Today, I read a compelling blog post by @captaindingus titled: "A sad realization about Splinterlands Hive Resource Extraction :(". In this post, captaindingus highlights a significant issue within the Splinterlands ecosystem—resource extraction—and raises concerns about the weekly contests hosted by Splinterlands, particularly the Splinterlands Art Contest. Additionally, these contests have brought unintended consequences to Hive's curation ecosystem, as discussed in a post by @Acidyo titled "The Cost of Negligence".
While these challenges are undeniable, they also present an opportunity for constructive discussion and improvement. Below, I’ll summarize the issues and suggest practical solutions that can help enhance the sustainability and fairness of these contests for both the Splinterlands and Hive communities.
Issue 1: Resource Extraction in Contests
The first issue raised is resource extraction. Weekly Splinterlands contests, such as the Art Contest, reward winners with Hive upvotes and Rebellion packs. However, it appears that some frequent winners are using the system solely to extract rewards without contributing back to the ecosystem. These individuals:
- Never power up their Hive earnings.
- Send their earnings to exchanges like Binance.
- Don’t own Spellbooks, yet continue to win valuable prizes such as Rebellion packs.
This behavior undermines the spirit of fostering community growth and long-term engagement within the Hive ecosystem.
Issue 2: Inefficient / Unfair Curation Rewards
The second problem involves curation inefficiencies. Due to Hive’s curation mechanics, Splinterlands’ contests create an opening for users to “front-run” the Splinterlands curation team. When posts are upvoted by others before Splinterlands curators, it reduces the overall curation efficiency for Splinterlands. This issue is exacerbated when a Hive whale votes before Splinterlands, leading to potential downvotes from another whale and causing collateral damage to authors caught in the crossfire.
Currently, Splinterlands’ curation efficiency averages around 71%, with occasional dips as low as 17%. This inefficiency results in substantial missed rewards. For example, in the past 30 days, Splinterlands earned 5,700 Hive from curation, but optimized voting could have doubled these rewards, equating to over $2,500 at current Hive prices.
Here is a screenshot of the least efficient Splinterlands curation rewards in the last seven days:
You can Dig into Details HERE
Proposed Solutions
While these issues are complex, there are actionable steps that can be taken to address them. Below are my suggestions for improving both the resource extraction problem and the curation inefficiencies:
Addressing Resource Extraction
- Introduce Staking Requirements:
Contest participants should be required to power up at least 50% of their Hive earnings from contests. This ensures that rewards contribute to strengthening the Hive ecosystem. - Penalty for Full Power Downs:
Accounts that consistently power down all their Hive earnings could have their upvote rewards reduced—e.g., from the usual range of 10% - 50% to 5% or lower. Splinterlands curators could leave comments explaining the reason for the reward reduction, encouraging participants to adjust their behavior. - Participation Eligibility:
Contest rules could require participants to own a Spellbook or meet other minimal engagement criteria. This ensures that rewards are directed to active members of the Splinterlands community. - Educational Outreach:
Educate community members on how Hive’s curation system works and encourage staking HIVE.
Splinterlands curation team always leaves comments on the posts they curate, this is an opportunity to educate authors by encouraging them to stake more HIVE to increase their rewards from contests as well as encourage them to participate more in the ecosystem and earn curation rewards.
Optimizing Curation Rewards
Modify Contest Submission Rules:
Require posts to be submitted to contests no later than one hour after publication on Hive. This gives Splinterlands curators a fair chance to vote before the 24-hour window closes.Set Voting Deadlines for Curators:
Splinterlands curators should vote on contest entries within 23 hours of submission. While this increases the workload for curators, it could be mitigated by:
a. Recruiting additional curators from the community.
b. Implementing tools or automation to streamline the voting process.Incentivize Timely Curation:
Establish performance metrics for curators to encourage consistent and efficient voting. This could involve tracking curation efficiency and recognizing top-performing curators within the community.
I also decided to see what other curators do efficiency wise. Not that I would say these are perfect but take a look at Curangel
On the last 712 posts curated by them they are over 100% efficiency with the worst efficiency of almost 58%
Curatorhulk: https://hivestats.io/@curatorhulk
Also over 100% looks like some misses but overall is nowhere close to 71% efficiency
Why These Changes Matter
Splinterlands’ weekly contests are a fantastic initiative that brings creativity and engagement to the community. However, without proper safeguards, they risk enabling behaviors that drain resources and reduce the value generated for everyone involved. By implementing the above suggestions, Splinterlands can:
- Ensure rewards benefit contributors who are genuinely invested in the ecosystem.
- Optimize curation rewards, bringing more value to the Splinterlands team and community.
- Foster a culture of long-term engagement and collaboration.
And while the current state of driving away a HIVE whale voting on Splinterlands challenge might be acceptable as the downvotes seem to have stopped, it is far from an optimal solution. One it doesn't solve the problem of Splinterlands account receiving lowered rewards it also potentially drives away any HIVE whales that might want to support Splinterlands related posts not only for the reason of downvotes but also because they will see that the distribution of curation rewards is not fair and is being exploited.
Addressing these challenges requires cooperation between Splinterlands, curators, and participants. While some of the proposed changes may introduce additional rules and responsibilities, the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term inconveniences. Let’s use these issues as an opportunity to strengthen our community and ensure that both Splinterlands and Hive thrive together.
We are on HIVE social network and as @azircon put it recently we should talk and engage:
If you wonder what is the best way to get involved in Splinterlands and Hive eco system you can use my link to begin your Splinterlands and HIVE journey.
Great perspective mate. Our curators need to work smarter, not harder. I can;t imagine it is an easy job streaming through the mounts of content commented every week. I've been writing about a battle every day lately and happy to grow my stash of HBD every day, but I don't link to those challenges unless I have something really juicy.
Yes, I am sure it is not an easy job, they might need to get more curators. I am sure there will be people in Splinterlands community who will volunteer and can help out.
not sure who-what-where one goes about it but I'm literally an editor.
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @seattlea ) sharing the post on Reddit as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com. Otherwise, rewards go to the author of the blog post.
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
You forget that although the Splinterlands game itself is powered by the HIVE network, there is still 50% of content that is barely read or seen in the general community. Some people convert these earnings directly into Splinterlands assets, or other games in the ecosystem, or invest in other cryptocurrencies by sending them to Binance. I know more than 10 Splinterlands players who don't get involved with the Hive ecosystem. They just create posts to get their votes and stay in the game. Since the income from card rentals and other assets seems to be at a low point.
Just stop measuring your situation with your ruler and trying to implement others.
Who is the ruler?
I didn't understand if that was a question or irony, sorry.