It is very exciting to see big names coming from YouTube to DTube but eventually when it becomes a common place "Youtubers x and y have come to DTube, we're going to moon", I think people will calm down a little and start actually look into them and appreciate their content more. It's just very exciting and new when we are witnessing the very early steps of this new platform (Steem and the apps on top of it, especially DTube, as it is a direct replacement for YT, and a very attractive one because of easier monetization), and you are among the first one's of known Youtubers to adopt the platform.
I understand your concern with commenting and I've thought about it myself too that whether commenting will always have the money incentive behind it. I think it will always be there since it's inherently part of the platform. However, I don't think it has to necessarily take away of the authenticity of the comments. Sure, it might in some instances, like with spamming which isn't a very successful strategy which will (hopefully) be learned by most people. But speaking of my own, I don't comment on anything if I don't feel like I have anything to say, and I think it would show if I was to speak without sincerity with my words. So I'd rather pass and instead find something which I might actually have something to add on.
And as to where the value of Steem comes from, it is definitely a good question and I think we are reshaping the very fundamentals of our understanding of money with the question. How I've explained it to myself is that it's like a big consensus of a group of people where we believe in the Steems underlying rules by which people should get value for creating content. And when we sign up for Steem we'll get the privilege of potentially earning with our efforts, but at the same time we agree that everyone else also has the chance of doing so, in various degrees based on upvotes of the public. And of course early investors have brought some value to Steem by buying it with actual dollars, so that probably has a part to play also. But I'm no expert on this; just throwing my thoughts on it.
Anyway, I've seen some of your videos on YT occasionally, so I know you from there. Good to have you here!
Yeah, I can't argue that the caliber of conversation here isn't higher than YouTube. And even though we all have a financial incentive, well, at least in the case of this video, it seems to work to better conversation.
As for the value thing, that explanation helps understand how and why it's distributed as it is. Basically we agree on the rules by virtue of showing up and interacting.
What is still confusing is where that initial value comes from and how it is continually generated. I get that investors who put in USD are creating some. But without outside investors, where does the new value come from? Why would someone want to accept Steem as opposed to another cryptocurrency?
Where I think the value comes from is that people are putting in value that they in the past was trying to hoard for example inside a bank account. And that it seems like you get a higher return on investment by investing value into other real humans instead of a stock.
The way I see it is that we have lots of value that is just sitting and we aren't using it. If we can give it away instantly to someone else then the value was always there but now it's being used more optimal to maximize it's objective. Like we are streaming music on Spotify we are now streaming value with micro transfers that are optimized by using the precise range we think is fair.
As I have seen @nanzo-scoop talk about the real currency is more hidden and that is our Time and Attention. If Steemit can attract our Time and Attention with real value creation then other more surface layer currencies like Steem Dollar and Steem will increase in value. But the real value is when people invest that Time and Focused attention.