Running on Batteries

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One of my complaints with Splinterlands of late, is how many different tokens there are and how to use them. This might be a personal issue more for me, but there is a lot of complexity and not a lot of clarity even on what does what, or what will do what in the future. I feel like I need some kind of "Idiots Guide" to Splinterlands tokenization to understand. The next complaint is all of the proposals that are looking to be pushed though, which I get, but if the system is overused, it becomes one of complacency, as people tire of having to try and understand the many ramifications involved and then, a lot of crap ends up passing and it becomes just another ineffective government.

My other gripe is that so many of my monsters are just not performing, where for example Blight is not laying any poison down after hitting three or four time in a row - but that is a case for another day.

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Having said this, there are a lot of things to consider in Splinterlands in terms of investment potential, as well as a lot of paths to take, which is largely a good thing. No clear path to maximization is good, because it sets up tensions between different systems and puts game into the game, meaning that there is competition, not only for resources, but also processes. When everyone goes the most lucrative way, it begins to lose its value and then other aspects become more valuable. However, it isn't always possible to make a shift quickly or without losing value from one to the next, which sets up risk in the decision making process.

I have long held the same view of Hive and how there are many ways to interact and benefit from the platform, with some being more valuable than others. And, it is interesting over the last years where there are an increasing number of ways to earn, like HBD in savings for a percentage return on a "fairly stable" asset. It is "only" twenty percent, but there is some security with it, as even though the price has dropped much lower and gone much higher, it has for now at least rebalanced to around that dollar parity mark.

I have been looking at the Binance chart on HIVE:USD with a weekly filter and feel that around the late April to mid-May region we might be getting some decent action.

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However, what is interesting to note there is the massive difference in volume between the increase in price at the start of 2021 and the very low volume at the start of 2022, considering the drive in price was 3x as high. What does this indicate? Were people scared to sell, that a lot of people had already sold and didn't have anything to sell, or like me - just held, up and down.

This is part of the game too, isn't it?

And, there is more to it than just selling on an exchange, because at least some people use the high value of HIVE to buy Splinterlands assets instead of selling into fiat. I did a little of this too, but probably should have done more, because overall, many of the key Splinterlands assets have dropped less in comparative price than HIVE which has dropped 90%, but not some assets like SPS, which has dropped 97%.

That difference might not sound like much, but if for example Asset A and Asset B are both worth a dollar and one drops by 90% and one drops by 97%, the respective prices are 10 cents and 3 cents. That means for Asset B to get to the same value, it has to first increase 330% from its low. Depending on the asset, that might be a relatively simple task, or it might be a mammoth proposal.

However, if buying with fiat to invest, it might be better to buy the lower asset, because they might both go back to the dollar mark, perhaps. That means that while buying Asset A will get a 1000% gain, asset B would see a 3000% gain.

Size matters.

And, the size of my own ability to keep up has apparently shrunk, as my attention is not what it used to be and I am unable to hold focus for as long, or as intensely. However, I still think that even though I am less capable to participate, participating is still far more valuable than not. It is like exercising or eating well - it may not lead to being super fit or a high level of health, but doing something is better than doing nothing.

While I might complain about the various conditions, this doesn't mean that the conditions are unfavorable for others and their various approaches. This is something to remember in terms of Hive too, where people will never be entirely satisfied with the platform, because it will never carter to all of their wishes, nor the skills that they have or don't have. Sometimes it works in the favor of one approach, sometimes another, but at the end of the day, those who are able to do a bit of everything and maximize nothing, tend to do better than the average.

This is a funny situation in some respects, because it should end up with average results, but as said above, when everyone is doing the same thing, the results are going to have diminishing returns. When most people are looking to maximize, they will focus on what is the current approach, often costing them a foothold in other areas that may very well be the better approach in the next iteration. And then, many people only participate with and do things that they are comfortable doing, which favors their strengths, but that doesn't mean their strengths are suited to the conditions of the moment. While comfortable, this reduces their ability to evolve their skillset, as well as locks them out of a lot of opportunity, as they don't even see it exists.

All of my investment paths might amount to nothing, or, it could be that one or two of them do well, while the others fail miserably. One thing is for quite certain though, nothing will be maximized, because I just don't have the mindset or ability to do it. There is an opportunity cost to everything, including not doing anything. But doing nothing, can cost it all.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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46 comments
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I sold all my golden cards on this growth and bought HIVE. I also have a HIVE/SPS pool. I am often drawn to play Splinterlands again, then I rent cards and play for a couple of days. Intellectually, I understand that HIVE can give me more profit than the cards and the game.

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It is going to be interesting to see what happens with both asset classes of HIVE and Splinterlands given a large run on the markets. I think Hive will give the better percentage return, Splinterlands will hold a higher percentage value on the fallback.

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I feel like I need some kind of "Idiots Guide" to Splinterlands tokenization to understand.

This resonated with me in so many ways. Every time I look at what Splinterlands is up to, I walk away more confused than when I started. I chalk it up to the fact I haven't been keeping up with all the developments as they happen. But I think a simplified guide would be helpful not just for me (or you) but for anyone new who is considering what Splinterlands has to offer them.

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Are you investing into SL at all? Or staying on the outside?

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I haven't played much recently, but there was a time when I played daily.

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feel that around the late April to mid-May region we might be getting some decent action

Hopefully you are right and we get a rollercoaster ride! What's with all the "nice" comments lol!

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What's with all the "nice" comments lol!

Well, one is a toss... the other is @revisesociology. Only their mother can tell them apart. :D

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Alright, so I will try, not only to write a proper comment but also will try to clear the fog a bit.

  1. DEC-B is a 20% discount store coupon. It has limited use and NOT as flexible as DEC. It can only be used to buy some in-store (potentially only land related) items

  2. DEC-B is NOT stakable, DEC currently is not either, but there is plan to make DEC stakable but not DEC-B

  3. DEC-B, when used, is burned

  4. DEC-B is actually not a team idea but rather a community idea. Yours truly actually had an oppotunity to stop it, but didn't. You can blame me

  5. DEC-B is considered a good way to convert Vouchers. Later on it is seen as a 'hand-out' or golden parachute for whales who has tens of thousands of vouchers and have them a way to convert them to something of a higher value than current price.

DO NOT convert DEC to DEC-B. You can convert Vouchers to DEC-B if you have a lot of them.

Hope this helps. I tried to use bullet points so that this is not a wall of text.

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Thanks!

Ok, so I wonder if it is better to keep more vouchers. No idea how many I will need in the future, but I bought some DEC-B with some and have about 500 left at the moment - earning more each day of course. Guess it is something :)

Seems like it is going to be far more a benefit to the whales (especially early ones), giving them more advantage with Land over others? Now there is also the possibility for "unlimited" card staking coming? That is going to be an interesting one - since again, that is going to favor a very few over the many....

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(Edited)

You should keep some vouchers. There is a promotion or two that is already 'half-announced' that is in the horizons near terms. Also you have hundreds of vouchers, not thousands. So better to keep them and do nothing.

Yes, land will have higher benefits for the alpha card holders. Its sad, but there you have it. They keep doing that, but as long as they balance it (which they are generally good at) it should be okay.

The trouble with all this is the fact that we are still very tiny

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There are big numbers, but I will round up and make them legible. Due to two reason, buttering the early players/investors; and making new comers struggle have done the above top heavy stakeholding. This is typical of DPOS/POS systems.

There are 500M SPS staked in 350K accounts (rounding). That should amount to only 1428 SPS staked/account, for a perfectly even distribution. But you can see how top 10 stakes 13% and top 200 stakes 50%.

So 200 people control half the staking (therefore, governance, and staking benefits)!

Often I comment, that we are 5000 individuals rewarding ourselves. I am infact grossly exaggerating. I should comment we are just 400!!

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Thanks for the simple breakdown of sps and dec batteries! Learning form comments and people efforts!

!PIZZA

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Ok, I will start just collecting vouchers again instead. I don't have much Land anyway :)

Thanks for the explanation.

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You can convert Vouchers to DEC-B if you have a lot of them.

I grabbed a few, but am not convinced by it. I can't make DEC-B work for me (generate more), and whilst Aggy is telling us DEC will go banana's soon, my faith is withering a little.

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There is no reason to buy DEC-B until the price of Dec at Tribaldex is higher than 1000 DEC = 80 cents.

Even then it is questionable.

For vouchers.... many had 50K to 150K vouchers and the market is thin. So there is a case for converting them to DEC-B

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I wonder if converting all my HBD was a mistake. Having some would be nice but at the same time I want more power so I would probably just convert again...

where people will never be entirely satisfied with the platform, because it will never carter to all of their wishes, nor the skills that they have or don't have.

I think that more people should write splinterlands battle posts. After a long time I wrote a few and one of them currently has 9.53 in rewards. that post still has not received a vote from splinterlands account so it could go even higher. But even if payout stays the same that is nice amount of hive for a post that took maybe an hour(?) to write. All in all splinterlands and Weekend-Engagement posts are really good earners. That 8k HP goal at the end of the year might be possible after all.

great reply

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Not sure if converting is a mistake - I think HIVE will be worth more than the 20% interest gain per year.

I think I have only written one SL battle post - but yes, they are good if there is more in it than just the battle itself. I like when people add some personality :)

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I think that many of your splinterlands posts could qualify for social media challenge. you would probably only have to share them on twitter or facebook and your posts would be eligble for splinterlands upvotes.

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I don't worry about the SL upvotes. If they like the posts, fine :)

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(Edited)

As I mention my routine posts, one can't get %20 interest for an instrument which is almost equal to $1. I find it reasonable to save HBD as long as the price of HIVE is below $1.

  • Not a financial advice.
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If converting the interest earnings to Hive, it might be a good way to build token amount.

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I am not really familiar with Splinterlands: i prefer using my time for other purposes that I feel more productive and where I can bring value to other people (not just money to me).
And I am enjoying more and more blogging here: I am getting used and in love with the ecosystem!

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i prefer using my time for other purposes that I feel more productive and where I can bring value to other people (not just money to me).

Depends how you look at what is valuable, as Splinterlands is built on Hive and gives a well-used usecase to the blockchain - so it also supports those who blog. I am a blogger here, have been for over six years now :)

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Well, you have a point! :D

I was anyway talking of creating new working places, new businesses to bring value to people and so on. That's what I am doing (With satisfaction) with my work into the crypto space 😎, developing new projects to create an economical impact.

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DEC-B is catering to large whales with lands, that’s how I look at it.

I wasn’t around when land sale was on and to this day I still don’t know exactly how land will work. Looks like if you got lands you need to sink in more money to make it work. In this case DEC-B is giving a discount to large holders (self-serving is another way to look at it)

For new people, it doesn’t matter. By the time of next bull market, DEC-B becomes irrelevant because new people won’t be able to buy them, but then it will also disincentivize new investments when existing whale and DEC-B holders could easily undercut new investments thus making it unattractive for new money.

In any collectibles, the faster the releases without substantially new players just devalue and dilute everyone's holdings.

When it becomes more and more complicated, it raises the barrier to entry for new players which is counter productive.

Splinterlands is then gateway drug that got me into HIVE. I am optimistic with HIVE's future even as current apps other than Splinterlands are half-baked.

I am a bit more cautious with the direction of Splinterlands and SPS governance, my criticism of the latest proposal is that it is another example of poorly planned and poorly executed and poorly timed - what are people voting for exactly? Without knowing what is coming and how things are going to work, it is asking for blind faith.

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I wasn’t around when land sale was on and to this day I still don’t know exactly how land will work.

Me either! :D

In any collectibles, the faster the releases without substantially new players just devalue and dilute everyone's holdings.

This is one of the problems I see now, where there are too many card releases, too close together.

  • what are people voting for exactly?

People seem to just vote the way that think others are voting, without thinking too much about what it actually means.

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It's all a part of the game and I don't like the idea of making so many tokens as well. It just seems like some of them will be neglected and we haven't seen too much use for VOUCHERs. At least DEC-B will be limited and it's just an alternative for DEC so I don't think it's too confusing.

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There are too many and more tokens on the way.

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Personally I voted down the DEC-B it felt like a cheap shot that wasn't needed and instead work should have instead been focused on how to bring value to the game that people would want to use and burn their DEC and help increase the price back to a peg of $0.001 to be fair though I don't see how the game is going to be able to hold that peg the tokennomics don't match up at all for that to happen currently.

Outside of that it's only going to get worse when Splinterlands adds in land and has about 9 or so other tradable tokens. I'm hoping its primarily done all internal on the UI with a smart UI layout that makes sense to people instead of telling them to go to hive-engine etc.

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I have no idea what Land is going to do in the ecosystem long-term, but there really needs to be a plan that makes supporting long attractive, rather than always having to release more card packs for income.

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Yeah I don't really get the need for yet another asset in the Splinterlands ecosystem. It certainly seems like a bad move, trying to put lipstick on a pig. With the various pools that are out there like DEC, SPS on the DeFi side now adding another DEC-B shit to it all? Come on! Lol. I'm sadly not too upset that I'm not actively playing the game any longer and with how these things are going, I don't know when I will be playing it again honestly. I'm making more renting all my stuff out and not having the headache than I was playing.

It's definitely a great investment because it leads to many other areas but it's a little tedious at the same time. I guess not everything can be fun all the time!

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I'm making more renting all my stuff out and not having the headache than I was playing.

And this is the other aspect of it - I could do the same, but then I won't be able to take part in the brawls. This isn't a huge loss for the guild I am in though, as there are plenty of great players better than me :) However, I also like collecting the Glad cards, but at some point, they too should be unbound and reward consistent players who earned them, rather than rented, right?

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This game with all these coins is way too complicated for the masses. It will fail.

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Everything fails eventually - hopefully this one has some legs for a while though :)

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I like hbd. And it's definitely better return than my bank XD

I also like my bank for now

I don't think there's much of anything that is widely used that caters exactly to everyone.

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Can't do much in the economy without the bank for now, but perhaps one day, things will get so bad we will be trading animal pelts again!! Lucky us...

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