Steem: Feeding the community

Last night in my potentially pointless post I mentioned that vote values work in a straight line and that if 1000 Steem Power has a vote of say, 1 dollar when Steem is valued at 1 dollar, when Steem is at ten, the vote will be worth 10. That is true and untrue as @paulag pointed out in a comment as of course, it is dependent on how many are drawing from the pool and as price increases, so too will the activity of users and, the number of people joining.

Unfortunately for the most part, activity on Steem is determined by price but fortunately for me as a long term investor, activity goes down when price goes down. This is great because it means less people are trying to draw on the steem, essentially, less competition. On top of this, post quality goes down significantly which means, the chances for being seen are higher if one is willing to risk actually putting effort in.

The drop in volume and quality is a Steem culture thing due to price and the expectation of reward as essentially, the other platforms that do not pay, do not suffer the same fate. However, this doesn't mean they wouldn't if put in a similar position. I was talking to someone the other day about this and have mentioned it before.

Imagine if Facebook started paying content providers in the same way using crypto, Would it work? Yes it would but, it would also completely change the way Facebook operates and could potentially break its economic model. The Facebook culture is based on free yet still suffers from Scam and Spam for all kinds of various reasons, money being at the core of most.

The Facebook model is set to monetize the users, not the content and if they introduce monetization of content where essentially everyone has a chance of reward, they are going to fundamentally shift the behaviours of their user base. Some will benefit greatly though it and, many will be ostracized and lost, especially since the range of age is broad on Facebook. The complexity (even if majorly streamlined) of learning the system in order to get some reward would cut most general users out and even if they learn it, they have to change the way they approach the system.

There will be potentials and opportunities for sure considering the sheer volume of users but, they will have to reset the entire culture of the platform, one where people are not accustomed to buying into a social platform or, opening their content up to the public in order to make money from it. There are a range of options they could take but the introduction of user gained value would shift the entire culture significantly. This is the same for all of the what is now considered, traditional platforms.

But, without thinking about that and just focusing on Steem, even though the straight line calculation doesn't work it still kinda works. Not numerically but as price increases and Steem gets harder to earn, those who have Steem Power become more and more valuable the more people who come in hoping to draw from the pool. The accounts with 1000 SP are going to seem like mid-sized dolphins if there is 10 dollar Steem and 2 million real and active users.

If this happens, there are going to be a lot of what people may consider smaller users in a much higher standing and, a lot of people who didn't work or power up their earnings wishing they had put at least something away. We can see this now as votes have been down because of price and bidbots and those who have powered everything out are struggling to maintain their composure and quite a few are cracking completely.

This is the thing when value is put on the line as well as many, many different paths to both build and lose it, people feel the pressure. When most people post to Facebook, there is no real pressure for most users other than the desire to get a few likes but, that changes on Steem as it potentially is paying for dinner or, the rent. People come to quickly rely on the income they get even though they know they shouldn't since it is highly unreliable. Self-inflicted pressure.

Yesterdays post was going to be about the many revenue streams that are going to open up possibility on Steem with SMTs, airdrops and the like but, well, I get sidetracked, like in this post. This is more about how the dynamics of a platform changes considerably when the introduction of a currency happens and, on the price level of that currency. We see it in the real world now and it isn't hard to understand how much impact currency values can have if we look at somewhere like Venezuela.

But, with the way things are going, the entire economic system is in for a bit of a shakeup considering that blockchains and cryptocurrencies are a much more efficient way to handle currency issues for a government, bank or company. In time, the mainstreaming is not going to happen because of great content on Steem but because of the efficiency and streamlining of business practices and costs so that those who already have masses of value can increase their profit potential. This process will spill over into Steem too, just as it did when BTC went to 22,000 dollars and Steem peaked around 7,30.

My thinking is that Steem is already being used effectively to earn and convert for real world purposes, it is fast and, it has a community behind it with members who are consistently producing diverse methods to use Steem and most importantly for the holders, their Steem Power to earn with. So even though there isn't a straight line for the vote as price increases due to the draw on the pool, the holders of Steem Power will have increased access to a range of revenue streams and potentially first access to SMTs and airdrops just because they hold.

But, the largest reason to hold Steem power is that those with the resources are able to drive the community forward and power small satellite communities that are able to attract talent and, investment potential from niche players and advertisers. These satellite communities although connected to Steem will be able to differentiate themselves and become businesses in their own right with Steem as the underlying infrastructure and currency to enable them. However, this takes more than the technology and know how, as no matter how good the Dapps are, they need people to support them and, they need key attractors who can show people the potential of being on Steem.

This will ramp up in skill level over time but right now, the focus should be split between developing the diversity of technology and, encouraging the best among us to keep producing and, keep engaging other users. It will be these people who will attract the next wave and then, the next wave again. Relying on price alone is going to create a culture that can only survive with price competition and that will always lead to an unhealthy economy with poor distribution and value.

If we look at mainstreaming as being required to drive price and keep it stable, it is going to require building accounts that are able to form cores of quality producers that are able to stabilize not only the price but, the communities they inhabit. The community itself is the strength here and unfortunately, it isn't the thing that gets the support and if it doesn't start happening soon, there is going to be the risk that Steem is a 'price only' system and that will never hold people's commitment. Commitment comes through relationship and the relationship on price is about as fickle as they come.

For Steem to compete in the long-term, it needs to become somewhat of a triple threat where the technology, content and community are able to grow and adapt, evolve and support where it needs to, when it needs to. That requires by default those three sections to be working in cooperation. Distribution is vital but, where it is distributed to is vital also and because of where most of the Steem Power is, it is going to land more heavily on the tech side than the community / content development side.

Balance is required and that will come when there are more people thinking and acting toward a future that is not price dependent. Price will go up and down with the markets but stability is dependent on the strength of the community and its ability to cooperate and develop.

The technology should eventually be developed largely unseen as infrastructure, not as an attractor. The attractor should be the community that pulls and keeps people here, not price. This is why other platforms have been able to develop such a strong culture as they provide a base that even though it changes often, the community keeps operating upon it, regardless of what happens in the world as the community isn't there for monetary value. This layer adds complexity but, one that must be overcome so that a community can still operate no matter the price.

We seem a long way away but, who knows....

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]  
_{Posted with Steempress}