The Hive blockchain is the result of intelligent work and pragmatism. It just seems as though, everything has been planned from the ground up. One of these interesting designs on the Hive Blockchain is the provision for delegation.
Why should you be interested in delegations? How does it concern you?
For both new and old users on the blockchain, there is definitely something interesting to be learnt about delegation. So, in this #HLIB episode, I will be exploring in-depth the concept of delegation and how to make the most of it.
So, in this edition, we will be covering the following:
- What is delegation on Hive?
- What relationship exists between delegation and Resource credit (RC)?
- How do you delegate?
- Why should you delegate? and to who?
- What are the downsides to delegating?
Before further ado, let's get started!
What is Delegation on Hive?
To get a more clearer definition/explanation of the concept of Delegation on the Hive blockchain, let's refer back again to the Hive Blockchain's Whitepaper.
According to the Hive Whitepaper, delegation is the temporary lending of one's Hive power to another user.
When you perform delegation, you are in essence giving off your Hive Power, in essence, your staked Hive tokens for the benefit of the recipient. It is important to note that delegation is not the same as borrowing.
Whenever you delegate to a user, you have full control of the delegation, the user will definitely enjoy the benefits that come with delegations, but does not have the delegated Hive Power count along with their Hive power, thus, you do not lose Hive power following a delegation.
You can look at delegation as sharing a pen with a person, but this pen is tied firmly to your arms and you can retract it whenever you want. It could as be seen as sharing a piece of painting with someone for a photoshoot (as shown below), they enjoy the benefit of being considered owners, even if they are not:
What relationship exists between delegation and Resource credit (RC)?
What do you give when you delegate? The long and short of it is that you are sharing Hive Power whenever you delegate, and Hive Power is akin to your Resource Credits.
To appreciate this relationship the more, let's go back to the Hive Whitepaper:
Each Hive account holds a given amount of credits related to its stake. Those credits are then consumed when transactions are executed on the blockchain and automatically recovered with time. The amount of Hive Power attached to a given account determines its level of stake and allows for the calculation of the associated bandwidth.
... delegated HP raises the recipient account’s Resource Credits for the duration of the delegation but does not augment their own pre-existing stake in regards to governance-level impact.
What does this tell you? In simple terms, everything you do on the Hive blockchain is a taxable transaction that on other blockchains we could pay transaction fees.
Yea everything! This includes posts, comments, editing your profile, upvoting and downvoting, transferring Hives, and even claiming rewards. In fact, you can find a log of all transactions on the Hive's blockchain explorer.
Simply search your username to reveal a log of all recent activities on the blockchain.
Based on the foregoing, it could be concluded that receiving a delegation will increase one's resource credits, while delegating to other users will reduce one's resource credits.
So with more delegations come more activities on the blockchain as a result of more resource credits and in effect more voting power, which could effectively translate to higher curation rewards.
How do you delegate?
The wallet section of most frontends directly enables you to make delegations. It is as simple as the transfer of Hive.
First, make sure you are logged in with your active key, or import your active key to the keychain extension/app/Hivesigner as your posting key may not enable you to perform a delegation.
Next, simply input the recipient's username, and the amount of Hive Power you intend to delegate in figures.
Hive.blog
Ecency
PeakD
You can also make and manage delegations through Hivestats.io, Hivetasks.com, as well as through other DApps.
Only input your keys into a Dapp you trust.
Interestingly, you can also make delegations with second layer tokens as well.
Why should you delegate? and to who?
While there could be numerous reasons to make a delegation, I want to sum up this up into two basic reasons:
- Delegation to support a user
- Delegation to earn
Delegation to Support a User
This is usually the case when a new user is onboarded into the blockchain. One way to support them is to make them a delegation to help boost their resource credits so that they can engage more on the blockchain.
Most of us - newbies, enjoyed these delegations and we are forever grateful to our delegators.
Delegation to Earn
This is another important aspect of delegation you need to be aware of. To begin, how much Hive Power do you need to have sufficient resource credits and a good refill rate to be able to engage comfortably on the Hive blockchain?
From my experience, having 200-300HP is sufficient for most persons that have a moderate level of engagement. So, what if you have more than 200HP? Then, after doing your due diligence, it may be best to put your money to work; and that is where delegating to earn comes in.
Delegation could be considered a form of passive investment on the Hive blockchain. There are myriads of accounts/projects who can receive your delegations and pay you back in Hive. You just have to make the delegations and nothing else.
I have managed to crawl the Hive blockchain and found articles containing who these users/projects are. Here are some:
| S/N | Delegator | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | @leo.voter | Leo token every 24 hours at 16% APR |
| 2 | @ecency | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation (could get as high as 33% APR) + Ecency points |
| 3 | @indiaunited | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation |
| 4 | @hodlcommunity | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation + upvotes and making it to their curation list (the later not guaranteed) |
| 5 | @qurator | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 6 | @tipu | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 7 | @bdvoter | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 8 | @upmewhale | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 9 | @curangel | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 10 | @project.hope | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 11 | @ocdb | Daily Hive/HBD and @reward.app rewards commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 12 | @hivehustlers | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 13 | @diyhub | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 14 | @crossculture | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 15 | @ctpsb | CTP token |
| 16 | @actifit | AFIT and Hive |
| 17 | @naturalmedicine | Native token |
| 18 | @Hiveupme | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned + Mentor votes + Token rewards |
| 19 | @appreciator | Daily Hive commensurate to your delegation & their curation rewards earned |
| 20 | @monster-curator | SPTs token used in Splinterlands |
| 21 | @brofi | BRO tokens |
You can also do more with your delegations by visiting https://hive.dlease.io/market, here you will find accounts where you can delegate HPs for a specific length of time and receive Hive in return.
Note that all users/projects receiving your delegations are unique, so do your due diligence before deligating.
But why do these accounts need your delegations?
According to @Leofinance in this article:
Having more HIVE POWER in @leo.voter means:
More scalability for LeoFinance signups (account creation tokens generated per day)
More HP to delegate to new users (derived from curation rewards and delegated out to signups for resource credits)
Higher rewards for our existing community (larger HIVE-based upvotes)
Different users/projects may have different agenda for recieving delegations, however, the basic idea remains the same, more delegations equals more HP and if utilized properly, more curation rewards, which they could in turn use in paying investors, i.e. the delegators.
What are the downsides to delegating?
The main downside to delegating is that you lose resource credits and your resource credits refills slowly.
The more HP, the slower your resource credit burn rate and faster the refill rate. So, reducing your HP through delegations effectively affects your resource credits adversely.
This is not a problem if your engagement level and activities are not so high on the blockchain.
But for most #newbies, I will recommend holding off from making a delegation till you have sufficient HP to fund your Hive Lifestyle as well as support a delegation.
Remember, your delegated HP remains your property, so, there is no need to fear that you will in any way, lose your HP through the process of delegation.
Could there be other risks? Feel free to comment on them.
Final Words and Outlook
So far, we have explored deeply the concept of delegation and different reasons why making a delegation could make a whole lot of sense. As always, make a well-calculated decision on who/what project/user to delegate to, do further research and put your HP to work.
In the next #HLIP episode, our focus will be solely on the curation trail. We hoped to cover the curation trail along with delegations for this edition but, delegation alone is a very extensive subject. I hope that with the next episode, you will be able to decide whether or not you should join a curation trail.
PREVIOUS CONTENTS
- Qui vivra verra - Announcement Post
- Curation on Hive: The Length and Breadth
- Rewards on Hive: All You Need to Know
Your feedback is appreciated. Is there something I haven't said correctly? Is there an addition you feel is important? Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment below.
Please, tag your friends to be part of this series. Hopefully, there will be an #HLIB episode weekly.