In times like these with a huge bull market forming, I like to take the time to look at specific values of cryptocurrencies and try to evaluate them depending on use. Now before I get started I want to make sure the readers know that this is just personal opinion and should not be taken as investment advice. I am someone who has lost interest in Bitcoin years ago for the sole reasons that it doesn't do things it promised to be able to in the beginning. Since then I moved on to other project such as Ethereum and I have huge respect for the creator of it. I believe that the token economy around it got spammed too fast and too much in a short amount of time. With the general thought process of investors "holding" this may have caused huge over-estimates of the value of tokens compared to their usage and effectiveness in the real world.
To start off, here are some of the biggest ERC20 tokens.
I'm not going to lie and tell you I know what all of these do, it's come to a point where there are just way too many for a normal human to be able to follow them all. I'm sure they all have their specific usage for certain purposes and deserve a certain value, but at this point it's mainly being pushed by speculation alone.
Speculation can be a good thing, but after some time if certain projects barely do anything real or are being used by real people for their designed usage, it's just another blockchain on top of Ethereum doing nothing but being a placeholder for its name while being speculatively traded on exchanges.
I stumbled upon these tweets by the creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin after the total market cap of all cryptos passed $500 billion recently.
As I said earlier I have huge respect for Vitalik, I've followed his tweets and Reddit comments for as long as Ethereum has been alive and I do believe he has a point in these. The recent mainstream adoption surely is not to be underestimated, everyone and their parents has heard of Bitcoin or blockchain up at this point. Many seem to forget though how inaccessible many of these currencies and tokens still are to the rest of the world. The big exchanges we know and use today are only a fraction of exchanges that exist for stocks, and the % of them that accept cash to trade in for crypto is even smaller.
Is he hinting that the blockchain market might be in a slight bubble right now and is awaiting a correction? Could be, or he could be pointing out how little usecases most of these tokens still have to this day other than being traded and speculated upon.
Steem is one that doesn't seem to have been gathering all that much attention lately, it might be due to it being quite new compared to the other giants. When new money is coming in it doesn't mean it's smart money, especially during mainstream times like these. How many new investors that create a Bittrex or Bitfinex account do you think look past beyond the top 5 currencies? I doubt there are too many and probably even less that do actual research on the the projects before going in. The FOMO effect is not to be underestimated these days, combined with a "holder" mindset Bitcoiners and others tend to brainwash them, which might not be so healthy especially for new investors facing a correction which they won't be able to react to even if they wanted. Yes, I'm looking at you Bitcoin's bloated blockchain. In one way you want to hold your coins off exchanges for safety, in another way you know it might take ages for them to be transferred to exchanges if the time comes when you will want to due to insane large confirmation times and a transaction backlog.
To get back into his tweets, as an active Steemian of course I couldn't help but compare most of them to Steem. Ethereum is after all not completely guilt-free from transaction costs and a blockchain being backlogged by kitties. Of course there are no direct answers to many of his questions, I'm just adding my opinions on them compared to our blockchain.
How many unbanked people have we banked?
There are so many people in the world that don't have access to a bank in this day and age. The pace of technology evolving and simple smartphones becoming cheaper each day allows for many to get access to digital banks through cryptocurrencies. This is very important for people in developing countries as many have to rely on cash which is losing value daily sitting in their pockets. For them owning and being able to use crypto's such as Steem will be of the utmost importance. Do you think someone wanting to buy food for 0.0015 BTC will want to pay a 0.001 BTC fee? Or using Ethereum to pay 0.05 ETH and pay 0.01 ETH in fees. No, they will want to use a method that doesn't use any fees but at the same time secures their transfers and holdings with cryptography. Once more people start using it and accepting Steem as payments people will start to notice what being able to transfer value with no fees attached actually means for its usage.
How much censorship-resistant commerce for the common people have we enabled?
How many dapps have we created that have substantial usage?
Although Steem doesn't rely on ads and adrevenue the same way older platforms do, we sure have a strong censorship-resistant platform which makes it possible for anyone to earn off their content no matter what the content is about. Since the blockchain only stores text files we already have projects enabling other kind of content to be uploaded while being censorship-resistant and using the Steem blockchain as a payment gateway. There is @dtube for decentralized video hosting, @dsound for decentralized audio hosting and recently announced @dlive for decentralized streaming. With so much more to come.
Augur which is a prediction market project has recently launched it's beta and you're telling me it is worth the same market cap as Steem? I think that's what he is pointing out with the usage of the ERC20 tokens, many of them lack it a lot and are just speculative predictions for now following the footsteps of Ethereum's own success.
How many Venezuelans have actually been protected by us from hyperinflation?
This one hit me the most as I've been reading and seeing a lot of posts from Venezuelan users on the platform lately. Many who have also contacted me on steemit.chat and discord, etc. Post reward for them are worth hundred times more than for some of us, they are people of many countries who are facing the same hyperinflation lately and blockchain is doing wonders for them. Can we say the same thing about many of the other blockchains? Bitcoin recently hit $120 average fee costs, with that amount in Venezuela you could probably afford food for a whole year for yourself.
How much actual usage of mircopayment channels is there actually in reality?
This one is a bit relevant to the other. Steem changes the whole meaning of micropayments because it has 0 fees. This will be really gamebreaking once the mass of users realize how this can work on the Steem platform.
Steem does all that very well already and so much more, yet it has the market cap of one of the least used ERC20 tokens probably. I do believe that the market right now might be overvalued and there could be massive corrections coming up soon, but in the long run there is nothing but upwards trend for blockchain technology. Where and when the money will be moving to from currency to currency is the billion dollar question, but I personally am happy to have found one of the most technological advanced blockchains out there and I consider myself very lucky to be here.
Then again I thought Bitcoin was overvalued when it was closing in on $1,000 compared to Ethereum which barely had a $50 million market cap. Now I believe they are both way too overvalued and I'm looking forward to see how things change from here on out.
Thanks for reading.
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I hope more people start to research about steemit since it’s in my opinion the best way of monetizing content online.
And vitalik is right about Venezuela, I am one of those Venezuelans recently getting involved in this community and I am sharing this website with my friends and family on a daily basis.
Next year we might see this project getting more attention and reaching new highs!
Hey, i'm venezuelan too! and i'm aware of the benefits that steemit could add to a regular person, starting with the principal problem that a minimun wage in venezuela is just 4$ , that's nothing!
Yes. It’s incredible how bad things are currently in Venezuela
You could help many by introducing Steem to them. I heard there are many who farm in videogames currently for living.
Soon, fanboys of other crypto projects will talk about how lame it is that there are 20 SMT coins more valuable than their own ;)
lol, this reminds me, haven't heard of synereo in some time...
I think they changed there name to spark (if I recall correctly). They haven't changed their "tipping" approach to reward content creators.
Hmm yes you have a point :) I know for sure that steem should be valued at a much higher price :)
Hey @acidyo! :)
First of all, the concept of this post is great and I liked it a lot.
I agree with your replies 100% and maybe we should drive Vitalik attention on the facts you shared.
I have to add I'm enthusiastic to the max about this platform and I enjoy it more day by day, it is definitely changing my life though, and I'm just getting started! :) :)
I do know this is a journey, I realized some time ago where the destination is and I smiled :) but as well I know, I need to enjoy this journey as much as I can cause lets face it its beautiful, revolutionary and giving me (as a young man in this world) some opportunities I could have never dreamed of.
Hope we stay in contact man :) enjoy your beautiful day
Peace
It seems to me like both Steem and Ethereum are highly undervalued.
Comparing them to each other feels like apples to oranges, though. They are functionally different platforms, meant for different purposes, and have distinct (even if often overlapping) developer ecosystems.
The way I see it, STEEM as a crypto asset has the potential to follow a 2017 ETH trajectory – which would mean 80x-100x in 2018. The value of a well tested (compared to other blockchain platforms) media publishing and sharing network, designed specifically to incentivize network effects for content creators & social media users everywhere is hard to deny.
It will hit a sudden inflection point in adoption and media attention, with all of the capital that follows, when account creation is simplified, the UX of Steem based interfaces like Busy, DTube, DLive, Steepshot, and Steemit continue to improve, and the Communities feature goes live. That last one will have a massive impact.
That's why I've been telling everyone I know to pay a lot more attention to Steem (the blockchain & the assorted cryptos). To join this community, post about anything they care about, and buy Steem. If history is any guide, they'll continue to ignore it until FOMO becomes too much for them – and complain about why they didn't see the opportunity sooner.
Same thing is happening with Bitcoin and Ethereum now, even if for entirely different reasons than what will drive Steem adoption...
I went to a crypto event run by a friend of mine in NYC last week where 9000 people – mostly institutional investor types – tried to get in to a venue that unfortunately only had space for ~100. Key takeaway: Hundreds of billions of dollars are about to flood in to crypto markets from institutional and retail investors.
tldr; Mike Novogratz is right: The herd is coming.
b tway: can you talk more about this meeting? are there photos?!
I'm planning to do a full write up of that event and a few others I've gone to over the last week tomorrow. Will cross post the link for that here when I do.
The question is is it a good thing that the herd is coming? Up until now, retail investors are the power behind the rise of bitcoin and ether. Now the pros are getting excited. Wall Street money managers have a long history of creating pump and dump scams and all kinds of accounting tricks. It would be very easy for them to apply the tricks on the ICO market as the market does not have regulations or third party audition for their financial books.
I don't know whether it's good or bad. Just that it's happening... and that it was probably inevitable.
It's a strong part of why I see value in the potential of Ethereum, crypto games & Steem as platforms for viral user growth: We're in a race with established institutional players to spread access to cryptoeconomic opportunity to everyone on the planet.
IMO, when everyone has substantial access to networked markets, financial literacy becomes the new standard, and incentives better align against institutional abuses.
i agree, great comment!!
Vitalik is a top guy, I respect him as well. I do not think ETH is overvalued though, if anything quote the opposite. But a lot of erc-20 are..
Steem though is so hard to say. I think that Steem changed more lives than ETH did though which is pretty impressive!
Well @acidyo, I live in a third world country and steem is beginning to gain popularity over here by the day, hence "banking the unbank". At this rate, steem would take over the world someday
Welcome to Steemit! Good to have you here. Keep talking with people in Nigeria about Steemit. I think it will make a difference.
Thanks a lot. I will do just that. Definitely, it would make a difference :)
You bring up some really good points here that I think are very important to realize in this euphoria. What have many of these coins accomplished so far ? Because if we only judge them based on what we think they will do then that is a pretty risky investment. This point which you bring up I think is very important for each individual to reflect on.
Steem is extremely undervalued as it has proven it works for a long time already. It is also one of the most used cryptocurrencies out there I also agree with a hundred percent.
I think the top 100 on coinmarketcap will change a lot within the coming month. But the ones with the underlying technology will remain and climb higher.
Without a doubt Steem will be one of them.
You and I have talked about this before and I do not understand how steem is so (imo) grossly undervalued. It is one of the few that have a fully functional use case, has the fastest and fee-less transactions, a few hundred thousand active users, proven ability to get value to where it is needed and with SMTs coming, a near limitless expansion.
I just don't get it..... Am I missing something?
I really don't get it, so don't worry. lol
What do you think it is worth...?
I think the current price should be between 5-10 but I am no expert in the area. With SMT uptake, I am hoping 20 to 50 in 2 years. Let's see if we can get our acts together.
If you're missing something, then so are the rest of us, lol. It's shocking to me that STEEM /Steemit hasn't taken off in a much larger way after having been around for a decent amount of time now.
Man, 120 dollar average fee for BTC? That's fucking nuts. Also, the creator of ETH seems like a pretty good/transparent guy which is nice to see, judging from those tweets anyways. I can't say I'm as huge of a fan of most of the other crypto creators to be honest. Anyways, this was a good article, man. Filled me in with a lot of information which I wasn't privy to before.
I really hope eventually Steemit starts getting the recognition that it deserves. It certainly feels like the most undervalued platform with STEEM also seeming like the most undervalued crypto. On the bright side, while it is undervalued everyone can build more of it up, which is a plus, I guess, lol.
It due to btc unable to scale. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@sames/here-are-all-the-plans-bitcoin-plans-to-scale-without-increasing-block-size
As you see core will support these ideas but exchanges will refuse to use them. Bitcoin had a future but it has fallen but steemit was scale able from the start. While i still believe in bitcoin i been moving to others coins such as steem :)
Well said my friend! There are so many speculative platforms out there that haven't even been created yet and they still have way more value (on paper) than steem. That is insane if you think about it! It also shows us that steem is probably one of the safest investments right now which is definitely not in a bubble compared to other cryptocurrencies.
Steem is only half a billion market cap and yet it is such a beautiful platform that has actual use. I know I repeated everything you have been saying all these months and even from this post but I just wanted to prove to you that I have been listening and that I appreciate all the information that you are giving us.
Is crazy to see that when you look at the 7 days price change of top 50 currency, most of them are in the green. In fact, going down all the way to top 100 show similiar trend as well.
The current "bull" in this market pushing the price keep on going up, and up. The question now is, unless the price can move up faster than the other currencies, we'll still regard them as undervalue. Fair price is a moving target.
I am still new to this platform, have no steem in hand at the moment. Definitely, would much prefer it to stay where it is now, so that I can start accumulating it. :P
Yea, just keep posting stuff and you will accumulate steem :)
@Acid There Is many Big Players Want To Increase Price Of there Coins Even if it is not worth it , People Don't care if the coins have Great Project or not They Want Just To make a Big Profit So Who Have Money Can Make Price Go Up or Go Down ^^
Those are vital questions to ask.
It's pretty clear that Steemit has banked people who otherwise would have little to no access to cryptocurrency and is directly responsible for providing a literal platform for uncensored speech.
I hope Steem stays undervalued for a little while longer. I'd like to collect as much as I can before it goes to the moon.
@shayne ԅ( ͒ ͒ )ᕤ
I think because the products on the steemit blockchain (dtube, dlive, dmania, dsound, zappl) are up against their centralized predeceders (youtube, snapcat, 9gag, soundcloud, instagram/twitter). It's going to take a couple more years for blockchain to become more mainstream for people to make the transition to decentralized mediums. It may take a while but it will be worth it.
Agreed 21,000,000%!
Are you saying each Bitcoin will move into Steem? ;)
Now THAT would be something... Steem with Bitcoin's current market cap!
EOS could dethrone ETH too, I just know it. ☺
And it needs to happen so quickly that the Winklevoss boys end up crying! They wouldn't know what hit them!
GJ GUY
You know... for "good job"!
This post has received gratitude of 1.00 % from @jout
You got a 0.20% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @jout!
Very good information @acidyo. Your post is very informative and sometimes eventhough opinion is just an opinion, it does matter.
STEEM has doubled in the last month. This is just the beginning! Go STEEM!
Steem should be in the top 5 for sure. The fact that there are no fees and transactions are instant is the reason most of us got into crypto. Steem will get there, especially with smart media tokens.
steem is most undervalued currency in the market....
Following this analysis I would say that Ethereum is showing the potential of where STEEM can go.
Steem is still very young and when it is at the stage Ethereum is, it can be worth potentially!
Great post! Thanks for the read
While trading through some websites, i was surprised that Steem is not there. I believe that Steem is and will prove to be more valuable than other cryptocurrencies. Its a matter of time till people realizes it.
It's growing organically and at a much healthier pace than most other projects. I think it is a good thing for long-term profitability. So while I do understand how some might be impatient as they watch other cryptos surge in value much quicker, this is how the long-game works.
Good way to think about it.
This is why I am still holding mah steem. It'll get discovered, go mainstream, and I predict this will happen before 2018 is out.
The best part is that it only takes 1 of the many applications built on steem to go viral for the ecosystem to follow.
Exactly. I am betting on utopian.
is your prediction for a reason...? ( i so hope you are right)
Absolutely! Many reasons! With more exchanges adding (or considering the addition) of steem and sbd to trading platform, the value of the coin is bound to attract authors looking to make a buck off their content. And investors to raise the coin value.
At the same time, platforms like utopian, bescouted and other similar websites and services will offer these new users an interest-specific kind of steemit, where content discovery and creation will be much easier.
And then SMTs will come along, letting people like me and you create local coins for specific verticals and manage a moderated community. This will offer an oportunity for app developers, community leaders from other platforms, and publishers from various locales to join steem, launch their own SMT and turn their own content producing community profitable.
I've given this a lot of thought, and I am still reading a lot and asking many stupid questions. I try to be optimistic, and it's pretty easy as long as I ignore all the flag-war drama crap.
something something... flag drama crap. lol
Ok, you obviously have forgotten more than I know about this. ( I am the dunce in the corner when it comes to techy things- yes this sounds almost techy to me! lol)
Ok, so thats all that good then!
(and yes, forget the flagging - it's self defeating)
Thanks for the full reply!
11th February 2018
Yes. I believe Steem is guarded heavily. The reasons for its creation are being followed. You can't rush in hoping to milk it, you will be shown the way out. You must create value, add value before you can earn. Most people don't know other cryptocurrencies exist. You see them shouting bitcoin, ethereum etc. Educative post @acidyo
Electroneum is the new craze
Steem is better than ethereum as building a platform on ethereum is very hard.
steem offers a simple solution
Steem token trading incurs 0 fees
If you want to build a platform on a blockchain the token trading should not incour fees
Steem is really undervalued
At some point, at least some of these blockchains/coins are going to have to deliver real tangible value to society... we can't have every coin plugged as a store of value or as a means to transact or buy a service from a singular company.
Ethereum might be over valuated compare to Steem, but it is for sure under evaluated compared to Bitcoin. Mock my words, Ethereum should and will get to 10k/1 Ethereum so it is better to bet on it while you can, otherwise the train will leave you in the station.
Those are key things to ask. It is entirely evident that Steemit has kept money individuals who generally would have next to zero access to digital money and is straightforwardly in charge of giving an exacting stage to uncensored speech. I seek Steem stays underestimated after a short time longer. I'd get a kick out of the chance to gather as much as I can before it goes to the moon.
@acidyo You're right once again! Steem has too many technical advantages!!! It can handle all transactions combined like a boss at zero time with zero fees!
Steem to the Moon!
Highest Regards
@lordneroo
If it cant handle some kittys its 100% overvalued
Everything is overvalued compared to Steem!
I did notice the coin called Tron taking off lately. I'm hoping that with the SMT tokens steem will rise up just like ETH did. ETH this year.....8 to 700 or more...... Steem next year 2 to 100 or more?
I think the recent spike of money flowing into the crypto market has caused some of the bubble but i don't see it stopping considering the rate at which people are downloading coinbase and new investors enter the market
like the steem @acidyo
nice post thanks @acidyo
I believe that steem will increase
Well steem is gonna get reputation in 2018 i believe. Smart media tokens coming. I think it will rise properly
I voted and the amount increased a great deal.
Whale job!
Very informative post, I learned a lot about ETH and about the creator. As for your opinion about the coins being overvalued I agree as well as disagree. First of all I believe that the cryptocurrency market is still in its infancy. Bubbles are known when you can hear random people on the street talking about certain topics like investing in the stock market or real estate. Right now not enough people know about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies for that matter. Therefore I believe there is still quite a ways to go before we will see the values leveling off. Like you this is my opinion and would love to hear if anyone agrees or disagrees as I have been investing in the crypto markets for awhile and would like to hear any added information about them.
I completely agree, I have stopped buying the top cryptos for a while now, the market’s real world application is still in its infancy and all of this money come in from emotional investing. Either BTC and ETH can’t keep up with this pace of adoption and a huge correction may actually occur in the near future because the tech is not ready yet.
There are some great projects though really undervalued, EOS and Steem are two of them, no fees and infinite scalability is what we really need, I see these two becoming huge gainers in 2018 even if a major market crash arrives.
About Crypto in General but Steem especially, i wanna see an article from you about how Crypto could be affected by the "End of net neutrality" in USA
I can’t remember who it was who posted up the transaction and capacity leaderboards, with Steem and ETH swapping places at the top (but ETH with a big fat ! on the capacity indicator). Eventually, people are going to sit up and take notice.
great article
Both Steem and Ethereum are undervalued in my mind. For one, we barely scratch the full potential of cryptocurrencies in general. Ethereum is not even being used in smart contracts - i think this is where its real disruptive value lies. Secondly, ETH is still in the process of addressing the scalling issue which I think will come in March 2018 with its planned hardfork. Once that's fix, its price will go to the moon. I'm also a big fan of Steem but got several concerns on the current ecosystem - lots of loop holes and many of these was mentioned in the post.
It's the big money comin in, and the hype of the average person seening the prices go up and wanting in. Nothing abnormal. Just wait till gambling takes off with private coins and stuff, its mostly bitcoin right now. Or the pot market explodes. Trillions of dollares
Hello @acidyo !
I could ask you a question and I really wanna know your opinion :) !
Do you think this flash grow of the crypto coins will go down instantly and we will lose all the investments ? And we wake up with a dirty surprise in the morning with the Bitcoin or Ethereum goin down 2 times faster than growing .
Good morning. Have a nice day. Thank you
This post is interesting. you have my upvote this post .... keep it up my friend looking forward to your next post
I think we must praise BTC hypervaluation because it makes a ripple of great benefits for altcoins as the prices are forced-correlate to bTC and this the price increases and the bulling effect on the markets.
I think I won't mind the fees if I have a very valuable BTC to move around. In short, all are doing good for the benefit of all.