The Steem Opportunity: Changing Lives For The Better

Yesterday, @tarazkp put up an excellent post espousing his idea about how Steem is going to unfold over the coming years and why he believes that people are going to be earning a living from it.

The post is worthy of a read if you did not have a chance to see it.

https://steempeak.com/steem/@tarazkp/the-no-bullshit-guide-to-living-off-steem

I want to echo a lot of the sentiments that he posed in this article. While there was a bit of supposition on his part, I think the logic is easily followed.

Like him, I agree that traditional models are going to be completely upended by blockchain and cryptocurrency. The traditional system is at the start of seeing major disruption just like we saw in the past. The financial industry is going to realize what it was like to be a newspaper or magazine when the Internet was introduced. I feel that the technologies before us have the potential for disruption as we witnessed 25 years ago.

We live in an instant gratification world. This conditions people to look at things as they are now without realizing what is taking place. There is no better example of this than Wall Street which operates, basically, on a 90 day cycle. Corporate earnings are all that matter with long term focus taking a back seat.

Amazon was a company that everyone knew yet few realized what they were doing. Here is one of the largest companies in the world who, until 5 years ago, quietly went about destroying the retail sector. One day, the company name becomes a verb (amazoned).

Of course, the financial sector was being altered by technology. Some of you might remember when a stock trade cost $75 or $100 because it had to be done through a live person. Stocks were bought using price quotes that were 15 minutes behind. The financial media consisted of the Wall Street Journal, some business magazines, and the stock tables in the local paper.

Today, we know it is a totally different world.

I think we can see the same thing happening again. The reason the banks are so upset, especially about Libra, is they see the potential. It could be devastating to the banking world. Everyone from central banks to your local savings bank are at risk. Of course, this extends far beyond the banking realm.

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Steem offers a powerful platform that is only starting to unearth some of its potential. It has a strong base layer in terms of the technical capabilities. The biggest selling point as a blockchain is the 3 second block time along with free transactions. This puts Steem in very select company.

At the same time, layer 2 solutions are starting to emerge which show us the future of Steem. Many want to scoff at this since it is not a base solution but I disagree. The advantage to layer 2 solutions is flexibility and versatility. Things developed at that level can be changed quickly as compared to having to do forks.

We see the difference with Steem-Engine versus what is expected with the SMT protocol. From what is posted, it appears Steemit Inc will follow the original vision of SMTs meaning they are to "tokenize the Internet". Essentially, people will create mini-Steems with tokens that have the same characteristics as STEEM.

Steem-Engine has accomplished this to a degree but is going to take another step. This will be something that SMTs do not offer. It is already mentioned there is work being done on the introduction of NFTs. This can be a major disruption to many industries. Once again, it is rather new so we are just starting to see experiments with them. However, there are one industry in particular that is primed for total upheaval by this technology (more in a post forthcoming).

One thing that @tarazkp did not mention was the opportunities at the layer 2 level. I agree with what he wrote about Steem and the future of investing. Over the past few months, I posted how most of us are now venture capitalists using our stake to invest in other projects. This is only going to continue as we move forward. Opportunities are presenting themselves all over the place.

However, we are already seeing where layer 2 tokens carry some value. People who are amassing them are able to utilize them in a manner that aids in the growth and development of other projects. From this, people can further their accumulation of holdings, potentially utilizing the proceeds for survival while never touching the stake.

This is something that is foreign to most of us since it is not how we operate in the present system. With the percentage of stock ownership, a way to build wealth, mostly in the hands of a few people, the average person is left to struggle. Making ends meet becomes the main goal.

The cryptocurrency world is going to offer a different route. For those who can see it now and take advantage of it, the road will be much easier. Certainly, there will be misses but that is true with anything in life. The key is to keep the cycle going. As more is developed, more is thrown off in payouts. When people take part, or all, of those payouts and put them back into the system, more development results.

Ultimately, I see STEEM, to most people, being an additional token that is paid out for activity taken. It will be part of the stack yet the part that few concentrate on. The amount of SP earned at some point by the average person will be minimal. SP will be the gateway that allows people to operate. This is where the value will reside. It will be a needed commodity since it is required to transact.

It will be the layer 2 where the money will be made. This is where people will derive an income. Amassing payouts from 3-5 communities could provide people with a cash flow to meet their basic requirements. It is then that they can turn to wealth building.

Why is this important?

Because, in the tug-o-war with the bankers, we need success stories. We need to show the world what can be accomplished and the power of this technology that we are using. Many have a slanted view of cryptocurrency based upon the FUD that was presented by the MSM. This will hinder people embracing it.

However, when one achieves a state of financial independence from his or her activities on Steem, then there is a powerful message to present.

We also need people amassing the capital to fund other ventures. It is obvious the traditional establishments are not going to do it. They are doing all they can to stop it. Hence, it is up to us "renegades and anarchists" to develop of system which enables the development of new platforms that further the monetization of our ideas. As the entire ecosystem spreads, what can be accomplished grows exponentially since the capital is growing. At present, we see very little of this but, over the next couple years, it should grow.

Anyone who was around in the early 1990s can easily see the parallels between the Internet and what we are dealing with here. Many of the same attacks were levied against that. Countries were scared of the Internet and development was slow. It was not mainstream companies that pushed it ahead yet start ups.

Today, we are seeing something similar. There is none major difference: Bitcoin. The introduction of that White Paper changed the world.

I think it is vital to mention again what is revolutionary about it. Bitcoin, for one of the first times in history, monetized peer-to-peer networks. This is the true value of that technology.

Now, a decade later, we are seeing a lot of development taking that idea and expanding upon it. Many other blockchains are seeking to improve upon that idea while bringing out solutions people can use. Again, it is a slow process but one that is seeing advancement.

Steem is one of the leaders, in my opinion, in this area. Here we have a blockchain with applications people can actually use. Some will say how there are only a few people using them as evidence for its lack of acceptance. Well, I can tell you, in 1992, there was nowhere near 3.5 billion people on the Internet either. At that time, Prodigy was the big player, a service that I bet most younger people never heard of.

It is for this reason why I believe it takes some vision. It is easy to focus upon some of the things regularly discussed as evidence of why it will not work. To me, that is all window dressing. Stepping back to see the bigger picture is vital. I can promise you, those who were involved in the forming of the Internet encountered their own "bid bot" problems. Few technologies emerge without a few hitches along the way.

Understanding how this is all part of Web 3.0 offers some insight. There is going to be a massive technological change in the world over the next decade. The Internet, as we know it, will disappear. We are going to get something that is more interactive and a bigger part of our lives.

And if you think we are having problems. go back and read about the challenges Edison and Tesla encountered when developing the technology for electrical grids. Overcoming those problems led to to a lot of money as JP Morgan saw early on.

I believe we are seeing a similar pattern reveal itself in this industry. This technology is going to be something everyone uses down the road and will be a daily part of our lives.

In a decade, we will be able to look back and see the beginnings of it. The question is it will be with regret at opportunities missed or not?

That is for each of us to decide.

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