The First Commandmend Of Steem: You Shall Not Power Down
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. - Voltaire
So I have an important question for you today.
How come that touching Steem has become the most outlawed sin on this platform?
I'd like to take you back to summer 2016 for a moment, when @heiditravels started her amazing world trip perfectly proving that cryptocurrencies were real and able to change a person's life. Many have followed her example since then and are traveling the planet backed by Steem.
Yet, it seems that stories like these are not very popular anymore. Selling Steem has become the no. 1 sin on this platform, and whenever you touch the power down button you better have a bunch of excuses ready in case someone may ask.
Maybe my question is quite naive, but shouldn't we rather find ways to get more people involved with Steem and like that help the currency to become more valuable instead of forcing ourselves to not touch our own money?
Picture kindly provided by pixabay.com
You shall not spend your money (?)
There are uncountable stories of people whose lives have completely changed since they became part of steemit.
Their newly acquired money was able to provide them with a piece of financial freedom.
Whether they were able to start paying off their hypothecary credit, take their kids on a well deserved vacation or simply invite their friends for dinner, Steem had a considerable impact on their real life situations.
Also all these wonderful examples were and are great marketing tools to get more and more people on the platform.
Now that the Steem price has remained static for quite a while, it seems that the idea of using Steem in order to improve your lifestyle has somehow become inopportune.
Holding is not enough.
I'm not an investor since my financial situation doesn't allow me to be one (yet). Still what I have learned is that growth requires newly created value.
Getting back to my initial question now: Why don't we rather focus on aquiring new potential investors instead of pointing fingers at people who are successfully building a bridge between the crypto world and their real lives?
We promote Steem being the no. 1 gateway cryptocurrency. That means that we want regular people to onboard and make digital money becoming part of their daily routine.
I don't know how you got your friends on steemit, but I took them out for dinner paying the bill with money I had earned on steemit.
At most places in the world there is still no option to directly pay with cryptocurrencies or related credit cards. So the only chance to enjoy the rewards in your real life is to cash them out.
On my island for instance 99% of the people don't even know what coins are. I'm working on that :-) However, it's still a long way to go.
Maybe we need to remember that there are two different target groups we may address: 1) investors and developers who believe in Steem as an investment and 2) content creators and content consumers that believe in Steem as a currency and way to gain more financial freedom.
A content creator or consumer doesn't have to be necessarily an investor, neither the other way around.
Obviously the ideal situation is that we power up as much as we can and don't touch the money at all.
That's the way I'm planning to do it now. I cashed out some Steem in order to finance a couple of things in real life, but during the next months I don't want to touch the account at all. Yet you can't force everybody to behave like that.
There must be more strategies to increase the value of Steem than forcing people to not use the currency in their real lives. Any application, any project, any token built on Steem is such a smart strategy.
We really need both lines: the investor oriented one and the consumer oriented one.
That's my point of view and I'd be happy to read yours :-)
Happy weekend, Marly -
Thanks for your valuable time!
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Original content. Quote found on pinterest.com.
I do what I want and don't give two shits what people think. I power down when it suits me.
Exactly it's your money you can do whatever you want with it
Great comment! I was hoping somebody would give exactly this answer :-)
@surfermarley you worked hard as a blogger and influencer to earn exactly where you are on Steemit. No one else, You. No one should be able to tell you what to do with what you've earned. Much success to you! ✌🏾😊
@hilarski !!! Preach!!! We tend to get way too concerned with "other people." Other people do not pay my bills or run my business. Other people don't do my grind-I do. 👍🏾👍🏾
I am one of the power-down sceptics. May the shitstorm come...
I have powered down, too, so MEA CULPA. But I really needed the money ;-)
My points as a sceptic are the following:
If the bigger part of hard working bloggers and charity makers turn their steem into fiat money, this weakens the price of steem. As unstable as it is for the moment, Steem becomes less and less an interesting investors token. This leads to the point that investors basicly pay for those who cash out. No investor with half a brain will do that. Steem will be seen as charity itself or in the best case be seen as an expensive subscription to an unfiltered all quality magazine.
Steem (as a community) therefore should focus on building sustainable concepts of keeping value IN the system instead of letting it pour out.
I'd love to see projects that give people the possibility to have a steem wallet and using it to purchase things they need for steem...
Like clothing, knifes, tobacco from GOE or Barbecuesauces and Jam from my wife ;-)
At this early stage generated value would be better invested into making steemit better and stronger than to think about putting it into fiat.
With MANY more points of acceptance like bars, producers, services, developers even hotels, or surfing teachers accepting steem, there would be NO point in powering down and turning steem into fiat.
At this point you will have me on your side for every charity project you can think of.
At the end @hilarski is right ofc everybody should do as he wills, but also there has to be an understanding of the consequences for steem and the intern economy...
just my 2 cents
Thanks for your valuable adding @pollux.one!
I completely understand your point. Probably you're right and it would be brilliant to stop all power downs right NOW. Yet, you can't force people to do that. Also: in case I decided to power down completely, would my 12K really make a difference? Or are we rather talking about the really big stakes and those who may join in the future?
I furthermore state that not the people who use this currency as a currency are the real problem. I rather believe that the system itself is weak because it completely depends on the exchange markets. There is only increase in monetary value if investors decide to buy Steem. Since the price evolution hasn't been amazing during the past months, they stay away and buy other coins. Now projects like SMT that are really revolutionary could help to convince them to get on board (again).
I will interview an investor next week and ask him which would be the main drivers for him to buy Steem (or any other coins). That could be an interesting talk. I really want to know how such decisions are made and how the whole market actually works.
Thanks for these 2 Cents ;-) I loved your comment, it's good to have all opinions in one thread and talk about them. I'm pretty sure it's not been the last time that we chatted about this topic :-)
Happy weekend!
Great post topic! It’s my personal belief that people should power down as it suits them, it’s their money. I powered down, early on, to pay down debt and made lucrative investments, this move allowed me to be in a position to quit a day job that was holding me back from achieving my dreams. Because of Steemit I found freedom. Some people are powering down to survive and pay monthly expenses. I don’t think it’s up to anyone to judge what people do with money they earned, it’s a personal decision. I predict that after people achieve their dreams, find freedom, and greater wealth many will reinvest some of their gains in Steemit because of their loyalty to the platform. I know that’s my plan. 😊
Sure, it's up to everyone to do what they want with their money, but wouldn't it be possible to get $1000 from your SP funds as soon as you need it, wouldn't you pump everything back into the SP to keep the eco system going?
Yes, eventually, I think we'll see lots of investment flow back into the ecosystem from people who see the true value of the platform. Some people view the money they earn as income to be spent, and that's okay too. I think there's room for all different views. In the end, I believe it's more about the user engagement, mentoring, and marketing the platform to those around us. In my mind investing with our attention is far more valuable than keeping lots of Steem Power locked up. That's just my own personal philosophy. There are many ways to keep the ecosystem healthy, thriving, and evolving.
Thank you, Eric!
I love your point of view (as always :-)).
That is THE essence: loyalty.
Your plan is mine, and I'm pretty sure a lot more steemians share it. Probably we're not able to invest a considerable amount back right now, but we'd definitely do that in case we were able to do so at some point of time in the future.
The commitment converts us into investors in the long run.
My pleasure! Thank you for creating the forum by way of this post to discuss it! Steemit isn't perfect but it provides the best path to freedom I've ever seen. It also serves as a powerful incubator for other projects (like the HardFork Film Series). I think people are just beginning to realize and tap into this aspect of Steemit's potential...we'll see an explosion of this once SMTs are launched. You ingeniously distilled the entire thing into once sentence, "The commitment converts us into investors in the long run." : )
Yours is a blog I’ve missed since being away :) I remember in summer of 2016 I posted a 10 commandments of Steemit list haha https://steemit.com/steemit/@prufarchy/the-10-steemit-commandments-for-success
Most of those still hold too!
@prufarchy!!!
Now that I saw your profile picture on Twitter, I suddenly remembered that we met personally in New York this summer!!! Oh my God, please excuse me! I must have been sleeping when you texted me here!!! I'm not good at remembering names (obviously), and I just kept with you being the "cool poet from New York" :-) Sorry! And: good to see you again!
Ack, it's hilarious that I missed your last response from 5 days ago and would not have seen it if you hadn't left this message!
I took a bit of a forced steemit break while moving back to San Diego, CA. I'm super busy at this new job so I'm trying to post what little I can while I'm getting my feet under me over here.
So no worries, life gets crazy and there are lots of people, but it is indeed nice to see you again!
Haha, well I'm happy to clear this up anyways!
San Diego, wow!!! That sounds incredibly cool. You have some nice breaks out there :-)
Well then best of luck for that new job, you sound very happy with the decision!
See you around :-)
Hey! I remember you were introduced by @the-alien in one of our marketing chats back in February. Nice to see you again :-) So you took a steemit break though?
Great article! And you're right: a lot of these points are still more than valid.
Welcome back and have a great Friday!
This is supposed to be a platform that positively and generously supports its members.
Any rewards earned are yours to do with as you please.
We must be careful not to turn the platform from a community into a cult or it will all end in tears.
Nicely said, Stephen.
I know that with more power comes more responsibility, and we all want this baby to grow. So the ones who are able to hold Steem, may find ways to do it. However, I'm a bit tired of people who believe that open books are shared accounts... The fact that everybody knows how much Steem I currently have, doesn't mean that they can tell me what to do with it.
Have a great weekend!
Both investors and creators are helping to build steem for it's BIG future! It's here now and can only grow through it's USE within the world populace. If people weren't using it daily there would really be no need for it. I agree that it should be used although I'm not in a position with my account, still growing ,to do this as of yet. So I'm an investor and holding for those future times. I remember when I first started here seeing some accounts at over $1 million! This was back when the price was much higher. If these accounts had not taken profits then at the highs they'd have lost more than half the value of said accounts. So whether an investor or a daily user it's still very important to realize the value on a day to day basis within one's account and use it or save it properly IMO. Using steem will only help steem. Love your thought provoking and always rational posts SM! Enjoyed!
I love this comment. You perfectly summed it up.
Exactly. In the end Steem is supposed to be a legid currency and not only an instrument for speculation.
Enjoy your Friday!
I wanted to write a similar post today (however not with focus on power down or up but on the different types of Steemians here) - will postpone that one then. Not cashing out too just because of tax - if people are in need of the money they shall all be allowed to get the money out - especially also for charity. My initiative on this one will be stopped or at least making a break now as I will not discuss with investors here what is good to do for people in need just to stabilise their investment in Steem :-)
I stabilized my investment by powering down, putting it into Bitcoin and making huge gains.
Good decision, very wise. I will keep the Steem for now as I am not a trader but I have no issues if someone powers down
I did the same, @hilarski. I'm in a few other alts as well.
Looking forward :-)
Controversial discussions are the ones that convert a platform into a living space. We don't have to agree on everything all the time, and I especially wrote this article to underline diversity.
When it comes to opinions then there is no right or wrong :-)
Steem on!
In theory it helps platform yes but I nowadays here if you start controversial discussions you get either flag armies on it or people in chats attack you - not wishing to handle discussions where I know the outcome already and also know it will be not good for my health so I rather might stay away from that - some parties have their opinion and I will not invest my time for senseless discussions anymore - maybe just one comment to a certain topic - but not today.
I don't need money I will power down when it hits a few bucks. I have zero problem selling steem or speculating on it or buying low and selling high. It's a crypto you are supposed to do those things