Community, stake and ownership

in #steem5 years ago

While Steem prices slide down a steep gradient - and then off a cliff - @steemitblog has released another update concerning the integration of communities which is in development and slated for hardfork22 (See, even though 21 isn't done yet, Steem is still planning past it under the assumption we won't all die in the aftermath of a few downvotes and curation changes).

This is a feature I have been waiting for since I first joined - literally. In the first week or two I was here I heard of how communities were on the way to make the place more family friendly and I got pretty excited. I have maintained my enthusiasm for Steem despite hearing about communities in February ...2017.

The reason I like the idea of communities is:

When Communities launch on Steem, for the first time ever people will be able to create communities, on the internet, that they own. @steemitblog

Ownership.

It is ridiculous to complain about the state of the world, the 1%, the inequality and the like if there are no solutions put forward other than begging for those with the resources to hand some over. What we as a group of indivudals need to do is to build things that not only have value, but we can own as individuals to service the group. THis is where we are heading.

What people don't recognize yet is that crypto is an asset class that could represent a great deal of value without having to tie its worth to something that is already owned. While people are clamoring over dollar or gold -backed assets, crypto can be community backed wealth that gets its value through usage.

How this takes shape is through building community platforms that are able to deliver goods and services of various kinds that the community that uses it recognize as having value. It doesn't really matter what it is, as long as those who use it, believe in its value and while some will develop communities surrounding investments, others will be star Wars, beanie babies or movie reviews. There can be all kinds of communities and there can be many that overlap and intertwine so that one user could use several similar to deepen their experiences.

Responsibility.

Owning a community on Steem means taking responsibility for it which translates to caring for users of the platform and offering what the owners believe delivers value to both the members and the economics for the SMT. This is where Stem actually begins its true decentralization as it means that the communities can build on Steem but offer a vast array of different experiences depending on the unique needs of the userbase preferences.

Many people have envisaged communities to be something like a fancy Discord group, but what they are really shaping up to be are business models that are able to not only offer the owners a return, but users a chance to be owners also. Steem has done this relatively well for the last three years with many individual accounts taking up ownership of STEEM stake, but now the next step is to build ownership among increasingly large community groups.

Empowerment.

Once there are distributed communities of significant numbers who hold value as a group with similar interests, the community then has an increasing amount of power through its voice and this means to be able to influence the world around them, including those who have power of other sources.

Essentially, the entire business world is driven by consumption of some kind and even the the majority of us are relatively poor, we are the biggest consuming mass by far. It is our consumption that drives debt because, while we are buying, a very small fraction of the world are owning. If we are able to start owning and getting returns on our own consumptive habits, we start to balance the books a little.

Global digital locals.

Our passion is what drew us to Steem, but if we want to attract even more people to Steem we have to offer them a home for their passions. @steemitblog

What a community on Steem can become is a group of people distributed locally but who are acting digitally locally. The community platform is a digital real estate that is able to grow digital goods and services as well as empower real-world processes also. What this means is that anyone with an internet connection can not only be a user, but start buying digital land in the experience without the borders of limitation nation states like to maintain. Steem has successfully encouraged thousands of user to participate and take up ownership, many of whom never had to buy in for the privilege. And it is a privilege to be a part of a community, even when you choose the group.

Phasing paradigms.

You might be negative on Steem distribution, you might be disillusioned by what you witness, you might be crying as the price declines but - what you are actually witnessing is a global paradigm shift in its early stages. What that means is we as a community have to let go of what we have always known and learn again so we can build something of grater value to us. This is not an easy path for anyone, least of all those who feel, but don't recognize the changes and where they are leading.

The new paradigm is one where the consumers are user, owner, developer, contributor together. It is the ownership factor that is the most important because up until now and especially on the internet, while we have used, consumed, developed and contributed; it is the ownership point to where all the value runs. Unless we own something people are willing to consume, we can never have value.

Values.

What we value is a question we have to keep asking ourselves as the world in which we operate changes because, we change it. You might not feel that you can do much, but as a group of the largest consumers the world has ever seen, it is us that puts the "demand" in the supply and demand equation.

Do we keep opting-in to the misery that we have created thus far or, do we start taking responsibility and building communities that we own and value? Steem and crypto is all an opt-in system at this time, but opting-out is to choose the status quo of the consumer class we have created by the purchase decisions we have made in the past.

The more of these questions get raised, the more compelling an experience Steem becomes and then, when the next global financial crisis hits, and then the next, and the next - at each cycle the use case grows and the value of the communities increase - and what we value changes from renters of experience, to owners.

Are you ready to think, design, create, develop, code, write, paint, read, vote, buy...

Are you ready to be an owner with the rest of us?

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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You might be negative on Steem distribution, you might be disillusioned by what you witness, you might be crying as the price declines but - what you are actually witnessing is a global paradigm shift in its early stages.

Yes mate. I agree with you big time. :)

And yeah buddy, obviously, this post has been resteemed on my wall for the selected eyes of my handful of followers in the privy party celebration of my own blog.

Now come with us to dance or just relaaaax. };)

"Are you ready to think, design, create, develop, code, write, paint, read, vote, buy..."

I am ready... actually I was thinking of an idea prior to seeing this post. it certainly it an exiting time of change and possibilities. It almost seem not real at times, that a concept like Steem could not only exist but provide them means to live, and work and dream and grow and earn all while having the chance to free ourselves from a job that wants to keep us as compliant cogs.

it won't happen over night and thats ok because the journey is half the fun.

Many get the taste of potentially being economically free and then of course, want to speed up the process. there is an alignment process where conditions need to be met though, and things take time.

I didn't realise that communities was mentioned back in 2017. The first I heard of it was last year. Some communities have already started making progress towards what you describe with the selling of services, etc, like Homesteaders Co-op, but that's also linked to the U.S. dollar so as to connect with buyers outside of Steem.

Posted using Partiko Android

Yep, I am pretty sure the road map started early on. I heard of them through @denmarkguy way back in the day. There is space for a near endless amount of communities and it will be interesting if some of them share tokens or allow interoperability of what they offer.

We seem to have done communities on our own so I hope whatever Stinc does makes it better 🙃

Posted using Partiko iOS

The communities that have emerged without the aid of Steemit is a very encouraging sign that people are ready to take the wheel on their own hands and not wait for "someone else" to do everything ready for them. People are starting to take ownership of their own experience :)

Yep, I agree. I hope that people start doing more themselves once there are the tools to do so.

These will be a little different I believe and can work in conjunction with others. Should be fun to be part of at least.

Proud to be an owner and still encouraged with what is to come for us all for engagement and growth!

Posted using Partiko iOS

It is looking good for the future if there are the tools for the community to decentralize even further. I kind of see it like Steem are the building materials, we are the builders.

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