Every day I hear and read that Steem is going to moon and that everyone will be celebrating and high-fiving in the Steemit streets and ordering matching Lambos. I wonder though, looking at how people use the platform and how they interact with it and other users, if they really are serious at all.
I am relatively sweat equity invested at Steemit and I see this as having the potential of providing me with a debt free future. It may never make me extremely wealthy but it sure could ease a lot of pressures if, and only if, the various platforms and the Steemchain are successful.
In some countries, ten dollars is a high amount whereas in others, it is relatively insignificant. This means that some are able to take decent benefits now with relatively minimal effort whereas others in another part of the world cannot do the same. For the same level of gain, they must make thousands.
But, this is a missed opportunity for those in cheaper countries also as with a little investment, they would not only be able to add a bit each week to ease their suffering, they would be able to build a significant future. They potentially have the most to gain from Steem price skyrocketing as it would have an incredible effect on their personal and local economies.
Those in more expensive countries are likely to have less of a boost to their own economies but, it would still be significant and has the potential to pay off credit cards, loans, mortgages and education costs AND still provide a continual source of secondary income. For me, this is a massive benefit and is perhaps why I spend so much effort creating content and throwing ideas out in the hope some will be caught and built upon.
With a world where job security and technology are reducing employment potentials, secondary income sources are going to be crucial for many people to survive, let alone prosper. Steemit offers a gateway into learning all kinds of useful paths and skills while creating secondary revenue streams early.
On top of this, it introduces people into the world of cryptocurrencies early where they will be able to learn, practice and test how to manage all things crypto and become about as close to the first adopters as one can these days.
There are so many benefits large and small to be continually gained whilst the Steemchain, platforms and hopefully price, matures. People want it to boom now but they are not seeing that unless they are already well established, they are unlikely to be able to take any large advantage.
This is not just from a held coin perspective, it is from all aspects of the process from content creation to market understanding. So many, get in and cash out while they can get something but it makes it like a real world job, the moment the income stops, one is stuck in the same position again looking for the next watering hole to drink from.
It would be much wiser to take the short-term risk (if one possibly can) and build it into several long-term income streams so that it gets to a future point where the platforms are largely working for you and giving some returns without having to invest huge amounts of energy each day to do so.
But, this takes potentially heavy early investment. Not just into good content production (which should be a given for anyone looking long-term) but into building the community, removing the harmful weeds and engaging in behaviours that will add value, not remove it. It is in this kind of environment that potential can be realised.
When the clutter and nonsense has been cleared away, there is the space to think, create, test, play and learn so that ideas, developments and innovations can cycle quickly through many iterations and evolve them into places that can support mass adoption.
But, this takes the majority of users to metaphorically 'grow a pair' and stop bickering, sniping, shit posting, spamming, scamming, vote selling and a whole range of other behaviours, and get serious. If this was a company, it would have already happened but the 'problem' is that it is decentralized, which means there is no authority to force it, it is up to the community to develop the Steemit gardens. We are the company.
So, this is why I wonder and ask how serious people are about using the blockchain to disrupt traditional industries, improve charitable interactions, reduce middlemen and really sending Steem to the moon? By the looks of things, the pool of long-term seeking, serious users is a lot smaller than the group of those only serious about what is in today's pool.
Unfortunately, without more people getting serious and investing themselves into learning what could be, there is very little chance of it ever being.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
Excellent, thank you!
I had the same thoughts over and over again. You hit the nail with the "company"-approach. Yes, we are the company.
I would go even further and say that this is the sphere which mirrors what the difficulties are in the world of matter. Democracy is not easy to maintain. It is sensible to shakes and twists and always on the brink to fail.
Decentralization is as if we find a new start in an untouched realm where we ourselves have to learn to act like entrepreneurs, judges, doctors, care takers, executives and so on.
I asked myself if this is also possible even when the board does walk other paths or is not mature enough themselves. For people really do look for guidance and would like to see it in the founders of this platform. Now, this is good and bad at the same time. It gives other players the opportunity to lead, create and build trust. Eventually the good intentions will pay out as well as the bad ones. For granted. In which degree is another question.
Of course nobody should forget that influence and maintaining is limited and also depends on outer factors like the value of the currency and the investors as well. This should be balanced out and every one who invests should seek for sensible and reasonable but also for emotional mature people.
what this platform actually needs is some guide that helps people better understand how steemit is really beneficial to everyone if they invest on it for the long term and not constantly cash out. (i.e. the economics of demand and supply et al.) but i cant blame them, some people are not better off as others and they urgently need the $$ to sustain their life or alleviate it. but they should understand that this platform is not intended purely for earning some money but as a social platform where people get to learn stuff and help people with their knowledge on certain niches, making friends and connections with different people from around the world, etc. some have this notion that this platform is only for earning money and that itself is hurting this community and having a huge impact on the growth of this platform. that is just my opinion by the way. as always, great post @tarazkp! :)
Steemit e will put forward the necessary value in the future..
Making coin and cashing out does some stuff though; it makes steem available, cheap, for those with longer time horizons; and it makes the whole thing 'real'.
If a guy posts some great stuff, cashes out, waves that money around, and tells his friends, that drives adoption. (It's not just pretend internet money, you can actually buy stuff with it)
Six months later, when the money's gone and the price has doubled; him posting how he wishes he'd powered up instead, is going to convince those same friends to look at the long term.
This is true but for the whales cashing out? those in the 70 reps with 1000 dollar account values? I am not against cashing out, I have done it too (and brought back in) and will continue to do so. There are so many people cashing out completely though and continually.
I am hoping that it will all work out in the end though and I will be able to take some and breathe a little easier. For me at the moment though, now is not that time unless I am showing too much rib cage. There is too much potential in the next year or two to cash out completely. It is not guaranteed but it is definitely there for the taking.
If whales weren't selling, the power would forever stay in a small group of hands, which causes it's own problems.
Yes, this is also true. There must be a balance point somewhere. Perhaps by spreading the wealth continually further.
I'm with Matt on this one. Plus it's not like they're dumping a heap of steem onto the market in one go. The price has been relatively stable (for crypto) for a while.
We are serious about succeeding as we have built our platform on top of steem blockchain and will be doing an SMT. Bet when i am talking about success here i mean that Steem blockchain will be successful. I am not that sure about success of steemit itself as i was in the beginning.
Yes, as much as I love posting here, there are going to be many other interfaces coming. I am hoping that Steemit will sort itself out and survive but in the end, it is the blockchain that is the most valuable.
I completely share your opinion. Steemit has inherent flaws in regards with rewards distribution that are very hard to fix, if not impossible at all. So let's see what other platform will offer and how they will fix it.
Long term here...I have been tucking away a bit at a time in Steem. Originally I joined to learn about cryptos, and then decided this is a good place to hold SP...I do not think it is going to grow much if people keep cashing out faster than it grows though.
Yep, this is why those in the know and have some holdings need to stop taking so much off platform and set an example for all under them.
I agree, and new people need a tutorial, because so many are here to make a quick buck and don't understand how a pool works.
I agree that we all need to "[cen$or3d] or get off the pot" when it comes to deciding how to make Steemit great. To your point, there are many ways to help the platform grow. One is investing in Steem Power, and curating content with your investment. Another is working on monetizing the new Smart Media Tokens (SMT) on the Steem blockchain. And the list goes on.
My investment (other than my time that I take to post content, read others' content, commenting on others' content, and thinking about what content to write about next) is the time that I spend on weeding out the scammers and spammers.
We have a lot of useful tools available to us on the Steem Blockchain, where we can "audit the transactions on the ledger" and identify risky transactions (spammers / scammers), if we know how to look for them and what to look for to identify the most prominent scams.
Now, this is unfortunately not something that I can devote myself to full-time because as (I believe you alluded to above), some of us have full-time jobs that we need to maintain in order to continue to exist in our everyday lives. But I do my part when and where I can, and I try to work with the community to make it a better place for us all.
As corny and cheesy as it sounds.. If one of us Succeeds in making the Steemit Community a better place, all of us Succeed! I believe that is true. And I believe it to be true because of the way the platform was developed and the original intent of the platform. Sure, there have been many changes from the original purpose of Steemit, but overall there are many people here (the ones who stick around the longest) who truly care about the community and who want Steem(it) to Succeed!
Yes, devotion full-time is a difficult thing for me and this eats every spare and often not spare moment I have. It is an investment into a potential future that does not exist for me in the real-world. This comes with many costs.
If enough people (big and small) choose to succeed here long-term, all others will benefit. The problem is, most are waiting for the benefits but are unwilling to step up and pull their weight.
This situation happens all the time, everywhere. It's just something that we're going to have to deal with, unless the rules of the world change. In the meantime, the people who don't pull their weight as much will not receive as much of a benefit in the long-run.
Patience is key, although I completely understand how the personal costs don't always seem to be worth the potential benefits of maintaining a consistent presence here. I'm still cautiously optimistic about Steemit's Future, or at least the Future of the Steem Blockchain.
$0 transaction fees is something that can not and should not be overlooked on the Steem Blockchain.
The potential to kill international bank transfers is one of the most underrated concepts. That alone can save a large company millions per year.
Some countries can live off 1 dolar. Which is incredible that we can distribute money to them.
I think we plenty of serious people. And that there are more to come. We are already see some great projects. I am excited to see what is more to come.
There is also group blindness future, as the circles you operate in are the active circles. There are many, many others. Of course, I am hoping that those taking it seriously are also the most invested and while they are taking it seriously they will support the next levels of supporters too.
The problem of Steem: What is the point in investing in Steem other than "make money"? Sure you could say that it is valueable to influence what is hot and trending, but do you think the stuff we do here is worth $250 Mio?
The question is also who is buying all this SBD that gets thrown on the market by us.
Interesting question but, it seems to be less volatile than other coins so I think some people head into it as markets retreat.
yeah I thought people might buy SBD if they predict BTC to fall, however I never heard anybody - not even Steemians - say that they used SBD in that way.
Where I first heard was a post a long time ago by @lukestokes
he is one of "them", though. My point is that only Steemians who are decently successful on Steem on a regular basis have a (major) interest to keep Steem at a high evaluation and therefor buy all the SBD that is generated by Steem.
From a financial or personal standpoint it makes no sense to buy SBD or Steem unless you are willing to bend the rules.
These are all conspiracies, I have no proof, just a certain feeling.
Just going to go with the title here.
Currently I am not in a position to invest in Steem but what I can do, and have done, is to go full-time. By which I mean that I actually terminated client work, and contracts, in order to focus on this.
All while having to grow organically (initially). It is a risk but as I've posted before, I play the long game. Part of playing the long game will also be to as soon as possible invest in 20k SP, whether via delegation or eventually owned. I feel 20k is when SP can truly be used favorably to help/promote/reward, it's IMHO a clinching point. In the spirit of disclosure, yes I will use that 20k also to upvote one of my projects, but only one and not self-upvote, but I have diluted over multiple accounts which also comes at a cost as such.
The rest, while not holding currently, is up to me and us. Being free of clients is both nice a thought, but also a challenge. Let's see what happens. I don't think this is a punt but if it turns out to be, it will have been an interesting one and hopefully it will also have been one heck of a ride. I love roller coasters.
I predict lots of #flearn and that, that I'm looking forward too.
The long game players are the ones that will bring the benefits both in the short term and long as it the space they create for all of the others to initially run with. For me, I am a collecting midfielder hoping to feed the ball, a communication point between groups. A lot of the communication needs to be cleared up here and perhaps I can help with that since my technical know-how is lacking.
Well said. I'm hoping that with the SMT's it will add some fresh breath/funds to the pool, which it alreafy has. With that being said I completely agree that it needs more investing and less withdrawing from the community. I understand that some people do it and need to supplement their existing/non existing income however in that case you need to learn to trade smart with other crypto's so you can trade some back to steem... Idk. There are other ways too, obviously, like getting more external investment on board but for now, many users should look at giving a little more than they're taking...
it will soon. I would highlight the engagement a steemian do.
the more you engage (either upvote or resteem) or just a simple comment like this makes it a more "community" state.
Interaction must be needed. This is not just a seen zone chat box of a friend saying "hi" hehehe you know what I mean.
Thanks for sharing this thoughts. Followed and upvoted!
I’m really hoping that this builds some steam and earns me some steem... 😂😂
I do every day post and the price is always down. I don't know is it steemit successful?. Maybe long long term.
Vote my blogs i did same for you
Lets see how a indian police dance
https://steemit.com/dance/@hotvedio/a-indian-police-ferforming-dance-for-public-with-love-and-love-indian-police