like urs. I'm happy I'm touching lives even in the smallest ways.

I didn't know much about the benefactor reward before reading this post. Also why I don't get the exact reward I see on my post after 7days window payout is now more clearer to me

Many thanks for sharing this well-loaded content👌💪👍
I respect the grace of God and His wisdom in your head.

Thanks a lot for finding it insightful. I thank God for the small sense I'm managing oh my sister.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm always happy when my content teaches, even a little.

Very good article - I landed here when I searched what is "benefactor rewards". Now I know what is. Thanks!

U welcome!

Thanks for dropping this amazing post i no get to understand more alot with your post one love boss

Thanks a lot jblak. I'm happy you found the post helpful. I hope to do more.

Will be looking forward for it boss

You're welcome mate.

This is a lovely write up you have here. Hopefully, I get to use it as a means to explain to people that ask me about hive later in the future.

Thanks for this. Reblogged for reference purposes 👍👍

Thanks mate. I'm glad you found it useful.

And this is an interesting use case for such contents. If someone explained like this for me, I think I would have understood better what I'm going into.

Thanks for stating this.

Yah highly welcome. I have surely learnt one or two things though

Thanks for clearing this up. Overall, I think it is easier to buy more HIVE -> Power Up for HP -> read a lot here in Ecency or Peakd -> upvote the posts that you like. This way you'll earn more compared to when you just write artilces.

I have a question though. What is the Content Reward and does it go to my wallet?

image.png

I am not sure if this is the same with Curator Reward.

Honestly, from the screenshot you shared. Content rewards are different from curation rewards and even author rewards.

So, it's definitely different. I've done a quick research on this, but have not been able to come up with something. But I'll still do more work and will share the result if I'm able to come up with something.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments!

You have spoken well and all you have said is well detailed what a lovely write up and we'll elaborated thanks for sharing.

So, if you are fond of upvoting posts, you are more likely to be receiving some curation rewards, especially, when your upvote value is about $0.04 and upwards

I do this a lot but do not seem to get curated back. Thanks for sharing this wonderful content.

Yea. I remember your post recently where you complained of this. Those guilty of not upvoting are just missing out on curation rewards.

Though, it could be that most persons are just being weary of their resource credits. But still, it's always a good thing to be part of the curation process.

Congratulations @zestimony! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You received more than 2250 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 2500 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
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