A new middle class??
Growing in size
Now all of this is purely speculation but there seems to be one common trend since the price of STEEM has dropped so low. It seems as if a large number of lower sized accounts are buying and powering up their accounts. I know that I can see how much value is there to be had right now but it seems as if a lot of other people are agreeing with my opinion. I'm basing all of my assumptions off the stats from two users on the site. @steemcommunity and @arcange.
Now what i'm looking at might be a long way in the future but there seems to be a nice trend beginning and that is the emergence of a lot more medium sized accounts. Minnows and dolphins. These are mostly established people who arrived too late to take advantage of the really cheap STEEM two years ago but have since established themselves as core members of the community and built their accounts from the bottom up. Now that they have seen this chance to progress a lot of people are buying with the hope that STEEM will progress and become a lot more valuable in the future.
As part of building my account I am a member of the minnow power-up league since it's inception 10 weeks ago.
https://steemit.com/community/@steemcommunity/the-minnow-power-up-league-week-10
It tracks how much STEEM the members power up every week and how much in total. At the moment there are 91 minnows taking part in the league and working towards dolphin status. In the past five weeks they powered up between them.
- Week 6 - 2953 SP
- Week 7 - 2514 SP
- Week 8 - 2875 SP
- Week 9 - 3719 SP
- Week 10 - 15,693 SP
That is a big increase in one week and just between the 91 accounts. It shows a commitment by the average users to the blockchain and willingness to put money into the project. Not just buying but powering up.
Minnows and dolphins growing.
The other side to my argument are stats taken from @arcange and his daily statistic posts on the blockchain. I have taken these graphs from a post on the 12/11/18 just 9 days ago and the other ones from his post today.
You can see than in just the last 9 day that there are 18 new dolphins and 24 new minnows. Not a bad change in just over a week. The amount of whales hasn't changed and is very unlikely to do so without something drastic to happen.
The next couple of charts are taken from the same times but show the amount of vests per category.
source
What has changed is that 9 days ago the 35 whales held 234557 million vests which was 69.12% of all the vests on the site. Fast forward to present and the whales control 68.57%. Now in numbers 0.55% might not seem like the biggest swing in power but consider it has happened over just 9 days.
Now think about the markets and the drop that we have seen in the past week. What if this holds through the Xmas.
Will more people buy??
What if the price drops to 20c, will more people buy??
At these prices will we see a further shift in power?
I think so.
I think that the crash has just sped up the inevitable as 35 mostly inactive accounts will not be able to match the progress of thousands of willing and active people.
I for one am looking forward to seeing what unfolds in the next few weeks and months. These are the people who have been driving the site. Driving the engagement, the content, the development and now getting involved in the investment. I think it will only lead to a better and more balanced blockchain in the future and it's just a matter of time before the balance swings towards the majority rather than the minority.
Let us watch and see.
I bought another 23 euro worth of steem yesterday ^^\nAnd will properly spend 100 euroes next month on steem :D
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Just keep adding them on. €100 will get you almost another 300 STEEM and after that your pretty much a minnow and sitting pretty. If we ever get STEEM up near $10 again then you will be laughing. Steady growth is perfect and you will see as you grow your SP and grow your following that everything speeds up. The next 500sp comes a lot faster and the effect keeps compounding as you grow. I never though i would hit 500sp myself but now i'm looking at the threshold of 5000. And enjoyed the journey to get there too.
True true
To get to 500 took me close to 9 months and still needed some help with @hitmeasap’s minnow campaign
It’s taken me around 3 months to double that
I am11 SP away from 1000 (mostly thanks to @nathanmars and his All in DTube initiative)
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There is such a compounding effect on here if you're active. Not just earning faster but you meet more people, gain following and find initiative's like nathanmars and dtube. I haven't gone that way but still received a nice delegation from him a while ago which has helped me to grow as well. He is really committed to the cause and to helping other committed people too. It's great to see.
1000sp is a nice round number and i bet you will be delighted to see it. After that you have the bug and will be aiming for 5000sp and dolphin. My first 500sp took about the same and now i'm heading for 5k just a few months later. The current price has helped but i was growing nicely anyway.
Niceeeee
Congratulations on the rapid growth and the delegation
I think I have already caught the bug
Can’t believe I am actually considering using my fiat to buy 😅
Thank you for your thoughts on this
Truly appreciated 😊
I think it's a great idea to buy myself. With the way the price is falling we should see around 20c anyway. For $200 dollars you will be able to get 1000 STEEM. I can spend $200 dollars on a night out. I like what we have here and i think that there will be a lot more to come in the next couple of years so i think it's a great deal personally. If things work out right we should easily see steem at a couple of dollars again at some stage so you can add a zero to anything that you bought.
This is only my own opinion and what i plan to do. Everybody needs to make up their own mind on the future here.
My first 23 euroes buy gave me 33 steem. This one gave me 64 steem. So 100 euroes will be amazing and yes if steem hits 10$ that would be insane xD
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It got over $8 just under a year ago and it wasn't half as developed or ready as it is now. We have a much better product than last year so the next run could be even bigger when it happens.
Uhh. Sounds interesting :D
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I’m one of the new minnows. Hi Everyone!
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Great to see it. Hopefully you have found something that you love on here and will be sticking with it for a long time. Have you joined the minnow power up league? It tracks our progress as we head for the dolphin level at 5k sp and has prizes every week.
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I really enjoyed this post, @niallon11 – thank you for sharing your insights into the changing demographics of Steemit. The charts really laid it all out in a very clear, understandable way. I graduated from redfish to minnow status just last night, so I'm slowly becoming one of the new "middle class", I think. 😉
Glad you liked it. It's just something that i had noticed in a lot of posts on my feed and started looking at it a little bit closer. Congrats on being one of our newest minnows and hopefully you will see dolphin at some stage too. Minnow might sound small but it puts you firmly in the middle of the action and as we grow you will be looked at as a massive account at some stage.
Here's hoping! I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I hope you are right that this period will change the balance of power and that it will be good for the overall health of the network. I too have been powering up all I can get, just wish I had a couple o' quid to throw into it.
If the price holds or drops then i can see it having a significant impact on the balance of power. This swing was only over a week of low prices but if any of the whales get itchy and decide to bail out it could drive the price down further and put more cheap STEEM on the market. This should be an interesting few weeks and while i think that STEEM will do very well over the long term it could take a while to get there and we could be looking at a different power structure when it arrives.
A large and active middle class should be great for the blockchain as while we are not driving development like steem inc, it's these accounts that are creating the majority of activity on the blockchain. These are the accounts which keep others posting and interacting.
Nice observations.
I didn't think to check back further on the Minnow Power-up posts, but this week the SP powered up by those on the list stood out. And I'm glad to see it could be 'platform' wide too.
Good luck to us all :)
Glad you enjoyed the read. I had just seen so many posts about buying and powering up that it made me curious. All the numbers were there so it was just a matter of looking around a bit. This is just a snapshot really since the period is so small and the numbers too but it does open the discussion.
I'll be watching with interest over the next few week to see if it continues like this and how much of an effect it will take.
I definitely agree. Thanks for the hard data backing up my sense of things. I’ve bought a bit more, but if it drops to .20 I’m going to really stock up. I have faith in this platform, and these cheap prices are great for growing a fairer distribution and thus more stability in the long run.
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If it drops to 0.20 i'll go all in. I can see how many amazing things are happening on the blockchain so when i see prices like this i am amazed. Especially compared to some crypto's that do absolutely nothing what we have is so undervalued and i'm definitely willing to put my money in there.
I haven't been on Steem for months and had actually withdrew all of my previous stake and sold it off.
The recent bear trend brought me back. I bought a bit of Steem and powered up my account. I'm now trying to horde as much as I can while the prices are this low. I'm not the smartest man in the world, but I do believe the blockchain industry is something special and reminiscent of the dotcom era in certain ways.
Those of us who have been involved long enough know that this recent crash in prices is nothing. We've seen far worse and it could still potentially get worse. But, like they say, a smooth sea doesn't make a skilled sailor.
Hopefully when you sold it was on the market high. That would allow you to come back a lot bigger and stronger than before. It's not perfect but what we have here has a lot of potential. If any of the blockchains and cryptos are are to be successful I think that steem will be right there.
If everything goes to shit I will lose a few thousand. If things work out and we grow what we have here into an economic system we will all do very well in the future. I think it's worth the risk.
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This is a great trend to see despite it being a result of the lower trending price. I rather have this distribution continue as it will add more value and engagement to the ecosystem giving the alignment of incentives for the community!
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I would like to see a few more weeks and let the site and the market get a bit of a shake up. It's a good trend for me anyway as I power up everything and will keep doing it. Anybody willing to put a few hundred or thousand in should do well going forward. It gives all the later members a chance to be properly involved that the next generation won't have if the price rises again.
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Let us watch and see for sure! Excellent inspiring post @naillon11. 20 cents..... what a dream!! I just made the minnow leagues. And, will enter the minnow power-up now! See you there. ✌💜🧡
That's great news. I'll be looking forward to seeing you and all of the new minnows in the rankings. It will only make it better to have more competition.
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Power to the middle class! ...actually, power to all classes. Let everyone invest (time, thoughts, or financial stake) into the Steemit community. That is how a social platform becomes strong. We connect and expand to include more people and diversified thoughts.
Having a large active an invested group of people operating on the blockchain can only be a befit as improving the place helps everybody. I'm hoping that when we get the next wave of users through apps that all of these accounts will be inspired to help and retain them which will make it stronger again.
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