As someone with very little knowledge about coding or the inner workings of blockchain technology, I find STEEM to be one of the most impressive cryptocurrencies out there. How can you resist that recommendation?
Credit where credit is due, I was inspired to write this after reading @lukestokes post Why Am I Such a Fan of DPOS Blockchains like STEEM and BitShares? He gets into a lot more of the technical aspects like DPOW vs. DPOS which I won't touch on at all.
As a layman, I'll be writing the layman's take.
No Transaction Fees
How great is this? Most cryptocurrencies out there charge a small fee to complete transactions. When a currency's network gets flooded with a volume of activity it can't handle, those fees get higher and higher. Just look at Bitcoin right now. It's become totally impractical to make small purchases given the fees demanded by the network.
So many people are complaining about Bitcoin "gouging" them right now. Instead of complaining, they should move in to STEEM.
STEEM doesn't and never will require fees. It was intentionally designed this way because everything you do on the social media sites like Steemit is a transaction. Every post, every comment and every upvote is a transaction as well as every transfer of currency. Social media sites on the STEEM blockchain would fail immediately if there was even as little as a 1 cent paywall for any given action.
Nearly Instant Transactions
There isn't much to say about this point that isn't in the title. While people are waiting hours for a Bitcoin transaction to confirm, STEEM is processing transactions in mere seconds. You want to send some money? Post a comment? Upvote a post? It will be done by the time you refresh the webpage.
Proven Utility
STEEM has proven its utility as both a currency and a blockchain supporting various social media applications.
There are many cryptocurrencies out there that are backing a project that hasn't come to fruition. STEEM came almost right out the gate with a working platform which has been active for over a year-and-a-half.
Capacity for High Transaction Volume
Take a look at this chart from blocktivity. Notice anything?
STEEM handles the second most transactions of any blockchain network, second only to Ethereum by a thin margin.
Even though it handles over a billion transactions DAILY it isn't even using 1% of its network capacity. When I hover my mouse over the meter icon it tells me that STEEM is only at 0.36% network capacity. Compare that to Ethereum which is at 62.81% while handling only 50 million more transactions per day.
Falling even further behind is Bitcoin. At #3 on the list, it's handling less than half the transactions of STEEM; only 400 million. Yet it's network is overloaded. Bitcoin is using 100% of its processing power to handle 40% of what STEEM can process while using less than 1% its network capacity.
So Why Aren't More People Using STEEM as a Currency?
Beats me.
One of the main factors could be the simple truth that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that is known in the mainstream. Even among crypto-enthusiasts STEEM doesn't have the name recognition of more popular coins like Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.
Maybe one day.
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
I love Steem but the problem for me is that it keeps losing value against King BTC. I don't think SteemPower enough of an incentive to hold Steem. I pay people with it all the time because I like how fast it is and the zero transaction fees. Resteemed
True. I'm reluctant to buy STEEM because history has proven that my money will be worth more if left in BTC.
Maybe when (if?) the Bitcoin rocketship slows down things will change.
Thanks for the resteem!
Do you think it's possible that having steem, steem power, and steem dollars confuses people and causes them to shy away from investing in steem?
I believe the distinction between STEEM and SBD is hard to understand if you haven't read the whitepaper. That might scare away some potential investors. But I don't think Steem Power causes any confusion since it isn't a trade-able token. Investors who are getting on board from exchanges may not even be aware of its existence.
It is a problem.
Steem was my first experience with crypto currency and every time I try to explain the currency idea of steem to friends, and I say, "well, there are actually two currencies, steem and steem dollars," I lose people. Hard enough to explain one.
They are a little confusing, but totally necessary in my opinion. They all play an important role within the blockchain
I agree. I can see the need for all three, I just think it is difficult for an outsider, potential investor, to understand the relationship between the three, and just decide to invest in something else.
Yeh you're right I'm sure some people are put off by it
With the current correction of Bitcoin and the fact that it has many disadvantages over Steem and other currencies, I don't tend to think that Bitcoin will lead the market for more time. It is decreasing in capital dominance, currently staying around 50% and it seems to go down. Maybe in future wi will see Bitcoin being an altcoin, who can tell?
BTC has a different intrinsic value than STEEM. A much different one. BTC is like gold - STEEM is like the univeral Dollar 2.0
What bothers me about Steem (and BTS) is not why it's less adopted than bitcoin. Bitcoin is HUGE now. But why there other 30+ cryptos, far less famous, is above Steem? ((
Very few have an actual project like Steemit attached to them with actual users and content. When you add in the freedom from transaction fees and the network speed it makes no sense to me.
Agreed. Not that my knowledge should be the metric of success... But there are so many coins I haven't even heard of that are bigger than some of the most valuable projects out there.
The fact that one application selling digital kittens can max out the ethereum network should cause investors to look at networks like steem with higher capacity.
Bitcoin is already fuked up with the scale-ability. Badly.
But if (when) it crushes, Steem will go down as well as all cryptos.
But all will get on it's proper places. Eventually
Great article!
I belive steem is very undervalued now indeed.
Even after almost 50% growth last night.
Great share. BTC is crazy right now...fees are WAY TOO HIGH and SLOW for every transaction. Steem and SBD is super quick and no cost...how can you even compare?!
I love steem but its hard to say exactly what its value is or should be as there is a pool of steem from this platform that is created and given out to curators there by watering down what the value of steem could truly be, but with that said i still think its a great long term investments and i believe that it will be able to stand the test of time. it will definitely also increase its value in future as more people use and learn about it.
Other cryptocurrencies reward miners the exact same way. All currencies inflate the "pool" of money, it's just a matter of determining who benefits from the inflation.
I just checked the maximum number of steem and it's 263 million, we are at 246 million in supply. I believe that the value will really run up fast after we arrive at the maximum supply. I predict that will happen some time next year. My question is how will curators be rewarded if there are no more steem coins left to mine?
I didn't know there was a maximum supply. Now I'm curious too.
its tripled in value since September. sbd payouts are so worth it.
I'm loving the high SBD value right now! To bad I have a bunch of SBD stuck in limbo on its way to Poloniex because I transferred it before they put up a notification about deposit/withdrawal issues.
I think I'm finally done with Poloniex.
Undervalued Indeed very exciting times ahead for STEEM and its community !!
@sethlinson I cant believe we still haven't reached a billion market cap. I don't see how Steem doesn't get to 5 Billion in the next couple months. Just my opinion, Happy riches everyone!
I hope you're right, and STEEM would totally deserve to be there
@captaincanary I mean it has a social media platform that you get payed to use on top of the amount transactions it can handle at no cost... Recipe for success IMO
I agree, going to power up most of my SBD I earn...resteemed
Right now I'm selling my SBD just because the BTC exchange rate is crazy high. If/when this anomaly stops, I'll do more powering up.
I don't need to spend that much of my crypto right now. I need the SP more at the moment :)
I use upvote bid bots to upvote my posts. I have them vote on posts that are 6 days old, then when that pays out I vote on the next 6 day old post. Since I get as much or more SBD as I put in, it lets me recycle my SBD and earn lots of SP while I do it.
I think we will see wide spread adoption when Steemit goes mainstream in a few years.
I hope so.
Steem and Ripple were the very first currencies I invested in ( well ofcourse after buying Bitcoin). I have never taken out any penny from steem since then. I have full faith in steem that one day it will prove its worth. Prices have started going up for steem but $3 is nothing as compared to the concept of Steem
My mind was blown when I first heard the concept of Steem. It's so different from other social media models that prey on your time for their own profit and sell your information to advertisers.
I'm glad to see that the prices have been rising lately.
one of the biggest opportunities since the invention of the internet itself.... great times to be around....
It is already a successful working product. Just need some marketing. Prominent celebrities need to be encouraged to come to Steemit. Their followers will directly following resulting in Steemit being a top 10 coin.
Some big names have come to Steemit already, but they've mostly been names that are big in the crypto or anarchist communities. If the community can snag a mainstream celebrity, that would be huge!
Agreed.
Good to see these figures presented along with your assertion that Steem is undervalued. Given the fees being charged by BTC, it seems as if Steem is a viable and in fact great alternative.
But there's the question of Steem's utility outside the Steemit platform. Does it have such utility? And does it actually require such utility?
Regardless, Steem is a valuable crypto on a revolutionary platform with amazing potential.
(Also, thanks for that "capacity / activity" chart. It's very enlightening and informative.)
I think steems time is coming!!!! People are slowly figuring it out!!!
Steem has a huge future, just a matter of time! Blocktivity is a great resource to find the relative value of a blockchain
In my opinion, BTC is simply running on inertia right now. Once that inertia wears off, steem has a chance of making the mainstream as a currency instead of just a "token of appreciation" for a social media platform.
To date, I haven't kept much in steem, but I am starting to think about transferring more into it.
I won't transfer into Steem or even power up my SBD until the Bitcoin rally dies down. Maybe I'm part of the problem lol
Maybe it's now starting to die down a bit? A little diversification is never a bad thing
I keep seeing posts like yours lately, even more than usual after the Ethereum blockchain proved to be unable to handle cryptokitties. This is a clear sign that Steem is definetely ready for a mass adoptikn which I think will happen sooner or later. Steem right now has just a marketing problem which needs to handle before becoming mainstream!
Bring on the STEEM KITTIES!
I would if I could :))
Great Post. Resteeming it.
Thanks :)
you really understand this problem. i really want to learn from you and help me @ jol09
Like I said in the post, I'm no expert. But if you look around Steemit, you'll find plenty of people with a strong technical background who can better explain these issues.
follow me back friend.
please help my vote @jol09
I like your thoughts.
And they are similar than mine.
Half a year ago I started investigations about cryptos.
Steem seemed to be one of the most impressive ones and I thought that it could do very well on the market.
Obviously it didn't, compared to Bitcoin and others.
Nevertheless I still like it and I still hope it's value is going to improve.
from the tittle nothing else, fatcss love steemit
@Resteem
Thanks for the resteem :)
It is just a matter of time, Steem will attain to its rightful value in the committee of cryptos
I totally agree. Steem is the most undervalued currency right now !!!
There are three tokens used on the Steemit network.
Steem (STEEM) - Steem is the base currency of the Steemit network. Think of it like an inflationary fiat currency. Right now, Steem inflates at 9.5% per year. However, the inflation rate will decline by approximately .5% per year. The inflationary nature of Steem means it is probably not the best of the three to invest in.
Steem Dollars (SBD) - Steem Dollars are digital tokens pegged to the U.S. Dollar. The founders of Steem wanted to pay content providers using a token that didn't have wild value swings. Holders of Steem Dollars recieve an "interest rate" equivalent to 3%. That means 3% of all newly created Steem goes to the holders of Steem Dollars. Generally Steem Dollars should be trading at or near $1 USD
Steem Power (SP) - Steem Power gives you the equivalent of an ownership stake in the Steemit network. 15% of all new Steem created is given to holders of Steem Power. So if you owned 100 SP on Jan 1, 2017 you will own 115 SP on Jan 1, 2018. Steem Power holders receive the biggest rewards and have the most power on the Steemit network. The more SP you have, the more weight your upvotes and downvotes carry. If Steemit becomes the next Facebook, then early investors in SP could become rich...
By the way the guy that created the Steemit Blockchain is also on the EOS Team I would check out EOS.
I just started into the big jungle of crypto like 2/3 months ago, and what you are saying is true. I do not understand why Steem is not picked up by more people... I mean the specs are good, so whats the problem? Im in though, love it!
I love steem I will have more friends
I just came across this post. Bravo bro‼️ People will start using STEEM the moment they find out about STEEMIT 🤞🏾📈🚀♻️ STEEM to the 🌕🌕
Amazing post @sethlinson. I really love steem, but would hope that his value will increase more. I have upvoted and resteemed your post