A couple of days ago I wrote about the Steem 1% and how poor the middle-class spread is but there is something else I was thinking about when I wrote the first sentence which I don't think most people would pick up on immediately.
...about what I see is of supreme importance, building a middle class of Stake holders.
I found it interesting the way I wrote it because that is correct for Steem in the case I was using it for but, isn't correct in normal usage. The word stakeholder without a space has overlap, but is something a little different.
A stakeholder is:
a person with an interest or concern in something, especially a business.
denoting a type of organization or system in which all the members or participants are seen as having an interest in its success.
modifier noun: stakeholder
"a stakeholder economy"
At the end of the definition in quotation marks is an example suggestion of "a stakeholder economy" which is defined as:
An economic situation in which everyone is affected and concerned with its success
Now, do you see where this is leading? Most likely and this is the overlap because a stakeholder here is not necessarily a Stake holder here or, more accurately going on the figures I reported, not much of a stake holder here.
Holding Stake in Steem (in my opinion) is more than just owning Steem,it is having it powered up as it is a Stake on the pool which is essentially a pin in a piece of the pool that say, this is mine. Someone with 1000 SP has 10x more stake than someone with 100 SP and 100 times less than someone with 100,000 SP. No matter the amount, they are all Stake Holders and Stakeholders as they are interested in the outcomes of the Steem platform. These people are invested and in another business, would be considered more shareholders.
However, Stakeholders include everyone here even if one doesn't believe in the system or cares what happens to it as there is more at stake than just the economy and, future potential is also included in that value. No matter if one believes in the platform, they may still benefit (or be harmed) by how it performs.
For a real world illustration, a mining companies pollution run-off into a river is going to affect everyone upon that river, no matter if they have shares in the company or any say over what that company does at all. For another example, my daughter is a stakeholder in my business because how it performs is going to directly effect the opportunities she has in her life.
How I see it though on Steem is that we are all invested in some way for this platform to perform well, otherwise we wouldn't be here. We may want monetary value out of it or, we might want a place where we can anonymously express ourselves without fear of censorship but, we all have a stake, we all have a pin in something, even if it is not the pool directly.
Of course, the Stake holders who do have a access to the pool are further tethered to the outcomes of the platform as there is direct value to be gained, lost or wielded through upvotes and flags. Ho the stake is wielded has an affect on all stakeholders but, not all stakeholders can have an affect on how one wields it. As they say, it is your stake, do with it as you choose. All stakeholders can voice their opinion but, it doesn't necessarily mean it has influence.
Holding stake is having influence, it is having the ability to choose how and where that piece of the pool is used and, who it is used upon. If everyone just uses it on themselves, the platform dies, if people only use it on extractors, the value will remain low through continual selling but, if everyone holds, it doesn't get the distribution it needs to spread. There are obviously many other combinations and factors too.
There are some complex issues in this economy to get it all to work where stake holders and stakeholders can benefit. Factoring in the future detriment caused by failure, we should all be pushing for success in the ways we think best. And what we think may not be best.
What is going to drive prices of anything though is scarcity of a resource that holds value. When that comes to coins, the largest gains will be made when all the coins are distributed. If I remember correctly, there are about 17/21 million bitcoin mined. What happens when they are all mined?
I was thinking about this last night and asked someone in chat but they didn't know for sure. Steem is mined from a limited pool each day through posting and upvoting, witness as well as interest earning but, that pool is limited not only each day, in total. The current pool is increasing slightly but ina few years will start decreasing at an accelerating rate until sometime around 2038, there will be no more available. Yes, that is a long way away.
My question is, what then? with no more in the pool, what good is holding SP. I am hoping that someone can actually answer this accurately for me but as far as I can tell SBD doesn't have a production ceiling which means, that when the pool is dry, 50/50 is no longer possible, it will be 100% paid in SBD.
The pool drying up also has another implication as the only way to earn SBD is by having powered up Steem which then means, the only way to Power Up Steem is, to buy-in from the exchanges. In my basic thinking ability in this area, this should put pressure on Steem as it is a coin that can earn other coins without selling. Factor in all of the airdrops that the various SMTs will deliver and the potential of that earning is not just limited to the ability to generate SBDs, it is also going to mean that the SMTs that are successful will also drive their own prices up whilst also driving Steem price.
I want to mention again, this is really not my area so would love to learn more about how this works from someone who does actually understand this. It is all very complex and hard to get a grip on.
However as Stake holders and stakeholders, it is in all our best interest to think where all of this leads in the long run. I estimate the average age of this platform to be early 20s which means 2038 they will be early 40s. They potentially have the ability to do a little bit of work here, have fun, learn, engage and be a real part of the community and if they power up, almost guarantee not only early retirement but residual incomes by continuing to be a part of a community that they have been a part of for 20 years. If powered up.
That is a pretty damn good opportunity considering it will come added benefits of being decentralized and something that might become very, very important in the future for many, the ability to move. This is a revenue stream that doesn't need to be run from anywhere in particular. That is another post though.
This is already much much longer and offtrack than I had intended however this is how I am able to get my head around things, by thinking some parts through and finding the holes that the community could answer.
So, to repeat the core questions:
- What happens when Steem stops printing
- Does SBD become the only way to earn
- How much is potentially at stake for you
We are all stakeholders, many are also stake holders. 20 years from now, it is likely that those who hold both positions are in a very strong financial position, no matter where they are today.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
At inflation rate of 1% that will be in 18 years STEEM price has to be MUCH higher to incentivise people to hold STEEM in SP mode. If Steemit(and all other versions) is successful and worldwide used at that time, then price will be HIGH and 1% rate will be OK. If Steemit has at that time current market cap of Facebook, STEEM price will be 900$. At that price 1% inflation is perfectly fine...
Hey @tarazkp, I thought I'd jump in with what I know about your inflation question.
From the whitepaper:
Now, I haven't looked at the code to confirm this, and the code is the law after all, but if the whitepaper isn't lying, eventually we will reach a constant rate of inflation.
So your "what then" question becomes... "what now?" More precisely: Why should we care about holding and staking STEEM long-term, if unlike Bitcoin and the others, there will be more STEEM printed forever?
The answer is because, unlike Bitcoin, Steem has something other than scarcity backing it. It has the real value of the so-called attention economy behind it. Nobody has any real incentive to hold Bitcoin if you think it might stop going up.... but Steem isn't like that.
Let's play a game.
Let's say tomorrow, all crypto-assets have the hugest crash yet. Let's say Satoshi moves his coins and Bitcoin closes at $2.50 each. Most altcoins are useless. Not only does blood run in the streets, but bodies fly from windows. It's bad.
Meanwhile, with STEEM trading at a fraction of a cent, it now costs approximately $0.09 in promotion to send your post to the front page. Hell, even if you're one of the #nobidbot types (good), you could just power up a dollar's worth of STEEM and self-upvote your way there.
Do you honestly think STEEM is going to stay that cheap? I wouldn't bet on it.
Found this from sometime last year but the questions asked in the somments were conveniently not answered.
https://steemit.com/steem-inflation/@fyrstikken/what-is-the-inflation-rate-of-steem-here-is-the-supply-table-for-the-next-20-years
So, steem doesn't stop printing completely but in 20 years there will be a quarter of the supply but how many new people demanding it? It is going to be very difficult to get hands on and with the price increases expected, the payouts aren't going to hold a lot of Steem in them.
Off to bed...
That is exactly the future i want for my life! and how i'm seeing things too!
You know that my main source of income is steemit and for this reason it is harder for me to do power up
but I'm really making an effort to go up my SP little by little, I know that in the future it could be my salvation or with that it could make me just enough to live or maybe travel light
20 years is a lot of little powerups and along that path, there will be opportunity for larger too. Small steps add up to incredible journeys.
Wow, so steem has limited supply? I didn't know that. Will that not drive the price of steem up?
If sbd has no ceiling for production, then it means steem would become like gold stored up. Those with powered up sp would be like banks who will control the flow of sbd and other SMT in the market. I don't know if I making sense?
Yes you do and I think that is what it looks like pretty much too. Interesting isn't it?
Yes it is awesome. I think it is going to be worth the while of those who power up. Stakeholders would benefit long term. I have to keep that in mind.
Hi taraz. I didn't realize all this. Actually inteersting and exiting times ahead. Steem is going to rocket. Doesn't make sense not powering up or growing in some other way quickly. I can see a bright future for most of us and look forward to early retirement. I am a stakeholder and my only wish is to become a bigger stakeholder and grow with everyone around me.
I'm still trying to process all that - funny, it's a common reaction after reading you. Speaking of which, I really was worried for a sec - you do realize you're not usually off Steemit this long? it was like something was missing :D
yeah.. long day with little opportunity to write and another coming tomorrow perhaps. Trying to make up for it a little now ;)
Thinking is good, the next is related.
I'm glad you're okay :) And...I don't know what they wish for long days - Have an easy day? (seems a bit redundant, but yeah, I'm sticking to it)
Yep just as you say either we will be in a strong financial position or something else will come along the way that will capture our interest. The world has changed so much with these new Tokens in 2 years that even 2015 seems very alien and ancient for how much harder it was to get value on the Internet. Having to use that old Fiat currency and get thousands of anonymous clicks...
Taking risks in the modern age is less risky than it was back in the days. And the reward potential is so much higher. I mean god damn I sit here on 200 phones and I'm sure many others either have an expensive house or car. That means in a real serious crisis we would be able to sell off some things. One thing is for sure and that is that we are moving towards more speed. Which will be very exciting.
There are so many benefits to holding here, massive, massive implications.
I asked myself the same question. And to honest I don't know what for implications this will have.
In the mean time, I will try to have fun until the 20 years of printing have been passed. I will be a little bit older than 60, so hopefully it can be used as some kind of retirement funds :)
I think that you will be able to retire before the 20 are up and still have fun :)
Wouldn't mind that :)
Resteemed
Thank you :)
This is a really good article. I wish I saw more of these talks about economy here.
Click the Image Below to see the Video!
Upvoted and Resteemed
Of recent I have begun to wish I had paid more attentions to my economic teacher in school. I would be very interested in getting insights into the core questions you've raised above. I don't know if you are in the SMT group where a lot of knowledgeable people on Steem economy do discuss things (including Ned). I'll share this post and hope someone who understand economics a little more than I do will answer this.
This is the same thing that is being thought with bitcoin.
this is an interestng topic that you set out and I look forward to the engage of thoughts here.
That's why powering up is so important, especially with SBD declining in value by the day as it's only a smart contract on steem and has no real value whatsoever if you exclude bidding for upvotes of course :)
In the long run only hodling steem or steem power makes sense as those ones who acquire it become their own money-printing machines, which is how this has been working since the beginning!
I really like your post, thank you for sharing?
hopefully you add success.
keep the best to the peumain steemit
are you blessed by God?
keep the best to the stem players
are you blessed by God?
and continue to work in the digital world as well as more successful