It may be the missing link which can make alternative media financially viable
Dear Russia Insider community,
You may have noticed that we have been covering Russia's embrace of the blockchain revolution. Putin himself has said he wants Russia to be THE global leader in this game-changing technology: Putin Gives Huge Endorsement to Blockchain, Vows State Support. We've created a dedicated section for the subject: Blockchain Superpower.
The enthusiastic statements coming from Russia's top financial and government figures are in stark contrast to the exact opposite coming from Western financial mandarins. This makes sense, for blockchain technology, especially as it relates to crypto-currencies, is de-centralizing, transferring control of financial systems from elites to individuals, much the way the internet took control of information away from the wealthy, and made it accessible to everyone. This helps Russia and other developing countries break free from the financial straitjacket imposed by the West.
Putin understands this, as do his advisors, which is why they are supportive. The existence of sites like Russia Insider are thanks to this trend, and now blockchain can help us defend our position against efforts by the 'establishment' to censor us.
Russia's commanding position in blockchain forced us to start paying attention earlier than most, and many people whom we know and respect have been encouraging us to join STEEMIT, a blockchain platform designed to host media - print and video. Our regular contributor Tom Luongo is an expert on the crypto space. Here is his very positive article about STEEMIT which explains it in more detail.
So we started publishing there. Here is our Home Page. We will also be loading videos onto the video part of the platform, called DTube.
STEEMIT makes a very compelling case:
- It is censor-proof: Blockchain algorithms make what you post there permanent - once it is up, only you can take it down or edit it.
- It pays content creators in crypto-currency: The STEEMIT platform assigns value to content loaded on the platform, depending on how popular it is. The more content is viewed and upvoted, the more crypto-currency units (Steem Dollars) are assigned to the creator. This applies to both articles and, very importantly, comments.
- It is owned by the users: No Zuckerbergs earning billions off the backs of the masses. Nice.
This solves a huge problem. Currently, millions, even billions of people create content, in the form of social media posts, articles on blogs, articles on websites like RI, and the people who reap the most financial gain from selling that info are the ones who own the platforms - Google, Facebook, etc. The creators get crumbs (sites like RI), or nothing at all (social media users). The current brouhaha around Facebook is essentially about this.
STEEMIT proposes to cut out the middleman - monetary value goes directly to the creators with not only no gouging, but no charge at all. A brilliant idea. Here is a recent article about it on Bloomberg, and another good one from Zerohedge.
And it seems to actually be working. Here is the traffic growth to STEEMIT for the last 6 months:
And here is the recent exchange rate history of STEEM dollars:
Source: CoinMarketCap.com
Due to this promise and initial success, a number of great journalists have joined STEEMIT, significantly increasing its credibility and user base. They include some sites and individuals we admire very much, like (all links to Steemit accounts) Ben Swann, Anti-Media, Max Keiser (Keiser Report), Jimmy Dore, Disobedient Media, Adam Kokesh, Tom Luongo, Lee Camp, Corbett Report, Patrick Lancaster, We Are Change (Luke Rudkowski), Slavix, Activist Post, Suzie Dawson (resident in Moscow no less), Inessa S, and Caitlin Johnstone.
Here is Dawson explaining STEEMIT to followers:
What is Steemit? It's Facebook on the blockchain with NO CENSORSHIP, no timeline manipulation, an inbuilt You Tube, and you get paid for every single comment, like and post.
— Suzie Dawson (@Suzi3D) 29 января 2018 г.
Anyone who wants help with setting up a Steemit account - DM me and I will personally help you do it.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg. If some of the bigger alt-media players go on STEEM, like Zerohedge, RT, Wikileaks, the Chans, the Alt-Right, etc - you can see how this could snowball very quickly into a Faceberg killer. I detest Facebook because of its PC police who censor me and Russia Insider and if they are crushed by this next-wave technology, I couldn't be more delighted. We stay there out of necessity because it does provide some traffic, but I have all but stopped posting on my personal page. One definitely gets the feeling that Facebook is going the way of AOL.
Faceberg's current Cambridge Analytica crisis is very bullish for new platforms like STEEM, so all the more reason to jump aboard now.
How you can help
Please do your best to share this article far and wide, but more importantly, please join STEEMIT, and follow us there, and all the folks mentioned above, and to the extent you can, comment, share and upvote there. We will be publishing some material there that will NOT be on the main site, and if this experiment delivers, will start publishing there before the main site. Every article on Steemit shows how much the creator has earned, so you can see for yourself if it is working. Ben Swann's page is a good example. Prices shown on STEEMIT are in STEEM dollars, which are trading at about $2 US, and have averaged around $5 over the last 4 months.
As I mentioned above, comments also earn STEEM dollars, for both the commenter and the creator of the content being commented on. By commenting on STEEMIT you help yourself, and help RI.
People are reporting a few days delay in receiving registration confirmation, but be patient, it does eventually arrive. If it doesn't, you can purchase a STEEMIT account using Anon Steem for about $20. Here is an article about it. Anon Steem has the advantage of being anonymous. The regular sign-up requires one to provide a telephone number.
I will be speaking out in the coming weeks about how we all have to start doing more if we want to break the stranglehold the mainstream media have on the world, and the holocaust they are driving us into. Tweeting and sharing and talking isn't enough. We have to put significant resources into this. STEEMIT offers a way to do this without digging into your pocket.
It is a lucky break, handed to us by the technology gods, and we should seize on it and see where it takes us.
It might just be the solution we have been waiting for.