Why STEEM Cannot Be Stopped: Not By The Banksters, The Government, or Zuckerberg!!!! Another Reason Why STEEM Could Make You Insanely Rich!!!
There tends to be a lot of confusion about the power of the blockchain and how it really is something that cannot be stopped. We often discuss the power of the banksters which leads many to feel they have a way to counteract what it is taking place. They do not.
Steem, like most blockchains, is a decentralized, open source blockchain. These two adjectives are the key to what is taking place.
Decentralization means it is outside the control of any one entity or individual. Blockchains of this nature exist on hundreds to thousands of computers around the world. Therefore, unlike corporate run servers, nothing can shut this down. It is physically impossible. Any attempts to thwart it require only writing a bit more code and loading it onto another computer. Presto...back in business.
On the steem blockchain, the witnesses are the primary ones from running the blockchain. Someone asked me yesterday, what if Zuckerberg paid the witnesses off? Then I would suggest everyone log on and vote for different witnesses. Besides, any individual can down load the software and run it.
This is the other aspect, open source. Most software is proprietary requiring licensing to utilize it. The exact opposite exists on blockchain. Here anyone with an Internet connection is able go grab the software and utilize it. This is one of the variables that makes it is impossible to stop.
People seem to fear the banksters using their unlimited fiat resources to buy up everything, effectively shutting down the progress blockchain and cryptocurrencies are making. Again, this is non-starter. To prove this, ask yourself, what are they going to buy?
They could purchase Steemit.com. That is a private app which the owners could sell out (I presume they could; I never investigated the power structure of it although it is taking the characteristics of a DAO). Of course, if that happened, move over to busy.org, it reads the same data as steemit. If you dont like that, there is chainbb. And D.Tube. And Zappl. There are a number of ways to access the blockchain.
Which brings up a point that must be stressed: the value, thus far, is not in the apps but in the blockchain protocol itself. What is placed on the blockchain has the value.
Steemit will never have value like Facebook or Reddit no matter what happens. The reason for this is steemit is really an interface to open source data. As just mentioned, we can use a number of interfaces to continue posting, commenting, and upvoting. Try to do that with Facebook or Reddit. These companies have value because of the ecosystem they control. Steemit is part of a larger ecosystem but it does not control it.
This means that buying Steemit would be a waste of money. Apps are only the entry point and not the real value. Sure, it might be worth something but not the billions of dollars. In this arena, that is reserved for the blockchain.
Another aspect of this is that people think that a guy like Zuckerberg could wipe the competition potentially being created by purchasing all the STEEM. To start, this is difficult since a great deal of it is held in Steem Power, hence not available on the open market. Nevertheless, let us presume he (or the banksters) could gain a controlling interest. Logic states they could shut the entire thing down.
That logic might be applicable in the TCP/IP world but not with blockchain. A move like that would also be a waste of money since buying up all the tokens accomplishes nothing.
Remember the blockchain is decentralized and open-source. Anyone with a computer can run the software. What happens if "undesirables" like Marky Marky and his ilk gain control? Someone dedicated Steemian simply grabs the software, forks the blockchain, airdrops the new STEEMZ token, and away we go. Once again, the purchaser would end up holding something worth little to nothing.
People like to claim that cryptocurrency has no value other than what people assign to it. That is not true. The value of a cryptocurrency, because it is tied to a blockchain, reflects the activity and usage of that blockchain. If Zuckerberg bought up all the STEEM motivating someone to fork it and all the users/developers went with the fork, the original chain (and token) is worth little.
Bitcoin keeps forking in what appears to be in-house civil wars. From the outside, this might be the case yet what is really happening is that people believe in different solutions to the present problems BTC is facing. Hence, groups form espousing their views of what will work. When those groups get big enough, they fork it so they can implement their solution and solve the problem. For bitcoin, the second part of that sentence appears to be missing at the moment yet the forks keep coming. Give them an "A" for persistence.
Forking can also be done to counter a threat from an outside entity. In this scenario, if a money player came in to shut steem down, the blockchain is forked to counter that move. But the banksters have unlimited money you say? We have unlimited number of times we can fork this blockchain. By the time they get enough tokens to assert control, the fork happened and they have to start all over again with another currency.
In short, the banksters cannot control a decentralized, open blockchain no matter how much money they throw at it.
What about government, certainly they can stop this?
They are even more powerless than the banksters. To start, the government's ability to control exists only if people decide to adhere. Remember the music industry turning to the government to control all those people downloading music for free? What happened? Some were made an example of with outlandish judgments against them. However, for the most part, other than trying to deter the behavior, there was no way to stop it.
Marijuana was illegal in the US for decades. It is only now starting to be legalized. Yet 90% of Americans claim to have tried it. 90% doing something that is illegal? That is the power of the government. When the masses basically say screw off, that is exactly what the government has to do.
Right now, using Bitcoin in Venezuela is illegal. Do you know where the usage of Bitcoin is raging right now? Venezuela. Even an oppressive, tyrannical government like that is powerless to control cryptocurrencies.
What is that I hear? Confiscation?
Yes that is one of the government's favorite yet also doesnt apply here. What are they going to confiscate? People are holding nothing. Sure they have a key which accesses a wallet. Good luck getting that key. Some might give it up but, again, if millions of people have cryptocurrencies, how is the government going to jail and torture all those people? It gets worse since we will have tens of millions of people holding crypto before long.
One tactic a government can do is go after the exchanges and the miners. Actually, they have more success with the exchanges since they tend to be regulated and centralized. Miners are all over the place. Nevertheless, this is a viable option for government. Unfortunately for them, as long as one country around the world allows mining, it will take place. China banned miners and it had no effect.
As for the exchanges, that will be moot in another year or two since decentralized exchanges are starting to pop up all over the place. It is impossible for the government to shut down something like Bitshares. The only way that can happen is to shut down the entire Internet (and even then, someone would figure out a way to access it).
My point, focusing upon STEEM again, is that the no outside entity has the power to stop this. The success of the steem blockchain has nothing to do with Zuckerberg, banksters, or governments. Instead, the only variable is if people use the blockchain or not. That is what determines a blockchain's success.
In other words, the only ones who can screw this up is us. Drive people away and you will see it collapse. Give them a reason to be here, success will follow.
This is the new model where people are free to chose where they place their attention. No longer are people going to be held captive by an ecosystem.
Hopefully now you understand why I make some of the claims I do about STEEM.
If you found this article informative, please give it an upvote and re-steem.
Pictures by Google Images.
Good points on the government's declining power and influence.
At this point, the regulators can clamp down on exchanges, but the interesting thing is that as these blockchain networks begin to be used by more and more people over time, more and more economic activity is done outside of legacy financial systems and centralized entities like KYC-based exchanges.
So, people may not even need banks and fiat to conduct business in certain sectors of the digital economy at some point in the near future. The long-term corrosive effects of this trend on the governments' and banksters' finances can't be overstated.
Absolutely @techwizardry.
An app on a smartphone gives a large percentage of the population everything they use a bank for.
It gives them:
A. The ability to store money.
B. The ability to receive money.
C. The ability to spend money.
For many, that is all a bank is.
It will not be long before the masses realize the explosive nature of currency not controlled by a central institution or a few elitists. Ironically, I think the poorer nations will embrace it as a population quicker than the developed nations. Too many of them still believe the MSM telling them to trust the government and the bankers.
This is one of my favorite things about blockchains, that they are decentralised and not owned by any one individual. The chances of any one person being able to control or shut down the blockchain is laughable. I think Its our first real step to becoming one world. I'm not saying this will happen in my lifetime but I hope it does happen.
Is it really true that anyone can control or shut down the blockchains???? I am confused
I don't think that's true.
However I think big companies like FB, Google etc can do real damage to the Steemit platform by just censoring it, not showing up in search results, blocking any active Steemit promotion on the web etc. Right now if you type the exact title of a post in google search, no steemit webpage shows up.
Another point good be, that facebook could essentially buy up a lot of Steem and become a whale. And start to screwing with the system.
But that would be some nasty business tactics. So that probably would be their first choice. Also if crypto get's more regulated. Such actions would probably be illegal ones Steem hits mainstream.
Steemit is just an UI
Google can only censor few domains
On each and every passing day new UI will pop up. They can't censor every domain.
Instead for competing with each other, why don't we and they start attracting customers
No one will win this war.
That is a valid point and Steemit, at present, is highly dependent upon the search engines.
Of course, I can counter that with the fact that decentralized search engines are on their way. There is one that I believe did their ICO and has the product in beta (I dont recall the name off the top of my head).
So the stranglehold on search is only temporary too.
People would simply get to know the website from online forums and word of mouth. Something similar was attempted on Russian new sites. It didn't have much of an effect and steemit is far more popular and my articles with less than 50 views had come up on the very first page in duckduckgo.
They potentially can, but it takes time for the Google bots to crawl the pages and spit back the Google search rank
It wouldn't be unusual for them to do such things, heck even buying all the STEEM possible and changing everything. They would and will throw money at something to keep their cause going.
And then two witnesses get together and fork the thing.
As I stated, they dont have enough money to keep up with the number of times that Steemians could fork this thing.
Maybe so, it won't be able to be done for long due to the less "tech friendly" administration in the US at least. I do think these dirty tricks will be played upon us for a while and eventually will fall on deaf ears. The Rockefeller way of "anti branding" is not going to work in the long run. I actually came up with a post with some similar sentiment feel free to check it out if you'd like...
https://steemit.com/politics/@cryptkeeper17/the-bloodless-american-fiscal-revolution-will-now-be-digitized-section-1
I think i agree with @joshcash
its not true @xyzposter people believe in steemit then anything out three that both google and facebook can offer, and "believing is the secret to possibility"- Joseph Jegede.
Steemit Up you go!!!
I love the way you break this down for us. You are quickly becoming one of my favorite writers here because of your simplified directions and it gives us a source of Hope to continue reaching out and bringing other people to the platform. Thank you for all you do for us
Thank you for the kind words @wandrnrose.
I try to keep things simply for myself too. I am not a bits/bytes guy so I have to stick with the basics.
STEEM going up....that is what most need to know. LOL.
I'm less concerned about Zuckerberg trying to take over STEEM and more concerned about Facebook gamifying their platform with a crypto. In spite of what they claim, Facebook is a media company and could convince a much wider audience to vote for the witnesses they want. As a reward, they could give people access to a Facebook game where they can earn STEEM just by playing. It's already been done with Pacman.
I really like the Facebook interface (the timeline and groups are terrific!), but strongly dislike the company. I'd love my Facebook friends to migrate to Steemit, but the nature of this platform is too different for it to be a straight swap. If it were a straight swap, the gamification with crypto would have people coming here in droves.
That is true...and at this point, Steemit is not a competitor for Facebook....the new fork, from what I understand is moving towards Reddit which has over 450M accounts.
Also, DTube is going to make a bit of a dent in YouTube. That is probably the one app which can take from the centralized model very quickly...it is a low learning curve and offers the same service less ads and corporate censorship. Of course, there are no where near the viewers on DTube as on Googles flagship site.
I support @dtube and I think their interface for uploading videos is superior to YouTube's.
If I post a popular video on YouTube, it will continue generating revenue over a long period of time. With DTube, there's only a 7 day window for SBD/STEEM revenues, so I think it's niche will be with current affairs content and vlogs that give updates. Or is there an advertising component that would make it attractive for long-term revenue generation?
The real harm lies indeed in censorship. By what it is and means steemit should have exploded already. There is a lack of marketing around it.
In other countries and languages specifically can be such a great means to share information and get some extra income. As a portuguese speaker I am waiting happily to see what happens when it reaches mainstream Brazil for example!
Good luck to steem and all of us!
If the banksters come and try to buy up Steem, let them come. They will only drive the price further up. Meanwhile, we're branching out into different SMT's.
Zuckerberg will probably never try to buy Steem, he'd rather launch his own token. But, part of the Facebook ideology is the ownership of the content. If Zuckerberg launches his own token, he'd need laws and legalities in place to define exactly how to handle the flow between crypto-currencies and fiat money. I see that scenario happen, but, it will take probably more than 5 years from now. So, we need Steem to grow as a community to withstand the heat in the future.
Honestly I am not sure Zuckerberg really wants the feds hanging over his head. On one hand he is a government stooge but, on the other, those techies really cant stand the authority.
GE basically gave away GE Capital because they were tired of having to live under the bankster regulations.
Plus, does Zuckerberg and the Wall Street shareholders want to give up the profits they generate from said ownership of the content? Greed is their forte and sharing is foreign to them. I surmise they will suck every cent out they can before they are forced to adjust, which might be too late.
It is far easier to bring out a decentralized token than a centralized one...the latter puts you under the securities/currency laws.
I usually agree with you @taskmaster, but on this one I'm not so sure. I think a centralized blockchain is the bankster's wet dream. Or Zuckerberg's, for that matter.
The banksters, of course...they are already under those laws so to them it isnt a big deal...although I often wonder why they need one...they have the USD which is basically a digital currency at this point.
As for FB, they just aligned with LTC. I think that is very telling. It really isnt that difficult to bring out a token, FB could have done it easily...why didnt they? Why both to partner (of sorts) with LTC when you can do it yourself and make a lot more?
Dear @taskmaster4450! I just finished reading your article. Now I understand the character of Steemit much better than before. You arguments are very clear and helpful for explaining Steem and Steemit to fellow citizens. However, your article specializes on the character and the value of the blockchain structure. Uncountable, however, are the implications by information exchange and mutual assistance of people all over the world! Can we really comprehend the chances? Steemit gives us the real change of growing together with a clear win-win-situation and based on cooperation, creativity, quality and motivation. Resteemed. Thank you!
I wonder how much it would cost to buy up steem. With a current market cap of about 750 million, i mean its not like you could gain majority for 375 million, as not everyone is willing to sell at the current price. Especially not once that massive buy wall occured. So how many billions would it take to shut this down? Plus then, yes, we would all say thank you for the payoff and just fork. lol.
Also: https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation one thing people never grasp about disruptive innovation (since its one of the most misused terms in tech) is that is very hard for the incumbants to fight disrupters, its a situation where they are more or less defenseless.
That is the golden nugget and shows where that unending amount of fiat is worthless. No matter how much they throw at it, it is not enough.
Thanks for the link...I will have to read it.
One thing I am noticing when talking to people, not only are they defenseless, they are not even aware. There are so many people that I mention something about their industry and they are like, no we are fine. I asked one personal injury attorney how autonomous cars would affect business and he said he doubt it ever would.
What...are you kidding me? Human error is the cause of 90% of car accidents and that is 70% of this guy's business. (he is a relatively young guy too so I dont think he has the advantage of saying I will be retired before than).
Right on! My belief in block chain, decentralized community building, decentralized trading and cryptocurrencies is what led me here to Steemit in the first place! I highly doubt Facebook has much to gain from trying to stop anything on this platform, and I do spend more time here than I do on the other mainstream social media websites because to me the content is of higher quality, the people are more freethinking, liberated, and intelligent from what I've gathered! I'm truly hoping for the best as we enter into 2018. Happy Steeming everyone!!