Just A Thought... On Artificial Scarcity
Now that we have resource credits, we have turned writing on the blockchain into a more scarce resource. The proponents of artificial scarcity say this is a good thing. Others will say that it is a bad thing. I say that it is neither. It actually doesn't really matter.
Scarce resources are only valuable if demand exists for them. If demand is non-existent, then your scarce item isn't scarce. It is something nobody wants.
Take this opinion:
"Steem's scarcity is valuable and now people will want to buy more Steem because of it".
Guess what? That statement is backwards. Here is a more realistic take:
"Lots of people want to use Steem and Steem's scarcity makes it valuable"
Or to make things clear:
Scarcity doesn't create demand. Demand creates scarcity.
Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. You have got to create a product that The People want first before the quantity of the product evens matter.
Think about this. Is there really any demand for Steem or the monetary value it can temporarily be transferred for? What gives Steem value besides it's use as an ends to a means? It is only when we have good answers that ordinary people will care about that scarcity ever matter.
Considering I'm trying to make dapps that exist entirely on the blockchain, HF20 helps me out a lot in this respect.
If I can lace Discussions with the code instead of having it run on a centralized server I can force the users of Steem to post a lot of comments.
HF20 RCs reduced the comment limitation from 20 seconds to 3 seconds, so almost everything about HF20 is a good thing if I can make dapps that people actually want to use.
And honestly, I don't think the scarcity is artificial. I think if every account on Steem was posting as much info as they could to the blockchain it would crash everything. HF20 might prevent something like this from happening.
I understand the reasoning behind constraining resources on the blockchain since blockchains have to store so much information, but some have taken this measure to prevent uncontrollable growth as a positive when it really is a net neutral activity at best for the ordinary blockchain novice.
Like you mention, this scarcity is a good thing IF you deliver a product that people actually want to use. I don't think any application on the blockchain has really gotten to that point yet. I would love to see one that changes my mind, but so far a large majority of services lack mass-market appeal and I'm not seeing how constraining your resources is really going to appeal to folks that at the moment have 0 STEEM.
Generally you have to look at both supply and demand since demand can sometimes lead to more production and/or options and less scarcity.
Sure, but in Steem's case, supply is relatively controlled and predictable.
Yeah but there are already alternatives that can affect supply and if demand skyrockets enough you could even see Facebook try and do some blockchain stuff.