<center>![steem-python.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1515886103/kmzfcpvtzuwhvqhgpyjp.png)</center>

This tutorial is part of a series where we explain different aspects of programming with `steem-python`. Links to the other tutorials can be found in the curriculum section below. Today we will learn how to calculate the rewards of a post!

---

#### What will I learn

- What the reward fund looks like
- How to calculate a post's reward share
- How to calculate a posts actual reward

#### Requirements

- Python3.6
- `steem-python`

#### Difficulty

- Basic

---

### Tutorial
#### The reward fund
The way rewards are distributed on Steemit is by calculating the total reward shares of a post and using this to calculate how much a post should be rewarded. To find out all this information `steem-python` provides a very handy function called `get_reward_fund()` which gives us the following information

```
{
  "id": 0,
  "name": "post",
  "reward_balance": "717950.323 STEEM",
  "recent_claims": "373489696650140999",
  "last_update": "2018-01-20T15:33:27",
  "content_constant": "2000000000000",
  "percent_curation_rewards": 2500,
  "percent_content_rewards": 10000,
  "author_reward_curve": "linear",
  "curation_reward_curve": "square_root"
}
```

were we can see some useful information. Here `reward_balance` is the total reward pool and `recent_claims` is the amount of recent claims. We can use this to calculate how much one share of the reward balance is worth, like so

```
from steem import Steem
from steem.amount import Amount

steem = Steem()
reward_fund = steem.get_reward_fund()
reward_balance = Amount(reward_fund["reward_balance"]).amount
recent_claims = float(reward_fund["recent_claims"])
reward_share = reward_balance / recent_claims
print(f"One reward share is currently worth: {reward_share}")
```

where we use `Amount` to automatically convert `707222.264 STEEM` to an actual number. This code outputs the following:

```
One reward share is currently worth: 1.922662039408618e-12
```
This currently doesn't mean that much to us, but in the next section it will become clear what we can use this for.

#### Calculating reward shares of a post
To calculate the total reward shares of a post we need to look at all the total reward shares of the votes on that post. You should recall that in [part 2](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-2-how-to-stream-and-filter-the-blockchain-using-steem-python) of this tutorial series we looked at what a post actually looks like. A post contains a list called `active_votes` with all the currently active votes on it, which all look something like this

```
{
    "voter": "juliank",
    "weight": 203149,
    "rshares": "130300902876",
    "percent": 1000,
    "reputation": "65384949253746",
    "time": "2018-01-12T17:27:42"
}
```
As you can see each vote in `active_votes` has an attribute called "rshares". We can use this to calculate the total reward shares, or `rshares`, of a post with the following code

```
post = Post("@steempytutorials/part-8-how-to-create-your-own-upvote-bot-using-steem-python")

total_rshares = 0
for vote in post["active_votes"]:
    total_rshares += float(vote["rshares"])

print(f"The total reward shares of this post are: {total_rshares:.2f}")
```

which currently gives the following output

```
The total reward shares of this post are: 1734177616928.00
```

#### Calculating the actual reward of a post
Now we have the total reward shares of a post we should be able to simply multiply it with how much one reward share is worth, right? Let's see what this gives us

```
print(f"The post is worth ${total_rshares * reward_share:.2f}")
```
which outputs

```
The post is worth $3.33
```

Wait a minute... that doesn't seem right. Checking the post on Steemit shows a completely different value, so what's going wrong? The problem is that we still need to multiply this with the average STEEM/SBD price to get the actual value of the post. Thankfully we can find out this price by using the `get_current_median_history_price()` function. This currently returns something like this:

```
{
  "base": "4.323 SBD",
  "quote": "1.000 STEEM"
}
```
The base price is what we need! We can simply take this and then multiply it with our total reward shares to get the actual reward of the post

```
base = Amount(steem.get_current_median_history_price()["base"]).amount
print(f"The post is actually worth ${total_rshares * reward_share * base:.2f}")
```
which outputs

```
The post is actually worth $14.42
```

Indeed, going to the post on Steemit shows that this is (roughly) the correct reward! **Congratulations**, you now know how to calculate the rewards of a post using `steem-python`!

<center>![total_rewards.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1516462339/vbh9oswhsb2bir5ytkbt.png)
</center>

#### Curriculum
- [Part 0: How To Install Steem-python, The Official Steem Library For Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@amosbastian/how-to-install-steem-python-the-official-steem-library-for-python)
- [Part 1: How To Configure The Steempy CLI Wallet And Upvote An Article With Steem-Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-1-how-to-configure-the-steempy-cli-wallet-and-upvote-an-article-with-steem-python)
- [Part 2: How To Stream And Filter The Blockchain Using Steem-Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-2-how-to-stream-and-filter-the-blockchain-using-steem-python)
- [Part 3: Creating A Dynamic Autovoter That Runs 24/7](https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-3-creating-a-dynamic-upvote-bot-that-runs-24-7-first-weekly-challenge-3-steem-prize-pool)
- [Part 4: How To Follow A Voting Trail Using Steem-Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-4-how-to-follow-a-voting-trail-using-steem-python)
- [Part 5: Post An Article Directly To The Steem Blockchain And Automatically Buy Upvotes From Upvote Bots](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-5-post-an-article-directly-to-the-steem-blockchain-and-automatically-buy-upvotes-from-upvote-bots)
- [Part 6: How To Automatically Reply To Mentions Using Steem-Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-6-how-to-automatically-reply-to-mentions-using-steem-python)
- [Part 7: How To Schedule Posts And Manually Upvote Posts For A Variable Voting Weight With Steem-Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-7-how-to-schedule-posts-and-manually-upvote-posts-for-a-variable-voting-weight-with-steem-python)
- [Part 8: How To Create Your Own Upvote Bot Using Steem-Python](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/part-8-how-to-create-your-own-upvote-bot-using-steem-python)

---

The code for this tutorial can be found on [GitHub](https://github.com/amosbastian/steempy-tutorials/blob/master/part_10/post_reward.py)!

This tutorial was written by @amosbastian in conjunction with @juliank.

<br /><hr/><em>Posted on <a href="https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@steempytutorials/how-to-calculate-a-post-s-total-rewards-using-steem-python">Utopian.io -  Rewarding Open Source Contributors</a></em><hr/>