A new use-case for the Splinterlands Dark Energy Crystals has emerged: The DEC bidbot has been created by @yabapmatt, based on the Postpromoter software, that he has written before Steem Monsters was a thing. It is already working, however not yet integrated into the SteemBotTracker website. This means, we don't have a way to check the current bids of the ongoing round yet.
What is a bidbot?
We are regenerating 20% of our voting power over 24 hours. This means, we can use a 100% upvote every 2.4 hours before the power is back up again. This is exactly what a bidbot incorporates: Every 2.4 hours, all bids are calculated together and get an upvote from the @steemmonsters account. This upvote is based on the percentage of your bid compared to all other bids in that round. Sometimes, this means you get a large upvote for your money and sometimes you get a small one. It is a bit of a gamble and by no means a safe way to make a profit.
DEC Bidbot
To use the DEC bidbot, you will need the Steem Keychain browser extension, to make use of Steem-Engine tokens. This also works via Steampeak.com. First, you will need some Dark Energy Crystals (DEC). You can earn them in by playing Splinterlands battles or buy burning unused cards. Another way is to purchase them on the Steem-Engine market. The minimum amount to send to the bidbot is 100 DEC.
Send any amount larger than 100 DEC to the @splinterlands account (not the @steemmonsters account!). Make sure you have deposited your DEC beforehand into your Steem-Engine. If you use Keychain for the transfer, navigate to your tokens and click on the send button. Enter the user splinterlands into the memo field, without the @-symbol, and press send. Your bid will be registered automatically for the ongoing round. Now you have to wait until the round is over.
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Depending on the other bids, you will then receive an upvote from the @steemmonsters account. It doesn't matter what your post about and doesn't have to be related to Splinterlands or Steem. Make sure to avoid upvoting spam posts or you might get banned.
Earn DEC through delegating Steem Power
You can delegate your Steem Power to @steemmonsters, for which you will receive a daily payout of the DEC profit from the bot. Since the return depends on the amount of DEC spent on that day to the bot, your income can vary wildly. However, you will get a bonus amount of DEC from the Splinterlands team, who share their own percentage with the community. This might change over time, so keep an eye on the @steemmonsters announcements.
Conclusion
The new bidbot is another element of giving value to Dark Energy Crystals. Furthermore, it is a great tool to get cheap upvotes and make a profit with that. So far, it has been very profitable to use the bot but this might change with a growing userbase. It is still way too early to tell and probably the best moment to use the bot is now.
You can even combine it with the service from @likwid and receive 98.5% of your post payout in liquid assets. With this post I will try to combine both services. I'll keep you posted.