Why I am still steeming

in #steem6 years ago

The steem price has come down a lot and post payouts have declined significantly since the beginning of the year. Steem was around at 6$ and SBD at 9$! A post that now scores 1$ would have been 30$ back then! That is a massive decline.

Steem_Windows_Mining000.jpeg
[source-steem]

But today steeming is more important than ever before. What makes steem unique is not that it pays its users. Most people will not be living of the chain and will only have a little extra money on top of their earnings. Steem is unique because there is no (or almost no) company behind it. What ends up on the chain cannot be censored and everyone can post without requiring permission.

For this decentralisation the monetary nature of steem is essential. Paying users is only a side-effect. On Facebook somebody needs to pay for the infrastructure. That would be facebook who in turn reaps the rewards and makes the rules. But there is nobody owning steem. Everyone can set up a node and run for witness. But somehow the infrastructure still needs to be paid. Becasue of a working steem ecosystem, steem can created value itself and use that money to pay the witnesses to provide the infrastructure. That process is extremely unique. It creates a real world service without owning the infrastructures to do so.

An important consequence of steem being not owned by anyone is that steem cannot be censored or controlled and all profits remain in the community. It is a truly free medium. It brings the self-publishing opportunities of the internet to the next level. Users need no technological know-how and do not need to trust their data to a third party. For the first time anyone can publish whatever they want and be safe from censorship. And that is a strong power. We have seen the impact of twitter in the arab spring. And twitter can be controlled, it was only that these countries were not prepared to do it. Steem cannot be controlled as long as the steem economy is alive there will be witnesses securing the chain.

Censorship_Blog-1024x773.jpeg
outdated from 2016

Just a few days ago we have seen that censorship in the social media is possible also here. The question is do we want that some people have the power to decide who is allowed to speak online and who is not? I clearly dont think this should be the case. And currently steem is the most decentralised alternative to the old centralised social media.

Now that steem is weak we have to work to keep it alive. We know how important free media are and we have to take this responsibility. This bear market will end. And then many new people will be flushed into crypto. We should present all these people our alternatives to centralised social media and they should find an active and alive steem community that they want to be a part of. Our task is to bear the candle in the dark times and make sure it does not go extinct.

Steem certainly is not perfect. It is not decentralised enough. The ecosystem has many flaws and we do need to fix them or create better alternatives. But as long as these do not exist, I will continue to steem and not let this platform die yet.


This post has been created to enter @jk6276's SBI share contest. Click this link if you want to join in: https://steemit.com/contest/@jk6276/new-sbi-contest-3-shares-on-offer-steem-bounty-for-all-entrants

Sort:  

All good points, anyway user experience needs to improve dramatically, the time of steem being the only on chain social media platform are numbered....

Yes and that is a good thing. Because as long as steem has the monopoly the whales will not get their asses up

Going through mud is hard but not impossible. One should not give up so easy. ✌

Carry on!

I got into crypto not seeking a profit but to support the movement. A net lose in USD terms is still a win if we get a funcional system. Profits are just a side effect.

Posted using Partiko Android

Congratulations @frdem3dot0! You have completed the following achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments received

Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do you like SteemitBoard's project? Then Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by frdem3dot0 from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

@frdem3dot0 Thank you for not using bidbots on this post and also using the #nobidbot tag!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.039
BTC 70112.96
ETH 3549.99
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.71