Anyone who is here for a short while soon realizes that we are very early in this game. Blockchain technology, while revolutionary, is still very young. Over the next 5 years, we are going to see advancements that will make the world a much different place. Fortunately, due to the nature of decentralization, we have a chance to see the masses freed from the enslaving entities that are at the top of the power structure.
By the same token, we have Steemit which is still less than two years old. This is a platform that is starting to take off which will benefit all of us on here. It is the flagship application in this ecosystem yet not the only one. We have D.Tube, Zappl, and Steepshot to name a few. Each of these is progressing towards the point of being serious challengers to the traditional social media apps.
We are all part of an ecosystem called STEEM. Through our input and interaction here, we have the opportunity to lay a foundation that is starting to look like it will have a major impact upon society. Yesterday, I wrote an article about how this blockchain is already ahead of the others and has a chance to separate itself even further over the next year.
You can read that here if you missed it:
As strong as the blockchain is, what makes STEEM so powerful is the community that is building here. The reward system is constructed in such a way that it requires all of us to succeed. No one person can do it alone. There are many who come on here full of selfishness and greed. While some slip through the cracks, the simple truth is those are the minority. Most on here are concerned about others and the ecosystem in general. Sure, we all want to make money to give ourselves better lives. However, that only comes through helping others. Givers get and our success is tied to that of others.
That said, we still need more help on this blockchain. Presently we are sitting at a sweet spot where people have the potential to make some nice rewards since the price of STEEM (and SBD) increased. Fortunately, that increased outpaced the increase in users meaning people are getting a very nice bump in their payouts. It is hard to tell how things will be in the future yet we can expect a significant increase in users which should alter the distribution of the reward pool. We also expect the prices to increase as the blockchain gets more active yet there are no guarantees.
For that reason, one of the first thing we need people to do is to power up as much as they can. Moving STEEM to SP is an investment in this ecosystem. Even if one is not buying STEEM with fiat, using the reward pool to increase one's standing helps everyone. Each upvote is increased giving a larger payout not only to oneself, but also to everyone he or she upvotes. With the anticipated heights that the STEEM token will reach, it isn't going to take a lot of SP for someone to be well off. Therefore, my belief is that we increase our SP in an effort to help others.
Another thing we need is each person's talent. All of us have skills, experiences, and hopes. It is imperative that we do all we can on here to share them. If one is from the technical perspective, knowing coding and programming, Utopian.io is a great place. One of the most critical aspects of this blockchain over the next couple years is going to be the development that takes place. We need everyone who has these skills to create and contribute. By continued innovation from all types of people, that is how we prevent becoming another MySpace.
If you are not from that perspective, have no fear. There is a place for you also. The basic Steemit program is very simple: post, comment, and upvote. This is something each of us can do on a daily basis. It does require effort and dedication to achieve fabulous heights on here yet it is possible. By interacting with others, we establish a following which enables us all to help each other. The key to this is consistency. By showing up each day, others are able to count on us.
STEEM looks like a nice car until you start to get under the hood and really see what is going on. It is not an easy thing to grasp, in fact it takes time for it to truly reveal itself. My suggestion to each new person is to get involved especially via commenting. This site is sorely in need of more comments so anyone can spend time leaving 10-20 quality comments a day. Since you are reading an article or watching a video anyway, why not give a comment discussing your views of what you read/watched. This feedback is paramount to starting "conversations".
As you delve deeper into the ecosystem that is known as STEEM, you will realize that this is like nothing you ever encountered. Few of us truly experience being on the path to greatness from the standpoint of altering humanity. STEEM is providing us that vehicle. We have the ability to shape the wealth distribution across the world. Whales and Orcas can provide food for a family for a month in some areas with a single upvote. That is powerful. At the same time, we can learn to interact with each other the way nature intended, in a caring and compassionate way. There is no need to behave like so many do on Facebook and other social media sites. If one prefers that misery, those sites are still there for them. STEEM is about elevating ourselves and the entire human race.
STEEM is about hope. No matter what your present circumstances, if you get started today, I can promise you, with commitment and daily effort, your life will be different 3 months from now. I certainly hope everyone reading these words takes them to heart because there is another side to this: STEEM needs each and every one of you. This ecosystem needs newer people to continue growing. We cannot make the impact that is possible with 60K daily users and 30K authors. Yes, we could make a nice bit of income if things stayed the same yet it is not about the money. At a certain point, one moves past that. Something bigger is taking place here.
From time-to-time we see envy and fear creep in which causes actions that are less than desirable. We need to remember that each person's input if valuable. At the same time, we do not always know about the contributions of others. There are plenty on here, who do not see to be around much, only to come and find out they are creators of some of the apps we use on a daily basis (or had a hand in them). We need to approach all with this mindset.
To truly get the most out of STEEM, it needs to be a part of you. I know this might sound wishy washy to some of you but it is true. We are in the age of abundance whereby the Internet decided to enter the world of finance (money). Being the grand copy machine that it is, the Internet is already multiplying money at an unrecognizable rate. I was talking to my boss about Bitcoin last week and I told him that I wouldn't put money into it because I thought, while it could go up, I only foresee a triple in it. He about chocked when I said that. Simply put, he couldn't believe that I thought a 300% gain in one year was something to pass up. Welcome to the world of cryptocurrency where the Internet makes what is normal in other areas look very small.
Take it upon yourself to become an important member on here. How do you do that? By being as active as possible and helping as many as you can. When you start to move upward in terms of your SP, yes it makes you more money. However, that is the last thing that ends up on your mind. For me, the payoff of having a fair bit of SP is when I give a decent-sized vote to a new person or one from a third world country. We never know the impact of what our words or our actions will do. Giving someone a couple bucks, fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things in the West, could be a life saver for someone from a country where poverty doesn't mean food stamps and housing voucher. There are some on here who live under true poverty and we can help those people.
Getting active will lead you to your niche. When I started here 5 months ago, I was writing about technology and some of the advancements there. I am what they call a technologist or a futurist. I follow major (and minor) trends in technology in an effort to determine what the future could look like. However, after a couple months, I realized that people were succumbing to the negativity that was common on here at the time, mostly due to the price action. I was baffled that people did not see what was going on.
My point is that I took it upon myself to start to research deeper what is taking place and write about it. I repeatedly tell people to ignore the price action, that is not the story. What is the story is the blockchain and the people on it. And even when the price of STEEM is going down, those two aspects of this ecosystem are bullish.
The greatest joy I had since I started here was the handful of comments that were left in my posts written by people who said they would have left this site if not for my writings. It was my outlook and relaying to them what was going on that kept them here. Some are good at getting people to this site; at times we need a few of us working to keep people here. That decision to stay, I can assure you, is life changing. Those people will benefit more than they can imagine. It would be sad if they allowed the actions of a few others to drive them away and deprive them of all this place has to offer.
As they say, the future is bright. I know a lot of this can sound like fluff and pie-in-the-sky stuff. If you feel that way reading these words, do me a favor. Bookmark this post and do what I suggest: give this an earnest go for 90 days. I bet after that time, these words will not seem like fluff.
There is an opportunity before us. To achieve the end that we all desire, it is going to take the efforts and talents of each person. Nobody is insignificant and no contribution too small. Everything that you do positive on the blockchain matters. That post you wrote which received no upvotes still adds another page to this site which helps in the search engines. While it might not directly benefit you, each action helps the ecosystem, which, in turn, helps you.
And that is the other thing you learn about on this blockchain: everything is a circle. Anything you put out literally will come back to you. We cannot escape this. It is through helping others and adding to this ecosystem that we profit ourselves. This is a radical departure from the hierarchical system the banksters have us operating under which mostly benefits those above us.
In closing, I guess I could say, welcome to the Twilight Zone.
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