Hi everybody!
It seems the Curation Reward mechanics remain quite complicated to many readers. This post offers a longer and more detailed explanation and also addresses the motives behind the Curator Gem. Lets start with an introduction of this project.
Why
Auto-voters are in a stubborn up-trend on Steemit. Some examples being AutoSteem and SteemVoter but there are many more. As they become increasingly competitive with human Curators, they take a greater and greater share of the Curation Reward pool. The Curator Gem is here to reward a much needed bonus to those Steemians who actively Curate new posts. This encourages qualitative Curation and is striving for a platform that is not dominated by bots.
Now, to understand how a Curator benefits from the Gem, the dynamics of Voting Power need to be understood first.
This is a copy from the Steem website with some additions in bold.
Voting on Posts
Users with vesting STEEM have the ability to vote on posts. Voting Power is rate-limited and decays by up to 5% every time a vote is cast. Voting Power regenerates to 100% over 24 hours. Your ability to impact the payouts a post receives is based upon your current Voting Power times the total vesting STEEM and is known as STEEM Power.
To maximize total STEEM Power applied to posts, users should vote on at least 20 posts per day. Voting on more than 20 posts per day has exponentially decreasing influence on total STEEM Power used.
You can check your own voting power at SteemDollar
How it works
Every time a post gets paid, 50% of the payout is directed toward those who contributed the most to increasing the posts payout. To maximize your potential payout from voting you should follow these simple rules:
1.Only vote on posts that you believe others will also vote for.
This is guaranteed by the scheduled Boosts
2.Vote as early as possible after the content is posted.
Theoretically, active Curators will have a higher chance of casting their vote the earliest and therefore benefit the most
3.Don’t vote on content that is already popular
Unless you want to support active human Curators! To encourage late-voting, the Curator Gem initiates 50% of total boost on the last day as to reward the contributors of the project.
4.Acquire as much vesting STEEM Power as possible
Depending on the timing of your vote, you can easily make 20 times the weighted return on your average vote by finding a Gem
The less STEEM Power you have the more important it is for you to focus your votes on a few good posts rather than spreading your vote thin. In particular, users with small amounts of vesting STEEM should:
1.Vote on content others haven’t voted for, to maximize the percentage increase in voting
Try to be the first!
2.Vote on fewer posts, the more you vote the more diluted your STEEM Power
Regardless of the amount of Steem Power you have, it is always advisable to keep a significant portion of Voting Power available
End of Steem.io extract.
For additional reference, I would advise to read this great article by
The Art of Boosting
As you may know, there are various alternatives to Boost your content on Steemit. Services such as 
Its too bad we can not use the 30 minute rule(by 
The Curator Gem
Now we know a bit more about Voting Power, Steem Power and Boosting, the idea is not so complicated anymore. When the Curator Gem is released, the Steemians Curating at that moment can gain a significant boost in their Curation Rewards, as they are allowed a window of opportunity to cast their vote even before the first boost. As the Gem gets older, it is time for the wealthier Steemians to vote if they want to contribute to the reward of active Curators. All voters are guaranteed a Boost as the heaviest Boost is initiated at the end of the Gem’s life.
To all Curators:
Thank you for your time and effort. You are welcome to follow and upvote these posts before they are boosted, to gain a significant increase in your Curation Rewards.
To all Steemians:
If you value the Curation of new posts and want to encourage this, please consider upvoting this post. This will increase the weighted share of those that are improving this platform by grinding new posts.
Auto-voter protection
Significant late-voting contributors are rewarded with a Resteem of their latest self-produced post. These Resteems and other informative posts like this one will handily provide protection against auto-voters on this thread, as it requires human intelligence to identify a true Gem!
For reference, check out editions #1,#2 and #3
As always, feel free to comment if you have any questions or just want to expres your enthousiasm! Resteems and other ways of support to the current Gems are greatly appreciated.
Enjoy!