Before everyone gets up in arms, notice I wrote "earning STEEM by blogging" and not blogging on the STEEM blockchain.
There will still be a ton of blogging on this blockchain going forward. In fact, it might become the defacto blogging platform.
The path of STEEM is at a crossroads as the platform develops. Certain experiments are going to fall by the wayside for more profitable avenues. This is the nature of development. The vision that one (or a group) has when starting out with a technology does not always result in that outcome. It is not uncommon for things to take a turn that was not predicted.
A number of posters including @exyle and @acidyo made mention of the same thing.
The @steemhunt way of funding their project is revolutionary. It is also going to change the path of those who are blogging on this blockchain. Basically, @steemhunt became a very large Orca in a matter of 24 hours. They were delegated SP from around 100 people (on average 2500 SP each) as a way to fund their project. In return, these Steemians are earning the new tokens that @steemhunt is issuing. They set aside half their total for Steemians who help fund their initiative.
Suddenly, many Steemians became investors. Instead of upvoting content themselves, that SP in now used by @steemhunt. This model is most likely going to be copied (I would if I were developing a SMT) meaning that the voting power is going to be in the hands of a few large accounts.
What this means is those medium sized accounts that supported you are without the same VP. While some delegating 2,500 SP might not change their vote much, bet the ranch this same individual will do it over and over as more projects come about. It only makes sense as a way to diversify and earn a nice return.
We also might see this hinder the bots since many of them rely on delegation. As more opportunities like @steemhunt exist, some holding large amounts of STEEM might find the alternative more attractive.
So what does this all mean?
While many might read this as a negative, it is the best thing that ever could happen. If you have any STEEM, hold onto it. The top end value just went up dramatically.
Simply put, STEEM is going to become very rare.
That means every account with STEEM has the potential to be very valuable.
It is a simply numbers game. STEEM has roughly 260M tokens outstanding. @steemhunt was able to suck up about .1% of them in one day. This is just one project. What happens if there are 10 or 20 going at the same time? Or 50? As SP gets harder to come by, people are going to enter the open market to buy STEEM and power up. This will add buying pressure which will push the price up.
Does this mean I should stop blogging?
In the short-term, absolutely not. We have a window where people can earn STEEM just like they were doing. However, anyone who is on here a while knows that the rewards are drifting lower. This only makes sense as more people are sharing in the reward pool each day. When I first started on here, there were around 20K on here a day. Now it is three times that number. The pool is roughly the same meaning that, all things being equal, there is 1/3 the payout for the same work (I know everything is not equal but you get the point).
The STEEM blockchain is no longer just for social media. It is now offers projects a means to funding. Hence, STEEM is now part of the financial arena offering fund-raising. This alone makes STEEM more valuable.
Since we anticipated the rewards decreasing as more people starting using this blockchain, the new model really does not change much. The main difference is that there will be a few large accounts with SP and a lot of smaller accounts. While one might be fortunate to get an upvote from one of the big guys, the numbers say otherwise. Plus, we are going to start seeing some heavy hitters join this blockchain who are very polished in their craft. This will also put a damper on the payouts.
Yet this is all good since STEEM is getting very precious.
What about the long-term prospects of being a content creator?
There are going to be a ton of them. Steemit is developing the Communities feature; do you think that is being done for no reason? The difference is you might see the payouts for most activities done in SMTs, including Steemit. @ned already floated the idea of Steemit creating a SMT that is has account based voting.
Any application on the STEEM blockchain, is going to have its own token. That means we will be getting paid in many different tokens depending upon which application we are using. Remember, they are all paired with STEEM so this is not a problem.
We also need to keep in mind that all bandwidth is acquired only with STEEM meaning that every SMT application is going to require STEEM. To maintain liquidity, ample enough STEEM is required in the DEX. Now, we add in the prospects of a large amount of SP held to fund projects.
This means, to me, there will be a lot of demand for STEEM. There simply is not enough to go around.
Content creators are going to have numerous ways of earning cryptocurrency on the STEEM blockchain. The rewards, overall, are only going to grow as more applications come online. That said, we might be seeing the end of the days as STEEM being a viable option for most as a payout.
Although, if STEEM is $100, even .1 SP is worth a pretty good amount.
Hang on kids, things might get absolutely insane around here with STEEM.
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but many thousands per STEEM might be on the board.
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