I'm Holding, What About You? Let's Organize..
It's been a rough 2018 for Crypto Holders and Steem is no exception. We've lost even more than Bitcoin and continue to fall in nearly every metric I can find to measure us on. Including what I consider to be the big three: Price, Activity, and CoinMarketCap.
At the time of this writing, we have fallen to 48th, which means we are not keeping up with other projects in our space. It isn't my goal to be depressing though. When you want to change how things are going, you have to review where things are at.
Ned's announcement yesterday stated they have cut the SteemIt, Inc team by 70%, which of course is a bit unsettling and caused many, including me, to consider what the future is for Steem.
My conclusion is that I just don't know. However, the price crash seems to be having some positive impact on Distribution, which has always been my number 1 concern with Steem. We have less than 12k accounts that have managed to acquire and hold 500 Steem.
Two of those accounts are mine, and I know many others who have multiple accounts holding. My point is we just don't have a lot of Stakeholders. Many will want to chime in and inform me that Bitcoin also has a poor distribution. That's great, but they aren't trying to curate and engage new users.
We have a different challenge as in the value of Steem is likely to be about traffic and eyes on the site, otherwise, it is just a handful of users passing the new inflationary Steem out to mostly the same crowd.
On the bright side, we have many applications and projects that are being developed and that are doing quite well. Many of the people who are still here, are highly motivated and committed to seeing Steem succeed.
Let's face it at one point this account was worth $90kish, the window to sell, for me has passed. The 6k ish it is now worth, is NOT getting sold at these prices, so I might as well stay and try to help figure out where we go from here.
I assume the Marketing Team was let go in the lay off from SteemIt Inc., so we now know for sure the burden of growing Steem, from Marketing to Onboarding to Retention now lies with the community.
Will Stakeholders and other Steemians get organized to promote and sustain a growing Steem Community or will we continue to act like Coin Stackers and grow their own piles of tokens while ignoring the fact that the value of what they hold is falling? I don't know.
I think it is time to organize a gathering of concerned Stakeholders to brainstorm how the community can rally, organize, finance and support: Marketing, Onboarding, Retention Projects and support the most valuable apps we have. I suspect that if the price remains at this level, some of the Dapps are also going to have to cut back or will fail entirely.
Chime in below, if you are holding or buying and are interested in trying to organize some community efforts to continue to grow and support Steem.
@whatsup,
I will never sell my STEEM under $10! Yeah I have faith on this amazing project and blockchain and I hope it might be at $1000 one day (in 2019)
Cheers~
I like the idea of a curation guild. There are established users out there really floundering in this crypto downturn who could use a regular solid vote. It would help with retention. I have been told many times by many leavers that the platform just doesn't care about established users
I want to identify our holders and our buyers... and support them. Of course I know some of them, but like anywhere, we get locked into circles. Just as it took me a long time to become aware of you.
That's because I am like a dark octopus, skirting about in the ocean depths hodling all my coins in my big dark treasure chest ;0)
WOw! This post is on it!! Where are you getting all this energy? Love this post too. I’m
Up to support anything. Right now I am helping through Dtube and hope steem
Monsters will hold its weight in gold. We need marketing for sure!
While I've been a steem holder for two years, I've never actually bought Steem until the last couple of weeks. Granted, not whale quantities or anything but what I can afford. This downturn in prices should be looked at as a massive opportunity. It is definitely not the time to sell and if ever there was a time to buy, it is now.
I think the most important thing for steem right now would be to see more blockchain development efforts outside of Steemit, Inc. If this is truly going to be a distributed platform that moves forward, ultimately other witnesses will probably have to move into that role more.
But yeah, more onboarding and curation efforts couldn't hurt.
What kind of blockchain changes would you suggest?
I had no particular suggestions for the moment but I think in the long run evolution will be important, whether it's new features like SMTs or something else. In the longer run I think it will be important that not all future code changes are directed by Steemit, Inc. The blockchain should be able to survive and thrive with or without Steemit, Inc. otherwise what's the point of decentralization?
In theory the blockchain could run on as is.. and we would have to make it work.
The community ads the value. New Dapps and Apps are already being written by developers.. So building the community and spreading distribution out are my priorities.
I get your point though and it is valid.
There's some stuff happening in the UK initiated by @pennsif, have a look at posts under @steemclub-uk for some of the ideas; @pennsif's radio show on Thursday will also pick up and explore some of these ideas. I was just having a conversation a minute or two ago about developing a network in the city where I am. I'm holding, by the way, it was my intention, can't see any good reason to change. The issue of increasing and retaining new users has been around for longer than the past 24 hours.
I think, on just about all fronts, the baton has been firmly and squarely handed over to the Community.
What we, collectively, do next will determine whether Steem survives, thrives, lives or dies...
My feeling is to tackle it from the ground up - Think Global, Act Local... and all jazz.
I have set up @steemclub-uk to push Steem in the UK. It set out to be a promotional operation, but I am feeling and fearing it is now turning into a rescue mission.
RETENTION - is our big word of the day.
If we can't plug the ever widening holes in the bottom of the bucket, there is no point pouring in more at the top...
MSP Waves radio show host.
Co-ordinator of SteemClub-UK.
Editor of the weekly listing of steem radio shows, podcasts & open space broadcast.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.
I've been thinking about that and re-evaluating. Opportunity for a more grounded approach. I was never much one for hype, I prefer to work steadily. The fundamental ideas for cryptocurrency and getting it into the hands of more people and the opportunities this provides for tackling social problems are still there but thankfully we can discard all the unhelpful talk about going to the moon. I agree with @whatsup that delay or loss of SMTs would be a blow, but perhaps we can influence that.
Yes all future moonshots have been cancelled.
We need to fix #planetsteem first.
Totally agree retention has always been an issue. Especially while the price is down. However, I think the delay in SMTs isn't going to help a bit.
You re-enforce your defences when it gets rough and stormy.
Weak hands fold and strong hands stack the rocks.
Am also holding steem.
I still dunno what level I'm considered to be at. But I'm only holding 2 cryptos for now.
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What can we do? I think we can only keep working, and hope for better things, there is not much room for maneuver here, am I wrong?
We could.. organize a voluntary Onboarding Team, Marketing Team, Identify our holders and support them. We could create a wealthy voting block to get witnesses in that support growing the community.
We could fund and create a Marketing plan... We could create and support a curation guild or support one of the ones that is already out there.
Or.. We could float around helplessly.
That's what I mean when I say "working".
I think developers, god bless them, keep developing... that is if hopefully they see the STEEM blockchain as attractive still. As I've learned more, I like what I see on different front-ends and some dapps. And let's face it , for "Marketing, Onboarding, and Retention", the 'employees' did a fairly crappy job. I've mostly only seen it's the community really pushing things ahead, so nothing much will change in that regard, in my pretty uninformed opinion, ty
I already know of some developers that are struggling with the price challenges, but I do think some will survive the price being low.