Make sure to add me in git if you open a repo - I'm FelixA on github.
Interestingly, nearly at the same time I wrote my article there was another one that offers a bug bounty for the second bot you described https://steemit.com/steem/@cryptoctopus/usd500-bounty-we-need-this-now
Actually I am pretty sure that a selfish bot would be used very fast by very many people. I actually expect that some bots like this are already being used. I also have to admit I would use it, since in a smaller scale it is not selfish, only if it becomes viral. IMHO this is a prisoners dilemma in Steem.
- if no one uses bots, the system stays as it is
- If I use a bot and no one else, I have an advantage
- If others use a bot and I dont, I have a disadvantage
- If everyone uses bots (even for creating content that then will be automatically upvoted) the system collapses.
This makes me quite afraight of bots.
Interesting. That does look like a prisoner's dilemma. I wonder how we could quantify the system's resistance to bot-overrun? Could a whale make a robocop bot to flag content that's had too much bot activity?
I wish I had more time to devote to this stuff. I'll look into Xeroc's piston.steem thing; that would be a pretty fun project.