Steem: Leading The Charge Into "Cooperative Capitalism"

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There is an old saying: when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

I am guilty of that in the cryptocurrency/blockchain world. As I read different articles about the industry, I realize that everything begins to look like Steem.

@theycallmedan put together a video the other day where he pointed out that few people are talking about Steem and those that are do so in a negative manner.

https://steempeak.com/dtube/@theycallmedan/a7n5dxbd

As I think about it more, I have a slightly different take. Those that write about blockchain and cryptocurrency are all talking about Steem, they just do not realize it.

Steem is one of the leading blockchains without most people even being aware of it. What is being offered up here is revolutionary. Essentially, while other blockchains are planning and hoping, Steem is doing.

One of the biggest things Steem is doing is leading the charge into "Cooperative Capitalism". This is what makes it so dangerous to the establishment.

A cooperative is an entity where the members enjoy ownership and management of the enterprise. This can be people performing all kinds of roles including founders and users. On Steem, this can be authors, commenters, curators, and developers (to name a few).

The benefit to a cooperative is that the values of the members are aligned. Again, this is a stark contrast over traditional businesses where the goals of different members often conflict. Platform owners, managers, and users are often at odds.

We see this with Facebook where the Zuckerberg and his Wall Street cronies have differing goals than the users. For now, users put up with that but will that be the case down the road?

One of the biggest drawbacks to cooperatives is they are slow to get going. Since they are decentralized in nature, the move from 0 to 1 is rather difficult. This is further enhanced by the fact that they are usually less capitalized than their better funded, traditional counterparts. The members, themselves, are the investors as compared to third party shareholders.

Digital platforms benefit from the Network Effect. Each additional user that joins the system is another that adds value to it. Over time, as more people sign on, the cooperative grows, increasing in value at a rate that exceeds the individual components (members).

The challenge arises when the users no longer serve as adding value to the platform. Instead, the platform seeks to extract the value from the users. Under the Facebook model, this is selling advertising and, worse, data. The users contribution no longer add the value to the network as much as what the platform can leverage it for.

On Steem, we have, as of this writing, 264,229 members. I use the number of accounts that have 1 SP or more in the ecosystem. I chose this because they are the people who did something on the platform and actually took the step to power up at least 1 SP.

As you can see, these members range from one who got a single SP all the way up to Steemit Inc. All have a vested interest in seeing the platform grow. Steem Power can be viewed as providing each an "ownership" piece in the platform. The value of STEEM will be a rough reflection of the value of the network. I use the term "rough" since markets are their own animal and tend to move all over the place for many different reasons.

Leaving value aside, the advantage to this model is that competition is removed. Many still want to think in those terms without realizing what is being alluded to. The idea of competition has no place in a cooperative.

This is why it is absurd each time there is a new Steemit killer out there (presuming they mean Steem and not just the interface). The idea of killing something off means competition. It is the idea of a centralized owned entity.

There are roughly 40,000 accounts (members) transacting on here each day. These are not only the users but the "owners" of the platform. Of course, any of these people are free to be members in another cooperative (blockchain). In fact, many are.

At the same time, we see different interfaces being developed on Steem. Are they in competition with each other? If one, for example, becomes the killer application the blockchain world is awaiting, does that mean the others suffer? In the traditional world it does.

Under this model, it does not. Since the value of the entire ecosystem increases, the developers of the other interfaces will benefit from the killer application. In this way, we are all joined at the hip.

On a digital platform such as this, we see a great deal of open source code. I just mentioned that a drawback to cooperatives is the jump from 0 to 1 is more difficult due to decentralization and a lack of access to major capital.

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This situation gets reversed at some point. Due to the open source nature, innovation on a digital platform explodes. Since we are free from the constraints and approval of a hierarchical ownership, individuals are free to add to the platform as they see fit. Over the past 12 months, we witnessed an explosion of DApps being created on Steem.

This is why I continually write that the establishment does not stand a chance. When you have so many open source initiatives, it is only a matter of time before the exponential curve is hit. Experimentation is ongoing since anyone is free to test out any idea. The approval process is not done before the application is create but, rather, afterwards. It is a simple barometer: usage determines the success or failure, not some committee or corporate structure.

We are seeing a new capitalistic model implemented. Collaboration is replacing competition. The number of different projects on Steem that are working together is amazing. Also, one idea can spread like wildfire among the different applications. If it proves to be a success, others will copy it. Once again, this is encouraged since it will do nothing but increase the overall value of the ecosystem.

There is a blending of many aspects of the traditional systems. Over time, I expect we will rewrite the rules of governance. Instead of the top-down model that is common today, we will see something new arise. Since we are dealing with an entity that is more horizontal in nature, our governance protocols will have to reflect that. At the same time, we should see the digital nature of the system take over with more governance coded into the software.

Steem is one of the entities that is leading the charge into a new era. Over time, it is becoming clearer how powerful all this is.

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