One of the large problems that I see with the Steemit business model is the Steem Power design. While I completely understand the founders original intent, like all business models they need to modify as to what works and what does not.
The current design of Steem Power is greatly flawed. First, the ability for any person to downvote any article needs to be removed. Can you imagine in a free and open election that a person can vote for one person, then turn around and downvote the opposition? Not only downvote the opposition, but to do that 32 times? Steemit advertises that it's platform is a free market, free speech zone. As a recent new user, this is far from reality.
I have over 50,000 followers in my social media and I was asked to join Steemit by friends who hold the currency. I told them to sell it when it was over $2.09 because I was not liking what I was seeing people do in Steemit to each other. It was like America Online (AOL) back in 1996. It was the wild west. We all know how AOL eventually failed and sold out for pennies on the dollar. Or, many users in Steemit may not know this as they were not born yet, so they are repeating the same type of bad business practices and history.
Two days ago, I decided to test this myself with an article of what i was seeing and the problems. The whales gangs came out as if I was wearing a rolex in a high crime area loaded with gangs on the streets. WOW! The whales took the bait and were hooked where they came to kill....more like killer whales...
I wrote about this over the last few days, and was grossly attacked, stalked, threatened and my Steemit page crushed. The people who did this find it funny. Frankly, their action has merely re-enforced all my concerns about just where Steemit and the value of Steem is really heading from here.
What I am seeking is the Steemit gangs teaming up where they vote for each other back and fourth which is not disclosed on the web site about this. Thus, it misleads the public where people earning $500 for an article, are not receiving 500 votes at all. Yes, people are making money being paid in Steem. The wild card is just how many people are really earning real money in Steemit, as compared to buying Steem with Bitcoins, then voting for yourself and other Whales and they vote for you. Thus some of this activity is like an old fashioned chain letter, in a sense. In this case, the Whales cross vote or feed each other and they are rewarded to become more powerful where the normal author must do as they are now dictated to or they will be attacked and called rude names. In America, as call such acts fascism. Again, not by everyone in Steemit, but the founders appear to have meant well, but they have lost control to people who are actually ruining what they have created to the point where if not changed, it will eventually fail.
Also, people with Steem Power have the ability to downvote an article at ratios as high as 100 to one. I am finding it very common where if 20 people upvote an article they like, a person with Steem Power can down vote once and wipe out all 20 other upvotes. Hardly democratic and certainly is not supporting "Equality" where one person - one vote counts. They Steem Power model allows people to purchase Steem Power using Bitcoins. The more you purchase, the bigger "King" with more power over others you have. In result, the current model of Steem Power has created mini dictators who have teamed up in mini gangs to control people and content in a bad way. If a Steem Power "King", or "Whale" as they are called does not like a person, or an article, he can knock the article completely off the board. Hardly allowing Free Speech.
So there are many topics, such a politics for example where there is zero free speech. If you do not support Bernie Sanders, then many Whales will come crush you. So again, there is forced sensorship and not true free speech about any topic. Authors are leaving. you can can see this in the frequency and quality of the content.
Nobody should be allowed to downvote anything. Downvoting has created and growing, cyber gangs. If Steemit wants a web site controlled by growing numbers of anarchists who play dictator in cyberworld, then they have achieved it. However, I really do not believe this was their intent at all.
I have studied world history for 30 years as a Gulf War veteran myself. This Steem Power feature is no different than writing an article in Communist North Korea. There are the Government police, in this case these Whales, who will take you out, personally attack you, ruin your Steamit page, plunge your ratings, stalk and harass you at drop of a dime if they do not agree with you. It is the same as the Berkeley nuts thinking that it is their right to end free speech of other if they do not like or agree with what the other person says at a lecture. Si they feel they have the right to beat people up, burn cars and smash in glass windows at businesses.
There are many people in Steemit who outright promote that they are pro-communist and Steemit is a world Marxist Movement. Others post how the platform is controlled by "anarchists". Well, anarchists have no respect for free speech. frankly they have no respect for much or anyone who does not support their cause. This has limited fresh quality content in Steemit.
There are only so many Bitcoin articles a day people want to read. Art, travel and cooking seems to be doing well because these topics do not "offend" the anarchists. However, if a user writes about anything else or writes about what is wrong with the Bitcoin or even Steemit models, that have been attacked over, and over and over again. Last night, I had one whale guys stalking me calling me a "cunt" where if he used his real name, he would have faced criminal charges for cyber stalking. He had lost his mind.
Which brings me to another point. If Steemit really wanted to grow for the long term, it would change its model and force people to register using their real names. Posting investment and cyber coin hype all over the web site under screen names hurts Steemit. I saw this this mistake so many times in the 1990's, where most people in here were not even born yet. Those screen name web sites for content are no longer around today.
Another large problem is that there needs to be abuse and block features like in Facebook. If not, then these anarchists Steem Power gangs who are doing nothing but hyping cyber currencies run off the vast majority of quality authors who do not have the time for such childish attacks. Some, not all, but some of these people have made it clear that they will harass an author until he or she leaves. So as it stands right now, according to the notes sent to me last night, Steemit is a cyber platform controlled by anarchists and nobody else is really welcome. Anarchists are not civil people and without a block and report feature, Steemit has a very high risk of another company establishing a like model as Steemit, but with higher quality control tools so that they can have higher growth in quality authors and content.
One more observation is that every cyber currency pretty much makes people buy Bitcoin then give them your Bitcoin for their currency. This too is a concern. If currencies like Steem are going to stand on their own, then they should be purchased with Bitcoin or with the US. Dollar. In result, there are hundreds of cyber currencies that are propping up Bitcoin. This the recent Bitcoin rally is not artificial to the point where Bitcoin could have a serious crash in the near term. companies like Steemit would be smart to allow investors to also use cash to purchase their currency before this mess happens.
The Steemit founders need to reconsider these powers. If not, it is clear that Steemit has a very high risk of failing with it's currency crashing to 10 cents.
Steemit is making the same 1990's mistakes all over again. In 1998, there were 32 Search Engines. everyone on Wall Street said enough already. Then came this little company called Google in late 1998. History speaks for itself. Steemit is not yet or close to being a Google, but could be. However, without these changes above, it is all a matter of time before Steemit gets crushed by new rivals.
If there is any doubt of about who I am and my extensive experience in executive management, by Linkined page is below with details of everything I have accomplished over the past 30 years. Be sure to pull down the arrows on the page to view the details of each project, company, honors and awards. So, I know something about IT and business models.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-pinson-006b59a/
Clearly the cyber currencies that have soared are over extended and are in correction mode already and I would not be shocked to see them fall much further into this summer. If you enjoyed this post please Upvote, Resteem and Follow me @michaelpinson for more articles.
Michael Pinson has 30 years business experience in business as a CEO to include 20 years in engineering and software design, business models, and have been a financial analyst who has been featured on CNBC over 100 times, Barrons over 150 times, and even quoted in Business Week. His past company was featured in the Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Tampa Bay for several years.
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