Proof Of Curation - Part 1

You’ve surely heard of Proof of Stake and Proof of Brain. These are the two protocols that form the pillars of the HIVE blockchain. They are the narrative, the soul, of this Web3 project, whose financial value is represented by the HIVE cryptocurrency and the HBD stablecoin.

Proof of Curation is a blend of the two protocols. Or, perhaps, the result of the two. It’s an intention, not a protocol.

This post is a follow-up to this one. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend reading it first, as it provides important context for the points I'm sharing here.

:peakd/hive: CURATION

Curation is often misunderstood as simply clicking a “like” button. In reality, it should be an exercise in pattern recognition: finding users who have gone unnoticed, recognizing original ideas, and encouraging diversity.

Every vote is a creative and conscious decision.

The Proof of Brain protocol was never intended to reward popularity alone. Its goal is to transform collective intelligence into a decentralized allocation of value. This requires balance—a balance between discovering new users, supporting established users, avoiding excessive concentration, and distributing influence as fairly as possible.

💎 MY ACHIEVEMENTS

According to the analytics data from Hivelytics 2.0, as you can see, my author and curator rewards for the last 30 days are practically the same. The author rewards don’t surprise me; they’re identical to those of the vast majority of users. What really surprises me, though, are the curator rewards.

This confirmed to me that it is possible to curate content in a healthy way and maximize profits. Yes, I’m here to make a profit on my investment of resources and time. No hypocrisy.

If there were any doubts, last Sunday (July 5) I tried out the new Top 600 Curator Analytics tool, created by @seattlea. It’s a suite of tools and dashboards that has been growing at a rapid pace—perhaps the most powerful analytics tool available today.

That’s when I realized that, at that moment, I was ranked 46th on the list of the 52 most efficient curators (APR 9.25%–17%). This proves that even a modest account—a little dolphin—can swim alongside orcas and whales.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a screenshot at the time; I just copied the list—sorted by rank—and my figures into a Word document 😒.

So I decided to check all 52 users listed in the ranking using the ManteCurated Live tool, created by @mantequilla-soft, which analyzes the quality of curation. This was the result, but I asked ChatGPT to create a cute leaderboard for me that fits the ecosystem. I liked the design—it looks like a game leaderboard. Nice.

This is where I’d like to issue a challenge—or rather, a suggestion—to @seattlea. Why not create a single leaderboard that combines the Top 600 Curator Analytics and ManteCurated Live?

The Top 600 Curator Analytics focuses on rewards and APR (Proof of Stake), while ManteCurated Live focuses on quality (Proof of Brain). I think it would make sense, given that these are the two protocols that underpin HIVE. I don’t know if it’s possible. It’s just a suggestion.

For example: [Proof of Stake (Top 600 C) “Earned” (25%) + "APR" (25%)] + [Proof of Brain (MantaCurated) “Score” (50%)].

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Returning to Seattlea’s analytical tools, there is one metric that deserves attention: Curation Concentration Trend—Gini Coefficient Over Time. The Gini coefficient measures inequality in the distribution of a given resource. In other words, the graph shows that the higher the Gini coefficient, the more concentrated the curation rewards are among a small group of accounts.

Although only 600 curators were analyzed, this finding is nonetheless significant (and concerning). AI reveals the causes, lists the dangers, but also suggests solutions. Read here.

Now, if we cross-reference the data from the Weekly Trends Dashboard—the decline in Active Authors over the past two years—with the POWER DOWN that has been in effect since the end of March of this year (data provided by @hivetoday), we arrive at conclusions that deserve careful consideration by everyone who has money invested in this platform.

We all know that the global economic crisis is the main factor, but... how long are we going to keep burying our heads in the sand?

We cannot ignore the fact that the Rewards Fund—which awards rewards to creators and curators—accounts for 65% of all inflation distributed within the HIVE ecosystem. That’s quite different from the 10% allocated to the DHF, if you know what I mean.

We shouldn’t erase the shadow when we want to see the light. Take it easy—I don’t want to correct anything or anyone. There are habits and strategies that are so deeply ingrained that most people won’t change because “it’s always been this way.”

But I believe a balance is possible. The ecosystem is vast and powerful; it’s possible for light and shadow to coexist. For that to happen, we need more and more people to engage in healthy, diverse, and fair curation.

UPDATE
The figures from leaderborder’s “Curator Quality Ranking” were recorded on July 5; today (now), this is my score on ManteCurated Live.

Important note: This post will have a second part, “How to Create a Broad and Profitable Curated.”

My initial plan was to write just one post, but it ended up exceeding 2K words, but I know there are curation bots that reject posts that long 😁. Actually, it’s to keep the post from becoming too long and tedious.

Images 1, 3, and 6, which illustrate the post, were created using AI. The rest are screenshots of the announced tools.