Earlier this week I posted on why I believed Steem was a solution to the fiat grip the owners of men have on the world. I talked of the ideas that are bound to us, that shape our approach to situations which will often determine the outcome unless something unforeseen intervenes.
During my time here I have been mesmerized by the sheer generosity of some in our community. Inspired enough to try on a smaller scale (within my capabilities) to emulate what I see of their usage of this gifting economy. Yet despite this, there was always one contradiction that always stood out like a sore thumb. And to fair, some of it was created by hucksters who pitched falsities to the masses to bring them in to fleece.
In my last article, I mentioned that the first chain that provided so many real life applications to the masses would prove that no alt is doomed to be tied to Bitcoin in valuation. If the demand becomes greater, it would by nature evolve past the confines of Bitcoin. The impediment to Steem leading up to the admission of doom from Steemit inc can be laid out to a few simple faults.
Despite talk of decentralization, everyone was waiting for a centralized source to do EVERYTHING. Most of the apps that were built here focused internally on those here. Preaching to the choir syndrome.
Despite all the talk of belief in Steem, most seem content to obtain all of their coins through their slice of the reward pool. Even if, as for many, that sliver will be so small it will never amount to much unless you somehow gain notice from one of the few curating top stakeholders here. Good luck with that though as most seem to delegate to bid bots.
To be fair, there is a lot of personality conflicts here as well. Flag wars, equating those who dare use their stake as they wish as somehow violently violating the rest who want their slice of that reward pool. I can understand it sucks if you get hit as acceptable collateral damage. I bring this up because I see so many with hurt feelings, saying they will never invest in Steem because they were collateral damage. For those with this mindset I would say you do not see what is here in front of you. You have limited your view here to one of taking NOW and miss the bigger picture.
Many also miss the bigger picture when it comes to giving here. Miss that the foundation of a stronger community is not only your personal stake, but the stake of all those you consider to be in YOUR community. Stingy with upvotes, stingy with giving, you fail to see that the beauty of this whole chain is through giving you become stronger. That's how communities that are more than superficial work.
Put Your Belief Into Action
I have seen many who joined when I did either drop off, or they somehow are still riding on part of the original delegation given to them when they joined. I really get that life can be difficult, and money scarce. But over a year or longer time, it seems to me if you really believed in this project, really saw it for what it CAN be, you would have found a way to go without a pizza here, a movie there, a coffee, something.
Last year I struggled hard (and continue to even more so now). Yet I was able to see the potential and scrape together 420.00 to invest. And despite what I bought being worth so much less than when I bought it, I do not regret it. I regret I couldn't scrape more money together to buy in. I get it's a hassle to deal with exchanges. I get that if one is looking at 10.00 here or 20.00 there it seems a waste after the exchange fees and dealing with exchange wait times that could change the price drastically by the time you get it through Coinbase. Thankfully, we have more options approaching to buy in. I mentioned in my last post that @steem.ninja, who already is selling accounts for 2.50 (and offering an affiliate program as well) is saying they will be selling Steem for fiat very soon. This is great news as it would take the exchange headache out of the equation.
Dan created Steem to make the entry to crypto easier, and it really doesn't get any easier than this. If you are tired of dragging along in life, you are going to have to be the change. You can't just rely on others to come along and do all the work. The work has been done, here it is. Your choice to grab on or not. You can grab on half assed and be content with drips that amount to crap (unless you are fortunate), or you can begin positioning yourself with a few hundred dollars or more and begin building something for you. Every day most wake up and spend all their energy on building someone else's dream for crumbs. What about your dream? The people whose dreams you are building could give a shit about your dream. There are so many communities here to help, if you can't find one that matches your heart you haven't been looking.
If You Believe In Steem, Why Aren't You Gifting It?
As I posted recently, I binge watched some videos of Dan recently. Wanting to know what made him tick and all. I quickly became enamored with his idea of tokens being spread easily across the masses. There are so many ways we can take his idea and run with it. I posted many several weeks ago, and will focus on one I mentioned here. Say you make it part of your kids allowance. Every week you pay them part in Steem. Lets say 3.00 a week since Steem has been hovering around the .30 mark for some time. So that would be about 10 Steem a week based on averages from around December on. So for 11 weeks that would have been a total of around 110 Steem put into an allowance trust for your kid, all for an allowance you were paying anyway. But instead of the kid squandering it on a cheaper comic or a couple candy bars, they are sitting on the possibility of a nice future. For this example, say you turn it over to them on their 18th birthday and that is 8 years away. How many Steem would be in this account by then. Obviously Steem will rise quite a bit in value by then ( I believe so anyway). Will they have 1000 Steem? 5000 Steem? What will the value be by then? 10.00 each, 20.00 each. 50.00 etc? Say they have 5000 Steem and it is worth 50.00 each by then. That 3.00 a week portion of their allowance means they are now sitting on a quarter million dollars. Not set in stone, but not out of the realm of possible either.
And seeing that played out above, what about you and your investment in you, or other loved ones. Why not 3.00/5.00/10.00 a week for YOU. Or birthdays, anniversaries etc for other loved ones. Events you are spending money on anyway. There is POTENTIAL here for all to rise up from being enslaved. How many here are frittering away 5.00 or 10.00 a week on absolute bullshit while saying they have no way out of this rut. The way is here if you will but grab onto it. The way for all you love, if you will but rearrange how you give to your loved ones.
The Fire Is Growing
Since Steemit.inc announced they had blown through the bull run money (I think we all wish we had been invited to that party) the mood here has changed. This place went from everyone depending on them to do all the work to bring more eyes and real life apps here to ventures springing up all over the place. I mentioned Steem ninja, and it is only one of many such projects.
Check these threads out for some motivation.
https://steemit.com/steemba/@steemba/introducing-the-steem-business-alliance
https://steemit.com/steem/@pennsif/sosdailynewsnewsaboutthestateofsteem17february2019-tdstc0yvuh
There is a contest to make Steem videos that I keep seeing in my feed. I like this video best, although it came in 5th place in the voting.
I invite all of you to look around and see what is going on around you. Unlike when I joined, decentralization is beginning to happen as projects move forward eyeing the world as the community, not just those of us already here. Projects that have their own business structures, their own cash flows, their own calls to the world appealing to actions people already do, such as fitness, gaming and even more gaming that reminds me of the Yugio game my son used to play as a kid. My kid spent a mint on those cards, as did many other kids.
You can lead a horse to water, yada yada yada. The water is here waiting if you are thirsty.