24 Hours Later: Thoughts on Steem So Far - Charlie Shrem
Hey all,
24 hours later of diving into Steem and here are my thoughts:
Steem has allowed people to post amazing content and get paid for it. I have a friend who works at a restaurant and is an aspiring writer. He wrote an amazing short story and I've convinced him to post it here, so keep a lookout for it !
At first I was taken aback by the payout system but after reading more about it, I like it. The system encourages long term holdings, commenting and encouraging people to post more awesome content. Of course we all want to withdraw immediately, but this system is best for the network as a whole.
Some of you may have noticed I withdrew my Steem Dollars to Poloniex. I plan on buying the dips and selling the highs to increase my holdings as I've done with my crypto portfolio. I like how the integration makes it easier for people to sell and get Bitcoin to pay bills, ect.
Important when transferring SBD to Poloniex, make sure you don't capitalize the P in Poloniex. Type is as "poloniex"
Steem Dollars - Initially I didn't understand why there were three different tokens, and I'm still on the fence, but it was ALOT easier explaining Steem to people when it was denominated in dollars. I think Steem Dollars are an awesome bridge currency for creating content.
I'm still going through the whitepaper (which is very long!) and had to read a lot of tutorials. People are telling me some negative things and I'd love to engage anyone who has an opinion about it!
Please comment below and I'll respond !
I'm putting together my next post, my prison reading book list- every book I read. A great educational resource for anyone libertarian/free market/crypto minded or just really likes novels and other books !
Charlie
It's been fascinating to see the emotional negative response from the Bitcoin community regarding Steem. Bitcoiners are quicker to call other altcoins a scame than bankers are to call Bitcoin a scam these days.
I'm not sure the psychology behind it other than the fact that when you are really early and really deep in something, you tend to want to dismiss other people that are working on something related but different. It seems bitcoiners have some cognitive biases against Steem and other altcoins right now, though my guess is that will change.
I've been experimenting with the platform quite a bit and I think there's a lot of great things and also some potential problems. I wrote about it here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/control/issues/control-issue-5-20293
banks are calling bitcoin a scam
bitcoin is colling steem a scam
anarchists are calling banks and fiat currency a scam
Everything is a scam. Send me 19.97 in STD and I'll tell you how to avoid scams! :D
How does one monetize an STD
There are exchanges you can sell STD's and get bitcoins and even change it into USD's.
:D
That @jsteck humor misses the mark again.
Find corrupt politician and repeat process
Am a massive bicoiner and am very excited about steem. I don't see them in competition.
I'm glad to hear such opinions.
It's worth noting that for many people Steem Dollars will be the easiest bridge currency to Bitcoin. So the success of Steem Dollar will mean having an easy on and off-ramp for Bitcoin. Those two can nicely coexist and support each other.
yes so exciting it seems like real synergies exist the more we all need each other to be OPEN
exactly at least for the time being they are both helping each other do the necessary leg work to make this self - sustaining they are hedges against each other like FOREX is now we are the forex of the universe!!!!
I think the community needs more help with good services in general, the industry has big goals but it can't do everything by itself or a select few players.
The main point to remember, and I had this same discussion with people who were anti Ripple, Ethereum and others, is: "It is not a competition". New innovations improve all digital apps and decentralized software. We are all on the same side!
Hot damn ... always great when I read that, especially from someone who has been in the crypto game from the start.
All on the same ride exactly =)
like clump
I've debated other bitcoiners on their use of the word scam, and found when it comes down to it, by their own use of the word 'scam', bitcoin itself is a scam.
I'm a Bitcoin purist and I get wary about new things as well, but prison has taught me life is too short to not explore every opportunity. I'm going to make my own decision and not take someone else's
So true.
The more Bitcoin is negative the better for us I see it :)
Just letting you know there are a number of us BTC supporters who are holding big AND support STEEM. Steemit.com can do what BTC can't and vice versa. It's not all "us vs them"
Welcome to Steemit Charlie! Your initial thoughts are similar to mine. At first I was mostly confused... but within a few days I really started to see the genius of it. If you want to hear a debate/conversation with one of Steemit's biggest critics, Tone Vays and I, I'll be posting it to Steem tomorrow.
Hey man! I had the same issue, he tweeted me and called me out for trying out Steem. The funny part is I know Tone personally and he's a nice guy, I don't know what happened in the past year. I'd love to talk to you about Anarchapulco and some other stuff, my email is [email protected] or I can use the email form on your site.
We had a debate on it. Went really well, IMO.
Basically two main takeaways I got from him:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@blakemiles84/the-great-steemit-debate-tone-vays-vs-blakemiles84
Tone Vays merely put his money where his mouth is and is now milking that cow. There comes a point on public forums when you can't react what you say otherwise you feel you've mentally lost the arguement and will feel inferior. Some weird male, penis measuring competition no doubt.
Yeah, you can hear it in his voice. He is so anti-Steemit that he feels he can't post anything here because it somehow taints him. Like some sort of hypocritical conflict of interest created in his own mind. He could still make thousands if he came here and contributed, but he said he won't. He said he would be the last person to come here once it was proven he was wrong.
That is a sign of someone that is frankly being an idiot in this regard. It takes no effort to setup an account and test the waters. Considering his pedigree he would create a lot of interest and if he had something useful to say he certainly would be rewarded for it. He is all in on "proving" and hoping Steemit is a failure. That's not an honest position to be in.
I for one, looking forward to it! 👍
There is a very easy way to explain the three assets on steem:
Initially I started powering down my SP. Last night I cancelled the power down when I learnt more about SP. I'm looking forward to using my reputation and SP to reward others for good content thus increasing the platform.
Great plan!
Agree conceptually but since there is an actual Steemit company (which has developed and continues to develop the software), it is important to make the distinction that this is not STOCK in the company. It functions economically much like STOCK in the blockchain itself. Of course it isn't literally that either, but it is a useful analogy.
I've been aware of Bitcoin for a while, but never delved into buying it, because I didn't quite understand it. I knew it had value, but without really "getting it," it didn't seem like a wise investment.
But, after about a week and a half on Steemit, I've figured out how to convert my Steem dollars to Bitcoin, and how to sell that Bitcoin for actual cash that goes into my bank account. I've done it twice now. The cash I'm getting is nice, and the more times I sell Bitcoin converted from my Steem dollars, the more I'm learning about Bitcoin, and my understanding of it increases.
I also like the way part of your payout for any article or comment you make money on goes to Steem Power, because you're being made an investor in the company.....something that could really pay out well for you in a couple of years. Making money and investing money, all from writing articles and commenting on good posts like this one....Steemit is potentially lucrative, it is an excellent creative outlet, and it is educational.
Personally, I'm loving it so far.
That sounds fantastic. Looking forward to it.
As for STEEM, I've been a bitcoin purist since early 2013 mainly because I didn't see any other crypto (even those with valuable technical improvements) having any chance of overcoming the massive network effect bitcoin already had. I was reminded of Betamax not beating out VHS.
STEEM (and, more importantly, Steemit) is the first cryptocurrency system I've seen which has the potential for mass user adoption. It got my wife into cryptocurrency after all my attempts for three and a half years failed. That, to me, is really exciting.
Me too, at first I hated the idea of Steem Power locked up for 2 years, but in crypto space it's necessary to avoid the pump and dump nature of failed cryptos in the past.
What negative things are you hearing?
Looking forward to this as I am very new to the libertarian/anarchist/free market talk that everyone seems to be extremely well versed in around here.
the biggest screaming is that steem has to be a ponzi since money is coming from nowhere. However, it is a very poorly designed ponzi as newcomers are not asked to put money in, but rather are paid money. Hmmmm. what type of ponzi doesnt require people to pay anything?
As to the money from nothing, it seems that finding a SHA256 hash with lots of leading zeroes is pretty close to nothing too, as are all the fiats.
Money is money because people all agree that it is money and it usually just comes out of thin air, though gold/silver as a currency is an exception the problem with those is that the economic growth is tied to the physical supply, which is an artificial constraint
You've put into words the concept that still baffles me...I just don't quite understand if Steem dollars actually translate into actual currency that can be used for everyday life. Without a basis, a physical supply, where can the money come from? Having said that, I also know that while our US dollars are based on gold, our treasury doesn't actually have that much gold and thus much of the US dollar is based on thin air too. But still, I don't quite "get" it. I'm new and maybe in time I will and I think I'll try to cash out a small amount and maybe running through the experience of this may help clear things up.
um. US dollars havent been backed by anything for decades. It is just an IOU from your govt.
Steem dollars trade at roughly $1 via several markets, so regardless of how either is backed, they are convertible to each other.
Have you heard that "time is money"?
There are also new thinking that "attention is money"
steemit's currencies represent the time that the content writers and curators put in and the attention that this content gets. In the information age, this is actually closer to real value than some lump of metal you have to pay to store safely.
Steem dollar is basically a freely transferable financial instrument that tracks the value of USD.
Gold and silver are not an exception. They're still valuable (especially gold) simply because people value them and when used in a monetary role it is because people agree to do so.
Thank fuck you're on Steemit jl777 as you crop up on most of the posts I read and seems to tell it like it should be. Many thanks for your input and please keep commenting.
Hi @charlieshrem! I'm a big fan. I saw you in The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin and you're clearly a really nice dude. Was shocked when you went down, and glad you're back out and enjoying crypto!
I've written a little piece about the various ways people are using Steemit here .. Hope you like it if you get time to check it out. Either way, welcome. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on Steemit over time.
Thank you ! Will do !
Yeah I saw The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin when it was first released out in LA. That day Bitcoin got smashed back to around $300. I also thought you were real and a very interesting person. It scared the shit out of me when they sent you to "Club FED" and it still does. I look forward to hearing more about your experience. Thanks for being here!
Thank you for sharing your unique view on it. You definitely see things in a new refreshing way :) Steem on!
I did this graph to facilitate the understanding of the three steem assets.
This is great thank you !
I think price stable cryptocurrencies are necessary to get bigger masses to cryptoworld. Most people are too afraid of the risk that comes with bitcoin and other highly volatile currencies.
Steem is a unique combination of a social platform and a payment network. This creates great potential for huge network effect. We have:
So we are really building here a totally new economy. Not just a way of rewarding writers for good content. Read Steemit's Evil Plan for Cryptocurrency World Domination.
Just imagine what would happen if Facebook set up a bank and let their users to use it for free and without any restrictions. Everybody could send money to anybody in the world. Who wouldn't use it?