Better on Steem

Writing about the soft start and learning potential of Steem yesterday brought up another benefit of being here; something to do. Of course, we all have lots of stuff to do in this world but just think about all the last year of the bear markets and what other people might be doing concerning crypto.

A lot of people might have been caught out and not sold and for many casual traders, bear markets end up being holding patterns, especially if they bought in a fair bit higher. What I consider one of the massive benefits of Steem is that no matter the shape of the markets or even price of Steem itself, it is possible to earn more of it and use it for various purposes. While it can go much further and should, this essentially always keeps Steem gamified, even without needing to buy or sell.

Not only this, it is possible to use the platform in various ways that are crypto powered but, independent whether blogging or playing @steemmonsters, entering into contests or just reading and commenting around the place, there are lots of ways to be part of the platform and nearly all of them can still earn Steem.

Without trading or trading risk at all, a person can quite easily add 20% to their stake in a year and if engaging and contributing consistently and well, it is possible to add a lot more than that. Not only this, for those who believe that Steem has a future, engaging here now is part of building a foundation for the future, whether that is on an individual follower level or being part of a Steem community, of which there are many.

What is great here that even though it is crypto-centric, there is a lot of things that people can do without being directly interested in crypto itself. This is a massive competitive edge for adoption later if we are able to make this a varied selection of what people already do online as well as offer new ways to interact digitally that many might not currently have an interest in. I would say that there are many people here already that are dabbling in content areas that they might not have earlier and this is set to grow as more and more applications offer a diverse range of experience.

Soon, all the niche applications will start up as well and potentially with communities, entire content niche environments could be built without having to be a Steem clone. This would mean that they can leverage Steem without having to start from scratch and through SMTs and Oracles, still differentiate their product. As this is just a multimedia content delivery infrastructure, the only thing that really limits what can be on it is the imagination and the capabilities of the internet itself.

As I see it, this is going to be the true growth potential of the platform as rather than be a crypto platform itself, it is a content platform with crypto capabilities. This is actually how most people use the platform now anyway whereas most of the other coins out there are used in a purely speculative manner and traded back and forth in the hope that one day, the project will do something and buyers won't be left holding a useless bag of valueless coin..

The thing with Steem is that no matter if the coin is 1 cent or 10 dollars, it offers a wide range of utility and a lot of that comes with enjoyment and experience. While some people are only interested in Steem due to the current price or even the potential future price, there are many other things one can spend their attention on.

For me personally, even though I have watched my fiat-equivalent value drop massively over the last year, I have enjoyed the process of playing the games on the platform, creating content, engaging with people, discussing all manner of things, assisting here or there on projects and initiatives, going to SteemFest, finding and adding value to content, supporting applications, talking with developers and suggesting new features and of course, increasing my own stake so that in the future, I can do an increasing amount of what I like to do.

Remembering that this is a platform that leverages attention in a world that is increasing the value of the attention economy and one might realize how much potential Steem actually has. For those that are here, I would predict that for most, they spend more time creating and browsing Steem than they do most of the other traditional medias which means, more of their attention is spent here than elsewhere.

Once onboarding, new applications and the growing interest in all things crypto truly takes hold, there is going to be a lot of people coming in who not only arrive to earn crypto, but come to consume. And just like many such as myself have found in their time here, Steem can quite quickly start to replace other internet related entertainment activities to a large degree.

Not only does it replace the consumption though, it rewards the contribution. And when people get into the feedback loop of being rewarded for their actions, Pavlov's Dog starts to salivate at the ring of opportunity's bell. Steem is compelling on many more levels than just making some money as it starts to integrate into our lives and feed our creative selves, something that is getting lost in the purely consumptive platforms and those that do not reward with anything more than stars, hearts and claps.

So, while a lot of other people in this world might be tired of the bear or lamenting not selling, there are quite a few people here enjoying playing around in crypto and blockchain without having to risk or even needing to buy-in. Along the way they are also earning Steem and if they are holding for the future, they are going to likely see some very large gains in personal value.

It is all pretty cool and in m opinion,

Life is better on Steem.

 
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]