– Albert Einstein.
In a rare show of positivity and praise for Steemit – I wanted to explain why I am investing in Steem Power.
I am the target investor – someone who uses the site and who is willing to invest in Steem on an ongoing basis. I think people misunderstand Steem the same way some of the people who comment on my posts don’t understand some of my writing (unable to tell fiction from fact, or they liked the story but wished I had added a Cat).
There has been a lot of negative talk lately about the platform and economy. I am a not a traditional investor – I am aware of the risks inherently involved in the crypto world. This is a small bet on the future. That is why I didn’t power up 100k Steem (not to say I won’t in the future). Win. Lose or draw – I am going to be contributing to this site. I have no problem committing a few dollars to something I use every day (even if I view it as a simple hobby).
There are a lot of armchair economists on this site – talking about the sky failing – or cashing out every last Steem they earn even at a ridiculously low exchange rate.
I expect people to do this – that is part of the allure of Steemit – a little monetary gain and a little longer term investment (in SP). We need people to get out so new investors can get in. The more liquidity we offer Steem Power holders – the more guys like me will invest. If there was a secondary market for SP (if it were transferable) some of us would have a "field day" - it would be an even better investment at a discount!
With all the negativity you read on this site – one would think that this site was run on someone’s homebrew PC in their basement.
This is not the case.
Steem is not a stock, neither is Steem Power. It gives you about as much say on what goes on at Steem Inc as a blade of grass. So why buy SP?
I think Steem is cheap. I believe in the concept. I know that start-ups go through cycles. I thought of running a witness and seed node at one point (which would be a few hundred a month in server costs) – with the new fork and the fact that so many people are interested in being a witness – I calculated that it makes more sense for me to buy SP than try to ARB a witness system.
Steem has its share of haters. When grouped together it seems as if the tail can wag the dog. As if a user's long winded article - complete with mathematical calculations - is going to to change the business plan of a corporation. The "Inc" in Steem Inc means Steem is a corporation - a separate legal entity under law - controlled solely by its directors and shareholders.
A convertible bond (SP), the SBD or liquid Steem do not give you any say in how the corporation operates (no matter how much you own).
Steem Inc. is a private business that has their own share structure and their own development plan. It is a business with employees, overhead and the same challenges an infighting every business faces. Employees are likely compensated at least partially in common shares. Those shares would give you a say (but not much) – apply for a job and maybe you can get your hands on some!
This site probably should have been an invite only closed beta to keep things contained– but the owners took another approach (which was probably appropriate at the time). I own convertible debt in the form of Steem Power which does not allow me the right to question their approach (which is why I bought it). I don't want to tell anyone how to run their business - but I do want to contribute to something I think has the potential to be great. I have fun on Steemit and I am not embarrassed to say it. I like to write - I like to read - I like to vote and be up-voted - I could care less about the UI - I'm happy with the way things are today - which means as the system gets developed there is only more to love.
I have owned a number of businesses in the past – these guys/girls have a plan - no matter how ad-hoc you might think it is. There is no way that they are adding features, showing their faces in public and making major changes to the economic situation if they are trying to “pull a fast one”.
Steemit has publicly admitted to having 18 months of runway. As a private corporation they don’t have to answer to anyone on this website. They don't need to give powerpoint demonstrations or distribute quarterly financials. Regardless - sometimes @Ned or @Dan or whomever will swoop in and let everyone know that the building isn’t burning. This obviously shows they care. I don’t think this is their duty. Nobody is discouraging anybody from taking their content to another outlet if they feel they can either monetize it better (not likely) or gain a bigger following.
The stickiness of the users who take to this site is amazing. Look at the collaborations like @Steemdrive who are crowd-sourcing money and using their time to negotiate for billboard space around the world. These are average people trying to do something extraordinary with a platform they believe in. I've never taken out an ad in the paper or put up a billboard because I thought a website was "cool". @SteemSports has close to 20 people working on it. Digests such as Curie and Steam Guild have developed communal voting and have shared the weight of the projects with voting power and time. Digests like cure have helped level the playing field for the "little guy" - shows us content we may have never seen - and encourages good content producers to stick around.
This is a growing community - real people are forming real bonds. I don't think original plan accounted for the social aspect of this site to be as big as it is. The fact that this is happening and we are using stop gap measures to talk like "Rocket Chat" or "Discourse" - shows me that people are looking for a new community - and even on a beta platform lacking some basic social functionality - some people are finding that here .
The average person on this site probably doesn’t know Python and has no idea what this technology is capable of. Rather than bore you with the ins and outs - I will just say its exciting. The good new is you don't need to know anything about a blockchain or Python to buy SP. I’m buying into something where I am willing to give control of my money and of the overall project to the ones who have built it so far (and understand it far better than any of us on here) .
I used to work for Microsoft when I was younger. I alpha and beta tested a TON of their products. I would even work on the final release when it came out (still full of bugs).
The user interface on Steemit will look better - one line of code could change the color scheme - they are obviously testing and waiting to implement features (like the profile picture and notifications that recently showed up).
In a beta you don’t need to be the slickest site on the block (look at Google before they had $70b in their checking account). Did any of you graduate from BBS to Usenet to Forums to IRC to ICQ/MSN/AIM to Myspace to Facebook and I guess then to Instagram and Pinterest? All of these site were revolutionary - and the technology was nowhere near as sophisticated . I rebuilt Facebook 1.0 in a few hours one day (as close as I could). Remember signing guestbooks on websites? Facebook wasn't much more than that at one time.
Facebook was embarrassing when I first signed up. I had to be invited in by one of my friends who was invited by another of our friends from Harvard. It seemed to be a crippled Myspace – it was terrible – but it had something beautiful in its simplicity.
Facebook survived because it was a magic time when a few lines of PHP and a Database made you a player. Blockchain is not simple technology to understand. This is not a simple php/mysql based site.
I was an Director of I.T once upon a time - development at most companies - in simpler situations - can take months or longer to roll out simple features. Adding a feature to a site that sees a few thousand unique visitors a day is NOT the same as a few lines of code on your WordPress blog (I read a lot of people who think things can change quicker than they understand).
There is also an economy behind the website which makes it unique - rolling out a bad feature could cause everyone and their dog to take short positions on Steem (hang out on the Poloniex chat channel if you don't believe me)
I was one of the first Gmail users and I remember thinking what a joke it was at first. I swore I I would never “put up with ads”. I ended up moving all my email over there during their beta release and never switched (now I own their stock). This site might not be Gmail - but Steemit certainly is something nobody else is: A blockchain based social media platform built on a cryptocurrency incentive model.
There will be tough changes that the management may need to make. Maybe the UI will move away from the “Reddit” style. Maybe the back-end will look better and we will be able to have more of a social presence. One thing we do know - is this is a site that is different from Twitter and Facebook - and many authors and artists have found a comfortable home here - both for the reward and the socialization,
I think the new changes to the system reflect what many investors on the side have been waiting for.
I am a content writer, curator and working on a side project specifically for this community. Ive brought aboard my Mother and Father and only need to work on my Wife (I am explicit in my sales pitch - its a beta site.. dont expect much ... but the idea.. a glimpse of the future).
This site will not blow up and disappear like some people have suggested. There will always be someone willing to buy at least whatever is left of Steemit - I certainly would at the right price .
I don’t need to defend Steemit much more. The company has a vision it doesn’t need to share with me or you because you have to be blind to miss the potential. I can see 10 years down the road – if you don’t understand that the Blockchain and revolutionary ideas like Steemit are going to shape in the future – I am not going to be the one to persuade you.
The real elephant in the room is adult content (porn). Like it or not it will and should have a home somewhere on Steemit. It might not be part of the official plan but if Iv'e learned anything over my career in Internet Advertising - its that where the Adult content goes - so does the market (and the money).
I'm sure this will be something segmented from the rest of the site, games, video and other media will need to be segmented too (there is no way your short story can compete with 1000 votes on a game asking you to solve a riddle.
If you have a few bucks in cash hanging around and you think Steem is going places the same places I do - I encourage you to put your money where your mouth is and power up with me!
I love what you wrote, and agree with everything you have to say. One question though - did you actually power up $10k worth of SP? It looks like you did 10k STEEM, which is closer to $1.2k.
it says Steem in the title ;) Its a healthy start - im not saying im saving the whales here - I am saying that outside money is coming in from normal non-crypto investors. Its the beginning of a new relationship with the platform. I was hoping to shore up some interest and maybe inspire others to power up. I plan on continuing this in the future - this is the last post I will mention it - but let it be known - some people actually believe in this platform enough to take money out of their real bank account. Thanks!
For sure. Not sure if you caught this post from me, but I said a lot of the same things :) I think as a long-term investment we are sitting on a potential gold mine!
Also, not a huge deal but you may want to update the title to ȿ10,000 STEEM. ȿ is the currency symbol the community decided on for STEEM instead of $. Most people will interpret $10,000 STEEM as "10,000 dollars worth of STEEM".
I get what you are saying.. the URL.. instead of putting a dollar sign it wrote usd
Wow sorry for the confusion..
No biggie. I left a suggestion in the other comment. Once you create a post though, the URL will not change - no matter what you do with the title. ȿ would still help clarify though :)
What is the ALT combination for that symbol? I updated the title with the appropriate symbol - thank you.
I'm not sure. I've always just copy/pasted it off the http://steemd.com/witnesses page whenever I need it :)
It looks like this page has the details for it:
graphemica.com/ȿ
well said, re-steemed.
Absolutely, and still buying!
Great read and i do believe in steem. I think its going to be the next thing in the future. I'm new into this whole crypto, blockchain and of course steem, this social site build on blockchain I think it's genius, the guys behind this are brilliant, I've only been on this new adventure for just over a month and i think everyone starts googling as i did and finding a lot of negative things on this technology, because its an untapped technology as such, which I ignored because I always kept in mind think out of the box. The negativity comes from people who don't take time to understand it and teach themselves about it. I'm really looking forward to what steem holds for the future and happy to be part of this community. i'll even put a prediction that facebook is going to start loosing users, because these days it just fool of unnecessary, unwanted, repeated articles and post which I'm really getting tired of I'm might even soon disable my account for a while as we all know the account isn't deleted. the irony of what im doing next is funny which is sharing this on facebook, so we can get more steemians to this community. POWER TO STEEM, STEEM FOR PRESIDENT....LOL
Alas, common sense! I love what you had to say and I agree with it 100%...even the adult material stuff, which some of us writers have been using the NSFW tag to warn our gentle readers. I wish I had money to invest - but I don't. I have time and creativity and I've been dedicating a lot of both to build my reputation and be a Steemit community advocate.
I'm glad you pointed out that Steemit Inc is a business entity. Unless you've run any kind of business (big or small), one might be clueless of all the hoops a business goes through, and having a bunch of people saying you have an ugly baby gets flat out offensive.
You represent what this site is all about. Content is just as important as outside capital - one cant exist without the other. This site has a 10k Alexa rating - meaning its the 10 thousandth most visited site. I know that doesn't sound impressive but it is. In April is was over a million and July 100k - the site is growing. I have done a number of searches on Google lately and have gotten back Steemit results. Think about how much traffic this site will get as it grows. Look at Wikipedia - they are at the point where you cant search for anything with out them popping up. There is value in that! We all win.
Resteem and follow. I totally agree with you.
Good to see some positive thinking.
well, I posted a pic of a cat today - you see what I got from your post. LOL!!
Welcome to the club! Please read this! You are not alone for sure believing that Steemit has a bright future! Congrats on your power up. This is much more that our minimum for your posts to enter in the Steem Booster!
Please take your time and list them! Good luck and welcome to the "group of believers" We have that special force!
Resteemed!
By your votes, it appears many of us agree with you. I think you're bare bones about it, which is great. There is a lot of beauty in the simplicity of Steem, and I see the vision of 10 years from now. I hope it doesn't fizzle out, and I'd be sad if it did. But gee willickers, it really stands to succeed, in my eyes. I think we could be on the brink of something pretty great. I like what you did with the historical treatment of Google and FB. That was a nice touch. We could be them in a few short years.
I remember when Digg came out - everyone thought it was the best thing in the world. Does anyone remember delicio.us? Those sites started out with no business plan and ended up fading to obscurity. This site is different than 99.9% of online startups. Companies like Twitter build in order to sell. Steemit started out of the gate with a business model that encourages user stickiness and introduces a whole generation to the wonders of the blockchain. Its not about the people have decided this site is not for them - its about respecting people who are on here - and writing quality content that you think adds to the ecosystem here. Steemit wont fizzle - if they ever needed help there are a ton of companies like Yahoo or AOL that love pet projects like this. More likely -some of us would pool resources and the community would buy the site.. come to think of it that sounds a little bit like Animal Farm ;)
Beautiful essay
Experience, Knowledge and Future Vision
Good reflection manual for all steemians
Very insightful post @rgeddes, I feel better already!!! Steem on, followed.
Very good points. And like you, I am here because I love to read and write, and build connections. I am having fun. I hate seeing negative rants about Steemit meeting its demise, because I have nothing but optimism about its future.
Rant.. tirade.. diatribe.. invective... rebuke - i've read them all. I look at Steemit like this - I would never invest a TON of money because I don't get to see their financials, shareholder meetings, etc. SP is essentially a "junk bond" high risk and high yield. That said I am lending the company some money essentially so they can make this site better. Anyone who spends a lot of time on here as a hobby may want to consider some SP to support the platform.
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Very interesting. I am always impressed with people who actually have some education and experience to back up their logic with not " I FEEL THAT...". So this is a surprisingly GOOD positive post, which is rare..
what do you do now if I may ask?
Following and welcome to the 10k club :)
I'm an entrepreneur.. Steemit is but one of my tiny pet projects that are difficult to explain ;) I have about 20 years worth now..
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STEEM will not have any spike soon! I will comment with this!
Some people on here seem to have a problem understanding what a long position is.. People powering up dont care if there is a big spike - its about what the value is a couple years from now - not next week. This is not a simple instance of speculating (parking your money in BTC waiting for it to go up) - there is underlying value in the technology and content - thats what makes this a unique proposition and why some people are willing to take a long position with money they can afford to do that with.
Thanks to steembost I found this post to vote and tweet! :)
Thanks for something of a top down view. I came to the same conclusion a few days ago (I have been here 3 months). The world of cryptocurrencies is becoming littered with "get rick quick" mindset and not a lot of solid substance that will get people doing things.
Steemit is coming at this from a strong application angle. It is in our hands to vote for the things we like and dump the stuff we don't like. It is this solid application base that suggested to me that Steemit is here to stay and that it will outlast the speculators and the "get rich quick" schemers.
That is why I moved funds from one crypto world yesterday and invested and powered up.
ps I found this post via @steemboost
I think its a good move (if you can afford to lose it of course).. One day the "executives" will be replaced and this thing will look different all together. I'm betting on the value of content and eyeballs more than I am on the "reddit" demonstration of this model. With the Steem blockchain - I can organize posts however I want on MY OWN site (which they are now willing to pay per post to achieve). That stuff excites me more than any "gamefication" model could (achieving levels and badges). I'm out of here if it ever comes to that ;)
My investment is small and it is part of a high risk share of my portfolio which goes into startups and new technologies.
My state of learning has not gone as far as working out how to leverage the blockchain. However, I can see how this helps me deal with organising the wide range of topics I aim to write about. Write first and organise later. Thanks for the idea.