What is Steem Basic Income (SBI)?
Steem Basic Income is a social experiment to bring a basic income to as many Steemians as possible. Members join by sponsoring others into the program. Steem Basic Income is delivered through providing regular upvotes to member content.
How do I join (or increase my units)?
First, you can simply send 1 STEEM (or more - full amounts only, no fractional units can be allocated) to @steembasicincome and include someone else's account name as the transaction memo.
Second, delegate STEEM power. 1 unit is granted per 2 SP delegated and remains in place until the delegation is removed.
Third, participate in some of the many contests run by fellow SBI members. This is not only a great way to potentially win some sponsored units, it also can help you network and grow your following. Look at the @steembasicincome account and find the most recent Contest listing post for a great starting point.
To sponsor more than one member, please check our full Transaction Memo Guidelines and let us know if you have any questions.
The official currency for enrollment is STEEM (STEEM Basic Income).
{We accept SBD at our discretion (usually when they're closely priced, or when SBD is stronger) but you do not receive extra value or any partial refund for paying in SBD instead of STEEM. If we choose to accept an SBD enrollment, we accept the entire amount. If we choose to reject it, we refund the entire amount and request you to send STEEM instead.}
You can trade between STEEM and SBD in your Wallet. Click the dropdown by STEEM or SteemDollars and click “Market”.
I sent 1 STEEM but I misspelled the name. What can I do?
If this happens please send 0.001 steem or SBD to @steembasicincome with the correct spelling of the name. Please specify the name you mistakenly put, as well as the correct name. These are reviewed manually, so please give us a few days to fix it and confirm.
I just sent a transaction sponsoring someone and I’m not seeing an upvote on my posts, did you miss my transaction?
If it has been at least three hours, you can check your enrollment by typing !sbi status in a comment. You can also check your SBI levels in your Steempeak wallet.
How frequently you receive upvotes depends on your subscription level and posting frequency, so you might not receive an update on every post you make! You can read more about our upvote delivery in Value Balances and Upvote Delivery.
How do I know how many units I have?
There are multiple ways to check your subscription level:
- On Chain: Make a post or comment with the keywords !sbi status in it.
- On Discord: Head over to the SBI discord and in the bot commands room, type in !sbi yourUserName replacing yourUserName with your actual username.
- In Steempeak wallet: https://steempeak.com/@YOUR-STEEM-NAME-HERE/transfers
- On Google Sheets: Go to this Google Sheet, use the second tab and find your name.
- Google Sheets (2nd Method): Use this Google Sheet. Click in File menu ---> 'Make a Copy' so that you can type your own Member Name. This will also estimate your weekly upvote value for you.
How long does my subscription last?
Standard units last forever. These are the most common units gained by sending STEEM or by being sponsored. The only exception to this is if your account is blacklisted for spam, plagiarism or illegal activity. If you become inactive, the value of these units may decline over time, but they remain yours and will return to normal when you resume activity on your account.
Bonus units gained from delegating STEEM Power remain in place until you cancel the delegation.
Can my subscription be terminated?
Yes, your SBI subscription can be terminated at sole discretion of SBI for one or more of the following reasons:
- Plagiarism. Posting content from other sources without proper credits and acting as if it's your own.
- Spamming. Creating posts at rapid pace with low effort and low quality content.
- Bad faith. Bad behaviors toward other Steemians. This may include unfair flagging and other inappropriate actions.
- Blacklisted. Currently SBI uses @buildawhale and @steemcleaners blacklists to help identify bad actors. If you get blacklisted by those account you lose the benefits of your SBI shares.
- Other reasons. SBI reserves the right to terminate subscription of any user for any reason not mentioned above.
If your account was added to our blacklist, and your subscription effectively terminated, you may have the right to an appeal or partial refund. (See our full Refund Policy.
Can I sponsor anyone I want?
Yes! Just not yourself!
I'm very low on STEEM but I want to join, can someone sponsor me?
Yes, anyone can sponsor you to join SBI. Here are some ways you can get sponsored to join the program or get more shares:
- Ask a friend. Tell a friend who already is on Steem ecosystem about the program, and ask them to sponsor you. Both you and your friend get one SBI unit for each STEEM sent for sponsorship!
- Winning SBI contests. The are lots of contests that gives away SBI units as rewards. You can find most of them on @steembasicincome blog on Steem.
- Ask for payment in SBI units. You can provide a product or service for someone within the Steem ecosystem and ask for payment in SBI units instead of STEEM or SBD. Both you and they will benefit from the program if you transact this way!
- Buy STEEM. If all above methods are not working for you, you can always buy STEEM for yourself and enroll into the program. You also get to choose to sponsor other people to the program.
I know I am enrolled and I didn’t get an upvote!
First, ensure that you have an active subscription by checking the number of units that you have using the tools mentioned above.
From the !sbi status result, check if your rshares balance value is less that $0.06. If so, you need to accumulate more shares to hit $0.06 before you get the next $0.02 upvote. If you have reached this threshold but still did not get the upvote, contact the @steembasicincome team through discord here.
Why am I voted by a different account than the person I sponsored?
@steembasicincome has many different accounts @sbi2, @sbi3, etc. Your vote will come from the most available account at the time of your post. The vote will always still have the same value that your account was due at that time, no matter which account is used to cast the vote.
How can I get bigger upvotes on my posts?
The upvote value given by SBI is determined by the amount of rshares in your SBI balance. There are multiple ways to get bigger upvotes from SBI on your posts:
- Enroll for more SBI units. The more SBI units you have, the faster your rshares balance accumulates. More rshares means bigger upvotes!
- Post less frequently. Even when you are not posting your SBI rshares balance is still constantly accumulating. This will result on bigger upvote value on your next post.
Upvoting @steembasicincome posts. When you upvote @steembasicincome posts you get rshares added to your SBI balance according to the upvote value multiplied by 1.10x. This is even better than upvoting yourself!Phasing out of upvoting bonuses was announced 27 October 2019.- Delegating SP to @steembasicincome. You get temporary "bonus units" when you delegate to @steembasicincome. These bonus units give equal benefit compared to regular SBI units. Currently, you get 1 bonus unit for each 2 Steem Power delegation to @steembasicincome.
If I upvote @steembasicincome, do I get anything?
Yes. Each time you upvote a post or comment from the @steembasicincome accounts (@steembasicincome, @sbi2, @sbi3, @sbi4, @sbi5, @sbi6, @sbi7, @sbi8, @sbi9, @sbi10, @sbi-booster) the rshares value of that vote is multiplied by 1.10 and added to your pending vote balance when the post or comment pays out.
No. Phasing out of upvoting bonuses was announced 27 October 2019.
Do I get any benefit from delegating Steem Power to @steembasicincome?
Yes, you get temporary "bonus units" when you delegate to @steembasicincome. These bonus units give equal benefit compared to regular SBI units. Currently, you get 1 bonus unit for each 2 Steem Power delegation to @steembasicincome. Bonus units will be removed if you withdraw your delegation.
What are the different types of shares?
There are a few types of shares that Steem Basic Income uses.
- Standard units are through the enrollment process. These are differentiated only for our refund policy. For all other purposes, these are treated exactly the same.
i. Sponsored units are received when someone sponsors you.
ii. Enrolled units are received when you sponsor somebody else. - Bonus units are earned by delegating Steem Power to @steembasicincome
- Management units are created at 5% of standard units. These are issued to the founder and lead developer automatically, but may be assigned to users that help improve the project.
- rshares
What are rshares?
rshares are the unit that Steem uses to calculate rewards. Whenever you upvote, the witness check your VP% and SP to calculate how many rshares your upvote is worth. This is the actual value used to track your upvote values on Steem, and the method that Steem Basic Income uses to track your pending upvote value.
Can I reach you on discord?
Yes, that is the best way to get in touch with us. Here is a link to the discord server: click here
There is a wealth of information in the Read-me-first, updates, and rules channels, or if you need more help, just post your question in the help channel and a member of the team will be happy to assist you.
I’m hosting a share giveaway contest. Do you have a banner I can use?
@steembasicincome doesn't have a required banner. There are many free to use banners made by other members, (just ask in the discord and be sure to credit the designers.
Here are some graphics that have been made available for use with proper citation.
<center><a href = "https://busy.org/@steembasicincome/frequently-asked-questions"><img src = "https://steemitimages.com/DQmYyGi4HvKXuvQJ7sWPQHH5W33ThfAE74dpsJgMJ6n8UiZ/SBI%20Promo%20Banner%20PNG.png"></a>*graphic designed by @katysavage*</center><br>
graphic designed by @katysavage<center><a href = "https://busy.org/@steembasicincome/frequently-asked-questions"><img src = "https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amico/LrOv6mJr-SBI-givewayafit.png"></a>*graphic designed by @amico*</center><br>
graphic designed by @amico<center><a href = "https://busy.org/@steembasicincome/frequently-asked-questions"><img src = "https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmQuqW9vfJaCKpRvnFErCqQTVrJmUmsQjRcKttg2QRT4z2"></a>*graphic designed by @katysavage*</center><br>
graphic designed by @katysavageWhat is your refund policy? Can I sell back my units?
For eligible accounts, the new refund framework will provide enrolled units a 2 STEEM potential value, but grant a 0.50 STEEM potential value to all sponsored units. In effect, the total potential ROI under this framework is 250% for each 1 STEEM enrollment.
Refunds are delivered through an accelerated upvote schedule. Since our system tracks pending upvote values using rshares, we will deliver the accelerated upvotes through our normal delivery system, by manually removing your units from record and increasing your rshares_balance with any surplus value you are due. If you are blacklisted and unable to receive upvotes from our system, you will be subject to our more limited direct refund policy. For more info please read the full post on our refund policy.
Special thanks to @jk6276, @akomoajong, @ucukertz, @stever82, @fuadsm,@samsemilia7, @macoolette, @sgbonus, @robertgelbmann, @theironfelix, @izaid, @ecoinstant, @bengy, @wonderwop, @reinaldoverdu, @thedarkhorse, @bucipuci, @amico, @scrawly, @phoenixwren, @rishi556, @kiokizz, @tcpolymath, @theb0red1, and @matschi, who all participated in our FAQ contest and helped us draft a much better FAQ.
That contest was a fun way to learn more about SBI and also contribute to the improvement of FAQ. All the more that it rewards the participants which encouraged more engagement. That is learning and contributing while earning. What could be a better way to learn than being rewarded at the same time?
Thank you!
You're welcome! Thank you for your participation. I enjoyed the discussion we had around your responses.
Only wish I had more time to answer more of the questions. But glad to have helped out and think this was a great way to help the community learn more about the program which they have shares in. Clearly there were some wrong answers and I bet those people really learned a lot in the process.
It seems to have been a very helpful / education exercise. We definitely got some insight into where our educational efforts need focused going forward.
Maybe it’s just me, but in an iOS/Safari environment, that crashes every time.
It's probably too much to load. I will add the link to the mini lookup sheet to the FAQ.
Realistically, the lookup sheets are usually a day behind, so the !sbi lookup tools here and on discord are the best way to go anyway.
The full sheet is helpful for anybody that wants to do an in-depth analysis into our voting history and membership base, or to look up lots of accounts.
@steembasicincome Thanks a lot for the contest! It really feels nice that some of my answers made it to the final FAQ and I also get some bonus shares for participating. I also get to learn a lot from other participants about SBI. Looking forward for contests like this in the future. :D
You're welcome, and thanks for your participation. Since this is our official FAQ now, we decided that it would be tacky to have 'this response was written by ...' for every answer, and opted to credit everyone that participated in the mentions instead.
I'm glad that you were able to recognize where some of your answers were used. :)
Well, I did write my answers...
Also, I thought you were trying to avoid "shares" being used as a term for SBI? Did you change your mind?
I may have missed a few. I will look over it again.
Hi, one request. There are now 3 ways to invest in SBI - buy shares, delegate and upvote posts/comments - so it might be good to show these in the "status calls". I've seen a few comments slightly confused by how the rshares turn into upvotes.
So, would it be possible to split the rshares shown into 2, showing those based on units (both shares and delegated) and those based on upvotes? It might then make it clearer that the first set recharges while the second one will drain to zero if no new upvotes.
Just a suggestion! :-)
We track the inflows separately in our DB:
subscription_rshares
delegation_rshares
curation_rshares (these are the rshares from upvoting rewards)
other_rshares (not currently used)
These are summed and the rshares already delivered are netted out to find the pending rshares value, which is the value the status calls delivers. What % of that balance comes from upvoting rewards is not readily available and an approximation would need to be calculated.
I plan to break things out and add something like 'xx% of your total upvotes received have been from upvoting bonuses' but we need to update the other_rshares column first to add in a couple of adjustments that were made. Right now the fields would not add up properly.
Which is to say it's all in my road-map, but we haven't started on it yet.
Thanks for the update. I also thought that showing separate rshares would be some soft advertising for the new upvote-based system.
Indeed, this FAQ is so complete, it could be added as a link within all the sbi-status calls.
In fact we have just added support for including an easily customizable message at the bottom of our sbi status responses, and it will soon start including a link to the FAQ!
Thanks for all your effort, guys.
Love from @yelbosco! !sbi status
Hi @yelbosco!
This is a test comment footer!
Thanks for your efforts, guys!
I'm also doing for some days my little social experiment, evaluating the degree of sympathy by measuring the upvote received in these comments. ;)
🐶 HARF HARF! 🐾
Thanks for all you are doing, guys!
!sbi status
Hi @crmilazz!
Absolutely one of my favorite initiatives here in the Steem community! I really like that this program encourages long-term engagement.
Thanks for your support! We think that long-term engagement is the real key to Steem reaching a successful outcome.
Newbie on board with steembasicincome, glad I am here with you all.
!sbi status
Hi @barton26!
Thank you for running this was a lot of fun to help and learn more about the great project.
Posted using Partiko iOS
You're welcome! Thank you for your participation. We learned a lot about what areas we need to work harder to educate people about.
of rather than or?
Yikes, good catch!
I like to contribute a bit ;-). Thanks for mentioning.
You're welcome! Thank you for your contributions.
It's my pleasure ;-)
Thanks a lot for the honorable mention. I am delighted to have participate in this. It was fun and I did learn despite earning. Thanks for the opportunity!
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks for making it soooo much easier to keep track of things bud😎
Posted using Partiko Android
You're welcome!
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi @enginewitty!
!sbi status
Enjoying this more and more!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Hi @newageinv!
Congratulations @steembasicincome!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
Thanks a lot for the honorable mention. I am delighted to have participate in this. It was fun and I did learn despite earning. Thanks for the opportunity!
Posted using Partiko Android
Learning can be just as important as earning. In many cases, earning follows learning!
I cannot help but agree with you 💯 thank you!
Posted using Partiko Android
Hey! I've a question... since one month ago , I received the upvote from SBI .
But now I don't receive any upvote even I won 7-8 SBI in contest and that steemains send it with my @name.
Since HF22 we have had to recalibrate the minimum upvote based on estimates at the bottom of the new reward curve. That means it takes higher levels to get upvote frequently. Now that the minimum upvote adjustments have stabilized, you should receive your next upvote within a few days.
Curated for #informationwar (by @Gregorypatrick)
Ways you can help the @informationwar!
I suppose that as a voluntaryist crowd-funded basic income experiment, designed to provide a viable alternative to a centralized taxation-based basic income, it sort of makes sense for our posts to be curated by #informationwar, but I still find it a little surprising every time it actually happens.
!sbi status
Hi @tarazkp!
It's like starting again ;)
Our new system released in December has some material changes from the original system released the year before. Most of our members benefit more, and it's much more sustainable than before.
But new system means new information needs to be propagated to overcome some of the misconceptions/misunderstanding floating around.
Im reading all the info since half an hour..seems to be a great move. I will try to be involved next week. Congrats for don't giving up!
@steembasicincome, With the new push regarding 'downvoting' and the 'gifted' free downvote power to add incentive towards using them, what is your definition of 'unfair downvoting' now?
re: subscription terminations:
The downvote is trying to garner a reputation of being a tool that owners of the reward pool (all steemians holding SP) can use to restrict or balance the payouts as they see fit.
I'm curios if someone who is butt-hurt can have me removed from the project for downvoting them for something other than spam etc..
I just don't like what they said about Jean in their last post, and I don't want them to take 20 STEEM from the reward pool when it pays, so I'm going to downvote them to return those rewards back to my pool.
^ Example of the use case I believe was always meant to be the case. but hadn't exactly worked out that way before.
So far, the only times we have turned somebody's votes off for flagging have been when they flagged our own accounts.
We consider unfair flagging to be flagging that is politically motivated or vengeful to an extreme.
Flagging somebody because they state a political opinion that you disagree with would be politically motivated (flagging as economic censorship) and we consider that unfair flagging.
If you're downvoted and downvote a similar amount in response, okay. If you're downvoted and try to destroy their account in response, that's extreme.
I don't consider flagging a personal attack (any post with ad hominem attacks - discourse that targets the person, not the facts) to be vengeful or politically motivated, and you're largely in the clear. Although if you try to destroy their account because of it, that's vengeful.
That is completely fair and understandable!
Thank you for your transparency and taking a moment to answer me - and taking it seriously.
I hope I was found to be fair in asking that question and that other readers see the value in both the question and your response.
Thanks!
!sbi status
Greetings @esteembasicincome, I am new to the system, I am studying to understand how it works, I hope your support.
Welcome! These helpful resources are a good starting point:
https://steemit.com/steembasicincome/@steembasicincome/helpful-sbi-resources
Hi @tramelibre!
Structure of your total SBI vote value:
To reduce blockchain clutter, you can also check your status in our Discord server!
https://discord.gg/VpghTRz
One problem with the blockchain is that there is no motivation for people to update handy guides like this one so that newcomers know: a) are these procedures still valid? b) have there been changes? For example, are there still contests? If not, why not? c) what to do.
I have run into this a few times. For example, with the tipu project, I tried to follow the instructions and was (relatively dismissively) told that what I had read was old news. Well, okay. But, what is the new news?
There is no financial gain to updating a guide like this one, but I think enough changes have taken place -- such as the name of the blockchain -- that maybe a new guide could be written, and linked to from this old guide? Then there would be an incentive to write it, perhaps?
There is, I think, a mistaken perception that those among us who are new do not seek out information. We do, but it tends to conflict with itself. And I try talking to people sometimes also, but I don't like to wear people out, and, also, not every individual is familiar with every update to every project all the time.
I don't wish to sound critical because I am actually very excited about these things, which is why I bother to comment. I think more guides that are easy to find and updated would really help newcomers out a lot.
This is our original FAQ from Steem; we actually do have a newer FAQ specific to Hive (although it's still quite old).
We recently started development on our Hive SBI 2.0, and part of that project roadmap covers updated documentation on our own web-site, so there can be higher confidence that what you see is considered current and accurate.
There are still several member-hosted contests where they give away Hive SBI prizes. We used to publish a contest list regularly, but now the contests are posted in our Discord.
!sbi status
I've paid for and been given lots of shares. It's a great initiative. When the Steem price recovers the votes will be more significant
Hi @steevc!
Yes, this is true. The APR (measured against STEEM) has held pretty consistent. We do expect the reward pool to take a little hit when STEEM price recovers (meaning APR would dip slightly) but upvotes delivered will still increase.
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko iOS
Hi @mcoinz79!
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko iOS
Hi @mcoinz79!
!sbi status
Hi @full-measure!
Structure of your total SBI vote value:
To reduce blockchain clutter, you can also check your status in our Discord server!
https://discord.gg/VpghTRz
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi @luzdelua!
Did you know Steem Basic Income has a Quality Policy?
!sbi status
Hi @linuxmom!
Have you read our new FAQ?
!sbi status
Hi @knochenhd!
Structure of your total SBI vote value:
A pending upvote balance is tracked for you in our database. Each time you post, your balance is drawn down by up to 20%. If you post again before that amount is replenished, your next upvote will be smaller. Our minimum upvote for posts is $0.012. Your balance accumulates until a minimum upvote can be delivered with 20% of your pending balance.
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko iOS
Hi @cst90!
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi @oliviackl!
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi @revisesociology!
Congratulations @steembasicincome! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
!sbi status
Hi @jamethiel!
!sbi status
Hi @contestkings!
Thanks for your efforts, guys!
🐶 HARF HARF! 🐾 !sbi status
Hi @holydog!
Thanks for your efforts, guys!
🐶 HARF HARF! 🐾 !sbi status
Hi @holydog!
BTW there is a bug in the below response and you only need to wait for your comment value to get above 0.024, not 0.24.
Or you could get an upvote now if you post instead of waiting for a comment upvote.
!sbi status
Hi @kshahrck!
!sbi status
Hi @qpals!
!sbi status
Hi @ixindamix!
Thank you for the mention SBI. You're the best! 💕
!sbi status
Hi @self-track!
!sbi status
Hi @scilwa!
!sbi status
Hi @r2cornell!
just needed to try this:
!sbi status
Hi @mayb!
!sbi status
@celinavisaez you need to put an ! at the front of sbi status. Willl look like this:
!sbi status
Hi @thedarkhorse!
Gracias @thedarkhorse, un abrazo.
!sbi status
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi @dearw!
Hi @steembasicincome!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.701 which ranks you at #453 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 195 contributions, your post is ranked at #6.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
I have a contest running where I’m giving away 5 SBI! It’s for the new Steemians with little SP. https://steemit.com/steembasisincome/@mcoinz79/are-you-pn-the-roadto177sp-win-sbi-nlwog6iy
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thanks for sharing! The best way to spread the word about SBI Contests is to link in the #contests channel in our Discord. That's where we build our regularly published contest listings from.
!sbi status
Hi @scilwa!
!sbi status