Colleague reply to request to look at steemit and provide assessment:
Brad,
Thanks for bringing Steemit to my attention. It is certainty a concept with great potential. I imagine there are already some Steem stars (similar to YouTube stars) with great followings and the tokens to prove it. It makes so much sense to a) democratize and b) monetize influence. I imagine that a few careers will be born on this platform.
There seem to be two ways to generate influence: generate content or curate it. Both will be labor intensive. Both will require a passion for the betterment of the Steemit community.
In terms of spillover to the mainstream, I am cautious. The "mainstream" in the US wont care about the distributed network vs. a single host like reddit. The "mainstream" in country's with heavy censorship however may require distributed networks. Should Steemit become the first choice for bloggers in China and Ethiopia, there wouldn't be any way of cashing in in the US, would there?
What are your thoughts regarding participation / monetization?
My reply:
You are welcome and your comments are spot on. I agree there is great potential and you are correct in that steemit already has some stars (referred to as "Whales") but it is so early that it may not be too late to become one of the Whales. You are also correct that to do so will take time and fortunately for me right now I have the time and am beginning to devote some time to it. I do have a steemit account, which you can sign up for free. If you do you can then follow me and many others. My "at" sign is @cryptobk
One of the main things I get out of it is progressing and accelerating my exposure and education in cryptocurrency and blockchain, and the more I learn the more fascinating it becomes. I am also seeing that this is a common experience, or thread, in that when you start to learn more it leads to so many other possibilities you tend to get sort of hooked on it.
Whether I can monetize with it, who knows. Only time will tell. But again, the education will potentially lead to and open other doors. As an example, I am gaining a greater knowledge of the crypto market so when opportunities arise for investment in altcoins, of which there are and will be many, I can be more confident and know how to proceed. Right now, at this early stage, in the crypto market I have found it has taken me a while just to understand the mechanics of how to buy, sell and exchange crypto coins and how and where to safely store them.
*Please Upvote and/or Reply with thoughts, comments to @cryptobk *