Its 6am and I’m sitting on the couch thinking about Steem.
In Prison, we had to be awake at 5:30am, fully dressed and cube cleaned for 7am inspection and standing count. I became a morning person and realized my most creative time is in the morning when everyone is sleeping and I’m not rushed for time.
So I’m thinking about Steem.
Yes, I know it’s crazy but hear me out. As I am working out early stages of my stealth startup I need to constantly be assessing the risk of my own crypto and fiat assets.
Right now in my wallet I have 11,872 Steem Power, about $11,000 at the current rate. A tidy sum that I have been awarded from writing content here in the past 2 weeks. I’ve also been awarded Steem Dollars, that I have been selling for Bitcoin, buying Steem, and playing around with other crypto tokens. Steemit has empowered me because I can focus on building my stealth startup and not have to worry about work immediately following my prison release. Thank you!
So the question I have been mulling over is, do I Power Down and take $100 a week for the next 2 years or do I keep my Steem Power, even buying more, effectively reinvesting in Steems future?
I could keep my Steem Power, make interest from it, curate and vote on other content, comment and be apart of the community. By doing this, I am participating in the network and increasing my holdings indirectly.
On the other end, I could power down and take weekly installments. $100 a week could cover a small mortgage, or health insurance for 2 years, a very real passive income. I still draw interest from Steem Power while powering down but not as much over time.
@blakemiles84 made a comment on a recent post of mine:
That powering down thing is the one flaw that I personally see in the system. There doesn't appear to be an incentive to remain powered up at the moment. Game Theory that scenario out and everyone is racing to power down and sell off their Steem due to the opportunity costs and the fact that all the whales are doing it.
Many of you will comment and tell me that my answer lies in wether I think Steem has a future or not, however that’s not the whole story.
Many early adopters are powering down, whales, and some of the founders. Does this mean they don’t believe in Steem? Absolutely not. Steem as a company and its founders purposely staked a large amount of Steem so they could power down to fund development costs and grow the company to build out the network. They are rapidly hiring.
What about whales? Im speaking to one right now who holds more than $100,000 worth of Steem Power. He is starting a development company to build out apps for the Steem network. If he were to power down, the funds would be reinvested in Steems future. Whales need to eat too, so even powering down to live is important. Using SteemStats.com watch some of the accounts of Whales, they are curating 30-50 posts a day, a time investment in the future of Steem.
Take a look at the list of top 10 accounts currently powering down from SteemDown.com:
Go through that list and randomly pick one out, a majority of those accounts are still authoring/curating. The assumption is that the whales sit back and power down without contributing to the platform.
Another point to remember is that, one of the largest accounts @steemit is selling large amount of Steem above market to support the price of Steem Dollars. This creates a lot of selling pressure, but at the same time Steem is distributed to new users at a decentralized rate.
@Dantheman has commented on this:
All orders are placed at or above price on coin market cap. These orders are helping to maintain the Steem dollar peg. Proceeds of these sales are kept as Steem dollars which keeps value in the platform while helping to distribute Steem.
Ned and Dan are constantly upgrading and building out the network while making sure Steem is distributed. They have the largest incentive to grow the project long term. In fact, they are probably reading this post and its comments.
Look at the distribution of Steem in accounts, this needs to get more diversified but all accounts are given free Steem.
Another user @officialfuzzy67 said:
Many just want developers to go without anything to build their platform for them so they can later cash out. There are multiple people who knew what they were doing who are not on Dan and Ned's team who got a lot of tokens as well (because it was open for anyone to get into--if they were really interested in learning to do so). Satoshi had the first movers advantage, but now that the cat is out of the bag. Dan and Ned burned the bag so it can never go back in. Yeh I think we want them to have resources to keep the platform strong instead of giving it to people too early on who only look at this as a get rich quick scheme and want to cash out asap.
My take is that Steem is very new, not even a year old. As far as risk and hedging goes, the smart move is to bet on the platform on stay powered up. If you can spare the funds, even powering up your Steem is a good idea. After my intro post on Steemit, I started powering down but immediately cancelled it once I rationally thought about that decision.
I'm still new to Steemit so there are probably facts I'm missing, angles I'm not seeing. Please educated me! Should we power down? What do you think? What are the incentives for powering down or staying up? I could always power down for a few weeks if I need the funds and cancel it.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
-Charlie
Considering that you make a substantial amount of SBD with every post you write, that is the kind of treatment famous people get on Steem unlike most regular users, I don't see any point in you needing to Power Down. Just build some more voting power and use it to make a difference on Steemit with it.
You already have substantial amount of Steem Power accumulated and you should use that to give back to Steemit community by voting for good posts you find. I see that unlike some other celebrities here on Steemit you are actually curating quite a bit already, so just keep up the good work... :)
Thanks! I try as much as possible.
Only found out about this place yesterday and have been TRYING to understand what's going on, but is bringing dreadful memories of school back where i just DID not dig what teach was telling me but felt embarrassed to keep repeating 'WAHT?? HEY?? I don't understand' Well that is how I feel. I could talk to you under the table about mythology, and paganism, and art, and psychedelics, and the NWO, but i have not got a business head at ALL so am really struggling to get 'it'. Wanted to pm you about this but seems there is no way to pm people?
this site helped me, and I agree having joined a few weeks ago. I felt overwhelmed and lost and actually posted about yesterday but just keep reading steem help posts and learn more and more and it will start to illuminate.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@mindover/steemit-for-dummies-like-me-everything-you-need-know-to-get-started
I am in the same boat! Going to read the white paper now...
I am new to Steem also! I think that you should stick with it. It was very confusing to me at first, but now I am getting the hang of it. As I understand it you can invest your own money to buy more Steem power and increase your ability to make more for your posts and votes. IS THIS RIGHT EVERYBODY, CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG
OMG.....I just totally resonated with your comment....I'm feeling the same way here @julianoneill
The above comment was absolutely wonderful, giving a nice complement and encouragement. Why did it earn 47 cents and the Thank You $16 bucks? The article was well written and the writer has an amazing story behind him, come on whales please stop this bias voting keeping us people wanting fairness down. Finally a system where votes matter and the powers that be still not making much matter to level out success. Cheers!
Honestly, I'm not sure. His comment got 28 votes, and mine 9. As I understand it the weight of the voter matters a lot, but I need to understand the mechanics better.
Votes are weighted by SP. 5 votes with 100 SP each is equal to 100 votes with 5 SP each.
I agree with you @cryptos. Especially the part about Charlie Shrem curating posts. If I had a post that didn't make much money, but I did see an upvote or comment by Charlie, I think that would feel like payment in itself. I really do admire Charlie's way of thinking.. so his curation is more important to me, than any SBD/SP I'd earn from strangers curating my content.
Another thing that I like about Steem, is that here, Charlie Shrem and I are equal. If he had a blog running at www.charlieshrem.com, I couldn't compete with him. But since both of our blog posts appear on www.steemit.com, this creates a level playing field. There is something really fair about that.
Albeit the playing field may be level, but he's still a more talented player. I hope read 137 books one day, and then we'll see what happens next. lol.
I really like Charlie compared to some other so called celebrity users and continue reading his valuable articles . I make 1-200$ every post since I signed up. If I would see a few more zeros at the end I would do the same, Power UP and UP and UP , in my case little by little every day to support this community.
This is what I like about @charlieshrem , he is contributing to the platform like all regular users.
Then again, if he keeps posting the same way he does, I don't think that powering down is much of an issue as he would make so much more per week considering the amount he gets to divest once a week. So he could power down as well if he wanted those extra Steem, but if you want to be more effective on Steemit with curation its obviously better to have more SP.
One thing you seem to miss in ypur equation is the fact that
SteemDollar pay interest
... currently at a 10% apr. Arguable, a steemdollar doesnt trade en par with the usd just now but if you believe the mechanics behind SD are sound you may want to diversify not into altcoins but keep some liquidity in SteemDollar .. (not actual investment advice)
Good point!
hmm, hadn't considered that either.
@charlieshrem, I'd say keep the power, for as long as you can.
Eventually you'll - I think very likely - be happy you did. And in the mean time, your voting power is a good thing for the rest of us.
But if you're only voting up on the few people you follow however, consider following more folks who create content you enjoy. Otherwise you're just keeping it in the family, as it were.
You spread more than a given monetary value with you upvotes, you spread good will. Far more important.
Wow $14 000 .. not bad for 10 posts .. that's $1400 per post! Golly! Plus another grand - walking-around money, and you're getting over $ 2000 for this one ! Really geat!! Certainly this is proof that, as you say, @dan and @ned are "... making sure Steem is distributed" Distributed indeed! chaaaa-ching.
I read your latest this morning and decided to stop Powering Down too!! Ya, really! My 40 bucks will remain in STEEM Power!
I repost one previous answer of me that fits very well here...
Many whales have too much of their wealth concentrated on steem !!! So even if they are bullish they are not comfortable to have for example 90% of their wealth on a single project... It is for them like a "one point of failure" ... I assume many of them want only to put some of their eggs on other baskets just in case the project fails...It is just a proper bankroll management, poker players out there can understand me ;)
PS BTW steemit whales could be good poker players ...
https://steemit.com/steem/@charlieshrem/was-the-launch-of-steem-a-scam-or-the-only-legal-way-thoughts-on-steem-by-charlie-shrem-a-week-later#@liondani/re-mexbit-re-charlieshrem-re-tracemayer-re-charlieshrem-was-the-launch-of-steem-a-scam-or-the-only-legal-way-thoughts-on-steem-by-charlie-shrem-a-week-later-20160824t005908455z
nice mug
I'm a big Steem supporter and think it is way overvalued. I plan to do a series explaining Steem and also BitShares in terms of equivalent systems where the cash flow is much more obvious.
In short, when you see people complaining about having to re-up on Steem Power because they keep dipping below the free transaction limit, that's when we are at some kind of equilibrium.
I look forward to that series.
So do I.....new to the community but loving every minute of it so far. By the way I just started following the both of you :)
Hi @charlieshrem,
Nice to see you again mate. How is the cuppa? :D
If you take a look at my wallet, you will find my answer to your question.
I wrote this post earlier.
I am completely, 100% investing into SP.
I am happy that you, @charlieshrem, is sitting on his couch, thinking about Steem at 6am.
Why?
It means, I am doing something right, and so is #steemit.
Stick with your SP for now I say. We only launched in July 2016, I think selling your SP now, will be like buying a pizza for 10,000 Bitcoins in 5 years.
Now you don't want to be known as that guy do you?
p.s I will always upvote the shit out of your posts, forever. Because of the injustice that has been handed down to you etc etc. I hope it can show my support, in the only way I can. I remember reading your story years ago, and I felt like I had lost a brother. Respect. One day, I will try to get through that book collection of yours. Hopefully, I don't have the time to.
My journey to the 1 comma club and beyond on Steemit Part 2
;-)
Thank you! You have been providing some great comments :)
I did a video yesterday with some thoughts on the price and how the VEST to Steem Power ratio increases over time. As far as I understand, Steem Power now will get you more VESTs today than they ever will in the future. If you power down X Steem Power using today's ratio and then power up that same X Steem (maybe you purchased it again using bitcoin to avoid dilution), you'll end up with fewer VESTs than you would today because the conversion ratio is changing. You get diluted either way. Powering up now makes the most sense if you think powering up in the future may be a good idea, unless you think the price will drop faster than the dilution rate.
Obviously this is not investment advice, just my thoughts.
My opinion is you decide whether you want to be a part of this experiment long term or not. If you do, then you don't power down until you feel your stake is sufficient for the role you want (at that point you might power down while continuing to earn so as to maintain a desired stake holding). If you don't want to be a part long term, I don't see anything wrong with that, just power down and treat it as part of the income you earned from your successful posts.
My hope is that we find equilibrium someday. I treat the platform as I would any social media platform. The mania phase is coming to an end. The next phase is where the true believers in the platform will shine. That is also the time when the true content producers will come forth and build extensive networks on the platform.
I am not worried about what the whales do. The money is nice but a network where we are rewarded for being nice is even better. This is a first in the world of social media.
I love that some of us are pondering about Steem stuff over coffee, toilet breaks, and long drives :D. Personally i've been buying up Steem power since its 3-4 USD days. Do I regret it? Maybe.. but I'm just gonna keep Steeming forward. Glad that you're in this with us @charlieshrem :)
I did the exact same as you Charlie. After I made $15k on my first post, my instinct was to take it out immediately. I transfered about $3k out to Poloniex and converted to bitcoin. But within a few days of thinking about it I decided it made more sense to power up and invest in Steem as a speculation. I ended up transferring that $3k back in! I've since taken out a bit (for reasons I'll likely explain in a future post) but I am keeping almost everything in the platform.
In the long run, we risk losing out if we power down now, thats how I look at it.
@charlieshrem -- glad my comment on your last post got your wheels turning! :D
I just stopped powering down two days ago. I have a feeling we're approaching a floor in the not too distant future. My earlier instinct was that powering down would be good for people looking for liquidity each week, but remaining powered up is more beneficial for both the ecosystem and my account voting power.
Once I noticed all the powering down going on, I changed my mind on that and did about three weeks of powering down.
I'm still of the mind that there needs to be some more tangible incentives to remaining powered up.
Keep rockin! You're a great ambassador for Steem. Honored to have crossed your path.
Thank you ! See you around the steemosphere
I am long on steem, thats for sure, so i stayed powered up and will even invest more in it !
Great post Charlie - an important question too.
Too many people take offence at people powering down but for some early adopters sitting on huge fortunes it would be insane not to at least partially diversify their holdings IMHO. Powering down doesn't have to always mean money leaving the steem ecosystem completely as you pointed out.
The idea of a "passive" income for 2 years is very appealing (if I ever made it big), but to me this is a long term commitment and I plan to hodl for the immediate future at least despite the doomy looking price action. Its just noise, if this experiment works none of it will matter.
Loving your posts Charlie, and the way you're actually engaging and voting on others in the community - great to see :)
TLDR New arrivals should power up or hodl, elder whales are smart to diversify holdings and give the new folk a chance to buy in :)
Edit - This prompted me to powerup the ~$8 SBD I made from my last post - steemd link
Yes, you should power down. Why ? The whales should give the example. It would be a bit 2 faced to expect people to not power down and buy steem power, but you yourself the creator are massively powering down. You are just advocating to not power down because whales upvote you for it.
It all depends on one's holdings of other assets. If you have no other income or are not meeting your needs with that income, then you certainly need to cash out some things.
I too would be powering down as long as the whales are powering down. This is the equivalent of Mark Z. selling his facebook shares a month after launching the platform... Regarding @blakemiles84 comment, I think the 104 week power down time actually DISCOURAGES people from holding steem power when it was intender to TRICK people into locking up their funds. Now the cat is out of the bag and people want access... I honestly think if SteemPower would be semi-liquid, meaning it would take a week or two to cash out then this would actually encourage people to hold steempower or invest in the platform because they feel they still have access to the funds. Having a big number written in your account on a website is nice but if you can't access the money in the near future what's the purpose ? Giving people access to the funds will give MORE CONFIDENCE in SteemPower :-)
well read your post and i have to say I am forced to agree with you !! I invested 6000 dollars ( 10 BTC ) in August, got 2853 Steem Power. Thought i,d done well as the price had dropped a little from earlier levels ! I decided to hold all of my investment as Steem Power as it seemed clear to me this was the long haul option as i believed it gave a good signal to others wanting maybe to invest here too. I did not intend ever to power down and hoped to make it rise still higher by curation and author rewards, I mean why would you invest in something to pull it out immdedeately just days afterwards. But it seems clear to me know that the founders of this site have done just that, without really my knowledge !! So now my Steem power has bumped up to just 3200........ no success as i hoped with postings and now Steem is down to less than a dollar, so powering down means just to throw in the towel on all of my hopes l and accepting a 50 percent loss at least in my investment !! But even then as you say this drip feed return over 2 years is not even guaranteed as will indeed this site exist by then?? Big question. I feel like we have all been abandoned and used ! I hope that i am wrong, but sure don,t look like it now eh?? As i write this i have a very sick feeling in my stomach as i know to say such things here visibly does not help my position or even the community of this site as a whole. Was never my plan or desire to express worry or disappointment here believe you me. Would appreciate your feedback on this post !! regards a once Hero of Steem !!
I too was very surprised that the devs liquidated/powered down so quickly... I thought they would believe in the project taking off and really be worth in the billions... but it seems that even a 10 mil. valuation is enough to sell...
it seems the very people who should be not powering down are, while us that dont want to as we want this project to work and have collateral to work with just feed their power downs with our money !! If i power down now i will maybe get less than half of the money put in. Even then who can guarantee that my 24 months of payment will come as it seems if this bleeding of funds continues this thing will just fold !! So tell me what impetus for new comers to invest here when they see this strange behavior and posts like mine being visible. I really hate expressing these doubts here as i know it is counter productive to the image of this community, but frankly this feels bad right now !! I just want to see them believe like me in their own project !!
It appears that way. If revenue generated by this platform is a portion of their livlihood, it doesn't serve them to bail. There are many reasons why someone would power down don't you think? Those reasons certainly vary with status. For example, I might power down because I need money for cereal. Ned might do the same. Ned might power down because he intends to use the capital to recruit outside devs to grow Steemit.com, but I would never power down for that reason because I don't have that responsibility. I view the fact that any can power down at all on such an experimental platform as a resounding success.
It's pretty simple: if you need the cash, power down. If you believe in the platform long-term, don't. Powering down doesn't make a lot of sense if you believe in the platform and don't need the cash right now.
Good article again and thank you for your thoughts on the matter. I have been thinking about such things for a while too and came to the conclusion that I should reinvest in the Steemit environment as I have gained so much from it and want it to get proper reciprocity and sustainability. Namaste :)
The trading value of steem will go much much lower in the near future. Faster than the rate of interest you receive on your steem power. Steem is way over valued imo at the moment and has a ways to go before it goes up and stays up.
So you could power some down while the getting is good, or put everything you can into SP and plan for about 2 years into the future.
If you choose the latter you would need to patient as volatility can be your best friend or your worst nightmare should you scare easily.
When I bought Bitcoin I realized it would be 5-10 years before I see any profit. It's been 6 years since I bought my first coin, and I've been buying the lows and selling the highs.
It feels like the value we receive here comes too easily so powering some down feels wise to me unless you are prepared to lose out, which is also fine. I have made some terrible mistakes in the past and then trippled what i had lost all thanks to some bad press and patience. Gotta love speculation and fear.
Feels? It doesn't seem like value comes easily anywhere. Not here, not anywhere, unless value is generated. I think if you measure value by the dollar then you're making a mistake because the dollar is distributed often by politics and not by value generated.
On the other hand, how much value is Steemit creating? $100 million market cap seems very low for what Steemit can do. It really depends on what developers decide to make Steemit and how much people value people. If people don't value people very much, then the social network behind Steemit will not have a high value, and the payouts will shrink.
This indicates the value of Steemit is the social network behind it, and if it feels like the value you receive is coming too easily, then you must think the social network behind Steemit is overrated, over valued, etc, because the wealth comes from the people.
If that is the case, then it has to be reflected in the market cap, but from what I've seen the more people you add to a network, the more wealthy the network becomes, and the more value it generates, and in Steem this should translate to higher payouts over time. How high?
Facebook has a market cap of 200 billion or so? All content on Facebook is generated by the users. The users don't see any of the money but the value exists or the market cap could not be 200 billion. Facebook has billions of users to reach a market cap of 200 billion, and values each user at around $100 annually.
Should we believe that each person is really only valued at $100 annually? If this is the case then the cost of living, all the products, in western countries, is dramatically over priced. Global averages might allow for the $100 annually to make sense but we have to remember the cost of living in Africa might be $1 a day, while in the United States it might be $100 or even $1000 a day depending on where you live.
References
If you've been buying Bitcoin since 2010 do you really need to care about a mere $11,000?
One alternative is to set up a vesting withdraw route in the CLI wallet.
You now have a variable withdraw rate week to week. Auto vest on the withdraw route never removes Steem Power from the fund, so there is no loss in the conversion from Steem Power to Steem back to Steem Power.
Ok, this is a great idea to look into. I need to better learn how to use the CLI wallet. I've found some tutorials but if anyone has good ones, please link!
Here is what I think, totally backed by science (, bros!).
Check out this neat Calculator
https://steemit.com/steem/@deeprocks/steem-power-interest-calculator
also more tools here http://steemtools.com/
Hi Charlie,
thanks for your thoughts! I do not have much to add, because it's pretty much where I stand and I also know some whales. I might just be somewhat more of a true believer than you and am actively accumulating, because I am convinced that once the non monetary value of having Steem Power (influence and visibility and caritative and social power, balanced by peers) is being recognized through the network effect, the value of Steem (Power) will be clear and the market will work out the price. What I love about Steemit is that it is so inclusiv. It is not yet another competitor to King Bitcoin. They even designed their main monetary asset as a hot potatoe. Bitcoin (and all other Alts) can perfectly co-exist on Steemit. And it is the first time I can talk to potential crypto newcomers about crypto and being able to offer them something they understand, is risk free and has even the potential to reward them and change the world with a smile :-)
Thats all on you.
I think about it in terms of the long game but I also don't lose my mind and invest foolishly.
Like most sensible people I don't keep Steem/SP as my only investment and neither should anyone else. I believe in the future of this platform but I'm not stupid and neither are the whales or the founders.
Those who are powering down are probably doing it out of necessity as you state in your post. These people are buying services, hiring people and expanding the platform to help create a future for Steemit.
The knock on effect of this is greater liquidity on the market making it a lot cheaper for minnows like myself who strongly believe in this platform to steadily power up.
I have been doing this for the last few weeks and have gradually added nearly 2000SP to my account - bringing me close to the milestone of 4000!
I will continue doing this but I understand I am in kind of a privileged position as my other investments in crypto allow that.
For those that aren't actual founders or whales (as they will already know this) I would suggest that you always diversify your crypto holdings. There are no certainties of success here. The DAO/ether fiasco is just the most recent example of that.
Anyway since I have that "cushion" of protection I will keep powering up as much as I can and supporting this project in my way.
^^^Words of wisdom!
I am here for long term:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steempowerwhale/who-is-powering-up-or-am-i-alone-the-steemit-power-up-club
Wait for it , wait for it.
you don´t need to power down. Just sell me your account, you become 11,000$ cash
Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass :) However I'm surprised there isn't a bigger account buying/selling market.
Because the seller would just re-claim their account after it's sold and the password has been changed via recover lost password.
Unfortunately it did not work. But thx for answer me "I feel exceedingly happy"
Have a nice day
Many greetings from Marrakech
Love Marrakech! Did you see my article about Morocco ?
Yes i See it good work! Next week i will write an article about Marrakech
I bet you could sell your account on OPENBAZAAR OR auction off on EBAY FOR $100000 PLUS! I still would not sell it, but give it a shot if more USD or BTC will make you happy! It will make good publicity for Steemit either way!
I am in the process of powering up more now from here down through 1 Penny if need be. I admit I did not see this good STEEM pricing to actually hit, but now it is here I can begin to feel the STEEM again! You already have a proven account that works to bring in big money from posting, not everyone is that lucky, use it to your advantage for as long as you can! Once the price of Steemit finally bottoms out does a U turn this will be one of those AHA moments!
Just flip a coin and decide.
Everybody is powering down... also future investors do not like to see selling pressure for at least 2 years from the whales... So I guess for the next 2 years the party will be somewhere else... until the big stakeholders have finished selling their stake... Although it hurts, I think we will be with less marketcap than dogecoin very soon...
@charlieshrem, thanks for the post, its good to get validation that least a significant amount of the powered down Steem is going towards Steem development.
These are the questions we need to answer as a community to determine whether you should stay powered up or not. They are simple questions but no doubt have complex answers.
Steem is a social network, and as such needs to compete with the incumbents. That's a possibility insurmountable task considering the network effect, machine learning and development advantages the likes of Facebook and Twitter have. That means Steem platforms must offer significant advantage to users, or at least the thought leaders and most popular users, who may drag others. But simply posting the best contributors is not enough. The feature set of Steem must be comparable to improve curation and ease of consumption based upon niche interests, which is what Twitter, Facebook and Reddit all do in different ways. Here is a possible way that Steemit can compete, through incentivised semantic curation: https://steemit.com/steemit/@manipulable/proposal-make-tags-useful-in-steemit-or-copy-linkedin
So can Steemit compete with the incumbents? Maybe, maybe not... But can other applications top of Steem?
That leads to the next question. Can other Steem platforms be revenue generating from the getgo, directly on The blockchain level? Steemit had the advantage of having mined lots of Steem, but subsequent apps have advantage over incumbents, since they would have to resort to a freemium model like Twitter. There is no efficiency there. They would be no better than the incumbents.
If the answer is Yes, then Steem can survive. Steem needs many applications working off the same blockchain. It needs to take a universal approach.
This may or may not be technically feasible. I am not technically capable of evaluating that. But I do know that this is the key to evaluating Steem.
Aside from that fact, further long term questions relate to how the non-ideological participants react to a financially incentivised social network, whether they will act the same as their current behaviour, or if their behaviour is different will those differences be conducive to supporting quality.
Will owning Steem Power actually become desirable? Will influence on Steem actually be desirable? That's an open question but i would suggest it's secondary to the first question, as the environment in which it can be answered cannot come about unless the development of third party Steem apps is well funded and active.
Can you help answer these questions in your enquiry?
I hope steemit goes down to a penny just so most of the greedy whales have no more buy walls to cashout on.
I would take the SD and keep posting, you pretty much guaranteed to make 1000,s every time you post. As all the little minnows like me upvote to try catch a few SP scraps. Just let your SP build so your upvotes make you more and more. If it all falls then you made some cash and more of a name for your self . Take all thoses posts and publish a kindle book =).
lots of minnows in the water this morning, "trying to catch a few SP scraps." Well said.
Do Not power down, help build this platform curate find good posts, don't be just another whale, make a difference by actually voting on content you like. Not just regurgitated content.
@charlieshrem keep your SP for the long term. I've seen consistent growth in my small investment and I'm having fun with the platform. I also have fun playing Fantasy Football but my small investments there go entirely to the other players leaving me with only dreams of what could have been. :)
Do what's best for you, If the platform relies on people's altruism to thrive then there is something wrong with the platform. Steem will be fine whether you whales power down or not, and if it's not fine then...... oh well, I'm sure someone will create a successor. Life goes on
good article Charlie. Doesn't the value of Steem lowers when you get paid in dollars due to the drop of the market value? If so why would you want to power down when the market is down. It is always a good time to invest and power up when the value is low. In today's time a $100 gets us no where.
You just powered up by writing this article about powering down lolz.
I agree, if you believe in steemit and its future and have the available funds then its an easy choice to power up while its cheap. Powering up now will help with your interest and hep some with curation rewards.
Do the Right Thing
I kind of look at it this way, you're basically asking if you should respect the community that gave you what you have by becoming more involved (powering up, upvoting content, being social) or if you should just enjoy what you've earned and quit.
To me, I think this sounds like a rather selfish post. I mean, do what you will, to each their own, but for me there would be no question. Community is the answer. Unless you've invested heavily to buy a new computer or whatnot to create the writing you've created, then you certainly cant be out too much more than the power it cost you to upload your content. Give yourself some reward by cashing in some steem dollars, and reinvest the rest.
If you reinvest, and steemit eventually fails, would you be utterly heartbroken? Maybe a bit dissapointed that you didnt cash out earlier, but I doubt you'd feel a crushing sense of defeat. If you power down now, and steemit fails anyway, then those hundred dollars a week could become pennies anyway at almost any time.
But if you believe in the platform, you'd reinvest. You'd power up, become someone who does more than just ask simple questions to receive thousands of dollars worth of upvotes. You could carve out a real niche in the community, and be that part that encourages others to join, instead of one of those that encourages others to cash out.
Lead by example, and BE the example you would want to see. So I answer your question with a question, what would YOU want to see from someone asking the same question, ESPECIALLY if you were a minnow, or a user looking to join? Would you want them to support the community, and thereby support you and the platform you post on, or would you rather see someone make a few quick bucks and leave, giving you little hope and even taking away the overall drive to keep putting in the time and effort to create thoughtful, innovative, and unique content?
Minnows like myself are watching, to see what example you choose to lead by. I cant speak for everyone, but I hope you make the right choice.
@charlieshrem pleasure to meet you my man.
Super observant post - full of personality which is always fun to read. In addition to what you wrote:
It is absolutely natural to be alerted by by whales "dumping" if we assume that theyre doing so to run. But there are easier ways to make a quick buck than designing the worlds first blockchain powered media monetization platform (especially one which requires two years to return investment). If they want to expand, they need to recruit developers who more than likely dont accept Steem as payment. Hence power downs.
So many heard about Steemit after a surging phase, when it lept %2000 almost overnight. Thats when news rolls out, thats when everyone hears about it, thats when everyone becomes excited, thats when our speculatory value goes insane. And we all know that speculation demands correction. Thats where we are now -an actualized value phase.
Steem Power is the surest way to prevent the platform from becoming the cash grab that so many fear is becoming a reality. No one created Steem Power specifically to lock up investor money, they created it to ensure longevity!
Shot you a follow mon frere. Im looking forward to more.
Great piece, very thought provoking. I've been on the platform almost two months and have been cashing in SBD but keeping Steem Power. I think the potential for Steemit to be acquired by a larger company who is looking for a plug and play social media platform is huge but I think the founders would be short sighted to take short term gain. Steemit is addictive from a user-perspective and it's a socioeconomic game changer as well. If this is managed properly it will have a greater societal impact than Facebook, especially amongst the creative class. I'll continue to trade in my SBD but will continue to keep Steem Power because I believe in this platform. Facebook is a joke compared to this, I barely spend any time on there now. I'm an author and literally have to pay Facebook so a post reaches people who've already liked my author page! Here I get paid and people are truly engaged and leave thoughtful comments. I find myself thoroughly enjoying other's content as well. This could be the new Facebook, Reddit, and eBay all rolled into one (and more) the potential is limitless.
As a content creator and business owner, Facebook is absolutely horrible for reaching your audience through a page. Last I checked, reach was down around 6% - for people who already liked and followed your page. Then they want you to pay $5 to run a 24-hour ad that could reach about 700 people that might care about your product.
This platform, if properly developed and executed could seriously drain FB of creators and businesses alike. And like you said - I haven't spent but perhaps an hour total on Facebook since I joined here three weeks ago. It has nothing to offer me. This place has enormous potential, but the people gaining the most money from it are some of the quickest to cash out and abandon it. It's frickin' mind-boggling to me.
I've had a similar experience. Facebook used to be such a valuable tool to me to promote my books and writing. I worked hard to gain thousands of loyal readers who I've watched over the past year become totally disengaged on my author page due to stifled post outreach. I can only hope there are some sensible forward-thinking individuals willing to allow this wonderful experiment to blossom to its full potential.
I've been powering up slowly, not having much of an income at present. What funds I make here on Steemit (if I do not absolutely need it to live on) go into Steem power. I believe in the long-term potential of this forum. Sure, there are going to be some bumps in the road. But, I have a gut feeling that Steemit will go on to rival Facebook. I like being on the ground floor of an operation like that!
I'm up early on a Sunday morning with my coffee and lap cat as well... thinking about Steemit, Synereo, and in general how to get to from where we are to a future Internet that features secure decentralized social-financial-reputation pieces. Steemit is worth supporting IMO because Dan et al are out there trying to make it happen NOW! Even a failure helps us all ultimately as it will be rich fertilizer for that next thing.
Muchos estamos escribiendo todos los dias cosas mas importantes que otra, no importa,; pero a todos los lectores me imagino que nos gustan las cosas diversas y siempre tenemos la libertad de elegir. Seria bueno que tomemos en cuenta esta recomendacion a la hora de dar votos!
Many are writing every day more important than other things, no matter ,; but all the readers I imagine that we like different things and we always have the freedom to choose . It would be good to take this recommendation into account when giving votes!
It is up to you Charlie, do you need money in the short time ? so you can use power down. If you still have enough cash, why do you need to power down ? (sorry if there is mistake on grammar and vocabulary, I am not native speaker) :)
It is now the good time to power up.
I'm still new to platform but i can se potential in this so i will not power down . Start is for free so what can i lose . Time will tell