RE: Steemit EXCLUSIVE: Witness Tim Cliff Talks SBD & STEEM, Succeeding on Steemit, More!
The Steem blockchain has approximately 9% yearly inflation based on the USD marketcap of STEEM.
Of that, 75% goes to the rewards pool.
Approximately 75-85% of that goes to authors. (The rest goes to curators.)
Approximately 40-50% of those author rewards are paid in SBD. (The rest goes to SP.)
The description in the wallet is technically not wrong. SBD are technically still worth about a dollar worth of STEEM based on the blockchain rules.
You are right that they are also worth more. I don’t know an easy way to explain it all in one sentence that won’t actually confuse users. There are a lot of people that have so little idea about crypto currency, that going into all of that actually makes it worse.
Also, your definition of the floor is technically wrong. There is no guarantee it won’t go to zero.
Thanks for clarifying how SBDs are generated per the yearly inflation rate of the steem blockchain. That is helpful information to keep note of.
I admittedly am not a subject matter expert in crypto currency from a technical standpoint. I can say though that there is a prevailing sense of confusion when I introduce others to the steem blockchain. One of the first questions I am asked is what exactly are SBDs and how can they only be worth about a dollar of STEEM if they are in fact trading higher than STEEM and higher than a single US dollar.
As public interest in the steem blockchain grows, there is a marketing dilemma that remains unaddressed as it pertains to the distinction between steem and SBDs in simple layman's terms. The sustained price ascension of SBDs since the end of 2017 further accentuates that.
Allow me to use an analogy from the health care field: when a doctor prescribes a generic drug to a patient, he/she confidently does so knowing that it has been shown to be bio-equivalent to the brand name product. Nonetheless, the generic and brand name products are still required to be marketed under distinctly different names to ensure that it is clear which is a generic and which is the brand.
With this analogy, I would contend that Steem Blockchain Dollars may not be an appropriate name for the token generated by the steem blockchain. It should perhaps simply be called a Steem Blockchain Token since the dollar nomenclature suggests that it has parity to a single US dollar in value, when in fact this is not so.
As for the price floor, it is implied by the wording of the Steem White Paper when it states: "It is our belief that these rules will give market participants confidence that they are unlikely [to] lose money by holding SBD purchased at a price of $1.00."
Last year, Dan even suggested, "I think all witnesses need to pro-actively manage the price feed such that a Steem Dollar never falls below $1.00 for more than 1 day per week."
What the free market has demonstrated since the end of 2017 is that the peg as originally explained in the white paper is not a proper characterization of how SBDs can actually be expected to fluctuate in value in the real world. Accordingly, now more than ever before, it may be warranted to reevaluate the manner in which they are marketed to users and advocates of/investors in the steem blockchain.
Just my two cents - I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out!
You are absolutely correct, and I agree with what you say. I don't know what the solution is though :)
Also, regarding the 'floor' - the way you presented it in your latest comment here is accurate. What you said before:
$1 USD has been set as the floor price for SBDsis not, because it implies it will not go below $1.00 USD.