All Steem Dollars generated from this post will be transferred to 'the lovely and hyper-intelligent Dr. Stephanie Murphy' if and when she chooses to join Steemit. :p
In the latest episode of Sovryn Tech, Voluntaryist Brian Sovryn critiqued Steemit.
Now I respect Brian. I have listened to about half of his 187 episodes of his weekly podcast. I find Sovryn Tech both informative and entertaining. Sometimes he is right about things... and sometimes he is wrong. But he is certainly not shy about putting his ass on the line.
In a nutshell, this is the stuff Brian said during his rant about Steemit. Some is paraphrased, most is verbatim. (My responses are in brackets.)
Here is the link to the show so you can listen for yourself: https://soundcloud.com/sovryntech/svtep0187
"Dan's ideas depend on people being virtuous."
(Most people are naturally good, and will act good in a free society. Steemit is a free society.)
"Having a blockchain on steemit is just for marketing."
(No, the Steem blockchain is there so shit's on record. Even if Steemit is forced to censor content, that content is still on the blockchain.)
"It is not a ponzi scheme but it is damn close."
(Value is subjective. I once thought Bitcoin was a Ponzi scheme. I refused to buy it at 5$. I refused to buy it at 10$. I finally bought it at 30$ lol. But as @dan says... All of the arguments critical of Steem can be made against Bitcoin.)
"I can't wait for this to crash."
(Brian records two hour shows in one take with little or zero notes. Sometimes he says unfortunate things. This was not out of envy, this was probably just wanting to be right. But we Steemer's want to be right, right? We want Steem to go to the Moon!)
"People are going to get Bangladeshi specials."
(Here Brian means getting fake votes. But he does not know that it takes Steem Power and also a good reputation to make posts rise.)
"White paper is complicated. It feels like central planning."
(I gotta admit that the same thought; 'central planning' popped into my head when I read the white paper. But I guess it was planned, planned in the same way that a game designer plans out his game's economy. I obviously liked the plan enough to join the experiment.)
"I don’t want to pump something that people are not going to be able to cash out on."
(this is a very ethical statement actually. I urge my fellow Steemers to be careful how you promote Steemit to others. I think that my friend @piedpiper does a most excellent job of educating people on this opportunity in an honest and non-slimy way.)
"The guy who posted one picture and 3 paragraphs and made $10,000."
(I think he is referring to Jeff Berwick. But Jeff got paid out that much only because the whales voted it up because they know Jeff will attract thousands of his followers. On Steemit you get paid for the value that you bring. )
"The website says 'rewards' not money. They are just covering their asses because when it crashes there will be no money."
(Correct, everyone could leave Steemit tomorrow and the value of Steem would go to zero. Everyone could leave Facebook tomorrow and the market cap of facebook could drop to zero. But people are, right now adding value to steemit and taking out dollar bills.)
"The early people made the money. Fuck em."
(I think that Brian thinks that the early investors are doing a classic pump and dump. Well, it's a slow motion dump because we all know that the power down takes 104 weeks, so... no. Also, the early people made the money in facebook, twitter, and... Bitcoin! Anyways... (a) it's still early, and (b) it's not just about money... it's about freedom.)
Thanks for producing Sovryn Tech every week Brian. I hope to see both yourself and your wonderful girlfriend Stephanie Murphy here on Steemit.
Fellow Steemians, please upvote!
Thanks for the hat-tip! I do my best :)
lol!
Yes you do: https://steemit.com/@piedpiper
To think I once hired him to help market bitshares only to have him quit after the public announcement.
One day he will come around, he has been stuck in the Bitcoin maximalist echo chamber too long.
Don't worry...They will ALL come around very soon! This is a platform that not only will be available to famous celebrities, but also third world nations. It will create income for people who have had no voice in their oppressed countries...A great time to be alive!!! Thank you:)
yes its a true and wonderful point you make, lets hope that it goes down this path, as this world or certainly parts of it have been kept out for far too long !! Give the people a voice, give them Steem to power up their dreams and communities !! ; - )
The issue with a lot of third world nations is the ability to convert into their own currency I believe. I could be wrong, but right now you have to convert to bitcoins then into a currency such as USD, but not all countries currencies are available to convert, or am I wrong on this? Although at least they would have the ability to build up a good amount of SP then later convert once the ability comes available.
Yes I agree. But Rome definitely wasn't built In one day! Lol Building the biggest Social Media Revolution will definitely take time. Being In the crypto space requires ALOT of patience! But, if we focus our efforts to help the founders get the word out, this adoption will fuel itself:) Great point though!
lots of maximalists will be opening their eyes in the coming months. i was one myself until Steem opened my eyes https://www.getrevue.co/profile/control/issues/control-issue-5-20293
Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the read. I think there may be one mistake in the article. The way I understand it, the your reputation the more you can effect a Flag (or down vote). However, it is only with higher investment in Steem Power that one gets a stronger upvoting influence.
... and i just learned something. Thanks @james212
One Brian quote that I left out was that"Steemit was founded by nice guys." He does not dislike you, just Steemit. Once he fully grasps it.... he might produce another episode with a different conclusion.
Yet another point of his that i left out is that "Steemit has only abiut 1000 followers on Twitter... ...so how viral can it be?!"
My response to this is that once new people join up... Steemit IS the social media platform they switch to. I only use the others to... promote Steemit now.
One last point that voluntaryist creators must come to terms with; your market is migrating over here on Steemit. We won't notice you near as much or at all on Twitter or Facebook or Reddit. We love Steemit. We OWN Steem. Thank you @dantheman.
Re twitter: 1752 followers of @ steemit on the bird page - lets grow this if only just for the cred.
"Dan's ideas depend on people being virtuous."
Thank you for believing in us.
Great article! I was turned on to Steemit by my fellow Anarchist Sterlin Luxan. I've been looking for something like this in a platform for years! Steem may rise or fall but at least it's here. I think about the tons of material I posted & commented to Facebook just to make Zuckerberg money. Think about this, the government makes money using mils of a cent. At least Steemit pays out more! (By the way I upvoted your comments, you have to donate to the kitty to reap rewards.)
Let me know if he wants to tangle :)
Lol maybe a google hangout discussion.
I'm always down for those.
Everything can be classified as a ponzi scheme. Your goverment is a ponzi. The company you work. The monopoly copy-machine money of your FIAT currency.
At least with Steemit I can make write what I always write about and get paid. If that doesn't happen it won't bother me. I wasn't getting paid in other social media but at least I have a chance here.
WHAT @kyriacos said
The big question is legitimate profit. Most online blogs make it from advertising.
your face is a ponzi... nah joking ur nice.
His main statement is that there will not be enough demand for Steem to hold its price from plummeting to zero one day. Here is my proposal to increase demand of Steem.
Interesting, but I have a hunch that the founders will want to just cruise on growth and the demand for Steem that speculators have for quite some time before doing something like this. Didn't FB have like a billion users before it even opened up advertising? We are at 50,000 users (possibly only 25,000 due to dual accounts) And Steem is at 2$ which is fine. Steem might drop to 50 cents, it's all good. Alls that matters for now is that the community keeps growing. This said @everythink, I scanned your article and your idea does have merit. My response in short is... t's too soon.
This is a great article, thank you for writing it.
@freedomengineer Well I dunno about the moon. But we're definitely in a rocket ship. Here's hoping the rocket wasn't made in North Korea...
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/north-korea-missile-crashes-moments-launch-160428072902328.html
None of the cryptocurrencies have real value unless people buy into them in some way. With steem it's about getting people involved. It's inevitable that early adopters will do well, but I understand there's a few measures in place to prevent people cashing out early or speculating. A lot of these currencies don't seem to be used for anything apart from trading. That's not what I'm interested in. Interested to see where the technology goes
Thanks for showing this side of the conversation. Yes this might tank and only the ones that got in early will make money but we don't know yet.
If Steem is only worth 10 cents but but Steemit becomes a thriving social network filled with Voluntaryists on blockchain. That's a win for me.
STEEM can never go to zero as long as the system stays intact. In fact STEEM is it's own currency and could theoretically be used to buy goods and services from each other. In theory there's no need for fiat money to come into STEEM so it can't be a Ponzi. I struggled with the "Ponzi" thing for weeks too, but i finally got it now.
Seems that everyone tends to make capital on the popularity of criticism. Any showman sees this as a gold mine. And therefore his conclusions are not objective. It happens. However, he will need a lot of courage to admit his mistake. When the project attains its true power.
In his defense it was me who posted his content. He has stated that he will not join Steemit. It's actually myself that will be earning the Steem Power off of this post based on my semi-effective rebuttal. The Steem Dollars earned though will go to Brian's co-host of 'Sex and Science Hour' Stephanie Murphy because she's 27.6% more awesome than him and she has stated that she might join Steemit. So let's encourage her. Lol
You are correct though that Brian is a good showman and the more controversial he gets the more downloads. But about Steemit... he could be proven correct in that it might go to zero. I am vested for the 2 year trial run. But I see 7 dollar Steem by Christmas.
Nice read - I hope more "Steemians" see it
Awesome response. There will be plenty of naysayers and many with much higher-amped microphones than Brian. It's important to stay the course and respond without emotion but with plenty of facts, just as you did. Kudos.
прикольно)))
интересно))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Are you Russian? I upvoted this just incase it is positive. ;)
@smooth and I have been discussing this at BCT. I am taking the position that it doesn't bring value to Steem.
Active users on the facebook give market cap (perceived future value). Active users on Steemit give Steem perceived future value imho. And yeah, quality content and entertaining interactions are key.
Did you digest the argument that the quadratic weighting means that it is anti-value to promote content inorganically because it is creating an economic groupthink in terms of which content is valued? Meaning it becomes a wall preventing diverse coteries from developing. It is a deep point.
Social media content that is only valued by its creator is worthless, so promoting some level of groupthink is a good thing. We want people to produce content that's valuable to some existing group, rather than only to themselves. I don't think it's realistic to be concerned that this will create an entirely homogeneous community with unified standards for valuing content, but it will encourage people to form groups rather than isolating themselves.
What @troglodactyl said.
Yes. So true. Isolating is the worst case, it is important to support each other to reach higher goals.
@anonymint If I have to look up half the words in a paragraph, it's not english.
Can you ELI5 that point to the rest of the mentally challenged such as myself?
If you have to look up half the words in a paragraph, it's definitely still english, your educators just didn't do their jobs.
You can blame your initial lack of education on them.
However, you can only blame your further lack of education on yourself.
Flip a bird at those assholes who were too busy indoctrinating you to actually educate you, and grab the dictionary.
I'll try to make more explanations in my blog posts.
Nope.
I will give it a read. I see that you are vested. Cool.
Talking about a Ponzi Schemes, anybody notice what banks have been doing for decades?
This is a great article. Thank you. Some people have a knee-jerk reaction "scam", "ponzi scheme" to almost anything. I am a big fan just 2 days after joining.
Nope, it really is a great way of preserving messages: https://steemit.com/world-peace/@samu-paha/how-steem-will-help-the-world-peace
Every company is central planning. It gets bad only if people are forced to take part, like in a state.
Nonsense. Every economy is planned... with many plans, not a central plan.
This is yet another plan. It is the combination, coordination and sometimes just luck that these plans align to mutual benefit that make some better than others. If this one matches enough individuals' plans to line up, then it will become a means to their ends, and thus find value.
You're right about the bit of people being forced to take part... but that doesn't make it a central plan, that makes it a part of a network of interconnected plans from which one may freely exit (thereby allowing a corrective element).
Now... internally, companies can be "centrally planned" and often are... but here the company is running a set of general ground-rules around the structure, and letting consumers vote on content. As it should be.
The early investors made the money..... It's like a month old lol
Same argument I heard with bitcoin back in the day.
I hate all people that are talking about steemit, if they dont even know anything about it.
Steemit isn't shit, i know a guys who also thinks this way- this site will get down because it is too easy to earn money here.
Such a bullshit.
It is not easy to get upvoted by whale, i would even say that is something like a miracle, for me impossible to happen i guess :/
Another thing is that steemit isn't only "money maker" website, we can also give help to people that need or deserve it.
That is most important thing about steemit, because we dont use it only for one purpose.
There are thousands of way to use it good way, and im sure that we will get even more great updates over here!
Great counter arguments... clarifies the doubts
Thanks @tjpezlo I don't think we are quite off the launch pad yet, in the 'to the moon' analogy. But it sure is fun to fuel up this rocket and speculate if she's going to blow up before it reaches escape velocity.
Still holding on to my steem and sbd at polo.
Thank you, nice post
Hi Stephanie & Brian! Hope you consider checking Steemit out! :)
@Ffreedomengineer it was very good critically evaluated read.
I just called in to FTL tonight and suggested Ian and Mark to join up. Ian said he'd done so but received basically nothing. He also mentioned Sovryn bashing Steem, and said ponzi.... I said 'but if you've put no money in'.... and the response was 'well, kinda not...'
Weird, the BTC minded FTL is so short sighted....
Thanks for the fantastic post! @freedomengineer
"Dan's ideas depend on people being virtuous." Yep. I believe we can be. This is going to be a great test of that notion. As well as this one: the only way for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Lots of good people here. Bet they do something.
Hey I um posted this thing and well here is 2.5k dollars believe me now?
Well let's see if the support holds until payout. I am quite shocked actually. But to be clear, Stephanie Murphy will be transferred the steem dollars that i earn. As i understand it 50% of the payout goes dirrectly into my Steem Power.
I have always admired Stephanie's rationality. She is skeptical about Steemit. If we as a community can convince her to contribute, it will mean that we did not just sell a sucker. Who knows.... maybe she will feature Steemit on 'Let's Talk Bitcoin'?! She's kinda a big deal.
This post is making me want to hear the original podcast, I love a good rant. So have we reached the stage where people no longer call Bitcoin a ponzi scheme #FINALLY? 'Intrinsic' value and all that jazz has left the building? I feel that every word spent trying to convince people that Steem is not a ponzi is simply a word wasted.
Admittedly, I don't know who this Brian guy is, but his statements sound a lot like some kind of sour grapes. Am I off the mark? I'm new to the platform so I may not have the whole picture here.
Brian is one of the good guys. He just might have shot from the hip a little quick on this one.
Question... is Steemit censorship proof? On most websites, a headline like this one would get the article banned regardless of the context. Anyways... someone please reply with a fact based answer. Thanks much.
Posts on the Steemit website can be removed, for instance, if a gang with guns (gov) forces them to. However our content can not be removed from the blockchain. And if Steemit.com got all censorship happy then someone might start up a competitor on the same blockchain. This is what I heard the founders say several times.
But yeah the headline and the picture is not very pro steemit at first glance. Maybe the whales see some importance in responding to detractors on the front page.
People have the same lousy arguments for everything. I have joined so many social networks that have not done anything. At least this one has my friends and peers on it. If it fails so be it, Google Plus has been a long running train wreck yet I still rock it daily.
Well, I can't agree with your premise, but I do support your right to make it known, on this or any social media site.
My premise is that Steemit is NOT a steaming pile of shit. Just so you know. :)
Really?
*Rereads Article*
Huh. I wonder how I missed that the first time around.
Heard about this post on Sex and Science podcast. I have my own take on things :)
https://steemit.com/sex/@mikebartolo/dating-economics-the-real-truth-behind-relationships-and-what-it-means-for-you
Well i have a solution.
Fuck all those who hate steemit, do you shit and just get good post.
Unless im going to fucking flag you until you are going to die.
Nice counter arguments and I think people trying to claim something this new as a ponzi scheme are just ignorant and either failed or studied nothing about economics and currency. In my opinion this is some of the art of citizen's domain reaching it's finest.
Finally finding an outlet that I can use to curate and publish writings of my own, some very old some very new, on the blockchain while making cryptocurrency, is like a dream come true, and quite frankly the best thing to happen to the internet in a very long time.