I have written this pots in order to bring a better understanding on what Vests and Hive Power represent on the Hive blockchain and also provide some math upon that. First of all you should know that Vests and Hive Power represent the same thing on the Hive blockchain. Vests is simply the unit of measurement used to represent a user's stake in the Hive network. When a user receives rewards on the Hive blockchain, those rewards are distributed in the form of Vests, which can then be converted to Hive Power for 1:1 approximation to Hive.
Image source: Hive: A Complete Beginner's Guide
Hive Power is the actual amount of governance influence and voting power that a user has on the Hive network. Holding Hive Power allows users to participate in the governance of the network, earn rewards for curating content, and earn passive interest on their holdings which is coming from inflation. While Vests and Hive Power are technically different in terms of their measurement and representation, they both refer to the same underlying concept of a user's stake in the Hive network.
To try to bring some clarity on the Vests and Hive Power weight, I will bring some math into the equation. Basically we have the following concepts and let's try to see the relation between them.
- 1 Hive = 1 Hive Power
- 1 Hive Power = ? Vests
The formula for HP:Vests ration is the following Hive Power = Vests * (total_vesting_fund_hive / total_vesting_shares). We can get the needed parameter values (total_vesting_fund_hive and total_vesting_shares) from the HIVE REST API (https://developers.hive.io/apidefinitions/#condenser_api.get_dynamic_global_properties).
Hive Power = Vests * (total_vesting_fund_hive / total_vesting_shares)
Hive Power = Vests * (166,642,985.381 / 297,132,175,267.497)
1 Hive Power = 1,783.046 Vests
If we take for example my account @behiver we can apply the following math:
- 1 Hive Power = 1,783.046 Vests
- Vesting shares = 55,267,941.543357 VESTS
- 30,996.36327 Hive Power = 55,267,941.543357 VESTS
And if we look to the picture above we can see that the math aligns with this conversion ratio and in my wallet I can see that I am currently holding 30,996.364 Hive Power (which would be the correspondent of 55,267,941.543357 VESTS).
Why is this important to know? Well, just because the measurement unit is Vests while we are all accustomed with Hive Power which has the equivalent of 1 Hive when it is unstaked. Before digging a little bit on this I must say that I was quite confused about it as well, but now things make more sense for me. I hope this is useful for others that might had this question or that might have it in the future.