Hello Steemit,
It's my pleasure to introduce @jackbot, a bot you hopefully won't hate, along with the 12-hour jackpot draws he manages.
What?
Every 12 hours, @jackbot posts an AutoJackpot thread. After 12 hours, at the end of the round, all the SBD payout from the upvotes will be transferred to one randomly selected upvoter.
Every upvoter has an equal chance to win, regardless of their voting power, Steem Power, or the timing of the upvote (as long as it happens within the 12 hours each thread is valid).
Why?
First of all, the distribution of tokens on steem seems very uneven at this point. There are a lot of people holding very few tokens and only a few holding a lot of tokens. Since every upvoter has an equal chance of winning here, going by the numbers, the most likely winners are people with very few tokens, who could probably use the little boost, given how hard it is to get noticed here when you have nothing. Participants can also gain a little curation reward in the process. You could say it's an attempt to nudge the token distribution towards a more balanced state.
Secondly, gambling is fun. Especially if the entry costs nothing but an upvote. It adds a little excitement, hope and unexpected rewards for a lucky few.
What about the Steem Power payout rewards?
Since Steem Power cannot be immediately transferred to the winners, for now, any Steem Power accumulated in the account will be used to fuel future prize pools by automatically self-upvoting the AutoJackpot threads. As the blockchain holds the history of the draws forever, later on we may decide to power down any accumulated SP and distribute it to previous winners or participants.
Closing thoughts
Personally, I consider this beneficial to the community. If you have a different opinion or ideas for improvement, please let me know, I'm open to discussion.
Also, please note, @jackbot is still very new at this and while he seems to be doing a good job, any unexpected hiccups will be corrected by hand.
Good luck!