Why I Like Steem Better Than Gold

The price of Steem keeps going up. I’ve been wanting to buy some more and waiting for the price to go back down but the days of cheap Steem seem numbered. Either way I’m happy because I have a chance to earn Steem through blogging too. I feel very fortunate to have gotten involved when I did because things seem to be going very nicely at the moment.

Many people have suggested purchasing something tangible like gold or silver as a way of preserving value in case of a major economic depression. I’d personally rather keep my value in Steem and here’s some reasons why:

Guarding the Goodies Yourself

Even in the best of times having a large amount of gold stored at your house seems like an invitation for trouble. Word gets around and even if you try to keep it a secret people talk.

I have trouble enough guarding my fig tree from deer. I’ve seen them out in the garden and yelled, “Release the hound!” and after throwing open the door the Rat Terrier hides and cowers behind me with a, “You first boss,” kind of look.

Charging out at the deer they kind of look at me causally and waltz down the street with a mouth full of flowers. Arrgh!

If a bunch of armed thugs showed up the dog would be out the back like nobody's business, with me following closely thereafter. “Help yourself!”, I’d say when leaving. Life is short, there’s no point in making it any shorter.

In the case of Steem I have most of my coins locked up in Steem Power. It takes a week to even get any of it out. If hackers get in and lock me out of my account I can always get it back if I have proof of the original password or keys and can show ownership. I’m always using the system so way before that time I would notice something funny going on.

Letting Others Store Your Gold

If you just invest in gold but don’t take ownership of it there no telling if the gold even really exists or not. Who knows? You might show up at the vault sometime for a surprise inspection and there would be nothing but an I.O.U. slip inside.

This is actually a good thing if you think about it enough. It helps the powers that be keep control over the price of gold and prevent everyone and his uncle from parading around with six guns, pans, pick axes, bottles of mercury, and jumping claims and digging in everyones gardens looking for minerals.

On the flip side it’s also another rather annoying monopoly wealth control method that ticks some of us off. ;)

With Steem everything is right there on the blockchain. If it’s not in your wallet – you can’t spend it.

Environmental Issues – Mine Cleanup and Operation

Mining in general is notorious for leaving a mess behind when the minerals play out. I’m not saying this happens all the time but it does happen. In any business it is difficult to plan for a time when the business is no longer profitable and returning the land to a place close to what it was can be costly.

Mining operations can be very disruptive during the time that they are in operation too. Alaskan salmon is one of the last places where major amounts of wild fish are harvested. Dead zones in the ocean, dams, over fishing, and warmer waters have done a number on once prosperous fishing. Gold and silver mining in Alaska once again threatens to wreak havoc on this last big source of salmon in the US.

Mining Steem doesn’t take near the power of other coins out there and if ever something better comes along it doesn’t take a super-fund to archive the blockchain and restore the web to what it was before.

Commercial Value of Gold

There is really not a lot that gold is used for - just some use in jewelry and a few manufactured items. Other less expensive materials are better for making most functional items. As technology progresses we may find even better cheaper materials for doing the same exact things.

Steem is actually pretty valuable for moving wealth very quickly. It is much faster than Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies. It is much easier than hiring an armored car to move your gold or fiat money around.

Merchant Acceptance

I would rather not walk down to the store with a pocket full of gold coins during a zombie apocalypse. You would probably draw way to much attention to yourself and with my luck a group to burly youths would turn me upside down and extort my gold coins.

Getting a merchant to accept the gold coins and make change would be a difficult task too.

Steem on the other hand can be traded for fiat and used to pay off your credit card debts when they come due. Plastic is still pretty widely accepted (credit cards) and it probably will be unless something really bad happens in which case why worry right?

Child Labor

Gold, rare earth, coal, diamond and other mining tends to be very exploitive in many parts of the world. People work long hours in very hazardous working conditions when mining. The allure of a quick buck or other forces places young children and others into the mines. All of us pay a cost for black lung disease and other health problems caused by mining it is not fair imho to expose children to these things when they should be learning and enjoying their childhood.

By comparison blogging on Steemit seems healthy. You can’t really force your kids to do it and even if they did it voluntarily, it would more likely be helpful for their growth and development. I believe that there are far fewer people that would act in a way that might cause cyberbully problems for them. (Not that I’m encouraging kids to get involved, I think this against the terms of agreement)

Besides carpal tunnel syndrome from typing too much or some odd eye problems from staring at the screen, I can’t think of too much that could go wrong. You know, if your blogging that much on Steemit perhaps it’s time to take a break. ;)

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Anyhow, each to his own; I’m sure the world needs gold investors too. Thanks for reading! I always appreciate your support. Pictures are my own work taken with my Galaxy S7. The graphic was rendered in Softimage by yours truly.