Why Steemit is Rampant Capitalism
Steemit is not a platform for the "Everyone gets a trophy day" crowd. There is no pity shown to those who fail to make generous rewards off their blog posts. Nobody has to even look at the content you produce. It's a dog-eat-dog world.
Steemit is naked capitalism, dressed up as a revolutionary anarchist libertarian decentralized utopia. There are few regulations as to what you are allowed to do with your account, what you choose to post, how you vote, etc. On that level, Steemit does provide a platform that appears to be of a libertarian spirit. Each person can do what they want, without disaffecting others, and they will be left to their own devices.
Sounds too good to be true? You are correct, it is too good to be true. Not all accounts on Steemit are considered equals. Those with the largest wallets have the loudest voices and the biggest bite. It's true that there is no central command in the ether, policing bad behavior on Steemit, but there are activist accounts that believe vigilante justice is their prerogative. Accounts that believe they should be enforcing rules that don't exist, flagging content they don't agree with and generally attacking chosen enemies with impunity.
If you brought some money into Steemit and dumped say $50K or $100K into Steem, you will have a powerful voice on day one of your account, regardless of whether you choose to be a good neighbor or not. You can choose to upvote your own comments all day and make a nice return on your investment. You can choose to regulate against activities you don't approve of by flagging content all day. The point is, money is power on Steemit. Those that have it can do as they please and those without must toe the line, to ensure that they don't have their account vaporized by a surly whale.
With Steemit wealth, your account will make more money than smaller accounts, as it should be. The reality of the situation is that Steemit is actually a reflection of the world we live in, regardless of your governmental system. The disparity of account values on Steemit is staggering.
- 35 accounts > $1million
- 65 accounts > $500k
- 103 accounts > $250k
- 211 accounts > $100k
- 355 accounts > $50k
I am currently inside the top 5000 accounts by a few and my account fluctuates around $1k depending on the price of steem. That would put me roughly, just inside the top 20% of active accounts. The total number of active users, is at best, guess work. Using an analysis done by @financialcritic, I would say there are roughly 25,000 active accounts on Steemit. https://steemit.com/steem/@financialcritic/how-many-active-users-are-really-on-steemit.
Using 25,000 active accounts and dividing 355 accounts that are > $50k we get .0142 or the top 1.4% of active users have accounts > $50k. That percentage is eerily reminiscent of the real world and the clout that the very few at the top have.
As if the > $1million set were the billionaires in the real world and the > $100k set are the multi-millionaires.
As in the real world, Steemit, behaves in a purely capitalist fashion, rewarding those who have more, with more. We are not all created equally, there is no "one man, one vote", the all mighty dollar runs this asylum, you are nothing more than a reflection of your wallet.
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Serious question: who is putting money into Steem?
For every sale of Steem receiving BTC or Cash, there has to be a willing buyer. Who are these people? Why are they buying Steem?
I have spent some time researching who / why people would want Steem (full disclosure: I'm trying to figure out where the value comes from) and everyone rants about investing and potential future use for transactions... But who's buying it now?? There is like $10k per day distributed.. who's on the other side of that?
Sorry maybe I'm still missing something
I'm dolphin sized. I brought my dolphin status primarily to build community because no crypto is eorth anything with its user base.
Glad to have an investor on board the platform, welcome @eturnerx. Community can be built here again, I think. When I first got here, about 80 days ago, it seemed like Summer Camp. Everyone seemed to chat more and were more outgoing. A huge influx of people will take some time for acclimation to the platform and will eventually follow in the spirit of Steemit, hopefully.
Yes. I'm still learning the community norms. A new influx of people will also bring some new values too. I hope that it doesn't cause too much friction with the old-guard and we find a way to build.
I've met plenty of new minnows that look to succeed on this platform and that is all anyone can ask of them.
Great question @coffeee. I don't know that I can thoroughly answer the question, but let's try. We are all rewarded with SBD which needs to be converted to Steem in order to power up. So there is a steady stream of Steem being bought with steem backed dollars. There are also people investing in the platform who want to have more vote power and coin appreciation speculation. Partial answer.
Excellent on point post! No matter where you turn these days its a dog-eat-dog world. At school, at your workplace, online business - here on Steemit no difference!
Love the pic @nzfxtrader
Good!
Thank you for noticing most are still blind to this
Interesting analysis.
Itsa dog eat dog world alright...
Thanks for reading @thedamus
Really good post. The statistics you provided were particularly interesting. Just like the 'real' world indeed.
Upvoted and resteemed
Thanks @jimbobbill, appreciate the vote and resteem. Thanks for reading.
well they aren't billionaires but it's telling how people who think they are at the top act the same way. In the real world I have more money .. a lot more.. and I don't put it in steem only because Steem could go to Zero one day. My other things in the REAL world could go to zero too but i'll take those chances on something that's not virtual.
I was going to compare the top accounts to the billionaire class, but I couldn't get the numbers to jibe, yet they do act the same way. I have $85 tied up in steem, that's all I will likely put in. Thanks for reading @bearbear613
I like this post quite a bit it is well thought out and written. I am 59 years old so I guess I am kind of old school when I was growing up not everyone got a Trophy. You are only suppose to reward those that WIN. Things have changed dramatically over the past 3+ Decades and not for the better. I hope everyone finds success on STEEMIT and in order to do that you need to be consistent day in and day out. If you are not willing to put in the effort then no TROPHY for you.
I'm 45 and just missed the everyone - trophy phenomena. The world changed dramatically behind me. Thanks for reading @stokjockey.
Just like everything in life, Steemit is what you make it, until you get on someone's radar. Even then though we can plead our case if someone doesn't like your content. I've never been flagged, except when I first joined and posted an article from another site, which I guess was bad even though I cited it, linked it and commented on it. Live and learn.
I put in the work and my content is improving & becoming more refined. This not only increases my earnings, but it helps me become a better writer, blogger and researcher. I'm here for the long haul regardless of the killer whales and minnow eating dolphins.
Another good post Sheep.
That means a lot to me @rt395. I've also seen my content improve and what I write about become more consistent. It hasn't translated into that many sheckels, but I'll be around for some time.
Yep, good post sheeps.
Thanks @revo.