IMHO the two words for Steemit Success = Trust & Recession, An Op/Ed from a 13 day old Steemian

CompuServe & Prodigy  

EarthLink & AOL 

**Gowalla & MyTown (which doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry so the link points to an article)

Napster & LimeWire

Myspace & Friendster 

color.com & branchout (LOL) 

Vine & Dubsmash 

Uber & Lyft?    

 Tech history is littered with the bodies of ideas that have either run their course or simply had their 15 minutes of fame (which is pretty much the same thing if you think about it) changing lanes on the Information Super Highway (invented by Al Gore, he said so). Yet here we are spending our time as well as our collective efforts on a beta platform wondering (well hoping, really) if it’s the next best thing. I mean the idea is great! Even if I earn one single dime from Steemit that will be 10 times more than I have ever earned from any of the platforms I’ve just mentioned. That’s the real draw isn’t it? A platform with a community that gives one the opportunity for monetary rewards for content creation, curation and simple validation when an upvote is given.

At the moment this is the supreme strength of Steemit as it seems to be the only platform to attempt such an experiment. But it makes sense, right? Why give my likes, shares and status updates away for free (even though we all know they aren’t free and that Facebook sells our data to the highest bidder) when we can collect our own rewards for it. For the somewhat technically savvy or someone with an interest in blockchain technology, Steemit represents a tremendous opportunity. In fact a much bigger opportunity than currently realized if the platform can find it’s way to being a financial Noah’s Ark for the next cyclical recession.  The thing about visiting a casino, walking up to the Craps table and looking at all the multi-colored chips, one knows that by law the casino can carry the fiduciary responsibility of each and every one of those chips with US fiat currency. Steemit however, relies on it’s own crypto-currency to hedge it’s bets and oddly enough…everyone is ok with that at the moment. Everyone is ok, because no real investment is on the table as of yet. Essentially all of us are playing with M&M’s with the notion that they will into “crypto-chips” that we can someday cash out and buy an Everclear slushy with. 

IMHO Steemit has an extraordinary opportunity to succeed if it can cover its bets. That is to say if it can cover the gaps in the economy where the status quo will eventually fail the labor market. If there’s one thing that Uber and Lyft got right it is the notion of instant returns for work. If you need money you turn on the app, you wait for calls, you swipe right and in less than an hour there’s the money you’ve earned within the last hour, two hours or three days is in your account. Is it possible that Steemit could develop this same type of fluidity with earning and payment? If it could, it would certainly be on track to tear at the very fabric that is the social media status quo. If there is a social media/ social news platform that is a demonstrated path to earning money, then there is really no need to advertise. No real need to beg for users because with a model that provides reward, the users will come as soon as there is another hiccup in the economy. But then again, as I process and write at the same time…if we’re building a ski slope in the middle of June, then there is certainly nothing wrong with advertising it right after Labor Day, is there? 

After all, hasn’t the strategy of “trust us, we’ll be there when you call” already been tried by Uber and Lyft? Both of which are transportation companies that don’t even have their own fleet! I mean really think about that! If that isn’t total WTF then I don’t know what is! But don’t get me wrong, both companies do own some cars. All of them are experimental, self-driving cars driving the streets of select cities in the United States. During the start-up phase (of Uber at least), I heard it was possible to work three days and make $650 with only one ride given during that time period. But now that the idea of “shared economy” has caught on with consumers as well as drivers, those days of summer wine are over for the drivers who are obviously on their way out anyway. In case you didn’t know it, the real end game for Uber and Lyft is the self-driving car. A self-driving car that will eventually be able to fit six people, never has to use the bathroom and can operate around the clock. But for now please don’t be fooled my fellow Steemians, both companies are hanging on for dear life until payday because after all an IPO needs to show a profit at some point. Since they can’t do that, the smart banks and wise investors are staying away from the investment.  

Then we come to Steemit! Great. We have a bunch of users eager to be on the ground floor of the idea that interaction carries financial rewards. The name for that idea is called the attention economy and the tag line appears to be “trust us, well pay you for your interaction” People congregate for various reasons, that’s why most cities are next to bodies of water. I remember seeing a Facebook headline that read “It’s the end of 2010 and Facebook has 608 million users. Great. Now what?” and we all know what happen. The same thing seems to be happening with Steemit, people are beginning to congregate because of friends, listening to the blockchain grapevine or accidently clicking on the youtube video where a psychology student made $500 posting her article on Steemit rather than waiting to give someone a ride over the course of three days.

 IMHO the idea that users can now get paid for their interaction with a platform represents the cutting edge of social media, much the same way Uber & Lyft represent the cutting edge of ride hailing services. Thus I would wager that if Steemit can hang on and make good on cashing out the users for their interaction, when they want to be cashed out. Then word will get around and people will come in droves sharing recipes, family pictures, nude pictures, food reviews that they used to put on yelp, etc.  The questions are: A) Is Steemit prepared to be the Ark that everyone swims toward when the cyclical floods of recession drown out their jobs? or B) Will Steemit be an idea that was initiated on the Steemit platform, but successfully brought to fruition by another group of entrepreneurs with more fortitude and staying power?

As for me, I will let my actions speak for themselves I am posting this article now rather than waiting for the 75% fork and that M&Ms be damned, I am making my bet on this here platform. For those who are Bearish on Steemit I will tell you this, I was at a party thrown by employee #8 at EarthLink who was so renowned for his house parties that I called him "Gatsby".  Seriously you would too if the party was at a 3 story house that DJs on the first two floors and a live and on the third. Anyway, there was one party where the local police department flew their helicopter and shined their spotlight on the house. Me being me at the time, I got nervous an left right around 12am. The following Monday I see him at work and ask how much later the party went on. He told me the party rage until 4am and although the chopper flew over and shined the spotlight, that's all that the local police really did. So if you bears want to poop out and go home early...there's nothing wrong with that. Speaking for myself though, I should have waited until the cops came and told me "Your ass needs to leave now.".

 Well…wow that last paragraph was rather self-indulgent. Hmmm let me approach the bearish argument by doing some role playing. You’re the owner of a black car business in Los Angeles. It’s March 2012 and the phone rings, on the other end is the son of a friend who informs you that there is an app on the smartphone that could bring major competition to the business you’ve spent your entire working life building up. The boy (who works with computers or something) then says that the way the app works is that when you make a request a car will arrive within proximity of your location and take you to where ever you need to go without any cash being exchanged.  Your response reflects 25 to 30 years of being in the transport business in the Los Angeles market.

 “Oh my God, that is the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life! You are telling me that someone is going to press a button on the phone and a car will come to them? Without cash? Thank you for the warning but we’re fine over here. Tell your father I said ‘Hi’ and to call me when he is in Los Angeles. I promise I will not lose sleep over what you told me, my friend. I promise. Goodbye.” 

While that reads as a satirical, anecdotal monologue bare in mind that it was one that actually occurred numerous times. Today the reality is that the disrespect of a technology platform that redefined consumer transportation now places those legacy black car services at $0.15 on the dollar. I do face the same struggle communicating this cutting edge social media/news platform that is Steemit to friends and colleagues only to have them give me the same “I’ll check it out when I have time” response that is certainly comparable to the black car discussion.

 …Or C) Is Steemit a cutting edge social media/news platform that WE have the opportunity to grow together? WE congregate in our newly developed region of the Information Super Highway (invented by Al Gore, just ask him) and WE write poems, WE follow sports, WE introduce ourselves to the community and WE embrace a decentralized platform based on blockchain technology to play a role in the way we communicate with one another. WE use it to determine what direction WE would like our region to grow.  

WE are Steemit! WE are Steeming ON!    

**Author's memory note: Gowalla did actually give me a random reward that I was not at all expecting. Walking into an REI I checked in, then got a note that I had won a pair of Tom's Shoes along with a code for the website. I also wrote Gowalla telling them how much I loved their app and,  they sent me a T-Shirt and stickers.

"Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre." ~Warren Buffett