18 July 2019
I have decided to edit my post a little as I have used a few analogy inaccurately; so let me edit a little and improve it for better reading.
First of all I am truly grateful that my amazing friend @awakentolife has amazingly helped me to invite (indirectly) great influencers like @dreemsteem , @bluefinstudios, @thehive , @dronegraphica and @jackmiller to share their thoughts and frustrations.
Before my thought runs away from me, the moment I read the messages, I totally feel the frustration.
“I didn’t leave Steem. Steem left me.”
Actually I need to say this, and I am not pointing fingers. I have no intention to blame anyone, I am pointing out the truth.
Source
We are killing Steemit (and its SMT SCOT platforms) with an imbalanced ecosystem
It is a huge slap to everyone, including me.
What?? How dare you! We work hard to build this platform and community!
I am pretty sure you will be hauling this in your mind and probably throw it at my face, but I hope you would spare me some patience to see why I am pointing this out.
Since I am an unapologetic Jesus freak let me try to share with you what I learn from the Word of God a.k.a the Bible.
Don’t worry. No slandering, no finger pointing.
It’s really interesting when you start listening to it from the book of Genesis onwards and see how the Maker sees.
We tend to forget to refer to Him for wisdom how on earth He designed this balanced structure of the universe at the first place, and He’s trying to show us how destructive it will become if it’s not balanced.
Don’t worry. No NWO here. Don’t scream conspiracy theory at me first. Hold your rocks and stones and the shouts of “heretic” and keep reading.
I digress! Let me get back to the point.
My doodles and sketches
I vaguely sketched out with my limited (half awake) doodles and note taking this morning with my not very neat handwriting… and you have noticed that I have written some key pointers on how we are killing it.
(It’s a little small to see, I’ll zoom in with cleaner pictures below)
Imbalanced scenario 1
Take it at face value, if Steem was the planet Earth, the WHOLE ECOSYSTEM and Steemit was an unattended forest with no critters and animals, the whole place is infested with only trees, creating beautiful oxygen to the environment, but eventually, it is killing off the ground faster than it is recontributing to re-fertile the land, when nutrients are being sucked out quickly by all the roots that is cramping the ground.
But God, the Creator (whatever you want to term it, sorry, no big bang and evolution here), He’s good at balancing.
(anti-faith people, please hold your rocks and stones from stoning me to death with this analogy ya)
Let’s dissect this one by one with an imbalanced nature, structure by structure
Imbalanced scenario 2
Let’s say the Almighty knows this is not going to work for the Earth with just one type in the ecosystem. He created animals; Herbivores to be more precise, to counter ** imbalanced scenario 1**
Herbivores will consume the right amount of plantation and their discharge will contribute as fertilizer back to the ground. A faster process than decaying of planation no doubt...
BUT…
When there are too many herbivores consuming and the plantation does not have enough time to regrow, it will also kill off the ecosystem, because of overpopulation consumption.
Scenario 3 – possible balance
(excluding the critters and all other expects like natural fire, etc ok?)
Carnivores came into the picture, consuming herbivores that consume the plantation. In whatever natural / unnatural way the Carnivores will eventually die off and return to the ground and the planation absorbs the nutrients and keep generating new plants for consumption.
Ok. What the Heck… How does Steemit / Crypto Social platform come in?
Forewarned: Sorry to say, we content creators are not the centre of the universe.
Let's start with (as I have mentioned earlier) that STEEM blockchain is the ecosystem, the planet Earth...
The soil, that gives life a footing with its nutrients; the backbone where crypto value will hold there.
1. Witnesses
In my observation witnesses and the founders of the Steem blockchain are the planation, the abundant source that is producing the opportunity for us to create content freely with the rewards of the tokens (coins) in STEEM, SBD and SP.
2. Content Creators
We are the herbivores we freely and happily consuming the opportunity of this beautiful platform and its services and created this vibrant knowledgebase where members freely communicate with each other.
This is where many communities are working very hard and the human connection is restoring and reconnecting.
Unfortunately
Section two, like the herbivores, are now overpopulating with overflowing contents. Many of them are junk, manipulated by bots.
We are killing the plantation, the platform cracks, the earth is suck dry where value of the crypto keeps going downwards.
And I am not saying that the witnesses are all angels and saints. Most of them are not only content creators; they are also farmers and business minded traders who want to earn and sustain… including becoming rich.
Everyone wants to be rich to meet their needs. Let’s just not make one holier than another.
And now, we are missing the crucial “Carnivores” entity.
3. Commercial / Services
Nothing is being consumed or circulated further than witnesses (miners) and content creators (consumers), and this is going to die off very soon, no amount of #seven77 or whatever manifesto we are trying to pull off with JUST content creation will keep this platform afloat and turn it into a content junk-pile / landfill.
Steem blockchain (and its SMT) in my view are now becoming like a Federal Reserve Central Bank, printing and printing more crypto that is not reusable in mass adoption in beyond the walls of Steemit (and its supported UI and DApps) or crypto trading markets.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that over printing becomes – inflation. It will eventually become the well-known Banana republic paper money in the history of WW2.
This is the part I digress and truly now appreciate why history is important. Ngeh. Should I know sooner I’d be a millionaire by now.
So how can we make STEEM (and its SMT tokens) worthwhile?
(this actually applies to any crypto social platform)
SET ASIDE POLITICAL STRIVE
Which I am feeling this is almost impossible with the sin of human nature. Shoot me. It is an ugly truth; because we are all skewed eyed, staring at one direction.
We need the missing element that could help (maybe) sustain this platform
Before more disgruntled influencers cry take flight because it is no longer sustainable.
How?
I am not admitting I have the ultimate answer, because I am not a professional in this sector. But what I have learned as not only a content creator but also a hustling mini entrepreneur wannabee I encountered the crucial missing part.
What if we start shelling it to business owners who are already adopting the Crazy Sales drive by many e-commerce platforms out there?
Steemit / other steem-blockchain backed social media platforms doesn’t need to be an e-commerce site, but it is a good source for business entities to advertise their content here (just like that they do in mainstream social media), and I think this is what @share2steem has been trying to achieve.
Take example in Malaysia what our telco / services and e-commerce platforms are trying to build together (and competing)
- Grab is getting people to use their platform and earning points, and then using those points
are exchangeable for commercial purposes!
Take another example I just enjoyed for my company
(yes. I have a day job. Or else I will starve to death)
Digi (a telco) started their rewards structure many moons ago, and with that, they one of them recently is to hook up with MBO (cinema) with discounted movie tickets should consumers use Digi services to buy the ticket.
What if in Steemit, there are business entities who are already giving out voucher discounts to trade with content creators’ steem / sbd / tokens so that they can enjoy some benefits from these business entities?
The one thing we did wrong in #teammalaysia
We tried this method with @bighugin and @veenang ‘s tourism services. But we took it too soon for full crypto adoption. Instead of vouchers for cheaper purchase, allowed full payment in crypto (which is volatile) an business entities like these cannot survive.
For example as I have scribbled...
- What if business entities (for example) offers Steemians to exchange their tokens for special discounts visiting their premise?
Like… 1 steem entitled for 15% discount out of the whole bill?
(it can be different, it depends on the business entity’s creativity)
Instead of blank voucher from the business entity, now this entity holds a crypto, where it can be either re-invest back into the platform (with their own accounts and power up) or just burn it to @null as part of the sales motive?
And probably this is where volunteer marketer steemians like @karinzdailygrind once approached me how to go about this.
Sorry Karin, it took me so long to figure this part out, with so much trial and error.
Let’s face it, the day the platform is monetary based, we got to think about the commercial / business entity.
I am not saying this is a bulletproof method to keep a monetised crypto (blockchain) supported social media platform afloat. As long as there are human stake holders (witnesses), there will always be greed, and there will always be politics; because it’s a fallen world.
(Please...I don’t want to preach it holy moly, but you know the ugly truth)
But, we need the Carnivores in the ecosystem.
Or else, ANY PLATFORM will die.
We can just set aside personal preferences and look at this as a whole and get our heads together and start fishing this missing entity; unless we keep pointing fingers to the founders of the platform that it’s a shithole (pardon my language) and just whine that it is no longer valuable and abandon ship...
...to another pasture and suck it all dry again like any consumer; just like we humans are being
accused of (by the SJW and the NWO supporters.
Oh! I can seem some snowflakes feeling fuelled with anger.
Sorry to burst your bubble 777 crew, ulog crew, it’s great to get content creators to keep making great contents, but this ain’t gonna budge the commercial sector, investors in trading might just going to come in and yes, temporary boost the value; but what happens next? Have you thought about it? You might be happy and reap the benefits short term, but what happens if investors see the high value and start selling it fast and make it volatile?
This actual is not a bad idea; but this ain’t gonna make it stable – long term.
I am pretty sure it is not.
Sorry that I am slapping your face straight on. I am very critical thinking today. Feel free to enlighten me your long term plan / stone me to death if you feel insulted.
Because I have been noticing unkind chatters under these manifesto, and no, I am not going to sell out people. But this is the truth, and we can enhance this better with what you already have if there’s a stuck in encouraging better contents.
And we need all the help we can get to keep this afloat, and the first step is to wake up and face the reality.
If you have survive the entire reading before flagging this article out of disgust, congratulations; and thank you for being patient with me. I would like to apologise for being blunt, but my good amazing friend just shared with me yesterday,
sometimes, you got to be harsh to tell the truth.
I am sorry that I have been dwelling in my own depression for too long and lost track of my zeal why I love this platform, and let this rot in the hands of an unbalanced ecosystem. I am also in need of paying my bills and no doubt that this platform does wonders to help me to stay at least nose above the flood just enough to breathe, and because I love this platform I truly hope that before #steamfest4 is here, there is something that everyone who are passionate of this platform can put their heads together.
I have seen this happened in TSU. I really hope it will not happen in Steemit (even though the taboo of Steemit taking similar colour of TSU’s colour).
Why am I starting to feel taboo with aquamarine colour? Haha... just kidding
I hope to hear your thoughts in this, and hope this will stir some conversation. Maybe if PYPT still exist, we can have discussions about it there.
Until then
HQ @littlenewthings
#dses initiative member.A technology can come and go; but when a lifestyle is applied to it, it becomes a new revolution.