30 Mar Symbol blockchain news update – 30/03/22
I said that I wasn’t going to write anything today but my blog day off was ruined by Hatchet’s temporary return from Twitter silence 😂 I am taking a break tomorrow even if Symbol partners with Apple and Elon Musk starts 1,000 nodes. So I said that Hatchet had returned and she did so in style with multiple Twitter threads. Basically go read them all for yourselves and if you are interested then you can read my general rambling commentaries on them too 😁
Aiming high
This was a really interesting post from Tresto. Apparently the average Symbol harvesting account has a balance of 228,000 XYM. This is more symbolic for our Japanese readers but for your average harvester to reach a balance of ¥100 million ($821,217), 1 XYM would need to be worth ¥438 ($3.60). If this were the case then we would currently have to sit at 12th position in CoinMarketCap in between Polkadot and Dogecoin.
We currently have a mountain to climb and this would require a 2,450% price increase. Definitely doable in the longer-term but maybe not going to happen overnight. I guess this is crypto though so I’m not going to rule anything out. Would be quite happy if I woke up and could pay off my mortgage in the morning. Until then I am going to set my default currency on my portfolio app to JPY and pretend that I am an actual millionaire 😁
Harvesting changes on the horizon?
There has been a lot of talk about harvesting recently especially on the topic of wealth distribution of nodes. We know already that some nodes are huge and have tens of millions of XYM delegating to them, whereas others have little or even no harvesters. Without having some kind of financial incentive that will cover the node running costs it might be difficult to maintain the number of nodes on the network. It seems to me that there is some kind of equilibrium going on, when harvesting was easier and in the (few 😆) periods where XYM was worth more in dollar terms the number of nodes appeared to be higher. As price dropped and the combined importance of accounts increased (meaning harvests were less plentiful) the number of nodes would drop. Maybe this was just me misremembering, I really should get hold of some data and look to see if there is a correlation here – future blog post maybe if I ever get any time to properly research an article 😁
Anyway, it looks like changes might be afoot and harvesting might get an overhaul. I am not sure how this will be done exactly but there are some options being considered. It does look like there will be rewards for all validator nodes (voting nodes?) though rather than having a system based solely on probability.
This thread on why PoS is not a good way to start a project is also a must read and maybe highlights some of the issues that we are currently facing.
Symbol 2.0 (the working title of the network including subChains) may look very different..
Make hay while the sun shines
Or maybe this should be make hay while it rains? As depressing as it can sometimes be to see your holdings crash by thousands in a few days if you are harvesting then your XYM holdings will only keep increasing. Hold onto them and when the next wave of market euphoria hits you will be significantly better off that you are now. I think I am a lot thicker skinned than when I first got into crypto, we all know that this is not a safe game to play and if you are risk averse then you are in the wrong place. Take the rough with the smooth and hold on tight.
Once I have enough to retire (it will take more than a 2,450% rise 😭) then I will definitely sell a chunk of XYM, obviously the blog will continue, it will just become my job rather than a hobby. If it hits Hatchet’s hard mode target then I will be writing this blog from a tropical beach somewhere sipping cocktails – I can dream.. 😁
Give us the right to vote
Many (most?) people would agree that the bar is set far too high for voting nodes. I would love to see this limit lowered. Unless you are super rich or were lucky enough to be an original NEM stakeholder the chances that you will be able to top up your wallet to meet the 3,000,000 XYM requirement for a voting node is slim. I would love to see this requirement lowered to 300,000 XYM, don’t get me wrong, this is still a serious amount of money but it does put it within the reaches of many of us mortals. Making the system less elitist is definitely a good thing in my book. Very much looking forward to the 10K XEM supernodes which I believe will be coming soon too!
A handbook of disaster
Want to know what the Foundation stood for, what they were passionate about, what they were working hard to achieve? Here are some excerpts from their FAQ!
As you would expect there’s lots of hot air and talk of making lots of money (which I think was the obsession of past management). However, I was especially shocked by this line:
Who the fuck wrote this? 😬 Why would you write this? What were they thinking? Wow, just wow. The only thing that maybe I can think of is that this FAQ was written in response to community questions and some misguided person asked it so they responded to something that really didn’t need to be dignified with an answer.
The best coin collection ever?
Love this – nononon has a pretty sweet collection of Symbol and NEM coins here and is looking to expand with the new release from @sakamotometal – I also want one to go with my blue Symbol coin, damn you international shipping charges 😬
Bidding is live
I think I wrote about this the other day and as I remember I said that I would share the link to the COMSA auction once it was listed. I have kept to my word – good luck if you are bidding!
Thanks!
With that I will finish, I have 10 minutes to publish this and tweet about it before I need to get to the nursery to pick up my son so apologies for typos – will fix them later!
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I’m a Symbol and NEM enthusiast and run this blog to try to grow awareness of the platform in the English-speaking world. If you have any Symbol news you would like me to report on or you have an article that you would like to publish then please let me know!
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