⫷ Bitcoin vs Ethereum vs Steem ⫸ (Value comparison)
Recently I wrote a post explaining why I think that STEEM is a scam.
https://steemit.com/scam/@counterweight/the-steem-scam
As a follow up, I decided to compare Steem to some other Cryptos.
I will be comparing their values per $1.
(It is worth remembering that the value I am talking about is related to the price, but it's a different metric. For example, Bitcoin is around 10 times more expensive than Ethereum, but that doesn't mean it's 10 times more valuable. The value I speak of is value per dollar. This is the value of the currency that you will get for a fixed amount of other currency. I believe this is the only way to truly compare currencies.)
**** So... What's the value of $1 of Bitcoin? ****
Hard to measure.
^ First you have the speculative value.
This is the hope that you could sell it for more than $1. It could be a long term investment, or short-term trading, but in both cases it's speculative. You don't want the bitcoin because of the bitcoin. You want it, in order to sell it. This economic force is very strong.
^ But there is also another value. An objective value.
To explain it simply, that value is the answer to the question:
"What can you do with $1 of Bitcoin?"
Actually - A lot.
You can easily and (most of the time) legally transfer money between countries, institutions and individuals.
You can pay micro-prices in websites, where a bank transfer would've been way more expensive and slow.
You can buy stuff. A lot of companies sell their goods not just for cash, but for BTC as well.
These days even banks are starting to use Bitcoin. The very banks that it was made to make obsolete.
As long as you can do other things with bitcoin, instead of just trading it, it's value is not just speculative. It is more real.
**** Next: What's the value of $1 of Ethereum? ****
With Ethereum, we have the speculative value again (because "of course we do!")
Also - theoretically we could also use ETH just as bitcoin - to buy coffee from the nearby shop. (Though I haven't heard of that yet.)
But we also have something with the potential to be even more powerful.
Use Ethereum as a Smart Contract Fuel.
If you don't yet know what a smart contract is - go and google it right now.
Go on. I will wait.
....
Did you check it out?
Awesome, isn't it?
With Ether, you can technically "rent" your own "supercomputer".
(I know it's more complicated then that, but I am simplifying it for those who didn't go to google it when it was the time to do so.)
Renting computing power on the blockchain is a pretty new concept that opens a lot of doors for software developers. It is also the main driving force behind Ethereum. It makes it truly valuable.
**** Next: What's the value of $1 of Steem? ****
Once again - we have speculative value.
But what else is there?
We have a social network platform, the people in them, the content in it, and... that's it.
I believe that all three of these are cool, but NOT monetizable.
That means that while the creators of Steem own everything around here, they have no way of selling it, because nobody wants it.
- The social network platform... is crappy.
Look at this website: https://steemit.com/
If you weren't getting money for writing here, would you like it?
Extremely basic user interface, limited functionality, limited search options, almost non-existent customization.
I have been here for just over a week and I already found a few bugs.
So... is the platform better than Facebook, Google+, or even MySpace?
Absolutely NOT.
SteemIt is basically 1 big forum on the blockchain.
(By the way - there are dozens of free frameworks which allow you to make forums. WordPress, phpBB, IPB, etc...
All of them look better and have more functionality than SteemIt).
- The people... are just here for the money.
Steemers are people who blog for money, but that isn't anything new. All big bloggers blog because of money. It's their job.
The difference is in who is paying.
When blogging on other platforms, a blogger gets money from advertisement. For example: travel bloggers receive money from airlines and hotels. Tech bloggers receive money from tech companies. Tech critics don't receive money from the manufacturers (because they are damaging them with their critics) but get money from advertisment banners on their website, or something like that.
SteemIt is different.
In SteemIt no user is paying, but all users receive money.
Some get less... Some get more... but everyone get's something.
Without advertisement.
Without giving anything in return, other than their content.
Is the content really worth that much to the creators of Steem? Why?
- The content... is not usable.
Let's assume that SteemIt has the greatest content in the world.
It doesn't.
But let's assume it does.
What are the SteemIt creators going to do with it?
They have 3 possible options:
< Sell it to individual users
< Sell it to companies
< Admire it, without getting any money out.
It is not possible to sell to individual users, because they can already see that content. They can just come here and read it.
Selling it to companies is possible, but extremely hard. Companies want ordered data. They want something that a computer can analyze. What steemIt has is just a bunch of text, photos and upvotes.
In order to sell it, the SteemIt people will have to sort it. This is not an easy process. With the current state of technology it will most likely be more expensive than the value of the information being sold in the first place.
This means that they will actually lose money if they sell your blog posts.
The only option left is to admire the content, without getting anything out of it.
A non-monetizable content is NOT a base for STEEM's value.
It might be pretty and shiny, but it is not useful to anyone.
That's why I believe that Steem's value is purely speculative.
How do we make sure we are not being taken advantage of by the steem company or it's algorithms? Do we need even more transparency?
Read my other article.
https://steemit.com/scam/@counterweight/the-steem-scam
In it I explain why we are not being scammed (even if steem is a scam).
If you don't see the value of Steem...why are you here? It's still in beta!! More changes can be made!
I am here for the same reason as everybody: To try to make a few dollars.
I don't believe in Steem as Long-Term thing.
Short-term - I'll get what I can.
Upvote please. (:
It is also the same reason why both of us upvote our own post comments - for the additional $0.01
If you disagree - feel free to remove the upvote on your comment. :D
Well from what I hear bloggers are being paid. All of us 'new users' love the stories of the big whale and see a potential sustainable life with work we actually enjoy.
All the users under the spell, the users that are now 'reachable' through the steem platform, is what gives steem owners (and whales, are they the same thing??) the power they can exploit through businesses and other wealthy people that want to sell their products, or agendas... for money (or bitcoin??). We can all buy steem (power?), can we all make a profit from blogging?
I guess you could buy steem power.
It might even pay off, before steem runs out of money to give.
If you are confident in your blogging ability and are ready to put some effort - go ahead.
(just don't hope that it will keep being stable in the long run.)
meep
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Wow this is such a sick methaphor for how capitalism manifests in our society. Everybody is under the spell of money, and money is incredibly dis-evenly distributed. Yet, we all keep contributing (hiya!).
Well. In about four months, I have bought other scams like bitshares (about 2000), NEM (1000) Using only Steem. So to follow your line of thinking, I have bought other scams for a scam. Or something like that.
So to sum up: I Used the scam steem earnings to buy into other speculative scams.
All for unusable content. Tell me what usable content have you found on Facebook lately? Your Neighbours cat?
Facebook collects your ordered, categorized and ready for analysis data.
They sell it to advertisers, who target specific customer groups.
Also - I never said bitshares and NEM are scams.
I don't know enough about them to have an opinion.
Have you ever thought of the meaning of the word "scam"?
Read my other article.
https://steemit.com/scam/@counterweight/the-steem-scam
In it I explain why we are not being scammed (even if steem is a scam).
The problem is that you have no idea what you're talking about.
And you seem to be offended about it. Why?
If I am ignorant about something, just tell me what it is.
None of us are gaining anything by you, writing negative stuff.
Wrong. I'm not offended. All I'm saying is that you waste everyone's time by claiming scam when I personally have experienced the opposite. You're disconnecting from reality and creating your own.
Don't get philosophical. I want to talk about economics.
I once again urge you to read my other article.
In it I explain that we really get money out of steem and why that's part of the scam.
Unless you can provide another theory (any theory), this conversation is not going to get anywhere.
At least you are making money in this conversation.
Upvoting yourself a bunch of times.
Good for you.
If you want a longer conversation (and more posts to upvote) you'll do good to tell me your version of the story. It will be a good (& maybe long) discussion.
So... it's not a scam because you got some money out of it?
I am really sorry, but that just means that you want it to not be a scam. Just because you want something, doesn't mean it's true.
If I am correct, you are not being scammed, but you are part of the scam.
Once again. I am sorry. I don't want to be an asshole.
It's OK to keep being part of the scam.
You get paid and you meet new people. That's cool.
Just don't be ignorant about it.
there is a way to monetize your traffic. look at Facebook. They did it.
Just because there's 'not a lot of great content' here doesn't mean SteemIt can't become a very highly ranked website with tons of traffic and thus begin to monetize it either through promoted posts, ads, or whatever else they choose to do.
The owners can, will, and are making money from this platform.
Interesting.
But does the money cover for the rewards?
I've read that Facebook's way only gets ~12 dollars per person per year, and their system is a lot more mature than this one.
Therefore - even if SteemIt does the same things, it probably gets less money.
But at the same time we all receive more than 12$ per year, don't we?
Nothing wrong about being sceptic , i always am . what keeps me here ? No banners pushing clickbate , Cat , dog or endless selfie's . Just for most part quality content here on Steemit . It could be the drive for payment that makes content of higher quality . Ill think i stick around a bit to find out ;-) .
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