Steemit Is A Libertarian Paradise

Libertarians have long talked about creating their own free society with limited government and no centrally controlled currency or taxes, several projects are being tried such as Liberland in Europe. Despite numerous attempts to control the Internet it continues to be a place for experimentation and free expression, but it is constantly under threat. Sites such as reddit have democratised the flow of information and how it is filtered, reddit is maintained largely by the users and the moderators and has been used as an example of a semi- self governing system on the web.

The steemit platform aims to be a social network like reddit or twitter but with one main difference, it has its own currency and economic system and cannot be taken down by the authorities. Many of the criticisms thrown at advocates of libertarianism is that the wealthy will run amok and the poor will not be looked after, well we will be able to see how this all plays out on steemit.

The idea is that you get paid for contributing to the platform by posting or curating content, if a post is well received by the community it will be voted up which creates rewards for the author and part of those rewards also go to the people who voted. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the steemit is that the votes of each user are weighted according to how much 'steem-power' the user holds, fifty percent of a persons rewards is paid in steem-power so the more you earn the more influence you have on the platform, however at the moment it is mainly the early adopters that hold most of the steem-power and some see this as a kind of class system within steemit.

Time will tell to see if the wealth spreads down to the 'minnows', from the 'whales' or if it remains hoarded at the top, it's not like the newbies have to start from nothing, a small amount of steem is given on signing up. Generally it is quality posts that get paid and posts that are relevant to the community of steemit but there are those that complain that they are being ignored and that some sections have become ghettos compared to the favoured areas of the whales. So far steemit seems to be working well and more and more people are earning coins and moving up the food chain, new follow and subscribe features will be added soon that will help different communities develop on steemit. Many of the early adopters now find themselves in positions of influence within the network and are no doubt examining their actions as to what is best for the success of the platform. Although I am not quite a whale yet I am getting there and I am certainly going to do my best to make this society work.