One of the things that is great on Hive, is how much data there is on an account. One of the things that sucks, is that it isn't very accessible for most people, and is quite laboursome to get. So just like in real life, perceptions, habits, observations and rules of thumbs get used, rather than using all the data available. And also, just like in real life, everyone is an individual and no matter the behaviour, everyone thinks that they have a good reason to be an exception to the rule.

Love or hate it, it is just a little bit of objective data based on a single account to give an indication as to some Hive behaviour. All it tells is the amount of HIVE POWER held in relation to HIVE POWER earned, using a very simple calculation;

This gives a number, where someone who holds all the HIVE power they have earned as an author and all the curation they have earned as a voter, will have a KE of precisely 1. If someone (like me) holds less than I have earned, it will be a number greater than 1, and if I held more than I earned, it would be less than 1.

Example of even:

Author rewards 100 + Curation 50 / Held HP 150
150 / 150 = KE 1

Example of more HP:

Author rewards 100 + Curation 50 / Held HP 300
150 / 300 = KE 0.5

Example of less HP:

Author rewards 100 + Curation 50 / Held HP 50
150 / 50 = KE 3

Good question, and while you can check it from your profile page in Peakd, you can also check it through this app created especially for it a few months ago, as well as a few other metrics there too.

As said though, this is a "heuristic" and doesn't tell the full story of an account, as it doesn't factor in a whole lot of other data, nor a whole lot of information that isn't held on the blockchain. For instance, a person might have multiple accounts and one holds HP for others. It doesn't factor in liquid Hive. It doesn't speak to the value added by the account in other ways either. Nor does it represent what the HIVE has been used for. But, as a general indicator, it is enough for me to look further if I think that the ratio is abusive.

Ultimately, I want people to have a good time on Hive and get value from it. But at the same time, I want people to invest themselves into Hive and build their financial position here so they can support others on the platform also. Personally, I don't want to support people who are extracting too much of what they get from the platform, milking value that could go to others who will keep more of it here and who would help others.

This means, just like where I vote or downvote, what I see as better and worse behaviour is personal and up to me. You might agree at times, you might disagree at times, and that is okay. But, just like everyone can do what they want with their earned HIVE, I can do what I want with my stake, and my opinion. There are times I have taken lots of HIVE off platform, and there are times like recently where I brought a lot back on. This means my KE will fluctuate. There are times where I understand people need some additional funds, there are times I am less understanding, which tends to be when they take everything or nearly everything out. This has been a pretty consistent view over the years for me.

It is just information. But, it gives me a rule of thumb indicator that I can quickly see if a particular account that is posting, or commenting is someone I want to support, or not. If their KE ratio is low or below 1, it is more likely they will keep their earnings here on platform. It is high, than it raises a red flag and I can choose to dig deeper to see if I want to support, but more likely, I will just skip voting altogether if it is that bad.

Do I want to support them?

Ideally, I would see the KE ratio next to their name wherever it appears, so then I would see it clearly on their post or on their comment, without having to spend time visiting their profile at all. But @asgarth said it might be a little bloaty, so on the profile page is fine for now.

If it is low, well done. If it is high, it is easy to fix - powerup more HIVE. But ultimately, I hope people look at whatever number you have and reflect on it a little bit and decide whether it represents how you value Hive as a platform and community. Maybe you have a stack of HP on another account and you are quite happy with it as is. Or maybe you just don't care what others think and you are looking to get all you can while you can and are happy as is. But, now that it is visible to others too -

That might tell something.

Because life is complicated and people are complex, we all go through it making generalisations about others, making judgements, and through experience, making rules on how we see the world, and how we move through it. Most of our heuristics have very little data to back them up, yet we apply them daily.

You might like the ratio, you might hate it - but you needn't use it at all. It is just a piece of data pulled from the blockchain and made visible. You needn't judge others on it, you need care about your own. But similarly, other people might care about it, and they might change their behaviours based on the information that was always there on the blockchain, but not visible to them until now. And, there are heaps of numbers that could be pulled to infer all kinds of information and behaviour, and I hope more people and interfaces will explore what is possible to make Hive a more interesting and engaging place to be for most people.

What do you think of the KE ratio?

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]