The Desires of Crypto Investors
When people look for cryptocurrency utility, what are the main attributes that they seek? Based on the origins and hype of cryptocurrencies, the most desired attributes are decentralization, anonymity, fast speeds, and low costs.
So why does Steem underperform in the larger cryptocurrency market? It has all of the desired attributes:
- It is decentralized.*
- Accounts can be created with anonymity.
- Transaction times are near-instant (three-second block times).
- Transactions are free.
* The “ninja-mine” still appears to be a dark cloud hanging over the blockchain.
With the recent issues for blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum not being able to handle high volume and with miners requiring increasing fees to speed up transactions, why does Steem still lag in the wider crypto market? Why is investment so much lower in STEEM than in the tokens that can’t even come close to its attributes and its actual daily performance? With all of the continuous complaints about Bitcoin and other popular blockchains and tokens not being able to deliver on fast transaction times and low fees, why is Steem always overlooked?
As Bitcoin and Ethereum reach capacity for daily transactions and have thousands pending each day, Steem rolls on at much less than 1% capacity. With a current average of over 907,000 transactions per day over the last seven days, and a record of 1,044,574 in one day, it tops almost all other tokens in terms of daily use. The lone exception being Ethereum at the moment, which has seen a flurry of activity from the CryptoKitties craze.
Despite being able to do what all of the other blockchains can only hope for at some point in the future, Steem’s market cap is currently ranked 32nd on the list. Both its price and market cap are far behind tokens like Ethereum, Litecoin, and even purported scams like BitConnect. Steem has the desired attributes and it has proven that it can potentially handle the transaction load of all of the current blockchains.
So what’s holding it back?
Changing the Message
Steem’s attributes, as a blockchain, seem to be either rarely mentioned or quickly glossed over in the public realm, particularly – and surprisingly – from those promoting Steem. The best thing that Steem has to offer isn’t the ability to “make money by posting and voting on stuff.” That’s just icing on the cake, so to speak. The point that needs to be driven home during all public engagements and interviews is this:
Steem is a decentralized blockchain with near-instant transaction times and zero transaction fees.
That should be the opening and closing statement for all public promotion – and everything in between should be somehow tied to these facts. Don’t forget to add the capacity figures as well and that accounts can be created anonymously. Censorship resistance is also good to mention.
Is it possible to earn STEEM by posting and voting? Yes, it’s certainly possible and it’s a fantastic idea, even if the implementation isn’t perfect. But you know what makes it so great? The ability to send any post author some money almost instantly...and for free!
Don’t get me wrong – I think there’s plenty of usefulness in paying authors for their subjective contributions in terms of marketing and attracting more mainstream users. But paying bloggers doesn’t appear to be much of an interest for investors in the crypto space and it isn’t a problem needing a solution for those looking to escape the confines of the centralized banks and governments that back them. Having a decentralized, fast, free-to-use currency is what they’re looking for first.
In addition to appealing to those who are looking for the decentralized, fast, free-to-use currency, there should also be more promotion focused on the tech and database sectors/companies. With the capacity of Steem currently being less than 0.4%, despite being the most used cryptocurrency in terms of daily transactions, this blockchain could have much greater implications for data storage and tech development – in sectors that raise a lot of capital for research, development, and acquisitions.
A blockchain that is (relatively) decentralized, has near-instant transaction times, is free-to-use, is mostly anonymous, has enormous relative capacity to all other blockchains, and also pays its users for subjective contributions and is censorship-resistant...
Struggles to make any headway in the crypto and tech space.
It’s a travesty, really.
Possible Solutions
So we seem to have a problem with the message and/or receptiveness to it and I already laid out what should be the focus when promoting/marketing Steem. Obviously, we need to improve the message for the actual blockchain. But from where is this promotion and marketing currently coming?
Mostly, it comes from Steemit, Inc. – and since they have a huge “ninja-mined” stake that was apparently to be at least partially used for these purposes, we should really expect more from them in terms of marketing the blockchain and its capabilities. After all, if this is not being done (and it at least doesn’t appear that it is), then why did they need all of that money/stake in the first place? Even in Steemit’s 2017 Roadmap, it was stated that this stake would be used for “promoting and publicizing the Steem blockchain and its features.”
The Steemit, Inc.-controlled primary account, @steemit, which holds approximately 41% of the platform’s Steem Power, will be gradually divested of its holdings in an effort to increase promotion and development of the platform, and this distribution shall further the platform’s security through decentralization of voting power.
Several methods will be employed, including and not limited to: funding the continued research and development of steemit.com, the Steem Blockchain’s first and best application, promoting and publicizing the Steem Blockchain and features, hosting highly available services for platform users, sponsoring conferences and community gatherings, and sponsoring undertakings to build applications and increase user adoption across the entire ecosystem. – Steemit 2017 Roadmap, p. 21
When marketing is being done, instead of marketing the blockchain’s capabilities in terms of what crypto enthusiasts actually desire from a blockchain, Steemit, Inc. seems to be more focused on the ability to create additional coins via Steem and promoting the concept of ICOs (initial coin offerings) – at a time when ICOs are receiving much more scrutiny from and being more strictly enforced by regulatory agencies within various governments.
This doesn’t seem like the best strategy to gain more interest from investors – by inviting more scrutiny from regulatory agencies like the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).
It is especially troubling when the promoters of these offerings emphasize the secondary market trading potential of these tokens. Prospective purchasers are being sold on the potential for tokens to increase in value – with the ability to lock in those increases by reselling the tokens on a secondary market – or to otherwise profit from the tokens based on the efforts of others. These are key hallmarks of a security and a securities offering. – Statement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings, December 11, 2017
So the first obvious solution would be to get back to basics – K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid!) – and start promoting the blockchain features and capabilities. This isn’t something that’s limited to Steemit, Inc. either. All of us can do this. And all of us should be doing this, regardless of how many people we can reach or what our budget is. It costs nothing to tell your followers on various social media platforms or to talk to other crypto enthusiasts about it in crypto forums.
You don’t need a lot of money to promote something. You just need to find the right place for promoting it. Guerilla marketing can be very effective.
The other possible solution is probably a bit more controversial.
In my opinion, one of the largest impediments to Steem adoption is the lingering effects of the “ninja-mine” by Steemit, Inc. during the blockchain launch. The relative massive amount of STEEM that remains in Steemit, Inc.’s control today isn’t enticing for investors looking for a truly “decentralized” blockchain/currency. The ability to move markets so easily by having so much stake, and showing the willingness to off-load large sums at a time, can create a lot of distrust and cause plenty of hesitance for investors and platform users alike.
So the solution for this would not include continuing Steemit, Inc.’s multi-year “divestment” plan that can potentially keep investors on the sideline for years to come. Instead, I would ask that Steemit, Inc. actually burn a large portion of that stake, especially since it doesn’t appear that it’s being used for its intended and stated purposes. And with changes to account creation coming soon, which will result in less cost for account creation, currently having 73+ million STEEM in just two of their accounts (nearly 30% of the total supply) seems to be unnecessary for the stated goals and the current results of their actions (or inaction).
I would propose a burn of at least 50 million STEEM, which would bring the circulating supply under 200 million STEEM and would reduce Steemit, Inc.’s stake in those accounts to less than 12% of the new supply. This would greatly improve the claims of decentralization and show plenty of good faith to crypto investors who have largely criticized the “ninja-mine” very loudly since the inception of the Steem blockchain. And with the burning of that STEEM, it would reduce the amount of time for “divestment,” which mostly leads to selling pressure on the open markets.
As I said, this is likely quite controversial – at least in the eyes of Steemit, Inc. – and I don’t expect this will ever happen. However, I do believe that it would actually result in a better overall product and more ROI for them and the rest of the platform’s users and investors alike.
Closing Thoughts
Given the performance capabilities of the Steem blockchain and its desired features of decentralization, speed, and fee-less transactions, there’s no reason why it should be falling behind in a market that’s riddled with blockchains that struggle to perform simple tasks.
Bitcoin transactions can take hours or days. I waited for over three days for a couple of transactions to confirm last week.
Litecoin has rocketed to over $300 per coin, currently, despite having transaction times 50 times slower than Steem...and still charging fees.
Ethereum transaction times could take as little as 20 seconds, but the network is back-logged due to not having enough capacity. And even with faster speeds than Bitcoin or Litecoin, it’s still 6-7 times slower than Steem...and still charges fees. It’s currently priced at close to $700 per token.
There seems to be a disconnect with what Steem is able to offer and how it’s received in the crypto markets. I think that both better, focused marketing about the blockchain and some good faith from Steemit, Inc. to help resolve the issues from the Steem blockchain launch can help.
But this is just my opinion. What do you think about this?
Who do you think is attracted to the vapid "MONEY TALKS" blurb that jumps out at you when you visit steemit for the first time? Scam artists and super greedy types. This is one of the central issues in my estimation. TBH, if I had never visited Steemit before and all i saw was "MONEY TALKS", I probably would not even join. It looks scammy.
If i were in control, I would change that message to:
"Welcome to the New Gift Economy"
Leave it to Stella....I mean @slothicorn!
Very good point. Not only does the promise of free money sound scammy and attract people who won't add much to the community or the value of steem, it also causes unrealistic expectations leading to a bunch of inactive accounts.
Money should be the icing on the cake, not the punchline, we have so much more to offer as a currency, a platform and a community!
A community of shallow, money-grubbers, part-time scammers....ahhh....
Haha
Well sadly that’s largely true. I get so much spam on here
Sounds like a better graphic novel than social media platform
LOL I have to agree with the "MONEY TALKS" being super-shady. Nobody visiting Steemit for the first time will come away with a good impression after reading that. That slogan sounds like something Gordon Gecko would say.
I agree
It’s just cheezy
Agreed!
I suggest when we all share about Steemit to others (and I shared about avg now 1 every 2 days so I have enough practice to know this kinda works), I don't emphasize the money as much as the freedom and the ability to help others.
When they discover how big the money factor may be if they work at it, it's just the icing on the cake.
super-shady
The fact that they don't get this speaks volumes.
Bingo!
It sounds scammy, and experience tells me precisely who it attracts: A group of people I have come to think of as money for nothing seekers.
I found Steemit somewhat "late" (relatively speaking) and almost didn't join at all after seeing several versions of promotions all centered around Jeff Berwick's now-famous $40000 post. I looked at that and wrote this off as a lost cause.... I thought "These people are SO. FRAKKING, STUPID. to pitch that as a the primary attractor."
"Welcome to Steemit! Where 'Pay it Forward' is more than a clever saying!"
Scam artists and super greedy types. Loaded with these types here. . .
And the unofficial poster boy, drooling Youtuber, Jerry Scamfield is the biggest joke of it all. . Watch some of his videos if you haven't seen them already. . complete with bright shirts reading "Prayer" as he asks people to use his vote-bot with negative ROI.
Yeah, seriously. Constantly doling out big rewards to obvious scammers and morons isn't exactly helping on the marketing/PR front.
But...that doesn't have much relevance on the blockchain's capabilities, which should trump that stuff. So the question is still, "Why does it not?" Or is the fact that it's "based on" social media and is actually largely filled with the socially inept what's keeping it back?
IMO: Blockchain capabilities are an important point, but the website/ UI is equally important. In other words, Steem has unbelievable blockchain capabilities yet Steem acts as the fuel for a website that is slower than 93% of all websites in the world according to Alexa. Maybe the wonderful "fuel"(Steem Blockchain) is not recognized as a leader because it is currently only good for making sure a clunky second rate blogging platform is in existence.
Sadly that is true. Especially this past fall the site wasn’t even working at times. We need a fast site b4 any of these growing predictions come to pass
Maybe it all walks hand in hand.
Shitposting and scammers may not affect the blockchain's capabilities, but somehow they might influence the project's reputation. People are fickle... and often go more by rumors and reputations than by underlying facts.
I can't help but think somehow we/they jumped the shark by putting so much emphasis on the "money making" aspect of things. Simply put: it was a mistake... the sort of mistake people make when they are afraid (or too impatient?) their idea isn't good enough without a little misleading publicity.
Advertising "free beer and BBQ" will definitely fill a restaurant... but are those people the people you WANT there?
They all promise to be 'the next Bitcoin' when the only next Bitcoin is Bitcoin.
The analogy of next bitcoin is present scenario of bitcoin compared to the future scenario of a blockchain.
There has been numerous next bitcoin by that comparison.
So when btc was $1000, and Eth was $1-$5, they said Eth will be the next bitcoin. Do you think ETH now at $800 won't get to $1000?
As such is the logic of the metaphor.
Just pointing it out.
Here is the same logic as Eth that is relevant to our Steem scenario:
If you think bitcoin can get to $1million at say 20+million coins produced by then or whatever the timeline in decade+.
Then if Steem is the next bitcoin and we are just 20x more than bitcoin is total possible coin liquidity (assuming everyone powers down and trade Steem like bitcoin) at that point in time (say mid of next decade), then we will be worth around: $5,000 to $10,000 per Steem.
If you like I can do the math for you but I can see as a bitcoin fan you can easily figure that out.
Note for Near Future Comparison: We are only around 15x more (in liqudity) than bitcoin today, and say bitcoin today has optimistic 1 million real users (approximately over 1million bitcoin wallet exist about end of last year). If we get to 1 million real users in Steem in next 1-2 years, then our value can easily be justified as bitcoin divide by 15 without competing with bitcoin at all and using even today's number $18,000 bitcoin/15 is way-way greater than $100 per Steem.
Respectfully, even your account in a decade could be worth 6 figures, definitely in the thousands in the mid term, I hope you hold onto your Steem Power.
Truth!
They do effect it for sure. I e had friends give up on Steemit because they just saw and got spam all the time
Tens of Thousands gave up on Bitcoin, their story are all over reddit, but it's still $16,000 today.
And honestly for those who do figure out how to use it (especially if they find a niche and connect up with a few like minded souls) here on old beta Steemit, it's way more addictive than Bitcoin.
I was thinking along those same lines earlier today when reading a post. The scammers will detract from the site and as a member, I know they distract from my enjoyment when I am scrolling through new posts to find some content worth reading. I want to see the site prosper just as much as anyone, so I spend time and effort to post decent content and comment on posts that are worthwhile. I upvote every time I can if the content is valuable to me and I honestly gained something from reading. I think if we take the time to reply back to those who took the time to read our content and actually engage in interaction then things would pick up. I do what I can even as a newbie.
Agreed! I see so many scammers getting upvoted for literal spam
Rot at the top.
They have consistently chosen the crapitalust choices rather than favor the people.
You are correct, though.
Our utility should overwhelm the others, handily.
You want socialism instead?
I agree with your point here.
Not exactly.
This novel does a good outline: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25439
I want the end of rule by force.
We can figure the rest out once violence comes off the table.
Until dissent is valued over knobslobbing, this is what we get.
A bunch of knobslobbers rather than bald knobbers.
Not everybody is happy in a circle jerk.
Especially when ganging up disadvantages those that dont.
Low lifes have a chance of making big bucks here, which basically is a huge turn off to respectable creators....this could change with the right kind of people stepping up though. David Pakman is one who could really help with our image.
Just wanted to share this with you.
Dash is long over due for coinbase. I’m surprised about Monero though
very interesting!
Yes, nice informative post . well explained and easy to understand. Superb post. Keep sharing. I wait for his next post.
They could have at least called it , " Social Money" .
I see Steemit as a community. As long as it's small even a family. Maybe Facebook was a family but now it's full of every asshole in the world and some undersireables trying to scam and spy. Steemit is a family and we talk to eachother. I even helped a guy I don't know solve a immigration problem and that took some reading in government websites. Steemit is also entertainment and infohub where we can find all kinds of interesting information. And look we need money to survive, we are not hunters and gatherers anymore. We go to grocery stores and shopping malls. So it's nice to know that for doing the same thing you might have done on Facebook or elsewhere you can get a little contribution and maybe even thanks. Kind regards Stadex.
KEEP STEEMIN
I agree on Facebook
But sadly there’s plenty of those here already too
I could not agree more, you NAILED it right on the head. When you add a greed component it becomes Facebook on super steroids. Ego driven, money grubbing worms like Graig Grant make so annoyed...
You sir have hit ALL of the right notes on this post. If someone bothers to actually look a little deeper into Steemit, they would see how powerful and competitive this blockchain really is. But you know, the market is often irrational, and in Steem's case, uninformed.
Great writeup.
Feels to be a sticky one. Of course, it's tough to state concrete answers.
Indeed, one point you've mentioned is that most investors aren't particularly concerned with a platform that rewards bloggers.
Another I've come across: the understanding/misunderstanding of Steem's inflationary nature. I've read an outright, "Steem is horseshit. Who is going to invest in an inflationary currency." While there might be more to it than just that, it could indeed be a potential factor that might turn some off - and require better explanation to validate the model against such preconceptions.
Another factor: it's quite niche. And the general types that may be attracted to it are more those interested in earning rewards blogging than investing and utilizing the token for participation with curation. Most investors with the type of funds that could drive Steem price up probably aren't too interested in learning the ins-and-outs of this niche game and setting up their curation systems to turn the investment into a passive income. And measured against other tokens that can earn greater returns faster - what, then, becomes the incentive of holding a utility token they won't utilize?
Sad to say, another factor may be reputation. Despite Dan's projects being superior technically in regards to performance, it's appeared that the projects haven't totally gotten taken seriously in some circles. It was weird meeting Joe Lubin last fall, being introduced as a top writer on Steemit to have him give me a weird look and ask, "isn't that some kind of scam?" Hopefully, as EOS takes off and gains institutional acceptance, this may shift and some attention may come back to BTS and Steem with a fresh perspective free of such prejudice.
It is kind of a weird question, actually. There are so many shitcoins that have exploded in value comparably, that have nowhere near the solidity of foundation that's been being built here. But then again, this still is a new platform, it is an experiment, and is still under development. There have been speedbumps and learning curves, and overall, the platform itself might just not be ready for scaling to the masses - and perhaps price reflects that.
It is likely, however, that in the coming years as more money and attention flows into the crypto space, a proportionate share will flow into Steem. And, the big boom could just be a matter of the right partnerships or audience. As someone (I can't remember who) wrote about recently - adoption in China with a Chinese mirror site could drastically change the situation - as potentially could even one or two major influences or key players stumbling across Steem, seeing its propsects, and giving it the right kind of publicity...
Many people are really stupid and uninformed... Bitcoin was called a scam as well in the beginning... People just do not care about reading a 45 page whitepaper in order to understand how this can work. So they think that this is too good to be true and just stay with the market leader, even though with him they have to wait 3 days for a confirmation.
I think this is really the main problem... The median Facebook users is stupid as fuck... sorry to say, but it is like this... a billion stupid as fuck users we are trying to convince to get here.. only the top 10000 Facebook users are bright enough to read the Steem Whitepaper and come here...
Bitcoin was already a challenge... Many people needing 8 years to understand that easy technology... they might need 40 Years to understand concepts like Steem Power, Steem Dollars etc...
Also the majority of the Facebook users are financially illiterate and do not have a clue what they have to do in live...
Sorry for the Facebook-user rant... but as said.. the intelligent Facebook users are already here... sorry to say that there are not more of them...
So if we already have all the intelligent FB users, does that mean the top end has already been reached and there is no where to grow?
That's not on them, that's on us. Or, more specifically, on steemit. It ought to make things user-friendly. Or stupid-friendly, as you may perhaps prefer to phrase it. And that's true for all cryptos, and the biggest barrier for widespread adoption.
Every single person I recommended this site to, I had to hold their hand through the account setup process.
That's not a good thing.
You certainly raised a valid point in saying that the intelligent Facebook users are here already. I have posted several times encouraging and inviting others to venture over to Steemit and I get that dull, glazed over look as if I'm speaking a foreign language. I suppose they don't want to make any sort of income for wasting time and posting shit.
Bit of a strange paradox, isn't it? But speculation is often far more exciting than facts. There are a bunch of coins out there going to the moon on nothing more than the word "blockchain" was in their White Paper 20 times.
The footnote I wanted to kick in there is that this is not specific to cryptos... it's an investment problem. Well... that's actually not quite true. It's a lottery problem... a lot of so-called "investors" are actually just gamblers hoping to ride something to the moon in the short run. "Investing" is more about buying and holding for the long term... but the same thing happens in the stock market-- a whole group of people chasing rumors around, hoping to catch the next "20-bagger" rather than just putting their money in something stable that quietly doubles in value every year.
Most folks chasing rumors in stock market, or in cryptos, will eventually lose their money.
Trying to explain STEEM price as just being "unlucky" in the lottery of crypto prices, does disservice to the USD 550 Billion already in.
So that USD 550 Billion was just randomly assigned, and STEEM got unlucky?
NOPE !!
There are better explanations
If you have examples of these stable investment opportunities that quietly double in value every year, please do share!
well-said.
Serious writers still look at this place as if it were a scam. Steem has an image problem and it's due to not seriously investing in Communication and marketing strategists. There's a price to just "letting people spread the message". I think a more professional approach is becoming necessary, but this could change with projects like Utopian and other more non-scammy projects getting noticed by the mainstream world that is decent.
You are absolutely right.
The best way to see this is to look at youtube comments.
Most comments from newbies on steemit videos " it's a scam, pyramid scheme,etc..."
Now look at appics's video below ( which is exactly the same concept as steemit) but with much better marketing and read the comments it's night and day...
Yup - it's nicely explained, and seems to have mass-appeal.... and nothing about 'getting rich'...and they don't even mention the speed of the Steem blockchain.
Bit on the long side for a promo if you ask me though.
Are they running this on their own blockchain? Last I heard, this was supposed to be based on an SMT. If that's the case, then this video is a bunch of BS...since none of the monetary aspects of it have even been created.
Watching this video, the things they mention sound more like a wishlist. I'd be surprised if they'll be able to do 1/10 of what they're claiming. And since I'm familiar with the work of the people behind this, I'm not even impressed with the claims.
I guess we'll see what actually happens.
I think they are waiting for SMT's to come out, there has been a few projects like this announcing they would be using SMT's. Vice.org is also one that comes to mind.
They want to build a site just like steemit where people upvote each others content. Nothing that they claim seem unrealistic to me. SMT's will make projects like appics very easy to build.
My point is that marketing/branding is super important and I hate to say but steemit got it all wrong. They keep pushing this "money" narrative which increases the perception that it's a scam. Also the overall design/branding is poor and old, bad logo, color ( as many have pointed out) and the site is lacking a lot of basic functionalities like private messaging..steemit is not ready for the masses
Yep. Everyone sees this as a problem, but the people inside the halls of Steemit, Inc. seem to not care. Very rarely do you see them touting the blockchain or the two-token system (that isn't exactly being managed properly anyway), which are actually the strongest selling points.
And instead of talking about that and not promoting so much of the money-making aspect of it, they're doubling down their focus on the money by pushing SMTs...which haven't even been created yet and will require a hard fork that has not been approved yet - or even proposed as a viable candidate. Let's also not forget what I mentioned in this post about the SEC and their cracking down on ICOs...which Ned and Co. keep promoting as one of the best use cases for SMTs.
Steemit, Inc. gets it all wrong most of the time. Good thing that they aren't actually the blockchain developers and managers. And since they're not - and since they're not doing what they said they'd do - they should burn that massive stake they have and get out of the way. I'm fairly certain that their stake and their ineptitude are what's holding a lot of investment and progress back.
I think steemit lacks foresight and vision. Their main selling point which is 'earn money on social media' is going to be the most boring thing when every website uses this tech.
They are not taking advantage of the fact that they were the first app to use this tech.
Their slogan could have been " steemit, your entry to the new economy" or "the gates to the digital world" or " the genesis of a new world" basically something more general and professional sounding that highlights the fact that steemit is where it all started, but instead they chose to use "money talks" which is going to be a moot selling point a year from now when rewarding users is the default on the internet.
There are also some basic rules in marketing that steemit is not respecting, for example a short slogan. I mean I don't even know what steemit slogan is, they don't even have a proper landing page...logo must be easily recognizable, steemit logo is like a circle..
I think SMT's are a good thing, it will allows steemians to not care so much about steemit anymore...Personnally I think steemit is not going to be around few years from now if SMT's turns out to be succesfull and if they stay on the same track.
Agree with this. There is clearly mismanagement of this money, they are hording it instead of spending on brand/design/marketing. They could do amazing things for steemit with their millions if they wanted to..
Ineptitude is a good root cause explanation
Steemit doesn't have to be ready for the masses for steem to be ready for the masses. Others can build sites too. Look at busy.org for instance. Much better interface IMO.
They have to push money as a theme, it is why they are here, imo.
Crapitalusts using anarchist rhetoric to fool the masses, because everybody wants peace on earth, except the wealthy who make more money with wars.
Stinc, et al, said free speech would be rewarded, but then only rewarded speech that fit their narative.
Lies do not appeal to honest folks and liars build walls without doors to keep them out.
We called all this in '16, but nobody listens.
Too busy dreaming of how to rape the reward pool, again.
#m2c
Hey @snowflake, did you listen to that add?
Appics is going to run on the Steem blockchain, this gonna increase Steem price 10x when news gets out.
Watch it on youtube and expend the replies to see my reply comments the real people and Appics shills alike on youtube, a little minnow like me can already make a difference.
Thanks for sharing! Up-Voted!
"I would propose a burn of at least 50 million STEEM, which would bring the circulating supply under 200 million STEEM and would reduce Steemit, Inc."
Agree 100% with these statements.
I find myself scratching my head over the whole "lagging" issue almost daily... and I keep wondering if there's some secret cabal out there painting Steem as a shitcoin, and we just don't know about it...
In all seriousness, I think we do have some issues with "misplaced focus." I was just looking at the runup in BTC and realized that if Steem had just kept even with BTC over the last 90 days... we'd have $6 Steem right now.... and that's just a tiny bit of the market gain.
I still think we have something brilliant, here. Some amazing opportunities.
For example, because accounts are designated by simple user names rather than long and impossible-to-remember numbers and letters, the potential for simple e-commerce marketplaces are HUGE here. I know we have a few little initiatives here and there... but this could be home to an eBay-style peer-to-peer marketplace of goods and services, turning this into a coin the TRUE "economic potential."
What I use the term "misplaced focus," we seem a bit like a development that keeps creating more and more plans and blueprints... but nobody's actually getting around to BUILDING something. Maybe I'm just a relic from the past, but I happen to be of the school of thought that a project like Steem/Steemit should run on something more concrete than "potential" and "promises."
Which bring the next thing... Steemit is a marvel for the ENTIRE cryptocurrency industry because it allows an easy "soft" entry point for newcomers to cryptos. No mining equipment needed, no tech background needed... just create content, and you've had your start with cryptos. I bet tons of people started here and NOW also are invested in other coins. That has VALUE.
And YET? The Steemit front end (and clones) often feel like they only get as much attention as "the ugly stepchild" while everyone is going on about the genius of creating MORE coins through SMTs. Why aren't we creating a breathtaking front end UI for the Steemit front end... something to point "real" people at and they'll say "WOW! You can do THAT on a blockchain!?!?"
Instead were sitting here with a somewhat outdated "message board" where bloggers like me are creating content IN HTML for God's sake! In 2017!
Sorry to "go off" on this @ats-david... but seriously, something isn't quite right... and I'm not sure what it is.
But I will end by bringing up a potentially "ugly" question: Why is it that our esteemed Dan is seen as a GENIUS... and yet Steem and EOS and Bitshares (coins in his projects) are underperforming the market? Is there a deeper bias? Or does the market just not trust "coins with a greater function?" I'm not saying that as a smear against Dan, but more as a reflection of real investment biases: Investors are often FAR more willing to throw money at some "fancy" (think "tulip bulbs") than something that will solidly change how we do things.
You are telling the truth about the UI
I love Steemit but my friends who are not "tech people" looked at it once and one asked "Why is it stuck in 2001? and laughed", it was harsh to hear but she was simply being honest.
I talked about FB spying and taking ownership rights of her content and about making money on Steemit and never seeing advertisement, but she did not care one bit and just responded "the day it is as easy to use as facebook i will maybe try it".
So, "normal people" ONLY care about the glamour and the ease of use, and I am sad to say that Steemit will never become the next "big thing" in social media, unless it updates its UI and UX.
Exactly - Steemit maybe objectively and intrinsically better than FB, Twitter, etc. (I mean twitter, talk about joke-stealing) but the Steemit UI feels so clunky and out-dated and user-unfriendly that even super simple blogging sites like Medium still feel 1000x better. I'd write an essay on Medium and promote it EVERYWHERE with friends. I don't think anyone would read it on Steemit.
Also (and I admit I'm new so I might have just missed this), "serious" writing/blogging sites often have huge "you own everything we don't own anything" disclaimers, which is a HUGE deal for writers and is something they actively look for. Steemit having something similar would help the "scammy" feeling.
You are very right, the scammy feeling that new users get is another problem which should be fixed through a re-branding of the platform.
I hope they are working on it, but I fear that they don´t have anyone on their team who truly understands the importance of the visual design and how it relates to marketing of the platform.
But I am waiting patiently on the next platform updates in 2018, hoping that it will be made a priority.
Very true.
This might have to do something with the POW lovers and DPOS haters...
Not sure hating DPOS is why STEEM price is lagging. Facts are that POS results in potential for arsehole whales to influence the value of your investment. Do you want to put your investment dollars at risk of being massively negatively influenced by arsehole whales?
We don't have many of those on steemit.com But we have a few. @fyrstikken
And the few aresholes fully explain why STEEM price is stuck in endless loop, and not keeping pace with BTC
Steem lagging are you kidding me?
Compared to BTC, Steem is faster than the speed of light.
Yes, the website takes some time to load. That's because their is also a ton of data/computercode that needs to be downloaded. Otherwise the interface would look very ugly.
Also note that this website is still in beta, as in not the final product. Optimizing loading times is probably not their first priority. We just had a major update in the look of the website.
Give the Steemit devs some times to sort things out.
“Lagging” is being used in the context of the price.
I find it completely frustraing that so many absolutely trash coins pump whilst solid projects such as STEEM, BTS and EOS lag behind ! It seriously does not make any sense !
My understanding is that EOS doesn't even exist yet. To be honest I'm quite surprised how high EOS has gone with nothing to show for it.
thats a fair point my friend ! STEEM and BTS however are already amazing tech why on earth have they lagged behind so much ?
I think it is because the verification process to create a new account is quite long.
Because of Steemit, Busy.org and dtube. Steem is far easier to understand than pretty much other cryptocurrency out their. You don't need to know that much about technology to understand Steemit.
Compare that to BTC for example, where you get kind of thrown in the deep.
Steemit.com is the intro for most to STEEM, and it has a lot of seriously bad issues. That can be traced right back to POS, and POS generates whales, and some whales are arseholes.
And who wants to invest in a project where it is always possible and easy for a bunch of arsehole whales to cause the value of your investment to collapse?
I think most of us agree with that one. This is where the idea of burning off some of the ninja-pie would show some good faith. We're only just getting over past hurts with all the whale power downs from last year. The load needs to be more distributed, and less prone to volatility, for serious investors to want to take a bite imho.
I would also like to hear the answer to your ,,ugly''question.
I second that @oldtimer
One part of the issue is there is too many hands in the crypto pie for lack of a better way to put it. People who got in early on Bitcoin and Litecoin are doing ok at the moment. With constant talks about the crypto market falling some people (especially one's that are just starting to understand crypto) are hesitant to dive in. I think (and I am speculating some) that their logic is why back any crypto regardless of its speed time, etc if their is a possibility they lose their behinds in the process.
I'm trying a little one called coinstarter. Early stages, so you get 10 coins when you sign up, and coin increase just by logging in each day. Who knows, maybe it'll get some growth and recognition. Here's the link if you wanna check it out: https://coinstarter.com?ref=jtdnxqn7x
nice post loved it
check out my post
https://steemit.com/tokenpay/@abhishekkashyap/start-cryptocurrency-journey-with-token-pay
I've just imagined a future where people will create fake accounts with usernames very similar to real accounts, hoping someone will mistype the username or their friend or relative or whatever, and send the money to them! lol!
You're looking at one.
Yes Steemit Inc, please burn 50% of your holdings and let the Steem price go up a 100 times!
Steemit Inc would be much better off afterwards as well..
10% inflation for active users a year is not a too high price to pay... Even though it does not halve every 4 years like Bitcoin... the enormity of users and growing userbase should overcompensate...
But yeah, holders who do not want to blog might have a hard time over the inflation stuff.
You are absolutely right.
The inflation rate is decreasing!
Thats incredible! How is the fact that it is decreasing not marketed to the world? Hugely important and would make a big difference to the current market if it was more widely known, @pharesim where did you find out about the decreasing inflation?
I'm a witness, we have to know these things ;D
Here's an overview I got with a quick google search https://steemit.com/steem-inflation/@fyrstikken/what-is-the-inflation-rate-of-steem-here-is-the-supply-table-for-the-next-20-years
Thanks heaps, I'll be sure to turn to google first next time!
Inflation decreases by 0.5% every year. so it will be less of a problem as time goes by.
Steem lags because it grows organically.
Agree. And smart guys will have enough time to acquire and buy more. I like that very much.
me too, but I will feel a bit icky and guilty when it hits $100 and I didn't tell my friends and family at $1-$2.
We are too weird in their eyes. They not gonna listen anyway so why bother. And if it goes to zero you gonna have no responsibility. If it goes to $100 you can help them if youèll want.
nah...can't goto zero due to intrinsic value.
Using FB serious A funding which was just under 300 million and 1 Million accounts (half inactive), we are worth like $0.70cents on the bottom range and $7 top range; and God knows the potential of the Steem blockchain is much-much more valueble than a social network.
I suggest doing this...Say, "I am buying Steem as an investment. Will email you the link that says I told you in Dec2017"...then send them a steemit post that says:
"I bought Steem, remember I told you about this in Dec 2017 so you don't have any excuse to say I did not say anything"
Dream on, but dont imagine they'll all come true.
When will you realize ........
Come dream with me.
You do understand the is negative bias right after a prolonged price stagnation right?
Holdr like yourself who went through the last Steem depression cannot imagine the change, I totally understand, its depressive as fcuk.
but those who went through the long depression last year, they use to feel exactly the way you do, they saw Steem go from $4 to crawl at $0.20 until May 2017, the month before you came in.
Their $0.20 is the $1 of today, we will likely never see $1.x again in the next few
monthsweeks, just like the first batch of 2016 investors will never see $0.20 ever again.Come dream with me.
reloading the pictures so you can see the red marking I highlighted for you:
new market cap record forming
new volume growth - showing quiet institution accumulation
If you are really keen to reprogrammed the bias for you investment advantage.
And you have the grit to power through a super long reply that will make any TL'DR post look like a 2 line haiku.
Try to finish reading my reply about intrinsic value of Steem -oh yeah and it's two part and it overflow the Steem blockchain character limit in a reply, yeah that bad....but I doubt you will make it through, I barely survived re-reading it myself without passing out.
Damn, you hit the spot there. None of my family members joined and I've stopped bringing it up after the 100th time.
I'm very sure in 3-5 years time they're gonna look at me and say "why haven't you introduced it to us".
I guess that's that's what happened to bitcoin geeks who didnt stop rambling on about "that Bitcoin thing" back in 2010.
I believe that steem has come to stay and the best time to look into investing on it is now that is moving gradually towards hitting the moon.
Good thought:
Steem has a bad rep in the crypto world in good part due to Tony Vays. Who cares!...we should aim our efforts in building the tools and infrastructure needed to on-board mainstream folks:
Regarding the ebay thing - yes, there is @steembay.
And the “fabric” stuff I believe was Dan’s project, which is now EOS, but I could be wrong. If not, it appears that the idea was likely abandoned or put on the back burner in favor of garbage like SMTs.
To my knowledge @steembay does not use the escrow functionality of the blockchain. The fabric is an upgrade that needs to happen if we truly want to scale, hopefully someone will pick it up were Dan left it.
I agree, it will be super awesome if someone works on the escrow and put in here in Steemit 2.0
Hey @ned are you listening?
ok...had todo that, kinda
creepyfun wondering if the dev team is spying on all of us.You have to get over the fact that they are betting the farm on SMTs.
The leadership and owners made that decision. It will work out or it wont, only time will tell.
In the mean time, like what there is to like about steemit.com enough to keep coming back, or hate it enough that you don't come back. Your choice.
You can like STEEM enough to be one of your major places to invest your money into, or not. Your choice.
You can't bully @ned into being more competent or going down the path you want. He has bet the farm on SMTs.
So you have to like it or lump it. Those are the facts.
Move on.
If you get really frustrated with all the benefits of being a witness, take your machines and go to a different blockchain.
Decentralized blockchains are still subject to centralized leadership, setting directions for the future
That's not how it works. Adding the SMT capabilities will require a hard fork and that is either approved or rejected by the blockchain's witnesses.
Whether or not they rubber-stamp as usual remains to be seen. I'm expecting more of the same, so I'm sure there isn't much that can be done. However, that doesn't mean that opinions about it shouldn't be expressed. If there are potential issues - especially serious concerns about legality and additional government scrutiny that could harm investors/investment - then they should be addressed before implementation.
Simply "moving on" is what continually allows bad ideas to go forward...and to be repeated.
If you think you can get to @ned and provide insights and guidance, go for it. It might work.
You were asking in your post for explanations of why STEEM price is not keeping up with other alt coins.
I think the answer is obvious. Lots of bad decisions, and the marketplace is voting with $$ as it always does.
Great potential, coupled with poor execution and poor decisions, will result in less than optimal outcomes.
I'm not interested in tilting at windmills w.r.t. STEEM.
I took my money off the site and "moved on" earlier this year, as I forecast that the long term outcomes were not going to be favorable.
The market will eventually shut down this experiment.
In the meantime, there is a big bunch of $$ in the steemit account, so it could be a decade or longer
Wasn't that a bad decision, in retrospect? Of course this bump we're witnessing could be temporary. Plus all cryptos and their sidechain are pumping right now...
Any thoughts on which other cryptos do have long term investment value, other than the obvious one?
STEEM is sinking down the crypto list.
I'd recommend you go read the whitepaper for ADA.
It is a tour de force, compare to the white paper for STEEM and SMTs.
It was not a bad decision to move my investing dollars off of steemit.com. I'm up 2X what I would have been if I had left all the mony sitting on steemit.com
Bad ideas like the new steemit logo? Blech.
Vote for @ats-david!
I think you have a very good point that most people think of Steem as only a social platform to earn money for posts. Few people know that Steem is a decentralized blockchain with near-instant transaction times and zero transaction fees. Steemit is an application running on this amazing blockchain. If we advertise Steem like this I am sure it could have a big bull run.
Steem has so much utility over most other alt coins. It's day will come and it will be big!
This pretty good and nice to know that @btcmillionaire
steem has a good and sustained future compared to all other alcoins. This is the best time to invest in steem.
Yeah !!!! Most investors are bidding up the price of alt coins that have huge ninja mines and the majority of coins are held in just a few hands, the original owners hands. Those are the coins that are going to the moon.
p.s. that was sarcasm, if you didnt recognize.
TL;DR
STEEM ... is different.
Hush, don't tell anybody.
sneaky oldtimer
Yes, the currency aspects of Steem are woefully underrepresented. We are led to believe that marketing will wait till SMTs are ready, but EOS (based on the Steem codebase as we all know) is worth $5 billion without a working blockchain... I don't see a single top witness doing anything to market Steem to the broad world, either. They are certainly paid adequately to collaborate and launch some serious initiatives.
A bigger issue, though, is Bittrex is the only major exchange Steem is reliably listed on. The trendy exchanges like Binance and other East Asian exchanges is where all the pumpers are at currently.
I have no doubt that they will pump Steem at some point, like every other shitcoin, but yes - Steem is indeed traditionally a laggard.
We were also told that they wanted to wait on marketing until sign-ups were better...until the economics were improved, until...
There's always an excuse to not promote/market Steem and/or Steemit. And as you've said, EOS is already getting much more exposure and much more attention without even having a working product. If there's one thing that crypto markets have proven, it's that you don't need to wait in order to market and to draw in money.
So, we're still left wondering...what exactly is the problem here? The blockchain is going on two years of actual existence and functionality and is one of the best blockchains in existence in terms of performance and desired features (particularly speed and costs). The excuse that "Steem is just too new" doesn't exactly hold up. Plenty of newer blockchains and tokens get far more interest and investment. Steem still lags compared to them as well, despite having more users, developers, and actual use.
Steem will be big!
One another reason: There is no enough Chinese people to buy steem!
we should tell them it's good for steem buns :P
Many veteran investors in the crypto space take issue with the Steem distribution and launch, unfortunately. The burn idea is one potential solution to this issue, but how would the community go about voting on this issue?
The community wouldn't need to vote on it. It's controlled by Steemit, Inc., so they can burn it any time they want.
Guys, be patient. We all want to make a huge profit with the price of steem, and we deserve it because it's truly the most undervalued blockchain, but wait and be patient.
People running the platform probably know what they are doing. Imagine you were in charge of steem. Steem is your job, your life, your startup. You think 24 hours a day about it.
Even if you're stupid as hell you would still come up with better ideas than us. Firstly, because owners put a lot more time and effort than us into growing their own project. Second, they have access to all the information, potential big investors, marketing behind closed doors and deals with big companies that might be interested in Smart Media Tokens.
When I listen to @ned talking about blockchain and steem, he seems like a very sound guy. I don't blame anyone that has lots of steem for its slow growth. Steem naturally has a learning curve and is part of cryptocurrencies, a place where investors are interested by currencies, not social medias.
It is a good point that we should market steem as a blockchain with with near instant transactions and no fees. I will start doing this.
That said, accumulate steem while it's cheap, because when FOMO sets in on it you are going to regret every penny you didn't invest. Cheers, steem has a bright future.
I will call this article as one of greatest article of recent time and you have mentioned all the valid and key points about steem and steemit.
Thank you so much sir @ats-david and let me tell you now onwards I will put "Steem is a decentralized blockchain with near-instant transaction times and zero transaction fees."at the bottom of each post I write.
Try depositing your Steem or SBD to ANY exchange that supposedly trades them...yeah, that might be part of the reason why.
I don't know about you, but any time I notice that a wallet is "under maintenance" on an exchange seemingly more often than not that kind of throws up a red flag, especially when over 90% of the wallets for other cryptos don't ever seem to be down for deposits or withdrawals (and only last hours in the cases where they do, whereas Steem was down for something like 2 or 3 months straight on Poloniex at one point).
Don't Do it on poloneix then. Bittrex is much better
The exchanges cant handle the number of transactions I guess :P
"SBD is currently under maintenance or experiencing wallet/network issues. Deposits and withdrawals will remain disabled until a solution is found, which may require an update from the SBD team. Any updates must be tested and audited before enabling."
That's the message on Poloniex right now lol and has been there for about a week now
Yeah, I know. That place is a joke!
Some very well thought out and interesting points. In many respects, I never considered the financial value that Steemit brings to the cryptocurrency market. If anything, that is a positive for this community. If for now this community grows solely on the fact that people use it as a platform to share ideas and creativity, then once the market realizes the financial benefit of Steemit, it will be the cherry on top. I resteemed this article and also converted 1 LTC to Steem Power because of your argument. Well done.
Steem is indeed a great blockchain solution, and I believe that it has a bright future if it really becomes decentralized. Looking at the rewards distribution and the way Steemit inc. is running the platform I can see why many investors stay away.
The platform has a long way to go and needs to adapt very quickly, otherwise, something better will come along the way.
I read your post and I learned a lot from it.
Just an opinion like yours " Why don't steemit Inc. use the the steem they have for advertisement. Push the platform further out there, publicize it.
The same way money talks, they can make steem talks.
Keep on steemit.
I know there are some issues and lags with steem but we are still in beta phase. And in this beta phase I have made good steem.
At the same time I am able to restore some of the loses of my friend that he made in stock market. Thank to steemit and surge in steem dollar.
I am thankful for discovering steemit as early as possible.. thanks for great blog
In my opinion it is because it is not distributed evenly. As steem gets spread to more users it will begin to rise!
WHat's the point of these instant transactions if most of them are trash and whales circle-jerking?
I just sold some SBD into Steem (powered up half, sold half!), and the subsequent Steem transaction time was so fast through Bittrex that I mistakenly thought the transaction was missing after failing to find it under the pending deposits.
Very interesting article!
This post has received gratitude of 1.00 % from @jout
You got a 0.27% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @jout!
The greatest achievement should be the actual useable services that steem has to offer. Dplay, steemit, utopia etc marketing and value could as well come from the services improving further.
For example while steemit is OK, but you don't crave it like reddit. Dplay is fine, but lacks the polish and has a bits of not suitable stuff for the masses (ipfs settings etc), stuff that user should not need or care knowing about.
Tech is great, but in the long run, the value will come from the masses craving services. How they work is not really of interest, if it works and it works better than alternatives.
Good write up. Here are my two cents. I've been here since December 2nd and I love it. I've totally neglected Twitter and can't remember the last time I logged onto Facebook. Here's the thing...when it comes to social media, a lot of it is driven by people perceiving it as being "cool." I think the thing with Steem is that MOST people outside of the crypto world haven't heard of it...and there are so many cryptos that even people within this space might not have heard about it.
With so many things out there to trade and invest in, you're going to have projects like Steem that fly under the radar. There are literally HUNDREDS of cryptos on CoinMarketCap and a lot of new investors are entering in the space for the first time.
Then there's the issue with traders. I'd wager that most traders aren't interested in a platform that they have to invest potentially months into to build a passive income. You can't ignore the number of people entering into this space who want to make money fast. When they come here and see they'll actually have to invest in quality content...you're going to get people who leave because they don't want to. They want something they can buy and hold for a few days, then sell and the Steem cryptocurrency isn't moving the ways others are, so people ignore it.
Someone else mentioned that Steem is kind of niche. I agree and disagree. I agree that the blogging component of Steemit is niche, but blogging is pretty huge. You have all sorts of people writing online on all sorts of topics. I think it's a visibility issue and yes that issue can be solved by marketing more heavily. I think (just my assumption) that the developers don't think Steemit is where it needs to be and there are still features they want to iron out before mass marketing the site.
A great site to compare us to is Medium. Medium has grown massively over the past year. According to SemRush, in November of 2016, Medium had under 700,000 organic searches on Google. A year later, they now have over 3.1 million searches and that number is rising. Medium spent like 3 years with under 1 million organic searches before exploding this year. So there is definitely a market for bloggers and writers, but it takes time to grow...even moreso for a blockchain-backed company than a regular corporate company built on a traditional website like Medium.
Will we ever reach Twitter or Facebook numbers? IDK, probably not. But I don't think we need that type of mass adoption for our currency to explode either. Steemit is not exactly targeting the same types of people who go to Facebook regularly. Not everyone can write long-form effectively, but that's good because that weeds out people who won't produce good content here and that's what we care about the most.
We also have D-Tube which appeals to a much larger group than simply bloggers. That appeals to a huge crowd of people on Youtube. But D-Tube has even more kinks to iron out than Steemit.
One last thing, I DO think there needs to be more of an effort made to get Steem/SBD on more exchanges. That's an early problem I've personally noticed. I don't have a Bittrex account and apparently, new signups have been disabled on Bittrex because so many people are trying to jump on the crypto bandwagon and their servers are overloaded. So I can't even offload the SBD I have accumulated. I'm going to try to use Blocktrades to send SBD to Binance, but I'll have to convert it to Litecoin first because Binance doesn't have Steem or SBD. I'll probably have to take a hit in value though. I'm going to test it tomorrow and see if it works. But I would like to see Steem/SBD on more exchanges. Binance has coins on its exchange that have ZERO value and little to no usage. I don't think having Steem/SBD on only two exchanges, one with wallet issues (Poloniex) and the other with technical issues (Bittrex), is a good idea. Having the tokens on more exchanges gives users more options.
Just my 2 cents.
EDIT:
I checked Steemit's organic traffic on SemRush and December has been our best month compared to any before and we're only halfway through it! We're currently sitting at 335,150 organic searches. That's pretty damn good if you ask me...I've seen MUCH worse. We're about where Medium was late 2014 - mid 2015. The most important thing is that we're growing and we're growing organically...not because of pump and dumps and Youtube hype. It might be another 2 years before we really explode, but the people who stick with it now will reap the rewards in the long run. There's a lot of great things going on here.
Solid comment. Earlier today, I got to wondering, "What does Steem offer that other platforms don't?" I really couldn't come up with anything that Steem does that you can't get off of other blogging or image sharing platforms. The Steem pitch often is, "You get paid to blog." But realistically, if Steem ever does make it into the big leagues, your average Facebook poster will make a pittance. It's easy to click "like" on a shitty dinner pic on Facebook. In reality, if Steem were swarmed with the number of users that we want, most people would get 100 upvotes on their dumb cat picture or "this is what I had for lunch" post, and all their upvoters would be holding like 3 steem power or something. So what does it get you? Will people find 100 upvotes + $0.03 worth of cryptocurrency more compelling than 150 facebook likes?
This question has been bothering me all day, but you mention Medium, which I'm sort of familiar with. I will read about their model tomorrow and ruminate on if Steem is superior.
Also, the OP for this thread is off the mark. He goes on and on about marketing, but ignores one of the foundational principles: the features --> benefits structure. Reread it and you'll see "decentralized blockchain," "fast confirmation times," "lots of capacity" these are all features, but I don't see any compelling benefit.
Thanks for a great comment that gives me something new to think about.
A solid point, and one I've often thought about.
I guess by that point steemit (or whatever site that runs on steem takes its place) will have to be as good as facebook, so that people will switch for other reasons: usability, aesthetics, etc.
Also, don't discount the fact that you're assuming all those people will register investment-less. But if steem becomes viable as a currency used in everyday life, you'd hold your "facebook" money in the same wallet you use to pay for your Starbucks, so why not use the same wallet to vote, or outright tip people? People pay for angry birds lives and stuff lol! They pay for digital gifts! People could load up their accounts to get the pleasure of giving people a few cents with every vote. It might become an addictive game-like experience for some.
So steem would be an aspect of their everyday financial life, and using it on a social app would just be icing on the cake.
Investors are not usually make-money-quick daytraders. Investors usually HODL. They don't have to produce quality content here. They can buy steem, convert to SP, and then delegate to some curation trail like steemSTEM or curie, and make passive income from the curation rewards in addition to the price of steem itself going up. If we include content creation, I've just listed 3 ways to make money here, and that's 2 more than with most other cryptocurrencies.
Bummer. I see you're sitting on 600 euro worth of SBD right now! Don't you know someone on steemit who has a bittrex account already and who you can trust to help you out? You could sent the SBD to them with no charge, they'll send it to their bittrex, exchange for bitcoin, then exchange for litecoin or something that has lower transfer fees, and then send to your litecoin or whatever wallet.
This is true, there are multiple ways to go about making passive income. Also, I'm not in a rush to offload my SBD. I'm hodling for the most part. I could use Blocktrades and send it directly to Coinbase, I'd convert to Litecoin first though. So it's not that much of an issue. I don't really like the exchanges. I see a lot of flaws in their systems.
That's why we need decentralized exchanges, not just decentralized currencies. Bitshares and etherdelta are decentralized exchanges, but not much volume there yet, and they have other faults too atm.
I have some Bitshares and I think they're headed in the right direction with a transparent group running it. I think the UI could be improved and made easier on the eyes, but I think they're cheap and undervalued right now...so a good buy.
Its not not doing something its gone up over 100% in the last 2 weeks thats more the most other cryptos.
Well, I beg to differ in my opinion about this.
Steem has been and always will be a social decentralized platform, PURE content, where true bloggers can earn. As Ive heard from day 1.
So now, when they have finally done something to the website (it still looks like 3-5 years late, but at least not 20.) I dont think that they will change the marketing strategy.
Steem has been marketed as a blogging platform from day 1.
If we are talking about investors, crypto investors.
Steem is not as rewarding as many other coins which fluctuate from 20-30% per day. So why would I invest? OK long term, but if Im a serious investor, I do my research, I take a look around the web, I see the platform for myself, before investing. And as far as I`ve seen, this is not an investing platform. This is exactly a blogging platform, where you can become a crypto-head from a simple cooking blogger.
I will repeat myself: If a serious investor wants to put money in STEEM, he has two options:
And what I think (emphases on the I) is that this platform will become HUGE, when they will implement upvoting with pure dollars or btc...
No one cares about a steem coin nowadays, because steem is sooo complicated.
I agree if the marketing strategy wouldve been as you described:
"Steem is a decentralized blockchain with near-instant transaction times and zero transaction fees."
then we would be looking at much different situations.
Just like I cant remember who was it but the statement went:
"If people would really care about transaction speeds or fees, we would see LTC on the top, but the sad truth is that they dont. They just want to make a profit."
Plus, as you can see from the comments on this post - no one cares about the transaction speeds or fees, they just want the price to go up, thats it. And thats the main problem with mostly BTC, because it was meant as a money transfer tool. Now its become a money growing tool.
When Steem reaches its full maturity and recognition, it will explode. Maturity is key, because the platform still needs to iron out its issues and concepts before mainstream adoption: ease of use, web UI and account creation are a few examples. It's only a matter of time. Ethereum was $6 last year, wasn't it? Also, all the other altcoins had their lengthy periods of lag before skyrocketing, like Litecoin. In the meantime, keep stacking STEEM, that's what I'm doing.
I think you are missing two things in your analysis: utility and massa adoption.
The point of view of your analysis is the investor POV, analysing what would make the token value rise.
But what most of the coins growing in value(even some big ones) are missing os exactly utility(or usability) and the massa adoption.
All those coins may still rise a lot, but they Will definitly fall flat If they dont find a reason to exist or nobody Care enough about It.
It looks to me that steem os actually addressing these two issues:
Utility, where the value of the tokens os tied to what people think is good content. If people like something, they Share the wealth.
Mass adoption, where steemit uses an vehicle that is well known and used, the social midia.
99% of users dont Care how Facebook, twitter, or YouTube Works under the roof, but people flow to these sites because they offer something useful for them.
Therefore, the steem value doenst lie on How much the token cost, but How useful It is for its users.
The tecnical part Will only matter ti a Very small amount of people that have lots of money to invest in projects like this.
... Lol. Steemit and Steem aren't lagging... They're just NEW.
This platform has been out for barely close to two years. Bitcoin has been out for nearly a decade. What is so hard to understand about this?
I don't find this post to be particularly meaningful, no offense intended.
... lol
OK
Nice analysis
I've been thinking about this, too @ats-david. I'm not a numbers guy, so I'm not able to articulate market cap factors, etc. For me personally, though, I got in to Steemit over a year ago. I've cobbled together a nice little crypto-portfolio of mostly Graphene. EOS, BTS and MUSE, but STEEM rewards was my entry in to those tokens without putting in my own USD [...with the exception of moments too good to pass up, like STEEM at $0.08 when I did forego luxuries for a chance to buy in so cheap]. It did get me thinking, though, if STEEM was my gateway currency to other blockchain tokens, I wonder if that's the case on a massive level. Are tens of thousands of people trading STEEM out for other opportunities, and if so, would that affect a sluggish growth?
I'm really interested in seeing what happens as SMT's roll out. Likewise, to your point, the marketing push that'll hopefully come with Smart Media Tokens.
Look at this report from @lukestokes https://steemit.com/exchangereport/@lukestokes/exchange-transfer-report-12-03-2017-to-12-09-2017
It shows us that those pushing the price of steem down are not authors but early adopters/miners.
There is more money coming into steem than being cashed out by authors. Just check transactions going out to exchanges ( from regular authors exclusively) and compare it to @lukestokes report above.
The problem is lack of volume. There is not enough buyers to absord sell pressure which is why it takes many months for those early adopters to get rid of their stake at a price that they want.
I think the reason there is very little volume is because speculators are out of the game. They think that "if you can earn steem by doing social media why would you even bother buying it" or that " steem has huge inflation because to pay everyone they must print a lot of new tokens". It's a perception issue.
Most speculators are not touching steem only investors who have done their homework and users powering up are buying steem ( basically real demand), so steem is a lot closer to the real price. 99% of altcoins are overvalued, they are just being pumped by speculators and my guess is that speculators couldn't resist pumping SBD too.
Patience is key, it will take time for those early steemians to sell but when they are done the price is going to rise, that's what the current stats tells us and that's without the help of speculators even.
The price is going up (for the past 1 week+).
The exchange transfer report is okay for what it is, but it does not show capital going into or out of STEEM. It shows capital going into or out of exchanges. Not the same thing at all.
Regardless where the price is going, there is always 2 forces in a market one that pushes it up and another that pushes down. Also in USD term the price is going up but relative to BTC the price of steem has performed very poorly.
Well you have to send it to an exchange to sell it...so it's a pretty accurate representation, at least on the sell side.
Gateway currency! I like that!
It's doing the same to me now, I'm using the huge SBD pump to diversify, though I'm a year later than you.
Steem will continue to grow organically. There's so much value to this entire network and community. Currently, with the crypto bull market and mania .. many newbies are in coins that only have "hype" but no substance. Litecoin honestly doesn't really do much except be a coin for transaction ... yes it toutes itself as being fast and cheaper, but that will soon be outdated itself. More valuable coins like ETH will have figured out how to be faster and decrease fees. Like you said, Steem is faster and has less fees, so all the people calling out saying that "their coin" is faster and cheaper, is just marketing gimmicks.
yeah, dont know what to tell you there.
I can also add that every time I transfer Steem or SBD to Bittrex ... it gets there within 1 minute, which is pretty fast, vs. other coins that you have to wait for confirmations. But at end of day, still MUCH faster than waiting for money to clear with regular banks.
Say, STEEM currently become super popular, everyone wants STEEM. Now the problem number one: Only way to get big amount of STEEM is from bittrex, for which you need enhanced KYC. Poloniex and HitBTC is disabled. Next is the signup, once one gets his/her desired STEEM, now transfer to wallet, it takes days even weeks to get approve.
Therefore, before STEEM becomes super popular right now, it needs to solve exchange issues and signup issues other than marketing issues.
Steem having hard time because of the mega inflation it creates...
It should generate less SBD and Steem for the value to go up...
But the whales and dolphins, who are also the creators - never will do it
What “mega inflation?”
This is really well written and I pretty much agree with or have been pondering the same things for a very long time.
I think that the "ninja-mine" situation you mention is certainly a dark cloud over STEEM from the people who were in crypto in mid 2016 and got on the platform and got a bad taste of it from the start. Over coming that reputation of being a "whale hangout" has been extremely hard to overcome. I think the new people to crypto get on here and take a swing at it with mixed results. When people do the math on how much they would have to power up to gain an amount of influence that would make a difference here the math doesn't seem amazing. A lot of people are more enticed by sticking their money in these ponzi schemes out there because that is the promise of passive income where as this is somewhat passive with curation rewards but if someone really wants to earn they have to put in work and blog to utilize their power.
I have often wondered as well why Steemit Inc isn't using all that money to do some heavy marketing. Really when it boils down to it the situation ended up being very lucrative for @ned and @dan and @ned will be able to pay himself a good salary and have a team of people working at Steemit Inc for a very long time. I don't have a problem with this and if the goal was to get rich they certainly did well.
I think for each person the reasons they aren't powering up more or able to engage more in the ecosystem just depends. I have often liked coins I could mine that had good fundamentals and it made me feel like a more useful part of the system. With STEEM I have the technical capabilities to become a witness but the reason I haven't done it yet is because I know I will be really pissed off if it is unprofitable because no one with power will vote for me. I even said in a comment of a prominent users blog that I was going to set up a witness node soon. He said "we already have enough backup witnesses." It sort of pissed me off that I would already be a backup regardless of my technical abilities but it is the truth. If you don't have power or people with power to vote for you then it isn't going to happen. If I had $100,000 to power up would it make sense and would it matter? ..... mmmmmmm not in the case of being a witness.
In the end I think the price of STEEM can rise some and there are a lot of positive things happening here but I often wonder if it will ever thrive like it should be able to considering all the advantages which you mentioned.
I really can't complain too much. I got to emotionally caught up in this project and things that weren't going to change but now that I have diversified a lot more I don't get hung up on what is going on here as much.
Also I think the downward pressure of people cashing out earnings is overcoming the benefit of being powered up. Maybe the SMT situation can put things in the favor of buying pressure but I really can't say for sure. I feel like it can.
I think STEEM will always be here but will it retake a spot in the top 5 where it should be? It would ultimately be up to Steemit Inc to do a very big marketing push since they hold so much power in this system.
thats great writer and good artical.
Great piece... I would rather put the onus on the community as it's a great one. They should adopt a treasury system like Dash and we'll find us some Amanda B. Johnson's and get other interesting projects funded.
I like the idea of a burn too.
You slightly miss the point that the recent rally is not driven by people understanding the benefits of crypto. It is driven by speculation. The vast majority of new accounts in the last 6 months were created because people expect to sell at a higher price than they bought at (greater fool theory). Iam a big believer in crypto and have been since 2011 but nothing has fundamentally changed this year, certainly nothing to justify the 1000%+ gains bitcoin and many others have experienced.
It’s a catch 22. Steem is not going up because it’s not going up!
I think Steem will lag until Steemit is able to optimise the algorithm to present the best content without click bots gaming the system and causing some poor quality content to always appear in my feed. Once this happens then we will see more users returning due to the great content which in turn will drive more content creators. This would result in a great cycle that would help the value of Steem.
Your bot point is well noted we are getting way to many bots here. Plus to many one liners to follow me & I will follow you in return. It clutters this place up instead of so many positive things that are here. Hopefully they begin to weed them out or this place will like a neglected garden in the late Summer.
it's easily manipulated and bots are everywhere upvoting garbage content.
you on the other hand are one of the only whales to reach out way back when i joined and not only throw me a bone but promote my contest.
won't forget that and will always read your content. unfortunately, life came at me fast and i had to cash out but i'm contemplating at attempting a return.
cheers!
(edit: PS - sorry my vote is wroth nothing atm)
The bots do have a big impact on the quality of the content that is upvoted into the $100 range per post
yup, it's a shame. i haven't been around much (trying to get back into it now) but it's not the most motivating experience at times.
thankfully there are good people like @ats-david that product great content, clearly put a lot of thought and time into their work, and also spreads some love around the community.
Steemit.com is very poorly managed. The leadership is even open about the fact that steemit.com is basically a toy, just to show STEEM blockchain is running.
They are focusing development efforts on SMT. Which may or may not pay off.
So the only current practical use of STEEM is the the blogging platforms, steemit.com, esteem, zappl, etc.
And the quality of results is hit and miss. And with POS, you are always subject to getting randomly attacked by a drunken whale who goes into a rage for unknown and unstated reason. Hi @fyrstikken
So if you were an investor you want to put your money into that mess??
The alt coins that pump up have all recently been the ones that show working practical linkage to real world use cases and applications.
Slightest bit of news about a real world use case, and the alt coin price will jump.
What new real world use case STEEM shown in the last 12 months?
You dont get price pumps for talking about a future roadmap or a future technology like SMTs that may or may not be adopted
You get price increases for what you have working today.
STEEM has steemit.com And Steemit.com has a lot of flaws, that will limit it from ever going into a mainstream platform
That is the answer to your question.