What if it just takes time

avatar

There seems to be some interesting Steem conversations going on today with the inflation rate popping up, which I wrote about this afternoon, and now the powerdown cycle conversation continues on whether 4 weeks are better than 13.

You know that while I write relatively frequently about Steem and the various aspects of it, sometimes I wonder if I would be better served just minding my own content. One of the strengths of Steem is that pretty much anyone can have a say and even those without stake can be heard, but due to the public nature of it, it isn't like a boardroom. It is more like a playground... at a kindergarten... populated by tired and hungry toddlers.

While I like getting involved with the conversation, sometimes it is wearing and I wonder how "normal" users find it, or if they pay any attention at all. I would suggest that for most users who consider themselves just content creators, they don't care much as long as things work and thy earn enough, as after all, so many talk about having other places to earn like YouTube - so they don't care about decentralization or ownership of the infrastructure and experience.

Do people care about these things if they are earning a lot? I think we are going to find out with SMTs as they do not need to be decentralized and I will predict that some of the most valuable among them will be the most centralized of all, as they will be able to control UX using the token as reigns.

However, for the SMTs to have value which will require stability, the Steem infrastructure they are built upon has to be able to offer speed, scalability and security. Security isn't just against hacks and attacks, it is also part of the stability model which for Steem, will be through decentralization of ownership and resources required for operations.

If Steem was centralized, every SMT, token and community that runs upon has increased risk exposure and are at the mercy of central point of control. And central points of control might start with good intentions, but can overstep their bounds and have their own incentives misaligned with that of all other users.

Centralization kills one of the largest value propositions of the blockchain and will make those building upon it very, very wary as they will not want to invest into a business model that leverages the Steem infrastructure if the controllers can turn their lights off at any moment. This is why I believe that most start ups and tech companies will go it alone until they are bought and assimilated into a larger entity, like Instagram into Facebook.

I think the benefit of developing on Steem is that one can build completely independently but still not need to be alone, still not need to develop the groundwork and wiring needed to power an application. Plus, the infrastructure is designed to get more stable the more people use it and the more of them that invest in, the greater the stability and decentralized security.

Narrow investment sources can pull funds rapidly, decentralized and highly varied sources will always be in conflict with each other and while some are powering down, others are powering up. Through the entire bear market and after all the dumping, there is still 210 million staked Steem on the platform. 66% of stake said, I will see it through and held.

That is pretty good really and if a company with narrow sources lost 97% of its value, they would struggle to ever attract an investor again - unless they had use case. We saw this in the dotcom bubble pop where thousands of companies failed, yet Google, Amazon, Ebay and the like are still around. Investors collapsed their holdings, but whatever they got out went back into what survived.

Whether Steem is a survivor of the bear market is yet to be seen, and while many people might rate it percentage wise against the gains of other coins, that is not what drives the Steem blockchain. Steem is a slow burn and it has been designed to survive a war of attrition and as the hyped and useless blockchains with no activity start to flounder and the investors release their grasp, they will look to put their value into what is going to outlast the rest.

If this is Steem, with every project failure in the industry, a few more investors will take the safer bet, the slower burn - but not that slow they will go back to traditional markets, especially considering the collapse to come. Economic weight will start to surround Steem and then the social proofing will drive bandwagoning and more will arrive. What started as a slow upward shift can turn into a rapid and explosive move - but not a flash-in-the-pan spike that the industry is known for.

Steem is more than a blockchain, more than a ledger, it is an ecosystem. This means that it has economic capabilities like transfer speed and free transactions in a secure and trustless system, but also the potential for a wide array of applications that can support a diverse community of users. These work in tandem to provide an economy, a market place of activities. Through the secondary tokenization layers atop the protocol, multiple token pools and economic systems can support the activities of their user base by creating their own tailored and managed microcosms - and these are protected by the greater environment made stable through the decentralized nature of the ownership model of the Steem infrastructure.

Steem is a massive value loop that once up and running effectively, will perpetuate its growth by creating fractals of itself in communities that become both the suction pads of infrastructure security, and the funnels of onboarding activities that will drive growth and innovation to fractal outward again. I visualize Steem in this way as a very large tree that is developing the roots that will support the weight of all its branches to come.

But, this is the way I see Steem and for you and many others it could be completely different. Sure, you might not be influenced by this or anything I ever write, but my narrative is my own and it works for me. I believe that when it comes to our actions in life, we are driven by incentives that are supported by the stories that justify the why, what and how of our behavior. The fourth driver in the list is the real hook.

I might be wrong, but what if...

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

Onboarding



0
0
0.000
27 comments
avatar

i read bunch of comments there and i think it should not be changed. If you are invested you are rewarded with the ability to participate in distribution of steem, to earn some back from your votes and to get some because you staked it. If you want to speculate no one is holding a gun to your head to power up. hold it in steem and speculate.
Changing this it feels like we are not helping investors but we are trying to attract speculators. Only reason for shorter power down is a possibility to dump when price goes up.

but it is easy for me to say that, i have less than 5000 steem so... and i am not planning to dump it, and i am not a trader, i could be really really wrong

0
0
0.000
avatar

I have the same intuition on it. A trader needn't power it up, they can speculate without.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I see the advantage to an investor, not a trader, for the 4 week power down. A trader is in and out of a position many times the same day...at that many times in a day sometimes. They may hold an amount for days while trading to protect against a wild swing, but overall it's very short time frames they have the asset.

But an investor who might look at steem as a way to not only have appreciation, but also earn a ROI on their investment by staking it very well may find steem attractive. If you can make even 5% from curation rewards on top of potential capital appreciation it would make an interesting proposition to locking up funds for 4 weeks and taking some added risk due to the locked up funds. But at 13 weeks that ROI needs to be much higher...much much higher which they were until "new steem" killed the cash cow for investors of selling votes.

Each change made to the status quo will always have unintended consequences. Each change will likely force yet another change down the road to fix those unintended consequences, or at least a discussion of how to fix them. Really feel like the 4 week proposition is largely a result in drastically reduced ROIs for investors.

So what will be the unintended consequence of a 4 week power down?

Now I'd like to see something a little different. No idea how intensive the programming would be on this but why not make the savings account be able to have the ability to vote on posts and earn curation, but strip it of all other functions. No leasing, no voting rights for witness, no RC's (must stake something)....just allow the person to increase their earnings while safely keeping their coins in the savings account. In 3 days they can withdraw and sell if they would like.

0
0
0.000
avatar

What might be interesting too is having a separate key for the savings wallet that allows it to function as cold storage for Steem so even if an account is hacked, the savings are safe. It could still be integrated into the UI the same as now for ease of use - perhaps a "convert to cold storage" option.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I'd love the concept of an added key that isn't used for anything except for the savings account deposits and withdrawals. Yet normal posting key for daily voting on posts.

0
0
0.000
avatar

You might like to read my latest post. What you said reminded me of an older post that could give a hybrid option.

0
0
0.000
avatar

this saving part sounds interesting. so if you put it in savings you can only vote on posts but have no other functions of powering up.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That would be my thought. If you want to have an influence on the future of steem then power up SP, if you just want to earn money and not care about anything else park it in savings.

To cover the needed RC's for voting investors can lease SP or power a little up.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I still have hope that someday steem will grow bigger as long as there are people using it. The only thing that I like about this platform other than steem is it's content, where everybody share their thoughts about a lot of things.

Someone told me before that I have a lot of floating tokens or so but yet I don't know whay can I do with all of it. How to use and what is it for.

Maybe, someday when I learned a little bit more, it all can be use for something good.

0
0
0.000
avatar

You mean Steem-engine tokens?

0
0
0.000
avatar

I'm generally OK with 13 weeks, both for the weekly 'payment' and for token stability - if it ensures that at all.

There's a comment from @yabapmatt on @mindtrap's post that's worth a read, differing opinions all round.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah I had a look at the comment and it has been floated similarly before I believe. I think it might be a more complicated solution. I don't mind the burn a percentage option, but it doesn't help speculators as they will not power up, and not powering up is already possible.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was good with the thirteen-week power-down, if for nothing else, a little stability. Until I read @mindtraps post and caught @yabapmatt's comment.

Hello? Brilliant. Now, we are talking!

Thanks, @abh12345 for the heads up!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Not sure about that one. Makes sense in some way but it doesn't really solve much. I am not sure if any of the ideas around this are useful though 😁

0
0
0.000
avatar

For me interest in Steem-related content goes in circles I think. From you I can read whatever you write. But this also goes in phases. Sometimes I just want to disconnect when I'm too tired or when overatimulated. Not your fault of course.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I completely understand. I annoy me too :)

The mind has to be available for some things and very little of my content is probably consider easy to consume.

0
0
0.000