In an era where user-generated content drives social media growth, effectively incentivizing contributions remains a challenge. This study explores the empirical impact of a crypto-integrated platform, Steemit, focusing on a system transition designed to enhance fairness in reward distribution. We assess how this shift affects user engagement, specifically through the volume of posts. Our findings indicate that a fairer crypto-reward distribution boosts user-generated posts, though the increase is less pronounced for users with higher capital or reputation. Further analysis reveals the complex dynamics of cryptocurrency rewards and their role in fostering individual contributions and platform growth, while offering financial incentives. The effects of fair distribution are consistent across diverse user groups, highlighting novel incentivization strategies in social media and the transformative potential of integrating cryptocurrencies into reward systems.

中文翻译：

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从鲸鱼到小鱼：加密奖励公平性对社交媒体用户参与度的影响


在用户生成内容推动社交媒体增长的时代，有效激励贡献仍然是一个挑战。本研究探讨了加密集成平台 Steemit 的实证影响，重点关注旨在增强奖励分配公平性的系统转型。我们评估这种转变如何影响用户参与度，特别是通过帖子数量。我们的研究结果表明，更公平的加密货币奖励分配会增加用户生成的帖子，尽管对于资本或声誉较高的用户来说，这种增长不太明显。进一步的分析揭示了加密货币奖励的复杂动态及其在促进个人贡献和平台增长方面的作用，同时提供经济激励。公平分配的效果在不同的用户群体中是一致的，凸显了社交媒体中新颖的激励策略以及将加密货币整合到奖励系统中的变革潜力。