Steem, Utility Token or Rewards?
Recently I started to do some more powering up, but I would like to know what I am investing in.
Is it too soon to select a path and communicate it?
Currently there is an Inflation Pool which is distributed by stakeholders using their vote. Each stakeholder can allocate rewards based on the amount of SteemPower they hold to those things they think add value. Whether it is posts or projects or the burn posts.
Yesterday I was listening to @exyle and @yabapmatt talk about the value of Steem and ponder what the best use-case is for the Steem token. They are both influencers and even they are not sure what the value of Steem is. Today @pharasim's post also mentioned eliminating Steem rewards as a potential path forward. @Aggroed and @Justineh also had a brief discussion about this on their Sunday Night Town Hall Show.
Keep in mind, I can see pros and cons to either model and I am not opposed to adapting to market conditions, but it is hard to go in blind not knowing what is going to happen next.
Here is my dilima on one hand if SMTs are the only rewards going forward, I don't want to power up a lot of Steem. I'd rather focus on the Tribes which may become SMTs. Until I see how the SMTs combined with communities are implemented.
On the other hand if we are going to continue to allow stakeholders to allocate rewards to those things they think hold value and the SMTs are going to additional rewards, I'd rather invest in Steem.
There is a lot of talk about making Steem a utility token and reducing or ending Steem inflation, if that happens I don't want my assets to be stuck in Steem Power.
It's difficult to invest if I don't know what I am investing in.
To be clear, I think either model has value and can be marketed, but it is hard to decide to invest until there is some consensus on where we are headed among those who are controlling where we go next.
I can imagine these same questions would impact those who want to develop games or apps, they would design their product with the financial incentives that are in place.
This is not meant to be critical about either plan, but I wonder if we could escalate the discussion with the large stakeholders and resolve it so we know how to move forward?
Alright community, what do you think... Is the Steem token trying to do too many things at once?
What are your thoughts? Should we try to pick a path or leave all options open?
Let's talk about it in the comment section.
You're totally right. One of the other things I talked about with exyle is the fact that, with Ned gone, Steem no longer has any clear long-term vision that we're working towards. Steemit is still working on delivering SMTs, but after that, then what?
My personal opinion is that if things keep on going as they're going, new steem and all, that the STEEM token will likely continue it's slow decline in USD value relative to other cryptocurrencies. I think the best shot at giving real, increasing value to the STEEM token is to reduce the inflation to manageable levels and focus on the benefits it can provide as a utility token (which are many, and which are not currently available on any other blockchains that I'm aware of).
I recognize that many people don't agree with me and that I may be wrong, but I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about all of this and that's the conclusion I've reached.
Either way, I agree with you that if you're going to be investing in something, you need to have some idea of what you're investing in, and right now Steem doesn't have that.
It's 2021. SMTs are out; the only inflation is witness payments; what does your long term vision look like? What's the next move?
I would add the SPS in addition to witness rewards, but my next move would be to create a top quality suite of tools, SDKs, documentation, etc for various kinds of popular "dApps". So for example, if someone wants to build a blockchain-based game, they just grab the Steem Game SDK and it handles everything they need to build a game on the Steem blockchain - blockchain interaction, integration with tools like steemconnect/keychain, payments, token/NFT creation & management, decentralized marketplace functionality, RC/SP delegation, etc. Same for other popular types of dapps.
Then we go out and do whatever we can to get as many apps built on the Steem platform as possible, which should be a whole lot easier if we have great tools, docs, and support. Every app on the platform will need to hold enough Steem Power to support their user base through RC delegation, so if we're even remotely successful in getting some serious apps on here the demand for STEEM should quickly be able to outpace the new supply (due to significantly reduced inflation).
SMNFTs (Smart Media Non Fungible Tokens) or second layer?
Second layer.
This the best way forward: a full suite SDK for DApp developments.
Steem should not be used for rewardpool. SMTs with DApps can take care of it. Scot based @steem.leo, @sct, @palnet, @sportstalksocial have already proved it. Moreover, it is simple, for example, there is only LEO token: no LEO backed dollar, no LEO power, even all rewards are paid in 100% liquid LEO. DApps can play with their own reward pool distribution algorithm and find out strategy for own onboarding. Moreover, success will depends the DApp's developments. Investors and creators will move to the appropriate and successful DApp. It will be plethora of DApps, the fittest/best DApp/SMT will come out. Successful SMTs will drive Steem's price too.
@liberosist personal list of the ideas are best suited for Steem's future: https://steemit.com/steem/@liberosist/very-basic-stuff-steem-needs-to-fix-my-personal-list
I completely agree with everything you said here and in your interview with @exyle. I think moving Steem to a utility token is the way to go. In fact, I do not see any other way long term, at least at the moment.
As far as Steemit Inc’s vision, I think they are capable of one but they dug themselves such a large hole with SMT and communities being delayed over and over (even though the reasons were worthy and necessary like MIRA) they either have not had time to think past this major hurdle or they are smart enough to keep it secret until they get SMT released. Could you imagine if they had a large post tomorrow called something like “Post-SMT Roadmap” ... they would be laughed right off the blockchain if they did that before releasing SMTs, etc. I hope they do have a vision. What has Ned been up to? I thought he was going to remain involved somewhat but then he disappeared. Maybe he will come out of the woodwork with an update on dynasty. Was that the name of his next big thing?
Well I actually think either model could work and have a user case story built around it and be promoted.
It's not that I disagree with you as much as it is frustrating, as you stated... The lack of vision and direction. There are several directions we could go, but all of them at once is just confusing in my opinion.
Anyway, I'm still doing little power ups, but I just don't know where we are headed in terms of investing larger amounts or feeling confident onboarding people.
I was thinking the other day, that if the SPS is a decentralized board of directors, maybe it should just go ahead and hire a CEO or COO for the blockchain in order to have someone creating a strategy and steering the ship.
There would be objections along centralization lines, but as long as it's accomplished by stakeholder voting, I don't really think that should be an issue.
In your interview, you mentioned subscription services where posts would consist of links to other servers. I know you can encrypt memos on the chain. Is it possible to encrypt entire posts? My thought was encrypted posts could only be viewed by certain communities, etc. For instance, posts created through the Leo front end might only be visible to users and members of that front end? Something like that.
On chain encryption would allow people to post privately to specific groups, etc. I am thinking out loud here, but I could see some utility in that. Maybe the user has to burn a little Steem for the privilege of encryption. I am not a user of facebook but you could essentually build facebook on top of the Steem blockchain without the negative things associated with facebook, like data selling, etc.
What benefits would those be?
Hey, @whatsup.
I've read some of the posts and comments regarding reducing or doing away with the inflation pool. The first I heard that the actual rate of inflation was higher than the stated amount and that it was scaring away investors (supposedly) was maybe a month or two back. I wouldn't think that such a thing was a so recent development, but maybe more of someone finally bringing it to light.
So, there's a lot of information that needs to be sifted through and then discussed and probably determined to either be useful or not before we even know which way would be best to go. Who does that, I don't know.
I've never quite understood how the alt STEEM tokens on STEEM-Engine or the SMTs for that matter are supposed to gain value. STEEM is publicly traded, which has proven a definite double edged sword. But without widespread access to it beyond the blogging/social media/gaming platform itself, STEEM would be like its alt coins.
So, will SMTs be publicly available for trade, too? And just how will STEEM go away if SMTs are based on it? I mean, it's supposed to be similar to the ERC-20 tokens for Ethereum, right?
I guess getting to know just what the intent of SMTs are would be good to know as far as I'm concerned.
Personally, I don't know if we need so much fracturing. I already have a bunch of alt coins on STEEM-Engine that aren't doing much and of which I have no idea if they have any clearer vision as to what they want to do than STEEM or not. Since anyone and everyone can create one if they so desire, and since many of them seem to be for fun, I don't know. There's fun, and then there's serious investing. Unless you're Dogecoin, I guess. :)
There will be a decentralized exchanges with STEEM as a trading pair.
I always though the next step was slowly reduce Rewards pool as SMTs grow. Maybe cull it by 2.5% a month.
But there goes the DAO funding and Witness funding, as well as inflation incentive for havig SP. Maybe keep and adjust those...while eliminating author and curation rewards.
With the addition of SMTs, I think conversations will migrate naturally to the tribes and communities. In the end, Steem will be either (i) a reward token for "the Steem cheerleading tribe"; or (ii) basically just a utility token where earning author and curation rewards is so impossibly difficult as to be irrelevant for most of us.
I don't think it's a good idea to take the rewards out of the protocol, though - at least not any time soon. Things should just happen naturally. Eliminating rewards for Steem would seem like a bait & switch to many people, and there's enough FUD out there already. Steem doesn't need that publicity.
Yeah, early on I thought it might happen naturally and slowly.. with the altcoin depression...
I think the stakeholders have an attitude of "DO SOMETHING". :)
I will be the first to admit that I don't understand all that is happening on the Steem blockchain, but I see a potentially positive future with Steem being the utility token that enables all of the tribes/communities and pulling away from being a reward token.
This is the key question for me - Will Resource Credits be considered a valuable resource to the point that someone will rent my used resource credits?
If the answer is yes, then I believe that my current SP investment is not at risk. I will stop thinking like an end-user and more like an investor. I would not be getting paid for my time and allow my current investment (the resource of Steem Power) to work for me.
If Steem never becomes anything more than a reward token, what happens as the reward pool keeps decreasing. The supply decreases which hopefully increases the demand, but at some point, people will stop creating content as there is not enough incentive to do so.
Just some thoughts.
Yeah, that's another great question. At this time it is too easy to have a huge amount of RC credits. So, if it is going to create investment it seems that would have to be adjusted in my non-technical opinion.
I would argue that the opposite should be true. Let the early adopters (that is us) benefit from the time and money we invested into Steem.
For example, say company A wants to start a tribe. They buy SP which correlates to RC so they can onboard their tribe members.
Company B also wants to start a tribe, but they do not want the upfront cost of SP. So they decide to rent from current holders of the RC - maybe from a site similar to what DLease does now.
As more companies join, more RC will be needed to onboard their users/members. Eventually, those members will not even know what Steem is, they will just know the process of their tribe and their tribe ensures that there are enough RC for its members.
My max mana is 12,486,580,072,262. Let's say I keep 1,000,000,000 for personal use (way to much). If I wanted to start my own tribe and provide RC to my members I would need more, but then I can rent out the rest to another tribe.
One thing to consider is that the cost of transactions in RC may increase as there are more users and therefore more activity on the blockchain.
Good point about the cost of RCs going up. I forget to include that aspect in my thinking
All I can do is laugh. If they do away with rewards, the next logical step is to close down the blogging site Steemit, since there is no faucet left for it. Then the question becomes, do they believe the Steem engine tokens will eat the costs for their own social sites and reward with their new tokens not traded on any mainstream exchanges, and will this be another consolidation under group Aggroed?
I know I don't give my keys to any third party, so the rodeo will be over for me other than any Steem I may continue holding if this unfolds as I am envisioning. What a drastic shift in approach, although I can't say it surprises me. For every community minded person I have encountered, there were so many more who had a case of the give me.
I'm guessing if they close the social sites down leaving it to the various token issuers to run something, the current community in hand will drop by 50% or more. A bit of a gamble, but perhaps investors will view Steem as viable if they aren't forced to lock their Steem up in SP to keep the inflation from eating at their investment.
Tbh I don’t like the idea of eliminating the rewards pool. I think SMTs as an additional rewarding system would be fine as ling as completely removing sbd which is a burden and also reduce inflation.
Tribes have their own tokens. Do you think that people are killing their crypto assets to be invested in Tribe tokens rather than Steem? No they don’t. SMT’s will have the same fate.
Everyone is expecting that they will be the next big thing but I think they won’t be...
But that’s just me
Yeah, I hear you. I have mixed feelings as well.
But we can't stop inflation altogether, because witnesses need it as a reward and SPS is funded with that, right? So we are talking about the reward pool, am I right?
I can see the argument, but the good thing with inflation to authors and curators is that it improves distribution, which is a big problem, so I've heard many people say. It also incentivezes participation on the network, and now that EIP has taken place, more good actors are getting rewarded, which furthermore improves distribution and devalues some inactive ninja mine stake that might be out there. This is good for the long-term health of Steem I believe.
I think we first have to see the long-term effects of SMTs before doing radical changes to inflation. I could see allocating more of the inflation to SPS as a valid idea, but getting rid of STEEM reward pool I don't think is a good idea, for now at least.
For sure it doesn't do to many things at once, rather it didn't do anything for too long. The platform needs to evolve and adapt each day in order to thrive or others will come from behind and dust. New things must be added, new ways must be tried and the only path that I can see is to have Steem behind to support all this. It should be like the fuel for your car. No steem, no movement.
Got some liquid STEEM, SP, and a fair few Tribe tokens - hedging bets for now :)
Me three.
Me too!