Since I have been on Steem I've talked about creating an economy with Steem.
We talk a lot about adding value to Steem, however, everyone disagrees on what adds value.
Here are a few things that are commonly discussed:
Quality Posts
Ads
The lack of Ads
Free Speech
Selling things
A Celebrity
Users
Curation
Rewarding Stakeholders
I have always said that it is about engagement and people and it is fine that we all have different visions and goals. An economy is created where people gather.
Gatherings of people naturally create trading groups
-Historians believe that cavemen traded bones and crafted tools.
-Kids at lunch tables create elaborate trading exchanges
-You can look at the population distribution in the USA and see how commonly traveled areas created groups of people and economies
-Craigslist, Ebay, and Poloniex were created because people needed a place to gather and trade
-The same concept is being created here.
The more people who gather here the more an economy will naturally happen. When people are together they want things and people want to bring things there to sell or trade.
Yesterday many of us attended a meeting about the future of Steem. The best thing to come out of that meeting for me is how many active and engaged people we still have in the community.
We already have some Steem Specific Trading Groups, Such as SteemMonsters, Vote Selling, Account Creation and maybe someday SMTs and RC Credits.
I can not tell you exactly what our economy will look like, but if we continue to gather, it will develop, it can't be stopped.
There are people here with great ideas and a vision they are trying to build.
Many of those ideas conflict.
Yeah, I know your fiction got rejected and you are grumpy or you are an artist that feels slighted because your work is not getting attention.
Everything in Crypto is down and while I don't deny Steem is down a bit more than some of the rest of the coins in the Market. We have a functioning product, many apps in the works and a functioning economy.
If you think value is in quality content, continue to currate it.
If you think we should sell things, sell things or buy other people's things.
If you have a plan and a vision and can afford to, I suggest you continue to build it.
If you create content and engage, I suggest you continue to do that.
We don't know how long the bear market will last, but we are not alone in questioning the value that our products bring.
If giving people a place to gather and talk about crypto and other topics was a good enough idea during the Bull Market of last year, it is highly likely it will be a good enough idea again in the future.
Yep, it is messy, unfair, lacks direction and a proven model, but there are still people here gathering and working on the solutions.
If you are unclear what to do and still interested in the future of Steem, I recommend you just keep on posting, engaging and stay involved.
We still have witnesses, developers, content creators, spammers, scammers, content creators and more... The only thing that has changed is our confidence and some numbers. :)
@whatsup