Milestone Reached: We Became a Dolphin - Our Journey

It took us seventeen months to reach this point, but here we are. We are a dolphin now!
We wanted to share this news with you even earlier (at the end of January when it actually happened), but life happened to us as well, and we were forced to put that aside for a while.

However, first, we want to thank all of you, Vocup members and VOCUP token holders, who believed in us and helped us get this far. Without you and your support, we wouldn't be able to reach this level in the same time frame. Therefore, once again, a big THANK YOU!!!

We started this journey at the beginning of August 2022 by creating this account and bringing in initial funds for token creation, initial staking amount, and some other things we wanted for this project.

Our initial power-up happened on August 4th, 2022, when we staked 711 HIVE. At that point, reaching a Dolphin's level seemed like an impregnable mountain peak.

The day after, on August 5th, 2022, we announced and launched our project, and the first members started coming.

The 1st Edition of 200 VOCUP tokens was completely sold out by November 30th, 2022, at the price of 5 HIVE per token.
As the token purchases happened on exchanges (mainly within 24 hours after that), we were powering up the account for the same amount. Only that way, by the end of November 2022, we were able to increase our curation (HP) power by 1,000 HIVE.

Series A (the first series) of the 2nd Edition of VOCUP tokens, 100 tokens at the price of 10 HIVE per token, was issued on December 1st, 2022, and completely sold out by October 5th, 2023. In other words, we increased our curation (HP) power by an additional 1,000 HIVE during those ten months.

Series B (the second series) of the 2nd Edition of VOCUP tokens, also in the amount of 100 tokens, at the price of 10 HIVE per token, was issued on November 1st, 2023.
By now, 50.2 tokens have been sold, which brought another 502 HIVE to our curation (HP) power. The remaining 49.8 tokens are still available for purchase on the exchanges.

All in all, our loyal members brought in a total of 2,502 HIVE. When we add 711 HIVE of our initial power-up to the above number, we get a total of 3,213 HIVE.
More is still needed to reach the Dolphin's level!

So, you might ask, how did we accumulate the needed rest!?
Well, all the above said is just one half of the story.

Before we start the second half of our story, we need to clarify the following. Who are Dolphins, and what does it mean to be a Dolphin?

Well, there is an unofficial categorization and ranking of accounts concerning so-called Vesting Shares.

Account holding less than 1 Million Vests is considered Red Fish or Plancton.
Account holding 1 Million Vests (up to 9,999,999) is considered Minnow.
Account holding 10 Million Vests (up to 99,999,999) is considered Dolphin.
Account holding 100 Million Vests (up to 999,999,999) is considered Orca.
Account holding 1 Billion Vests (and up) is considered Whale.

But, what are Vests or Vesting Shares?

Without going into too many details, the simplest and the easiest-to-understand explanation would be: think about Vests as an equity.

In a company, equity is a stock. So, translating it into a Hive economic system, Vests represent a portion of (your) ownership in the whole Hive universe.

After that being said, some of you might ask the following.

Where do you see how many Vests an account holds, or how do you calculate them?

If you go to https://hivebuzz.me/@YourAccountName/, you'll find a "fish" icon (Red Fish, or Minnow, or Dolphin, or...) under your name, and at the bottom of it, the number of Vests that you are currently holding.

Another way is going to https://hivehub.dev/@YourAccountName/. On the upper right side, find the button "Account Blockchain Data." By clicking on it, a new pop-up window will open. Scroll down a bit through it and go to "Staked HIVE (HP)." The first row under that title is "Vesting Shares," and the number represents the total number of Vests in your holding.

Calculating Vests

First, we must know that Vests are calculated solely concerning Staked HIVE (HP). In other words, unclaimed HP and liquid HIVE don't count into your Vesting Shares as long as they stay unclaimed or unstaked (not powered up).

When it comes to delegation, the Hive Power delegated OUT counts into your Vesting shares (regardless of its temporary dislocation), while the Hive Power delegated IN (to you) doesn't count into your Vesting shares (although it enlarges your Voting Power).

So, the main question remains: How many Vests do we get for 1 HIVE staked in Hive Power?
Currently (at the moment we are writing this), 1 HP (HIVE) will get you about 1,732 Vests.

This number constantly changes and slowly decreases due to constant (with each new block creation) new HIVE "production."
For instance, several years ago, at the beginning of Hive, 1 HP (HIVE) would get you about 2,000 Vests, while now we need about 1.155 HP (HIVE) for the same amount (2,000) of Vests.

Therefore, the above-mentioned unofficial categorization and ranking of accounts concerning Vesting Shares, when calculated into Hive Power, currently and roughly, would look something like that.

Account holding less than 577 HP is considered Red Fish or Plancton.
Account holding 577 HP (up to 5,773 HP) is considered Minnow.
Account holding 5,773 HP (up to 57,736) is considered Dolphin.
Account holding 57,736 HP (up to 577,367) is considered Orca.
Account holding 577,367 HP (and up) is considered Whale.

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Now, we can finally jump to the second part of our story!

Besides our initial investment in Hive Power and your VOCUP token purchases, starting September 2022, we continuously built our Hive Power every month on Hive Power Up Day by at least 100 HIVE, and occasionally, in between two HivePUDs, we would power up the account for a couple of HIVE more.

The best way to represent our regular monthly power-ups is to show you our collection of HivePUD badges from HiveBuzz.

2022

As we said above, from September 2022 till the end of the year.

2023

2024

That way, we increased our HP by about an additional 2,300 HIVE. Summing it all up, 711 (our initial power-up) + 2,502 (token sales by now) + 2,300 (19 months of consecutive HivePUD power-ups and some in between) = 5,513 HIVE (HP).

With that, we would be very close to the Dolphin level, but still not there as the Dolphin level currently starts at 5,773 HIVE (HP).
To bridge that gap, we had an "Ace" in the sleeve.

In the past 19 months, we have not made a single power down to pay you your monthly reward shares (as would be expected otherwise). Instead, we decided to bring in fresh funds and invest more to keep the HP (our curation power) untouched as long as possible and to accumulate more rewards every following month.
And that's basically how we accumulated the needed rest (and even more) to reach the Dolphin level.

That would be all from us for now. Stay tuned, and all the best!
Your Vocup Team

To buy a VOCUP token, visit Hive-Engine, or Tribaldex exchange.

Please review our Announcement post to learn more about our project.

_{Images Sources:
1st image (Thumbnail): Our own derivative work with image by Sabrina Belle from Pixabay and image by Gordon Johnson also from Pixabay
2nd image: (Two Dolphins): Our own derivative work with image by Aristal Branson from Pixabay
3rd image: (Dolphin Jumps - illustration): Our own derivative work with image by mariko7 from Pixabay
4th, 5th, and 6th image: (Vocup's PowerUp badges for 2022. 2023, and 2024): Screenshots of our account from HiveBuzz.
Dividers: Our own derivative work with image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay}