RE: Where does the money come from? A look into the economics of Steem.
For me, Steem is like a startup that raises funds from investors to pay their expenses.
There are people around that interpret this as a ponzi scheme which, of course, isn't even true if that startup only paid for the good of their boss. A startup that only pays their employees and doesn't work on its growth will simply disappear from the market leaving the investors at a loss.
In the case of Steem, the investor does not just pay for development and earns a share of the startup, he also earns more power to benefit from the platform directly. If he only was an investor, he'd make a profit from the growth of the startup, but in the case of Steem, he can even benefit by means of posting, curation or by providing liquidity.
That said, an investor of Steem has inherently more possibilities to profit from his investment besides the potential growth of the ecosystem.
One more thing regarding the STEEM token:
For me, the STEEM token is merely an on-/off-ramp token for SteemPower and SteemDollar (the latter having its own ramps into USD directly soonish). Technically, it should be the cheapest to buy SteemPower by using the internal markets from STEEM while you can only exit SteemPower via STEEM. The SteemDollar is kind of uncoupled from all of this except that it is backed by actual STEEM (which one could obtain at any volume by using 'settlement'/'convertion').
That all said, we have three tokens on Steem:
- a liquid, crypto token with free floating price and high dilution (STEEM)
- a less-liquid crypt token with free floating price and low/no dilution (STEEMPower)
- a liquid token with variable supply but stable value that pays interest (STEEMDollar)
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest
I think the most valueable purpose of cryptocurrency is store of value, in order to avoid steal from the goverment, we need to stick together, and STEEM is the best sticker for us. I heard of STEEM a few days ago , the big difference of STEEM and other cryptocurrency is STEEM can reach ordinary people, i saw the potential of it, and bought a lot, and introduced it to lots of my Chinese friends, but the problem is , it's impossible for them to sign up now:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@laonie/it-s-impossible-to-sign-up-for-99-of-chinese-dan-and-ned-need-to-fix-this-asap
@arhag I enjoyed reading this, I think what you've written is quite a very interesting and useful to users of other steemit
"Where does the money come from?", or, "Who's paying?"
The condensed answer to the above is
a) "Investors"
or
b) "A self-issued currency by the network itself"
...which then triggers the next question on what gives that currency value
...aaaaand which leads back to ...Investors (giving that currency value through their demand)
also remember that time has value. In America, we often say time is money. Well curating content and value takes time. So therefore people who are blogging are the ones who are paying by their time.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. It is the elephant in the room that most people ignore. Creating content, whether it is journalistic, artistic, comedic, etc., is time consuming. In "economics", it is explained as "opportunity cost" and unfortunately most people don't behave rationally when it comes to the allocation of their time. Therefore, many people don't understand the value of others' time.
This is What I'm Counting On
I'm posting hard won information about #cannabis #cultivation. Should the platform survive a great deal of time, I'll get paid. Not much at first, but as more and more growers learn what I do, the word will spread.
Here's to Success of Steem/Steemit!
An example of plump trichomes on dry cannabis. ;)
Keep it Clean!
TheCleanGame Blog, Neatly Categorized
怎麼沒有中文化，我也想參與
Yes. And maybe they should be rewarded for doing so, unlike FB.
money came from thin air if you know how to create cryptocurrency.
Sounds like a good entry for the #bitcoinpizza discussion. :)
for me what gives the currency value is the network effect, i.e the cummunity, the aspect of liquidity, and also the proof of work effect on the network that give it value
My question exactly :)
And still no definite answer, I am afraid.
You don't really need to invest into Steem to use the platform, though. You can read, post and comment with just the free STEEM you get for signing up. Moreover, the main source of potential profit is posting/commenting rewards, and those rewards do not scale with the amount of Power you own, but with the amount owned by your upvoters. As a consequence, there is no profit to be made from investing into STEEM yourself (except for curation rewards, but those are really negligible).
That's why investing into STEEM is not like investing into a startup. The value of a startup increases because of the promise of future rewards, even if it is in the far future. However, with STEEM, there will never ever be any reward for owning STEEM, so the price should not increase.
Therefore, I believe the only reason the value of STEEM is increasing is an unfounded speculative bubble that will collapse sooner or later. Of course, large Power holders will say otherwise, because they need to keep the value of STEEM up for as long as possible to cash out, because powering down can only be done at a 1%/week rate.
I agree with your first paragraph, but in your second paragraph, you assume that investors invest into Steem by holding STEEM tokens, which they most certainly should not do. Investors for me are those that hold STEEM POWER. The only reasons to hold STEEM for longer time is to provide market liquidity (for which you get paid even).
There is certainly some speculative bubble surrounding STEEM, and if you were around Bitcoin for the last .. well since it's genesis block, you should know that there are ups, downs, pumps, corrections and dumps. None of them give a precise impression of what the value will be longer-term. When the first Bitcoin bubble popped, it did so at $0.007. Guess what, Bitcoin is highly inflationary and still, the price when up as high as $1200, with no real user base, with no real functionality, with no chance for mass adoption .. at all.
I don't mind if the price of STEEM collapses. I not only read the whitepaper, but can read between the lines. Cheers.
BTW, Steem launched on April 1st, with no one actually using it what it was made for for weeks. Today, STEEM has 33,648 accounts registered of which probably >70% are individuals with just a single account. The registration process was halted for some days because of the heavy load. People were begging to get an account on Steem(it).
I'd say, if there was a crypto ecosystem that can go viral, that has plenty of incentives aligned, that allows anyone to participate for free, that has all the advantages of features of recent development in blockchain technology, ... well then I'd think, that's a winner.
In the second paragraph, I should have written Steem instead of STEEM, that was a confusion from my part. But even if you hold your investment as Steem Power, you will still never profit passively from it, and that's by design. Dan mentioned he wanted to discourage rent-seeking behavior. That's understandable, but there's no reason for anybody to invest - capital gains aside. But without any fundamental reason to invest, there can be no sustained capital gains.
Bitcoin is a different beast, because it can be used as a currency and as a store of value. To use it as such, you need to own Bitcoin yourself (i.e.: invest). As mentioned in my previous comment, you don't need to invest in Steem to use Steem. Moreover, Steem is poor at both of Bitcoin's applications, because you have to choose between a liquid asset (STEEM) that is subjected to a very high inflation, or a totally illiquid asset (Steem Power) with a moderate inflation rate.
Steem is currently growing fast because people are attracted by hopes of profit. I can see two sources of profit:
If people realize - or even just start thinking - there is no reason to buy STEEM/Steem Power any more (e.g.: the growth of Steem stalls), everything will collapse and content producers will leave
EDIT: Since we've reached max comment depth, I'll reply to the child comment here. The problem of SteemPower is not dilution, it's illiquidity. If you decide to sell your stake tomorrow, half of your investment will still be locked away a year from now. The Steem Dollar is a joke. If you offer a guaranteed 10% interest rate, the peg with the real USD will never work. By construction, it would mean that a SteemDollar is worth more than a Dollar.
I see your point. Steem Power's only source of profit is captical gains, if you don't want to be active.
However, people that want passive income can still 'invest' in SteemDollar which even pay some interest over time. The SteemDollar is as good as bitcoin except for its speculative nature which is an advantage if you want to use it as an actual currency. For store of value, you may actually want to buy something that is less speculative in nature as bitcoin, but that's a decision for everyone to make on their own and derails the discussion.
Even if everything "collapsed", the network would still go on and pay content creators more than they would have received on any other platform. The only case when the system fails is when the price hits 0 which is as probable as bitcoin being worthless.
Oh .. by the way, the dilution of Bitcoin is still higher than the dilution of SteemPower.
i do agree with you, that steemit is a winner or your might call a slam donk!
I disagree about the "no real user base for bitcoin part". A huge part of the rise in price for BTC has been demand in china, russia, and other countries with both repressive governments and a growing entrepreneurial class. In most of these countries, a successful business person's money being stolen directly out of a state run bank by government functionaries is the norm, not the exception.
I can't speak about China, but I have no idea where this idea that an "oppressive government" steals money from people's bank accounts in Russia comes from. While Russia has some serious "rule of law" and "fair application of law" issues, it is not a kleptocracy. There is a burgeoning middle class in Russia and a significant human capital investment in the Tech Industry. These people tend to meet 2 of the typical crypto currency enthusiast's characteristics: Libertarian Views and Forward Looking Decentralized/Blockchain Systems. Additionally, Russian retail investors are looking for a way to get returns on their investments in the same way as Americans and they see cryptocurrency as a potential vehicle especially when Westerners jump in and drive prices up for them.
Thanks for posting. I agree in general with your sentiments. How did you find out the total number of users? I've been looking all over for it.
The numbers are not displays publicly, but the blockchain knows them:
I largely agree with your reply but I would add that when Bitcoin was $1200 there was a non trivial user base and there was quite a lot of functionality. There were several markets some of them dark also buying gift cards was no problem. There were numerous exchanges. Even Coinbase was operating, linking wallets to bank accounts. As far as mass adoption is concerned, I'd liken it to an island state like Barbados. Sure it will never get mass adoption but for those that use it over time it becomes more valuable. Steem has a real chance of becoming its own island state as well as not everyone blogs or produces content but there are many that do.
Thanks for your response about using curl and piston to find the total number of steemit users. It works for me!
I could not reply directly since the reply button was missing. This may be a bug where if part of a post is in a code box then the reply option disappears.
<3
I see STEEMIT in the future, in addition to the above as one of the biggest platforms to raise funds for charity. In the world there are hundreds of large charitable organizations : Feed the Children, Music For Relief, Partners In Health, American Cancer Society, Stichting INGKA Foundation. As well as thousands of small. Animal shelters, groups social assistance, targeted assistance, aid to the homeless, private fees. In charity a part of hundreds of millions of people in the world.
And other Crowdfunding.
But there are all these sites one big drawback, microtransactions between the participants of these sites is ill-conceived, it's uncomfortable.
Microtransactions between users in STEEMIT are part of the whole system. Therefore, it can really compete with Kickstarter with their 140 million dollars a year.
To attract charity tried and Facebook, but again, micro-transactions between participants of these sites is ill-conceived, it's uncomfortable. STEEMIT will leave behind him.
The parish charities in STEEMIT will bring millions of people.
Also, the device STEEM POWER will cause the funds not to withdraw funds and leave them in the account. And it is possible to support users to directly UPVOTE their requests for help via hashtags.
Unfortunately my initiative to attract charities and philanthropy development at STEEMIT are not supported. People do not understand that the parish charity/crowdfunding organizations on STEEMIT. If they declare it officially. Will force millions of people to come to STEEMIT
I think many are very interested in supporting charitable projects through Steemit. It's not that your idea isn't well-received, or hasn't been considered before, it's that we are early in the game. I think we'll see focused charitable groups pop up to support various causes. We need to move beyond the growing pains of only voting for 'steemit content' and start creating a community.
As an example, see my new initiative for the fiction author community:#descriptionsonthespot.
I think these types of focused communities take time to grow, but this is a natural outlet of how to utilize the Steem blockchain.
you're jumping to conclusions too quick, getting discouraged at a first attempt.
there are others who are attempting to use the platform for the same purposes of charitable fundraising - and who were doing so even before you showed up.
while your initial proposals may have not gathered an immediate huge support, this is no reason to say they aren't supported. if it's an idea you're firmly committed to, it may take several attempts with various strategies to find one that really catches.
there's also MUCH development to be done beyond just the concept, in regards to how such an idea could be executed technically through integrated blockchain apps - as I'd proposed in this.
also, it's likely your message is not fully getting translated due to the language difference. i.e. "People do not understand that the parish charity/crowdfunding organizations on STEEMIT" is incorrect English - just as the "will force millions of people..." is not the correct language to inspire support. LITTLE distinctions - but such go a long ways in garnering cooperation and effectively communicating an idea.
keep experimenting. your ideas - which aren't really "yours," but a shared vision, which you are but one participant in helping bring to light - will occur in due time. we're still very early on in the game...
The funds also may decide to transfer part of their funds in STEEM POWER, to support the users directly when they apply through hashtags.
So not sure if these are cool on here yet, but here's a post about my first salvia trip :D
https://steemit.com/new/@stealthtrader/my-first-salvia-trip
All cryptocurrences money comes from the people, we give value, to this virtual money, with out the people there is no Bitcoin or steem coin.
Nice whriting. I think this is good for newbies to read.
Alot of users dont actualy dont know how it works. They only know you can earn monney on writing and voting.
This is wery usefull, so i would recomand everybody to read this threat.
Tanks for posting this.
yes is a very useful tool for newbies in the cumminity