On March 4th, 2023, I announced an experiment of delegation to Ecency to prove that it’s probably the most profitable (in terms of APY) delegations feasible for a newcomer who posts frequently.

Here are the results of this week’s delegation with Ecency, and following this, a legend of the columns used, as well as a bit of analysis of the week:

Legend

Day: well, this one’s pretty self-explanatory. It starts the day after I delegated to Ecency so that there’s at least 24 hours permitted for rewards to kick in. It is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Delegated to Ecency: this is how much total Hive Power (HP) I have delegated to Ecency on the provided day. It is a value used indirectly in the APY calculation.
Average Hive Delegation to Date: this is the average of my delegated Hive Power (HP) to Ecency, current to the provided day. This gives an accurate value of how much delegation has been given over time, inclusive of all rewards (from Ecency Boosts and from other sources, including posts and comments). Since this value shows contributes directly to the rewards I get from Ecency, it is the most accurate value to use in calculating APY. Hence, it is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Reward: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from Ecency delegations on the provided day.
Total Hive Reward: this is how much I have in rewards in HP from Ecency delegations in total, up to the provided day. It is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Earned From Boosts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP due to Ecency boosts on the provided day, including the votes that come as a result of following Ecency’s curation trail (this value is approximate). It’s difficult to calculate earnings from promotions, and will not be included in this calculation.
Total Hive Earned From Boosts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP due to Ecency boosts in total, up to the provided day, including the votes that come as a result of following Ecency’s curation trail (this value is approximate). It is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Earned From Posts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from posting and is inclusive of boosts and promotions, on the provided day. While I do reinvest this into Ecency delegations, it is NOT included in my APY calculation, as it is not an earning directly due to the delegation.
Total Hive Earned from Posts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from posting and is inclusive of boosts and promotions, in total, up to the provided day. While I do reinvest this into Ecency delegations, it is NOT included in my APY calculation, as it is not an earning directly due to the delegation.
Other Hive Earned: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from other sources (i.e. comments, swing trades, etc.) on the provided day. While I do reinvest this into Ecency delegations, it is NOT included in my APY calculation, as it is not an earning directly due to the delegation. I have also come to realize that this is the most inaccurate and inconsistent column I have – please regard it only as a very, very rough estimate.
Hive Reinvested into Ecency Delegation: this is how much Hive I have reinvested into Ecency delegations on the provided day, and is all-inclusive (since I reinvest earnings from posts, comments, etc.). Its only relevance to the APY calculation is that it brings up my total amount delegated to Ecency. That particular aspect is included in the “Hive Delegated to Ecency” column.
Hive Earned APY To Date: this is the calculated APY based on the “Average Hive Delegation to Date,” “Total Hive reward,” and “Total Hive Earned From Boosts.” This provides a fair calculation of earning which are directly due to Ecency’s rewards (in Hive and boosts), while taking into account the growing delegation and changes in rewards over time. The APY is recorded on a daily basis and will paint a more accurate picture with more time. Some initial values (after the rewards from the initial boosts come in) may be outrageously high due to boosts from preexisting Ecency points (I had >3500, which is equivalent to 23 boosts, or <23 boosts + more promotions); these are accurate values but skewed due to the small time frame. They will become more accurate and reflective of reality over time. There is also a 7 day delay in some earnings, which may further skew the APY. While reinvestments from non-Ecency sources (i.e. posts, comments, trading, etc.) may cause the APY to appear larger, using the “Average Hive Delegation to Date” as a divisor compensates for this effect, thus giving a more accurate APY that’s a result of only Ecency delegation. It is the most fair divisor to use in this calculation because it accounts for changes in delegation over time, is a direct contributor to subsequent delegation rewards, and accounts for reinvested Hive Power only after it has been delegated to Ecency.
Total Ecency Points: this is the total amount of Ecency points that I have available on the provided day. Note that I begin with >3300 points, which is equivalent to 23 boosts, or <23 boosts + more promotions. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Ecency Points Earned From Delegation: this is the amount of Ecency points that I earned on the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Total Ecency Points Earned From Delegation: this is the amount of Ecency points that I earned in total, up to the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Daily Ecency Points Earned (All Sources): this is the amount of Ecency points that I earned through other activities (commenting, voting, posting, etc.) on the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Ecency Points Spent on Boosts / Promotions: this is the amount of Ecency points that I spent on boosts and promotions on the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood. Looking 7 days ahead to the HP earned in boosts will reveal how much the points translate into HP.

This Week’s Earning Analysis

Last week, I bet on an APY to date of 95-100%. So how accurate was my guess? The APY to date as of the end of this week is 100.96%. Very close! Let’s see what happened over the course of this week:

Day 29 I received yet another kind tip of 100 Ecency points from @melinda010100. This is definitely making the process of collecting and Boosting far easier! It almost feels like cheating, but I’ve had to refrain from rejecting gifts and generosity, a poor habit I’ve established in my personal life. Before I get into personal philosophies… I also delegated further into Ecency. This should help me earn rewards from delegation quicker, thus allowing me to post more frequently than once per week, ven if I don’t comment on Ecency quite as much.

The mathematical certainty of a lower impact of the “Hive Earned From Boosts” on the “APY to date” also came to fruition. It makes sense because as more of these rewards stack up, the lower the proportion each will have on the total (i.e. same numerator, larger denominator), thus the APY increased by only 20% after this fairly substantial reward. The impact will continue to decrease over time, and we’ll soon have a better idea of the true potential APY.

I had also discovered that due to occasional server errors, as well as the fact that Ecency Points are given as gifts, not all comment-based Ecency points and “heartbeat” 0.250 Ecency point rewards (for 15 minutes spent on the Ecency interface) are always rewarded. I also believe that comments with a very small character count are also excluded, which is wise because it’s an anti-spam measure. The former aspect is a bit of a letdown to find out, as it betrays a bit of inconsistency in the process, but (and this is a big but… no pun intended) still does not take away the fact that rewards for participation are quite great, as evidenced by my collection of Ecency points. That’s why I still support this experiment and delegation.

Day 32 I created a post for another idea for the FreeCompliments community, and as a result received an exceptionally generous donation of 3,000 Ecency points from @woodathegsd, aka @ganjafarmer (well, his dog… pets are generous, aren’t they? :D). I decided to split it evenly between myself and the FreeCompliments community - 1500 Ecency points a pop. As it turns out, this makes up for that time in Week 1 when I accidentally sent an extra 1500 Ecency Points to the community account, so now I’m technically back to where I started! In my continued investment process, I hope I’ll be able to afford such generosity and pay it forward to others in the future, especially those who are active in the FC community.

That day also seemed to have some server issues, so the delegation rewards got a bit delayed. I included the combination of rewards in Day 33, as they were both delivered. As long as you’re aware that these hiccups can happen, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a great lesson to plan ahead!

Now I’ll challenge myself and everyone else reading this to guess the upcoming week’s APY to date. Keep these major factors in mind: 1) I posted twice this week, 2) this will be a transition from week 5 → week 6 (which directly affects the math). My guess for the next week’s APY to date is 110-115%, and for the following week >110% (will give a more accurate value guess next week!).

It should be noted that my medicine-themed posts have @stemsocial as a 5% beneficiary, and all of my posts now have a variable percentage as a beneficiary to @hive-140084 (the FreeCompliments community; these rewards will be used as a reinvestment vehicle and as a reward pool for everyone who posts and comments in the community, except for illegal content, and threads about the community!).

I hope that you’ve found this analysis informative. While it is not financial advice, it may be useful as a methodology of calculating your own returns on various projects on the Hive network.

Here are the prior weeks’ posts for further reference:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4

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