Has Steem Actually Impacted My Life?
Ah yes, (almost) everyone's favorite whale wants people to share their Steem stories. I definitely have seen cases where Steemians' lives have changed. Some of them are developers. Some of them are "community leaders". Some of them are early adopters who did very well for themselves.
What about random users? The ones who populate the platform? How has Steem impacted them? How has Steem impacted me since I see myself as another average network user?
Blessed are those who are still cooking despite the customers are still waiting for their food.The How and Why
I have already disclosed that while responding to @midlet's survey. To recap, I heard about Steem from a top witness and decided to give it a shot. At the time, I had long removed my presence from social media save for Discord.
A lot of the why goes to reinventing my online persona. How did it feel to start from scratch in an unfamiliar place? How does one decide what to do in this place? It's almost becoming an interesting case study. It's like moving into a new neighborhood where you have no connections. In addition, almost nobody knows about you or your history.
In a twisted sense, it's like a RPG with real implications.
The Impact
In all honesty, the only notable impact Steem has on me is that I added it to my list of hobbies. I'm not hardcore enough to make my endeavors here a reliable source of income. I'm like the random old person you see working PRN at a library. Not even part-time, but there when convenient.
A better example might be coupon clipping. I'm not hardcore enough to make it cover most of my grocery expenses. But, I don't mind having some money returned from time to time. As I have mentioned elsewhere before, I see Steem as a productive hobby.
I have seen the stress from people doing their Steem adventures full-time. It didn't seem pleasant and I'm not about to put myself in that bucket.
My Recommendation
The answer is not yet. Steem is on the top of my list. Until the frontends have better functionalities, I cannot bring friends along. I don't want to bring people over and have them decide that this place is boring and lame. Then, they would never return even if Steem transcends its issues.
Until crypto becomes a much more user friendly experience, I cannot ask those who are close to me to come over. Do you know how many steps it takes to get Steem? More than enough of a hassle.
The Future
I commend those who have built things (Splinterlands, 3Speak, etc.) to draw in the crowd. However, the ultimate survival comes from the overall evolution of the network. Steem cannot go on at a snail's pace when it comes to development. A reminder that SMTs and community features should have been out years ago.
It's happening, but it's not going to be enough. I'm not trying to downplay the hours of work people put into their projects. But, Steem is playing catch up right now. It's not the most favorable position to be in.
People need to remember that Steem hasn't achieved much yet. It's still tumbling near the starting line. Being complacent will not make the platform competitive. In fact, it may be the cause for becoming obsolete.
Why the doom and gloom? It's not. It's being realistic. Whatever the "builders" or stakeholders have in mind, they better execute it quick. Time is not on Steem's side. Worse, there's not much room left for errors.
Imho, you have a healthy approach. Thanks again for being here.
I'm trying to balance the healthy and cynical.
I like the description "productive hobby". When I see full timers who aren't top devs, witness or perhaps in the future community leaders, I wonder...not a life for me.
It also depends on where you are located.
I'm sure for most people in Western countries, they make more money working at a fast food place an hour than on Steem.
Good point. Min wage is like 8 an hour here which means a 16$ post, more when you consider you aren't getting any insurances or benefits and may have to pay tax or exchange fees to get it in a useful form like money.
So a single 20$ post or an hour at a low wage job?
I know some places it is 8$ an hour.
Even more depressing is the people willing to work for that either have completely incompatible cultural differences (i can't relate much to someone who thinks 8 bucks a day is a sweet income) or low skills (satisfied with minimum wage) which could make post quality suffer (do people who can only find min wage jobs make the best authors? Hell shadow writing, tutoring and translating pays 20~50 an hour). So we end up with good content written by people on spare time and a lot of bad content written by people who are trying to grind a living.
Even at $16 a post, you'd only get like $4 liquid unless you power down everything.
A part of the grind is also due to the volatility of crypto in general.
$8 a day for a year ($2920) is an okay chunk of change, but nowhere enough to survive in a lot of places.
What if STEEM goes to $8 again? Suddenly, it's over $20K (before taxes). While you'd probably make more with other crypto, STEEM doesn't require much capital for you to get started.
I'm thinking a lot of the so-called "bad content" would disappear on their own if the price of crypto in general is more stable.
To what specifically?
On the stuff that were supposed to be delivered a few years back.
Like communities, SMTs, etc.
To previous promises, got it.
honest and interesting words :)
I think steem's censorship-resistance is already a good achievement. especially when the EU completely goes nuts..
maybe they even ban memes? and maybe steem is the meme black market then?
time is on our side!
have a nice day :)
The thing is, censorship resistance is a shared common denominator in many blockchain projects.
Time isn't exactly on Steem's side when there exist efforts to surpass whatever is here. This is said as Steem hasn't even delivered stuff it said it would a few years back.
steem shall not be a monopol ;)
In a decentralized space many solutions will always exist.
Since MIRA's release it is hard to imagine the STEEM blockchain disappearing any time soon. As STEEM evolves out of its one trick pony status, to be encompased by a variety of dApps whose users may not even know what STEEM is by and large, it is my belief that we should think Utility Token for a scalable, fast and transaction fee free blockchain. Thinking that way you may not come off as such a killjoy. 😎
When Steem gets there.
Until then, we watch.
Reliable sources tell me:
You came for the tech but stayed for the rekt.
No ifs or buts about it.
Unless we moon soon.
If that happens, don't get a shitty Lambo, get a Tesla Model 3.
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Forget the car, it's time to convert to real money.
BTC
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