I think your logic is circular and there is very little bases to access the demand for steem.
You can say that people will want steem so that they can post on steemit, but why would you want to post on steemit instead of other social media platforms?
You can answer that question by saying that there will be demand to post on steemit, because you can earn steem. But if there is little demand for steem, then the steem you do earn from your content and curation won't be worth enough to incentivize you to post on steemit.
The fundamental problem I have with your argument is that you assume that there should be demand for steem, or even bitshares for that matter, because it is necessary for a user to have these cryptocurrencies in order to utilize the blockchain services. However, you don't provide a compelling answer for how these blockchain based services provide greater utility than their competition.
I hope steem does catch on. I just don't see it having any value if not directly tied to some revenue stream of steemit, because right now the value proposition of steem is very dubious.
I struggled with the same thing. However I have come to believe that it is as @dan explains - no matter how unintuitive it is. If you think the other way around, you might intuitively think that everything that has intrinsic value also has some monetary value, which isn't the case. Think air, or time, or happiness. I have come to believe that price/valuation/monetary value and actual value are somewhat totally independent phenomenom.
Another good point is to think about the utility. Who can you pay with bitcoin? Nearly no-one accepts it, so what's the utility? Because of the visible monetary rewards, steem is incredibly attractive to new users who mostly don't care where the value stems from. As a result, there will be lots of people for whom there is very little resistance to accept STEEM or SBD as a tip or payment for something - and so we have a functioning currency with real utility. Where the initial value comes from has very little relevance.
The belief that revenue from transaction costs creates some utility and initial value to the currency turns out to be a circular logic too. Why do you need bitcoin in the first place? To be able to pay transaction fees so you can transact? Transact what? You get it...
"The dollar supply has increased by 4x with minimal inflation over the past 8 years"
A bit off topic, but one of the ways dollars are created is when we go to the bank for a loan. Simplistically, the bank "creates" the dollars in a ledger entry and usually secures it with some sort of collateral (home, future earnings etc.). Those who have more collateral can loan more and buy more and secure more loans with what they have bought. This "created" liquidity stimulates the economy but also slowly inflates the prices of the collateral. Therefore the have's outpace the have-not's and the wealth gap increases.
I wonder how these difficult conundrums will play out in years to come in CryptoLand and more especially the Steem economy.
Did you intend to reply to the OP or me?
Sorry OP
When it comes to network effects, all value is circular and self referencing. Why does bitcoin have value? It has value because someone, somewhere, values it. Everyone else values it because others value it.
In the case of Steem we have a currency that actively traded and valued by hundreds of people. This is the initial foundation. These people in turn work to create value for others.
Ultimately, owning Steem maximizes your ability to earn more Steem by participating on the platform. Curators make more when they own more. Posters make more when they can vote for themselves and kickstart the curation of their own content.
Correct. The whole system is circular, so in the end, success derives from utility and user base. Bitshares had utility in spades, but few people knew about it, could get on it, or understood how it could help them. Steemit must focus on getting users onboard easily, giving them reasons to use it, and promoting that message like crazy.
" Posters make more when they can vote for themselves and kickstart the curation of their own content."
That is the reason "I don't get" why we must manually vote for our post... It should auto-vote our post with our voting power when we post anything.
yep! frustrating to vote each post