The crypto market is taking a hit these days.
Ok, these weeks.
Ok, these last 3 months.
And it’s taking hit after hit after hit.
Bitcoin price went from 20k to below 8k and STEEM is trading under $2. As a person who used to be happy when STEEM was trading anywhere higher than 10 cents, I am not very scared about this, to be honest.
But the vast majority of Steemit newcomers who are used to see STEEM at $4, $5 or even higher, are probably frightened. Not probably, for sure. I know that, because something just confirmed it to me, in a rather sad way - but more on this story a bit later.
For now, let’s get back to the bear market we’re experiencing now.
There are many reasons for this bear market, but the most important is that there are more Bitcoin holders selling for a lower price that those willing to by at a higher price.
Pure and simple.
That’s the main reason.
Why they are doing this? Well, that’s the million dollar question and I’m afraid I can’t answer to it with 100% certainty. And I doubt that anyone can do this. But here are a few potential causes for why the Bitcoin price (which was a driver for the alts increase as well, including Steem) is taking a big dive:
- the “Tokyo whale” keeps selling MtGoxxed Bitcoins (or, in other words, we’re still being MtGoxxed years after the exchange collapsed)
- the FUD spread by governments, banks and their PR agencies (from “Bitcoin is a bubble” rumors up to regulation and taxation) is starting to function and many holders are selling off, looking for “safer” investments
- institutional money poured into crypto (futures sold by CBOE, for instance) are dragging the price down (shorting the Bitcoin officially) in order to create better entry points and accumulate even more, in a predictable attempt to centralize and control this asset too
- the market is simply correcting, which is usually a healthy thing
Well, these are just a few rational causes.
Alas, we, humans, are not rational beings. We’re highly emotional and, above all, we’re ignorants. I was going to say “stupid”, but I refrained myself. We’re all more or less ignorants but what makes a person stupid is the conscious choice to consistently avoid truth.
What this ignorance means? It means we’d rather believe something that confirms our expectations, than accept reality. We’d rather believe conspiracy theories, as ridiculous and convoluted as they are, rather than accepting that, once we bought a freely tradeable asset, we can no longer control its evolution - we can only hope it will increase in value.
We’d rather believe all sorts of scary bed time stories instead of accepting that this is the reality, period.
Ignorance is the most expensive thing in the world, because, no matter what, sooner or later, we pay the price for it.
I’m The Walrus! No, Wait, I’m The Whale!
Now back to that story about some Steemians being frightened that I was talking about.
Yesterday I saw a strange comment on one of my posts. It was basically saying that I was the initiator of the Steem price dropping. No less than that, mind you.
There was also a question about why the fuck I don’t care about the future of this community and keep pushing the prices down.
The befuddlement this comment generated was briefly preceded by a rather nice feeling: this guy actually thought I was a whale. A big whale, moving the market as I want, whenever I want.
Awwww! That’s so, so, so sweet of him!
Except I’m not.
And I can’t push the Steem price down, even if I wanted to (which is absolutely ridiculous to even fathom, since I’m on this platform, day and day out, for more than a year now).
What this guy referred to, probably, was related to what I do, as a witness, to bring the SBD price back to the peg, which is $1. This is true, I am doing this, and Im not the only witness doing it. And I was certainly not the initiator of it.
But who cares about truth anyway? Who takes the time to learn the ins and outs of such a complicated platform like Steemit, when you can basically just post a stupid fart meme and, voila, there’s a $10 worth of pumped SBD into your wallet, just like that.
Why would you start learning what’s really happening when you get paid, as long as you get paid?
Money for nothing and the chicks for free.
So, What’s This SBD Thing Anyway?
Let’s get back for a minute to that SBD thing.
For all those late newcomers: SBD is not the main currency on the STEEM blockchain, STEEM is.
I will repeat: there is a difference between SBD and STEEM, and the main token of the STEEM blockchain is STEEM. Not SBD.
SBD is rather a smart contract on top of the blockchain and was intended as a stable currency, pegged to $1. It just happens that you are paid in mostly SBD, not in STEEM (but this again, depends on some blockchain parameters, and can be changed such that you get paid half in SBD and half in STEEM).
SBD is a debt-based asset, because it’s not backed by real USD, but by “$1 worth of STEEM”, which means it depends on the supply of STEEM.
Reducing the price of SBD to $1 might be possible (please note that I wrote “might” and not “will be”) if the SBD supply will be higher. That’s exactly what I am trying to achieve, by adjusting my price feed bias, so more SBD gets "printed". And that’s the only thing I can do, as a witness.
The rest is up to the markets, which are always right, by the way.
Who’s Driving The STEEM Price Down? I Wanna See Who’s Responsible For This Disaster!
So, who’s responsible for this market disaster?
Of course, those stupid witnesses who are pushing the STEEM price down. It doesn’t matter that SBD is a different thing from STEEM entirely and that what those witnesses are trying to achieve is a healthy thing for the platform, in the long run.
It doesn’t matter that the entire platform is really run by witnesses, they are keeping the whole thing spinning with their witness nodes, otherwise there won’t be any post, comment or vote. It doesn’t matter that no witness will ever want to see his investment devaluing, on the contrary.
What matter is that we need a scapegoat for this thing.
Somebody else is responsible. Not us.
Let’s find that SOB and teach him a lesson.
It doesn’t matter that it’s us, those believing that markets should obey our expectations that need to learn the most important lesson of all: the market is always right.
It’s right when it goes up and it’s right when it goes down.
Ignorance is inherent to humans and we are all sharing a good part of it.
But stupidity, or the conscious choice to distort reality so it matches our own expectations, it's ten times toxic than ignorance.
Please, please, please stay informed. Learn how things work and accept the risks. Everything that goes up, must go down at some point.
And, subsequently, everything that goes down, will go up someday.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
Wanna know when you're getting paid?
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I know the feeling. That's why I created steem.supply, an easy to use and accurate tool for calculating your Steemit rewards |
MtGox trustee confirms he did not sell BTC at same time as moving them, also didn't affect price
Also, I think Mtgox was less than 1% than any daily volume.
Joke aside, at this point in time my impression is that SBD behaves a bit like a high-beta play on STEEM, amplifying its move (at least up). Whatever the Neds and Dans had in mind when designing the SBD it does not seem to behave as they expected it to. I admit I still didn't manage to completely understand how the SBD gets created despite my copy of the whitepaper being blackened from notes I've taken.Hey, @dragosroua, why are you keeping the price of STEEM so high ! Please bring it back to $0.1 I want to buy some more ! :-))))
I somewhere saw the idea: Reverse convert and convert for SBD and STEEM to peg SBD to 1 USD.
For example, if SBD is less than 1USD, it can be converted to 1USD equivalent of STEEM, conversely, if SBD is above 1 USD, then STEEM can be converted to USD equivalent of SBD.
For example, if STEEM is $4, then when SBD is below $1, it can be converted to 0.25 STEEM while SBD is above $1, STEEM can be converted 4 SBD.
I don't know how the supply of both SBD and STEEM come form. If somebody can explain the supply source of both "SBD and STEEM" in this convert scenario, it will be helpful.
However, it will definitely peg SBD to 1 USD. There is a market demand for 1 USD pegged such as Tether or NuBit, most importantly, it will be helpful in future internal exchange for SMTs.
Now I have Money for Nothing stuck in my head, and I am thinking an updated version of the song would be pretty funny...with blockchain entrepreneurs, not rock stars, as the target of envy.
Steemit For Nothing And Your Votes For Free?
Wait. Does that work? 🤔
Steem is certainly one of the better cryptos out there because even if the price fluctuates the hodler can atleast take some steps to earn a few cents unlike most of other cryptos out there. I found that I no longer have the energy to remain on the edge. I am very chilled now, if it goes up great! If not, hey we can still come and talk to our friends on the platform and get paid for it! :)
Yep, this thing is still going on :)
That guy doesn't understand anything at all dude, nevertheless, hope he is reading this post and make a reasonable conclusions now.
Good post!
What! I learned some much of steemit form you!
I honestly never knew how rewards were calculated until you made that posts and others stuff like it :)
I like how everyone is ignoring the fact LN is in beta mainet now :)
Some ignorance is terrible, such as what you describe with people not getting the relationship between SBD, Steem, and the cryptocurrency market as a whole. It's a shame anybody would be worried about you trying to return the SBD to its peg... especially when you are just openly communicating about your personal opinion and course of action.
On the flip side - ignorance (of the right things) makes it pretty easy to avoid all of the FUD. The worst thing is to overanalyze the markets and try to find reasons for all the prices when, like you say in your conclusion, the market is always right and it's probably unknowable, or intentionally obscured from us normal people's view, as to whatever causes things to move.
I think Tim Ferriss coined the term "Low Information Diet" to refer to the practice of actively avoiding the day to day news cycle. Seems like a better and better idea by the day...
We do this in Venezuela, lol. No matter how much we do, everything goes down the well and into misery. We might as well not read the news and avoid getting depressed day to day.
100% agree with that :)
Good quote. I'm working on a post about this happening in ALL crypto and ICO circles. I can't tell you how many Telegram channels I'm in where there are people everyday asking the admins why the price of the coin keeps dipping and asking what they are going to do about it.
The market is immature and is moving as one (for the most part, obviously not completely). Until there is a larger pool of investors and the market matures, when Bitcoin dips, we all dip with it. Just the basic concept pounded into the minds of everyone getting involved in cryptos would solve a lot of problems and worries.
Thanks for the good post.
This is true, i have been abit botheres lately about the drop in the market, i thought the whole thing was gonna collapse. You have shed a good deal of light on it
"Money for Nothing", I also love that song from Dire straits :) I hope we get some positive news from next week's G20 meeting, otherwise prices would be even worse!
Actually, I thought I was the reason why STEEM has been going down. I've been wanting to buy STEEM at a cheaper price, so viola. Anyway, if it takes the heat off of you, you're free to blame me. I'm a husband and a father and used to be a business owner, so blame and I, we're old friends.
Very good points, as usual, and very rational ones as well. I definitely need to know more of how the "system" works.
Been there as well, and more than once :)
And me @glenalbrethsen and I finally bought some yesterday and then again this morning. Now I wish I'd waited as it's really gone done while I was out and about enjoying myself, drinking champagne and celebrating my son's 21st.
I reckon the Steem gods were just sitting on their cloud and said "quick she's bought some now after faffing about for weeks, let's show her. Let's really drop the price. Teach her what happens when she gets on with her life and takes care of things that she think's more important than us"!
Bloody Steem gods. Big fat meanies! 😢
I think you did quite well in waiting, actually. Even at $2-$2.10 USD, that's the lowest it's been since the very day I started. My first purchase was at $6.19! I've been trying to lower the average ever since.
I think wishing we waited is always going to be the deal. Our brains must be wired to get the best deal. And at the time we did it, it was the best deal. Personally, I'm glad for the opportunity to trim my cost average, but now I think I'd rather see prices go back up a bit, so I wouldn't have to stare at a loss in my wallet. :)
I'm really not cut out for this trading lark @glenalbrethsen. I'd finally decided to trade a bit each morning until my euros had gone and then I change the goalposts. I've been doing that for weeks. I think you need a plan and then need to stick to it but I keep vascillating.
i just looked at the price and now I'm wondering do I buy some more now while it's all lower again or do I wait until the morning which was my original plan trying to go for averages?
I keep cocking it up anyway. keep getting the decimal point in the wrong place and then this morning I sent my BTC to Coinbase instead of the Blocktrades and had to send it back.
Oh my. Look how late it is. i want to write another post before going to bed. I don't have time to trade. I at least need to get that post done first! 😊
Wait long enough and the decision is made for you. Which may mean it was for the best. There really needs to be a better way of doing this, no doubt. Our experiences are similar so far. I didn't hop on Steemit to buy STEEM, but now I kind of feel like I need to just to keep up and have something to reward people with.
Anyway, happy posting and rest well.
I didn't come to Steemit to invest either @glenalbrethsen. In fact, I had no idea just how important the financial side of things was and I've been dragging my feet about getting involved in it.
I really didn't want to buy any power. I wanted to see what I could do without using any real money. But as I saw people who started the same time as me getting further and further ahead, whilst doing much less work I decided I needed to reconsider that idea.
I decided to invest £500 which, quite honestly isn't enough to make any real difference but whilst being here and beginning to learn about crypto and steemit works it was hard to keep plodding on as slowly as I was.
So far I've spent £200 and i'll keep spending a bit more everyday. After that I'll have to see how I feel,
The biggest drawback for me of the fall in price is the drop in engagement. A lot of people I follow, who've been round a while, seem to have stopped posting altogether and so aren't here to comment on my posts either.
I was posting 4 times a week but I've dropped to twice a day now. it's beginning to feel a bit like Facebook where it feels like I'm just posting into the void.
I'm not sure what I'll do next week. 😊
Great post @dragosroua.
I am impressed that you can move markets. And here I thought you were just another Steemian making your way through life on here.
Little did I know you were not only a Whale, but the Whale of all Whales since you can push the price down for months on end. That is impressive.
People do not want to take responsibility for things. I recall when BTS has the issue with Arise and many were calling on @stan to explain himself. I read on comment where someone even went so far as to say he worked all his life trying to make ends meet and he was tired of getting scammed.
Who told you to buy BTS?
So yes, I see the point of this post.
My view is we are going down because there are forces out there that can move markets down, especially one as small as crypto...and that is the banking establishment. They realize the threat posed by this and sent their henchmen, the governments and media, out to attack at every turn. Spreading FUD is effective as we see.
The challenge is that there is a lot more than just crypto going on...we see development all over the place which is going to revolutionize many businesses. Industries will ultimately be altered, if not upended, meaning the incumbents need to adapt. Some will, most wont.
The fact that people take such an approach as the comment you referenced shows why FUD is effective. If people took it upon themselves to learn what is going on, then they would have nothing to fear. The fact they are trying to blame someone shows that they are unwilling to take responsibility.
I share the same feeling. Things are on a clear path and we crossed the "no return" point. Only many don't realize this and still think we can keep the status quo. There will be many bumps on this road, but the direction is good.
Thanks for the comment and support. And please,don't tell anyone I'm moving the markets down, ok?
I wont.
I knew the Reward Calculator you put on your app was more than it appeared.
I am not a coder but I could tell you put something in there that would send the price of STEEM and SBD down. The fact that the button is red shows all I need to know...very illuminati-ish.
When the button turns to blue, I know it will be time to buy....😁
:)))))
We are all ignorant with small doses of stupidity, we are finally human and the most time we move by feelings, but from that point to reality there is a sea of difference, you have a perfect vision to point out that we always seek to accommodate situations to our understanding and form a reality that comforts us.
The harsh reality is very little accepted, we immediately think of puppets behind all moving the threads of the market or the platform, accusing that they are the generators of the worst evils, we do not understand that the word risk is something that we will come across daily in the world of finance.
Always pointing out that someone because of their capacity for monetary power even someone with an intellect superior to ours causes fear and above all envy and if things go wrong they will always be the first to be pointed out, go stupid, the term is not understood long term, we need and we want that in a few months the prices rise and remain eternally, so that .... to immediately change it for money Fiat, hahahaha.
From Aztec lands, I appreciate this kind of information and the lesson that accompanies it, excellent day.
Let them care or let them not care we don't give a damn. We ourselves will make the steem a better future place. Thus we don't need people who don't care about community.
Thank you for sharing all your points about the current price of steem and sbd. I have also recently found steem supply, which is indeed a very useful tool to see how much you will be paid in the near future.
It's not pleasant in the short-term if you're selling the Steem or SBD for fiat, but if you're not, there are many gains to be made by the price being lower. Vote values are down, but the effective payouts are up. People can make 2x the SP on a post as what they were making even a month ago. If they keep holding, they'll be further along. So rather than complaining about prices being down, work on networking and writing quality content and get extra rewards for posting during the downtime.
Thanks for the additional explanation on how witnessing works.
Some folks just naturally need someone to blame for the world's woes. I guess they thought you had the shoulders for it! :) Ignore it. Eventually, they will find someone else to blame. They always do.
All markets are volatile especially new markets like crypto, there are millions a factors influencing the price, media, technical problems, whales, pump and dump groups, fake news, viral social media posts, little post (yes a little post can influence a whale to to do smth), concurrence, and so on..like i said millions.@dragosroua
It is just ridiculous to blame an individual on a drop in price. It's like you said the search for a scapegoat and spreading guilt/false accusations all over the place except for accuser him-/herself. Oh how i hate that. And i really understand that it pisses you so much off that you even post about it. I myself am from Germany, raised in german guilt, indoctrinated, discriminated against for things that happend long before i was born and what i am really against. You can imagine how much scapegoating, false accusations, witch hunts, chauvinism (any kind) pisses me off. I feel you.
But long term we have to consider not giving a f** uck (steemit no cesonsorship yeeaaej!). In the future we could answer with one sentence:
"Your comment shows, you have no idea about markets, nice try, educating yourself on the topic helps, have a good day."
Or if you are really hardcore provocativ:
"Why not blame it on the jews?"
Hahaaha but that could also trigger some zionism conspiracy theorists or racists who actually want to explain to you why it is the jews. 🤔
I do not care much if it goes down in steemdollar price, with such and steemit endure for many years more is enough for me .. my publications are poor and I do not complain .. obvious everyone wants a big and juicy piece of cake, What happens is that there are many people who are ambitious that is not satisfied with what they earn .. not, I criticize them because everyone seeks to grow in steemit, but live grieving every time steemdollar goes down
I don't see it that way. In fact I see it the way you explain and know forgot : As Bitcoin gets lower and lower, money flows from altcoins to Bitcoin. Check ☑ dominance at 42.5%. It used to be lower
And bitcoin is down 👇 until the market absorbs the 1.7 billion dollar MtGoxxed Whale is dumping into the market
Hey @dragosroua Here you have your breakfast :https://news.bitcoin.com/the-mt-gox-whale-explains-his-crypto-selling-strategy/
Even though BTC still at 8K, Steem at 1.84. Why? Because it is Your own explanation months back ago:
Market Cap: $313,684,779,539
24h Vol: $11,237,363,483
BTC Dominance: 43.3%
BTC Dominance up by more than 3%
Your Theory is correct. Money flows from lowest voltage ⚡ to higher one.
It's just that every body is freaking out with this market crash. But it is what it is. We can only hope things go better..
and they say ignorance is a bliss..quite a paradox @dragosroua
cryptocurrency market Now I do not have to say anything. They have started working in another way. Now the number of stupidity has increased so much that it is not possible to end but some steps should be taken!
You are intersting man.Your post is fine
Very useful information and knowing about these resources, we learn more about cryptography! Thank you
This is really bad for newbies like me. Someone has to stay on his feet to continue steeming. I'm hoping this will change very soon....
Well hats off to that person who thought you are a whale at the time being he did made you feel great ;)
Well I do have seen Steem at below USD 1 so this is kinda still in good position for me ;) Hope the new users still get that !
I do like the phrase 'anything that goes up must come down'
"Let’s find that SOB and teach him a lesson."
Hear hear, let's get the pitchforks and torches!
While I still wish SBD was higher, as it would allow us to get better equipment for the channel, I understand now why it being stable at 1 is more important in the long run. It could actually make e-commerce via crypto functional, with no "surprise 125$ fees for a single transaction". I just wish Steem itself wouldn't be tied as much to other cryptos and constantly plunging with them.
Also, weren't you supposed to be on vacation? There are more important things than Steem :D
We ourselves will make steem a better place for the future. Thus we do not need people who do not care about society.
my warm greetings
thank you @dragosroua
i would be more happy if we could get more steem in rewards than sbd i hope it come back to $1 soon the calculations now have messed up badly for shorter term it was good but for long term it will make even worse glad that we have seen the bad too and the good too newbies will panic for sure $13 was like gold for 1 sbd
@dragosroua I have been here long enough to see the UPs and Downs and I am not concerned at all. @exyle I think he has talked about the price of STEEM as much as anybody lately and he mentioned that he will step up to buy more Steem if the price gets down to $1.00 or less.........Maybe it does maybe it doesn't in the mean time just create some positive Content Everyday. Thank you for a very candid post.......
lol you are true :)
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 3 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 38 SBD worth and should receive 169 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePigWithout reading: the title is accurate either way. Ignorance, even if has nothing to do with stupidity, might be expensive. At least I consider myself an extremely, radically ignorant person and I can see sometimes, how or why this becomes expensive.
With reading: it's an interesting question, what's the definition of "avoiding truth". A political example: if I'm basically liberal (or communist, or anything), for instance, and stay so, more or less, despite its issues, then I'm avoiding truth by definition? Or only if I deny its issues?
Can't tell much about the market-specific stuff, though; I'm informed about the big events around the ecosystem mostly through you.
But it seems for me that you're right.
I do not know yet how sbd was created, though some steps of kripto holders, i just hope all benefit to all of us
Is there anyway to view the code on the Blockchain that balances the SBD printed based on the price feed?
All Steemit code is Open Source, under the MIT license. Help yourself :)
I reckon if people are now thinking you've got that sort of power @dragosroua you should have it. I vote you for whale. who cares that you don't actually have sufficient vests. There are always exceptions.
And . . . I'm wondering . . . what's happened to your vacation from the markets? I'm hoping this is just a blip and you'll be back showing us Valencia in a jiffy! 😁
I KNEW I was doing something wrong!
Hurries off to looks for fart picks to make a killing.......
It's a bummer that the price has gone down, and when it was high I couldn't get my money out to use it. But such is life.
If there was no Steemit I wouldn't have this problem. I also wouldn't have the possibility that the price will go back up again.
And... I'd have no-one to play my ultra marathon game, or to chat to about running stuff, or people to hear my dad's old war stories, or....
There is more to life than money...
Hmnn...well, don't know about all this but I sure aren't stoopid, I'll tell you that much. I do appreecate the infomation tho. Relly I do. By the way I was a witnes onct but the judge said I was unrelieable. Blessings. And the fart meme? That was my wif not me.