Good morning Splinterfriends and Hivians!
I am excited to write this piece today because the "KE Ratio" is a REALLY SIMPLE buy very important Metric that anyone can use to understand how their actions impact the Hive Blockchain/Ecosystem 😊
Now... I know what you're thinking... "Ooooooookay... but why should I care and how does this affect me".
I know it may seem daunting but by the end of this, my goal is explain this in such a way that anyone will be able to understand it, implement it and set goals that align with their vision/plan!
It may seem challenging at first... but let us begin - by the end, you'll be a PRO, I promise :)
Step 1: What the heck is a "KE Ratio"?!?
I suppose understanding a term is always the first step in being able to implement and use it... right? Seems fairly logical to me!
The technical definition of the "KE Ratio" is your... you know what... I'm just going to call it your KE from now on - all that extra typing is a pain.
Errhem... as I was saying...
The technical definition and measurement of your KE is: "(Author Rewards + Curation Rewards)/Hive Power"
Yup. Told ya. Really simple... but what does that mean?? What can one use that for?? What can you infer at a glance from this number? How is it important???
Woah woah woah... easy with the flood of questions!
Ok let's do this one at a time...
What does this KE mean? Simple... it allows you to see at a glance, if you (or anyone) is keeping their rewards on the Hive Blockchain or pulling them out.
What can one use it for? It could be used as a starting point to determine if the account in question appears to be investing some of their rewards for the long term... or if they are using Hive as a way to make a few bucks.
What can you infer? Again, it is a great starting point for someone if they were curious as to how they look in others eyes or if you are curious whether or not someone is putting into or pulling out of the Hive Ecosystem.
The more extreme the KE the easier and more confident one can be about the inferred conclusion:
A really low KE like .1 or something means that account is investing almost everything they earn back into the Hive Blockchain by Powering it up or taking all the Rewards as Hive Power (HP). There might be some other reasons one has a low KE... but if there are... there won't be many and I can't think of them offhand.
A really high KE of 14 or 20 or more means the account in question has not kept much Hive Power compared to their Rewards... which means they are probably not interested in the Hive Blockchain long term... they have taken their Rewards and either exported them to and Exchange like Binance or they have converted them to other Hive Assets like Splinterlands, dCrops, Holozing, Moonkarts, etc...
Again - this is a STARTING POINT... not a "tell all, be all"...
Finally... I know you're all thinking "Cap'n... Why on Earth is this IMPORTANT??"...
Excellent question and for the answer, we must think about how we are perceived on Hive and what we want from Hive...
Step 2: The Importance of KE
What do most people want, when creating content on Hive?? I would say, most people want their content to be enjoyed... appreciated... at the very least: read.
Second to that... most people probably want an Upvote! This isn't a bad thing, I mean the whole system is geared around rewarding people for creating content...
You create... you can earn rewards!
You like what people create... you give rewards... and you can earn rewards!
But... what kind of Upvote do you want?
Account X: .001 or Account Y: 6.83 or even Account Z: 37.23
Let's be REALLY honest with ourselves and with all the other folks here on Hive... Getting a MONSTER Upvote is AWESOME.
It's ok, we're all adults, we're not here to kink shame... or... whatever that term would be... 😶
But lets think about what the "Monster Upvote" actually IS... The accounts that can press the <3 and throw down 10, 20, 30, 40 or more dollars with A SINGLE UPVOTE...
HAVE A HUGE STAKE IN THE HIVE BLOCKCHAIN
This means, they BELIEVE in it... they've been here awhile or they've thrown TONS of money at it... either way... they're in it for the long haul... and if they see some content they like... they might click that upvote...
But... what if the account in question, routinely removes all their rewards and never keeps anything... by upvoting the content... the Whale can typically guess that most (if not all) of those Rewards are going BYE BYE... This is not beneficial to the Whale or to Hive...
If they know the account keeps/powers up a lot of Rewards... they may be more inclined to award them an Upvote!
In the end... a persons Rewards are theirs - they can do whatever they want with them!!
But also... a persons Upvote is their choice... and they can upvote content/accounts they see fit and align with their vision...
Just because you... or I... publish content... doesn't mean it will or SHOULD... receive an upvote. To receive an upvote, especially one from a whale... it must be worth something... which is COMPLETELY subjective...
Knowledge, humor, compassion, etc - these all have different values, at different times, to different people...
People will be people... but if a Whale is going to upvote some content... my guess is... they're going to upvote content they like... and give bigger upvotes to those who are likely to keep it around Hive...
Step 3: How can KE be useful?
While KE is definitely not the only important thing... it can be very useful when considering whether or not to upvote something...
But for me, one of the most useful ways to use KE is when an account participates in a contest...
"Enter X Contest, Perform Y Task, Earn Upvotes!"
There will be plenty of participating accounts... so which ones should the Community Team focus on?
Well... if you had two people and had to pick one to vote on...
Would you pick someone who has never invested in your project or the blockchain that it is built on...
Or...
Someone who invests/reinvests some of their Rewards into the community?
I would be more inclined to vote for someone who actively wants to be a part of that community... and I am sure you would too...
This is where KE will shine, in my opinion... being able to, at a glance have a really good idea of where those Rewards will go... can and should be a factor in whether or not they receive an upvote... and if they do... is it 100%? 80%? 10%?
There is a big difference between someone with a KE of 1.5 vs someone with 15.
Look at this article by Azircon:
It does a wonderful job at highlighting some use-cases for this new metric.
Huge props to 
I think we just scratched the surface with this and it may change how people think about Hive and the power of it :)
KE Target?
As Azircon wrote, anywhere between 1 - 3 seemed to be a good KE Target and just shooting from the hip, let me tell you why I think 2 is probably the easiest/best # to aim for...
A KE of 2 means you took 50% of your earnings and Staked them... and did whatever you wanted with the other 50%...
That seems like a great balance of "I reinvested in this Blockchain because I think it is awesome" and "I earned some Crypto... time to cash it out on hookers n blow like I'm the Shamwow guy or RDJ"....
So why did I pick 2 as the easiest/best... because I. AM. LAZY.
Yeah that's right! Lazy.
Guess what the "Default" setting is on your Author Rewards... Yup... You nailed it...
If you decided you wanted to aim for "2" as your KE Target... just set all your posts to the default 50% HBD and 50% HP Payout... and then do what you want with the HBD!!
That's it. That's all ya gotta do!! The HP is 50% of your earnings... and since 50% is powered up... even if you sent ALL of the HBD to Binance... you'd never go above a KE of 2!!
YES!! IT'S THAT SIMPLE!!!
A quick example, in closing
Now... if you want to see what a person with an "Investor Mindset" looks like, let's take a peek at my KE.
https://beebalanced.streamlit.app/#8b126a93
That's right - a KE of .29! I have taken some of my Rewards in HBD and used that for things like DEC and other tokens... but I have also actively invested FIAT into Hive as well!
I set a goal of 10k HP in 2024... and I hit it! 2025, I want to double that... but need to be mindful of the Bull and not buy into any pumps!
Now, let's peep at another account... one of the accounts that caused me to write my previous article:
Splinterlands Hive Resource Extraction
Are you ready for the real utility of checking an accounts KE? Be ready... but you tell me... "Does this person want to build on/with Hive... or take from Hive?"...
They have earned... 50,000 Hive since they created their account in February of 2020... and how much HP do they have???
1,699... because they're mid unstake... but once that's done... they'll probably power this down too...
What's their HBD?? $13.30...
Of 50k+ Hive earned... they have almost nothing to show for it... and yup... they have a KE of 29.6!!
But you will find their entries every week into various contests around Hive... and while their rewards are 100% theirs to do whatever they want with...
I would encourage all Communities to start suggesting saving 10%, 25%... 50% of their rewards... and just like the Participants of these Contests can do whatever they want with the Rewards...
The Curators can VOTE for WHOMEVER they want... and perhaps take KE into consideration, when choosing who to vote for.
That's all I have for you today folks!! Thank you for reading and I would LOVE for you to join me in game!!
Naturally, after everything leading up to this moment, I do think Splinterlands and Soulkeep are some of the BEST web3 games out there!
They bring the #play2earn feature to the forefront of development as well as many opportunities for people to earn rewards - whether Player or Investor!!
If you're interested in the future of gaming, it's worth checking out!
You can sign up here: Splinterlands
Cheers 🍻,
#Splinterlands #Hive #Soulkeep #play2earn #web3 #NFTGaming #Rebellion #Conflicts #TowerDefense
