On March 4th, 2023, I announced an experiment of delegation to Ecency to prove that it’s probably the most profitable (in terms of APY) delegations feasible for a newcomer who posts frequently.

Here are the results of this week’s delegation with Ecency, and following this, a legend of the columns used, as well as a bit of analysis of the week:

Legend

Day: well, this one’s pretty self-explanatory. It starts the day after I delegated to Ecency so that there’s at least 24 hours permitted for rewards to kick in. It is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Delegated to Ecency: this is how much total Hive Power (HP) I have delegated to Ecency on the provided day. It is a value used indirectly in the APY calculation.
Average Hive Delegation to Date: this is the average of my delegated Hive Power (HP) to Ecency, current to the provided day. This gives an accurate value of how much delegation has been given over time, inclusive of all rewards (from Ecency Boosts and from other sources, including posts and comments). Since this value shows contributes directly to the rewards I get from Ecency, it is the most accurate value to use in calculating APY. Hence, it is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Reward: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from Ecency delegations on the provided day.
Total Hive Reward: this is how much I have in rewards in HP from Ecency delegations in total, up to the provided day. It is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Earned From Boosts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP due to Ecency boosts on the provided day, including the votes that come as a result of following Ecency’s curation trail (this value is approximate). It’s difficult to calculate earnings from promotions, and will not be included in this calculation.
Total Hive Earned From Boosts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP due to Ecency boosts in total, up to the provided day, including the votes that come as a result of following Ecency’s curation trail (this value is approximate). It is a value used directly in the APY calculation.
Hive Earned From Posts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from posting and is inclusive of boosts and promotions, on the provided day. While I do reinvest this into Ecency delegations, it is NOT included in my APY calculation, as it is not an earning directly due to the delegation.
Total Hive Earned from Posts: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from posting and is inclusive of boosts and promotions, in total, up to the provided day. While I do reinvest this into Ecency delegations, it is NOT included in my APY calculation, as it is not an earning directly due to the delegation.
Other Hive Earned: this is how much I have earned in rewards in HP from other sources (i.e. comments, swing trades, etc.) on the provided day. While I do reinvest this into Ecency delegations, it is NOT included in my APY calculation, as it is not an earning directly due to the delegation. I have also come to realize that this is the most inaccurate and inconsistent column I have – please regard it only as a very, very rough estimate.
Hive Reinvested into Ecency Delegation: this is how much Hive I have reinvested into Ecency delegations on the provided day, and is all-inclusive (since I reinvest earnings from posts, comments, etc.). Its only relevance to the APY calculation is that it brings up my total amount delegated to Ecency. That particular aspect is included in the “Hive Delegated to Ecency” column.
Hive Earned APY To Date: this is the calculated APY based on the “Average Hive Delegation to Date,” “Total Hive reward,” and “Total Hive Earned From Boosts.” This provides a fair calculation of earning which are directly due to Ecency’s rewards (in Hive and boosts), while taking into account the growing delegation and changes in rewards over time. The APY is recorded on a daily basis and will paint a more accurate picture with more time. Some initial values (after the rewards from the initial boosts come in) may be outrageously high due to boosts from preexisting Ecency points (I had >3500, which is equivalent to 23 boosts, or <23 boosts + more promotions); these are accurate values but skewed due to the small time frame. They will become more accurate and reflective of reality over time. There is also a 7 day delay in some earnings, which may further skew the APY. While reinvestments from non-Ecency sources (i.e. posts, comments, trading, etc.) may cause the APY to appear larger, using the “Average Hive Delegation to Date” as a divisor compensates for this effect, thus giving a more accurate APY that’s a result of only Ecency delegation. It is the most fair divisor to use in this calculation because it accounts for changes in delegation over time, is a direct contributor to subsequent delegation rewards, and accounts for reinvested Hive Power only after it has been delegated to Ecency.
Total Ecency Points: this is the total amount of Ecency points that I have available on the provided day. Note that I begin with >3300 points, which is equivalent to 23 boosts, or <23 boosts + more promotions. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Ecency Points Earned From Delegation: this is the amount of Ecency points that I earned on the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Total Ecency Points Earned From Delegation: this is the amount of Ecency points that I earned in total, up to the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Daily Ecency Points Earned (All Sources): this is the amount of Ecency points that I earned through other activities (commenting, voting, posting, etc.) on the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood.
Ecency Points Spent on Boosts / Promotions: this is the amount of Ecency points that I spent on boosts and promotions on the provided day. None of these are used in calculations, but rather as a tally so that conversions can be better understood. Looking 7 days ahead to the HP earned in boosts will reveal how much the points translate into HP.
HBD Spent to Buy Ecency Points: this is how much HBD I spent to buy Ecency points. At market value, 1000 Ecency Points = 2 HBD.

Graphical Representation

Here are some graphs to help visually represent the progress being made in this experiment. They are adapting data directly from the spreadsheet shown above, using the same legend.

In the first graph, our Y axes consist of: Hive and APY %; these are divided into data sets consisting of Hive Delegated to Ecency (orange), Average Hive Delegation to Date (yellow), and Hive Earned APY to Date (blue, and this is a percentage). The X axis is the Day, so you can follow the daily trend.

In the second graph, our Y axis consists of APY %, represented by Hive Earned APY to Date. The X axis consists of Average Hive Delegation to Date. This one’s a little bit tricky, so I’ll explain it to clear things up: recall that during the first week, I accidentally removed delegation from Ecency. This made the Average Hive Delegation to Date decrease (move to the left on the X axis); subsequently, I increased the delegation, causing it to increase, thus moving to the right on the X axis. Thus, in terms of time, the experiment begins at the bottom, where the Average Delegation to Hive is just about 100% and the APY is ~10%. Following the line to the left, and then subsequently to the right gives the proper timeline.

From this point forward, unless an accidental undelegation occurs, you can continue reading this graph from left to right, as the delegation will be increasing rather than decreasing! Please let me know in the comments whether this is at all unclear and I’ll explain further.

This Week’s Earning Analysis

Last week, I bet on an APY to date of ~76%. So how accurate was my guess? The APY to date as of the end of this week is 70.59%. Ouch ouch ouch! That was once again far lower than expected, and it’s a little bit tougher to explain the relatively sharp drop this week, Hive’s price aside. It’s been an eventful week, and it’ll reveal some of the realities people can face with this delegation – this is an important edition of this experiment. Now, let’s see what happened over the course of this week:

Day 99 started with a good 2+ Hive reward due to Hive’s relatively low price. It bumped up the APY by ~3% to 75.4%. This was still prior to the significant drop in Hive that occurred a couple of days later.

Day 100 was reached! Woohoo! A milestone in terms of the length of this experiment, but nothing substantial happened that day.

Day 101 was Hive’s big price drop. It didn’t affect anything in this experiment, but I’m recording it here for historical purposes. The one significant thing that happened, and which you’ll see recorded on the graph above, is that -250 Ecency Point recording. What happened? This was, indeed, the first time that my Boost got refunded. I realized it would happen the prior day, and understood that Ecency curators must have had a very busy day and low voting power, largely due to Hive’s drop in price. It’s sort of possible that I could’ve gotten the boost by talking to the curators, but I didn’t bother tagging any of them because… these things happen and it’s annoying to get unsolicited tags for curation lol.

This Boost refund will certainly affect next week’s APY substantially, and I’ll see how I can factor it into my predicted calculations. This is a real occurrence that can – and does – happen to people, and I’d like it reflected in my calculations.

Day 102 I found out on the Ecency Discord that the maximum Boost is being adjusted to 200 points.

This makes sense due to the limited voting power available for Boosts, a direct result of Hive’s substantial decrease in price. This will also lead to less disappointments due to refunds from Ecency. I think it’s a wise move.

Day 103 resulted in a Hive reward (0.7569 Hive) which was uncharacteristically low, considering it’s usually a bit higher in terms of Hive when the price of Hive dips. I’m having some trouble understanding how this one came about, as this one was fully powered up.

Day 104 I got back a 200-point Ecency Point refund. Ouch! I used that on a genuine quality post, but apparently Ecency’s in a bit of a pickle right now. The APY next week is definitely going to suffer.

Day 105 I managed to get a 150-point Boost through. Tough times! We’ll get through it together.

I should mention that I was offered retroactive Boosts by a curator, a very kind offer, but for the sake of keeping this experiment realistic and honest, I didn’t accept them. It’s not easy to get any Boosts now, and the experiment should reflect this.

Now I’ll challenge myself and everyone else reading this to guess the upcoming week’s APY to date. Keep these major factors in mind: 1) I posted 3 times this week and got 1 successful Boost; 2) this will be a transition from week 15 → week 16 (which directly affects the math). Due to this single successful Boost, my guess for the next week’s APY to date will be ~65%, and for the following week I’ll venture a guess based on the intention to post more aggressively and Boost more carefully (let’s say ~69%; will give an updated value guess next week!).

https://images.ecency.com/p/PB8ro82ZpZP35bVGjGoE93K3E4U5KX8KtMBJ2rguR8yy8ipCW8pj1nBBykuAvaDJvZRdL5EuCaqMAdro7XecAyiNqHjNroaX3fksdXgkU2ybgWFp.webp?format=webp&mode=fit

^{LeoGlossary Sources: 1 2
Chart and Graph Source: self}

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It should be noted that my medicine-themed posts and the Ecency Delegation Experiment posts have @stemsocial as a 5% beneficiary, the Ecency Delegation Experiment Posts will have @leo.voter as a 5% beneficiary (thank you for the freedom of speech!), and all of my posts now have a variable percentage as a beneficiary to @hive-140084 (the FreeCompliments community; these rewards will be used as a reinvestment vehicle and as a reward pool for everyone who posts and comments in the community, except for illegal content, and threads about the community!).

I hope that you’ve found this analysis informative. While it is not financial advice, it may be useful as a methodology of calculating your own returns on various projects on the Hive network.

Here are the prior weeks’ posts for further reference:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14

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