Getting started with Steem

I have been reading the Steem white paper. It makes sense. For certain things in live you expect not to pay anything (no transaction fee). The Steem white paper clearly shows the ambition of Steem to become a mainstream digital currency. It is clear how you can earn Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars. It also clearly makes sense to use Proof of Stake (PoS) instead of burning unnecessary electricity for Proof of Work (PoW).

I have just signed up with Steem. I am a software engineer with an interest in blockchain technology. I am also an enterpreneur. Not exactly mainstream audience I would think. I already see some major problems with Steem.

First of all the signup process is not flawless. After entering my phone number I have received numerous text messages with SteemIt confirmation code (all containing the exact same contents). For the rest of the signup process I did not notice any flaws. It feels quite secure with multiple items being verified, though for the mainstream audience these extra steps might be intimidating. For sure only people with a strong interest in crypto currencies and people who think they can make some easy money will sign up first.

Then there is a lot of focus on how you can earn Steem. There is no explaination how you can spend Steem. If I google on spending steem I am getting to hints like "convert to EUR". Basically the best advice to spend Steem seems to be to get out of this currency system. That does not really sound good for this community and currency and needs improvement.

I am now writing this article on the Steem website and not within my own Wordpress blog. Why? Because I want to see if this will give me some Steem, Steem Power, Steem Dollars or whatever is awarded to me due to this article.

Hm. Steem. Yes. Currency for social media. What is needed to make it really a currency for social media content? Where is the technology such that people can upvote articles on my Wordpress blog? Vote for my tweets? Appreciate my Facebook posts? Sure. Maybe I missed something. But if I missed it, then we have to improve the marketing message of Steem.

Nonetheless Steem seems to be a nice inititive (where is the spell checker in this editor?). To become mainstream you have to be perfect. Yes, and we have "Markdown Styling Guide", but mainstream audience wants to start right away instead of investing a lot of time into learning. Especially if the financial rewards are uncertain (at the start). Gaining trust requires ease of use and being really versatile.

Despite these shortcomings you managed to motivate me to write this article and get started. So I hope Steem does indeed have a bright future and maybe my first observations will spark discussions on how Steem can be improved and promoted.

Thanks for your time & best regards, Rene