Addressing Resource Extraction and Curation Challenges in Splinterlands Contests

Today, I read a compelling blog post by @captaindingus titled: "A sad realization about Splinterlands Hive Resource Extraction :(". In this post, captaindingus highlights a significant issue within the Splinterlands ecosystem—resource extraction—and raises concerns about the weekly contests hosted by Splinterlands, particularly the Splinterlands Art Contest. Additionally, these contests have brought unintended consequences to Hive's curation ecosystem, as discussed in a post by @Acidyo titled "The Cost of Negligence".

While these challenges are undeniable, they also present an opportunity for constructive discussion and improvement. Below, I’ll summarize the issues and suggest practical solutions that can help enhance the sustainability and fairness of these contests for both the Splinterlands and Hive communities.

Issue 1: Resource Extraction in Contests

The first issue raised is resource extraction. Weekly Splinterlands contests, such as the Art Contest, reward winners with Hive upvotes and Rebellion packs. However, it appears that some frequent winners are using the system solely to extract rewards without contributing back to the ecosystem. These individuals:

1. Never power up their Hive earnings.
2. Send their earnings to exchanges like Binance.
3. Don’t own Spellbooks, yet continue to win valuable prizes such as Rebellion packs.

This behavior undermines the spirit of fostering community growth and long-term engagement within the Hive ecosystem.

Issue 2: Inefficient / Unfair Curation Rewards

The second problem involves curation inefficiencies. Due to Hive’s curation mechanics, Splinterlands’ contests create an opening for users to “front-run” the Splinterlands curation team. When posts are upvoted by others before Splinterlands curators, it reduces the overall curation efficiency for Splinterlands. This issue is exacerbated when a Hive whale votes before Splinterlands, leading to potential downvotes from another whale and causing collateral damage to authors caught in the crossfire.

Currently, Splinterlands’ curation efficiency averages around 71%, with occasional dips as low as 17%. This inefficiency results in substantial missed rewards. For example, in the past 30 days, Splinterlands earned 5,700 Hive from curation, but optimized voting could have doubled these rewards, equating to over $2,500 at current Hive prices.

Here is a screenshot of the least efficient Splinterlands curation rewards in the last seven days:

You can Dig into Details HERE

Proposed Solutions

While these issues are complex, there are actionable steps that can be taken to address them. Below are my suggestions for improving both the resource extraction problem and the curation inefficiencies:

Addressing Resource Extraction

1. Introduce Staking Requirements:
   Contest participants should be required to power up at least 50% of their Hive earnings from contests. This ensures that rewards contribute to strengthening the Hive ecosystem.
2. Penalty for Full Power Downs:
   Accounts that consistently power down all their Hive earnings could have their upvote rewards reduced—e.g., from the usual range of 10% - 50% to 5% or lower. Splinterlands curators could leave comments explaining the reason for the reward reduction, encouraging participants to adjust their behavior.
3. Participation Eligibility:
   Contest rules could require participants to own a Spellbook or meet other minimal engagement criteria. This ensures that rewards are directed to active members of the Splinterlands community.
4. Educational Outreach:
   Educate community members on how Hive’s curation system works and encourage staking HIVE.

Splinterlands curation team always leaves comments on the posts they curate, this is an opportunity to educate authors by encouraging them to stake more HIVE to increase their rewards from contests as well as encourage them to participate more in the ecosystem and earn curation rewards.

Optimizing Curation Rewards

1. Modify Contest Submission Rules:
   Require posts to be submitted to contests no later than one hour after publication on Hive. This gives Splinterlands curators a fair chance to vote before the 24-hour window closes.

2. Set Voting Deadlines for Curators:
   Splinterlands curators should vote on contest entries within 23 hours of submission. While this increases the workload for curators, it could be mitigated by:
   a. Recruiting additional curators from the community.
   b. Implementing tools or automation to streamline the voting process.

3. Incentivize Timely Curation:
   Establish performance metrics for curators to encourage consistent and efficient voting. This could involve tracking curation efficiency and recognizing top-performing curators within the community.

I also decided to see what other curators do efficiency wise. Not that I would say these are perfect but take a look at Curangel

On the last 712 posts curated by them they are over 100% efficiency with the worst efficiency of almost 58%

Curatorhulk: https://hivestats.io/@curatorhulk
Also over 100% looks like some misses but overall is nowhere close to 71% efficiency

Why These Changes Matter

Splinterlands’ weekly contests are a fantastic initiative that brings creativity and engagement to the community. However, without proper safeguards, they risk enabling behaviors that drain resources and reduce the value generated for everyone involved. By implementing the above suggestions, Splinterlands can:

1. Ensure rewards benefit contributors who are genuinely invested in the ecosystem.
2. Optimize curation rewards, bringing more value to the Splinterlands team and community.
3. Foster a culture of long-term engagement and collaboration.

And while the current state of driving away a HIVE whale voting on Splinterlands challenge might be acceptable as the downvotes seem to have stopped, it is far from an optimal solution. One it doesn't solve the problem of Splinterlands account receiving lowered rewards it also potentially drives away any HIVE whales that might want to support Splinterlands related posts not only for the reason of downvotes but also because they will see that the distribution of curation rewards is not fair and is being exploited.

Addressing these challenges requires cooperation between Splinterlands, curators, and participants. While some of the proposed changes may introduce additional rules and responsibilities, the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term inconveniences. Let’s use these issues as an opportunity to strengthen our community and ensure that both Splinterlands and Hive thrive together.

We are on HIVE social network and as @azircon put it recently we should talk and engage:

If you wonder what is the best way to get involved in Splinterlands and Hive eco system you can use my link to begin your Splinterlands and HIVE journey.