<hr>
## Convergent linear reward
<div class="text-justify">
In Steem blockchain, when it started back in 2016, the reward curve was quadratic, later it was changed to linear in the year 2017. Both types of reward curves have their advantages and disadvantages.
With a quadratic curve, for the higher stake, higher was the reward, so it prompted the users in Steem to stake as much as they can. Staking STEEM is good for the ecosystem. But the quadratic reward was never a motivation for the middle-class people in Steem.
With the linear reward, it was uniform for all and proportionally the same reward with respect to the SP value. If with 1000 SP one was getting X amount of upvote value then with 5000 SP the upvote worth was 5X. So it was linear. But the linear curve also prompted people to self upvote and earn their respective pie from the reward pool and people were less interested in curating other's posts. So the curation was very poor.
In a community like Steem which is a social blogging platform, ideologically the mechanism and algorithm must empower and encourage curation & engagement with quality posts, in a decentralized environment where the users of the community are free to exercise their powers(SP) to value the content. But in the evolution of Steem in the context of the reward curve from quadratic to linear, was not serving the purpose of the blogging platform.
##### So the problem interface in front of Steem was:
* The number of parallel posts were increasing due to very little engagement between the users in the community.
* The reward pool was abused with self upvote and bot use(due to linear reward curve)
<em>So the solution needed was to make the users curate others so that the number of parallel posts will convert into a web of interconnected posts. A web of interconnected posts will make the content discovery better. The algorithm must also be programmed in such a way that the users of the community can find a better incentive in curating others than self upvoting.</em>
If we take the advantageous aspects of the quadratic and linear curve and forge a new reward curve for Steem, then it will be a convergent linear reward curve. With a convergent linear reward curve, Steem as a social blogging platform can better train the curating habits of the users in this community.
The reward curve in Steem has already changed to a convergent linear reward curve post HF21, August, 2019.
The data based on which the above graph is plotted is attached below.
<sub>The reward for different SP weight is calculated from: https://steemnow.com/upvotecalc.html</sub>
The curators can still leverage on the linear reward curve, if they curate a truly good piece of content, if they curate popular content. The argument is that the popular content will receive more upvotes, so the net SP weight on a post is likely to be more; when the net SP weight becomes equal to or greater than 1 million SP, then the reward will be linear. So an author can leverage on a linear reward curve by producing quality content and the curators can leverage on the linear reward by curating the best content whose probability is always high to get support from the community.
On the other hand, the poor quality to average quality content is likely to remain in the sub-linear zone which will not get attention from the community. The self upvote will not fetch incentive either as compared to curating a popular content of the trending page. So the types of content which will remain in the sub-linear zone are mostly poor to average quality content, self-upvoted content, etc. It has also the risk of getting downvotes from the community. So a curator will never be interested in curating such a piece of content.
##### So the implications of convergent linear reward are:
* Most of the reward goes to the quality bloggers(Best objective of the reward pool).
* The curation will be better. So the users will remain intact with the web of interconnected posts.
* The author will try to write quality posts and the curators will look for quality posts. When both of them converge, the reward curve will incline to become linear. So the objective of better economic incentives and quality blogging both can go hand in hand.
#### Conclusion
The trending page of Steem with convergent linear reward has significantly improved now. The self upvotes are down as there is less economic incentive in doing so as compared to curating other popular posts. The curation is rewarding if a user chooses to curate quality content & popular content.
</div class="text-justify">
<hr>
<center><em>Cross-posting this content in other social media for more visibility and to create awareness about #newsteem</em></center>
<hr>
<center><em>Except the STEEM logo, all the images & illustrations are my own original works.</em></center>
<hr>
#### Shared in other social media
* Quora- https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-linear-reward-convergent-linear-reward-How-does-the-convergent-linear-reward-affect-a-post-payout-in-Steem/answer/Milaan-Bilas
* Twitter- https://twitter.com/Milaan88778502/status/1204680337441402880
hiveblocks