Freewrite: What is the True Value of a Steem Post?
I assume most reading this are familiar with how Steem works.
On many other platforms when you give a like or an upvote it doesn't cost you anything, but it benefits the author by pushing their post up into peoples feeds, or pushing a post onto the hot/trending tab. The monetary benefit to the author is often through the number of views and in some cases how long the post was viewed for, and whether a viewer clicked on any ad links while looking at the post.
But is having an unlimited number of votes a good thing, or is Steem's approach of Lords and Serfs the better one?
At present, Steem is not a direct democracy, and in truth a direct democracy isn't less open to abuse than a representative one, as in the case of Brexit. While Brexit represents the timeless uprising of the serfs against the lords, it also means stabbing Ireland, Wales and Scotland in the back to achieve that rebellion. It also means war is on the horizon in Europe, as the EU was created to prevent another World War. We know after the fact that the whole Brexit referendum was rigged from the Queen down, to trick the common people into voting for the interests of the lords and the influential, and taking the blame entirely for the consequences. Hindsight is a bitch.
But getting back to Steem, it's apparent after years of trending and post promotion abuse, that Steem does not represent a free and open platform that treats every user equally. If we're being completely honest, Steem is a pay-to-win platform, like most freemium models, and hence why I refer to Steem as a Lords and Serfs approach. If you have money in real life, and you believe that Steem has a real chance of being successful, then you're going to be in a position to profit greatly from Steem, and at this point in time the risk to reward ratio for Steem is off the charts. Even someone who is vehemently opposed to Steem and what it represents would be an idiot to not invest a tiny amount of money.
The downsides of Steem's current business model are also its strengths mind you, as Steem would already be a failure without that influx of capital, and that capital would not come to steem unless there is an incentive of some kind. Some for financial gain and some for the ability to influence others, some both. There are a lot of users who think its an opportunity to get rich from nothing, but sadly that is just not how this platform works. The more you invest into the platform, the more it works for you, and the more it enriches you. To have it any other way would remove incentive to buy into Steem in the first place.
Of course, DApps changes all of this, because the value of Steem is no longer in the social media and blogging side of things. Take a game like Steem Monsters, or Splinterlands as it is being called now with the inclusion of Tron. Steem Monsters in my mind represents more value than the entire Steem ecosystem itself is currently worth, as it is a tried and tested business model with real tangible value, and is made even more valuable by utilizing the Steem Blockchain. @Drugwars isn't bad either, and is an enjoyable lone-wolf experience, although their business model is a borderline pyramid scheme that isn't sustainable in the long run to keep people interested, just my opinion.
I am using Steempeak.com to publish this post, and it too is a DApp, albeit a fancier and more usable version of Steemit.com. There are many steemit.com clones out there, as well as a few YouTube clones like 3speak and DTube that follow the same steemit model, but focus solely on video content. All of these DApps don't just interact with Steem, they are Steem. It's a giant melting pot in a way.
I guess I've rambled on enough today, but I really want to drive home that Steem is not a democratic or fair platform. This has been established repeatedly with each hard fork. As much as I and everyone else would love to see a completely organic trending feed, it's just not going to happen. My own feeling is that the blogging part of Steem never really had that much value to begin with. I believe that the real value of Steem is the ecosystem, or the melting pot of diversity. With each new DApp, the net that is cast to attract more people to Steem grows larger.
Games, software and Video content have the most potential in my mind, but there are many other possibilities. But as for the trending tab, I personally have concluded that blogging is a small part of a machine that is slowly evolving and growing in size, and in time blogging on Steem will continue to serve the DApps and those who are most invested in Steem. It's a case of putting your money where your mouth is, and then being rewarded for doing so.
Would Steem be better if all votes were equal? For some maybe, but it would be death for the platform and it's growth potential.
Thanks for reading. Keep your head up.
