While Bitcoin is Pumping, Steem is Dumping

Bitcoin is the Benchmark and Bucking Like A Bull

Anyone looking to invest in crytpo immediately thinks of Bitcoin. Is has a good, solid history. It has seen long-term growth, and has been relatively stable. It is also a trade-able currency, which can be used outside of the crypto world as a method of payment, and is the main gateway to convert fiat currency into crypto currency. It is highly valued, and rare.

Right now, it is experiencing exponential growth beyond most of our imaginations, and people seem to be hopping on for the ride. Where it will finish up is anyone's guess, but consensus seems to be that the Segwit2x hard fork will see a price correction, as those just looking for some free fork money sell off, and go back to their alt coins, or they simply cash out their profits. For now though, it's on a huge upward trend, and has been for a while. Just look at the coingecko.com chart below.

How far the correction will bring Bitcoin down is another unanswerable question. Let's go by the last fork's data. Bitcoin continued, almost as if nothing has really happened, and its growth got stronger after a small correction from the free Bitcoin Cash buyers selling again. The upcoming spin-off of Bitcoin Gold will most likely have a similar result, and cause some kind of correction, but I doub't that it will have a long term impact on the strength of Bitcoin at all. Bitcoin has firmly cemented its place as the "Gold Standard" of cryptocurrency. It is the benchamrk against which all other crypto if measured.

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Now let's look at Steem:

Steem is a niche currency. It's only perceived value is within the Steem blockchain, giving those who hold it greater access and influence to the distribution of the rewards pool, by way of VESTS. There is little scope for the use of Steem outside of the blockchain, other than through informal trading, or on exchanges. In most cases, any use of Steem outside of the Steem blockchain requires it to be exchanged for another form of currency first, be it Bitcoin of fiat. Steemi is still very young, and hasn't built up a solid track record yet, like Bitcoin has.

The recent instability of Steemit, in particular, has caused a decline in confidence in the platform, and as a result the demand for Steem has diminished, causing the Steem price to fall. If there is no demand, the price will fall. That's what has happened.

Barriers to entry onto the Steemit platform include the relativley little reward made by newcomers, joining in the hope of earning some Steem and SBD for their efforts. It is quickly observed that those who are well-connected, or come onto the platform with large sums of money to invest in Steem, do well, while those who do not take a lot knoger to succeed. This is true of everyday life, so there is little incentive to put in the effort, and many will leave through disillusionment of not getting much reward for their work, and (more recently) having to put up with a buggy interface.

Those that do stay will eventually get somewhere, but that is another subject altogether.

Steem is an investment, which you need to put to work in order to make gains. At present there is very little store of value, and what value it has, has been steadily eroding while Bitcoin has being charging up the hill. Steem has lost 50% of its value against Bitcoin in the last 60 days. This chart from Coingecko.com show the story.

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Make your Steem Work for you

If you're not putting your Steem to work through **good** curation, delegation leases, or investing in Steemit projects like the @bellyrubbank to get a positive return, you're losing. If you're holding on for the long run, in the hopes that Steem will go back up, I sincerely hope it does, but you should still keep working that Steem in the meantime. It's going to take a lot of marketing to get new blood into the Steem market, and some serious improvements in the Steemit platform's reliability to regain some of the lost confidence over the past few weeks.

If you're confident that Steem will make a resurgence, and go "to the Moon" as the pundits have been spruiking for months, then there's no better time to buy while it's cheap. How much cheaper it will go, I can't tell you. When it will go back up, I also have no idea. I'm certainly not keeping all my eggs in one basket though, and I'm not letting my Steem sit idle through the current storm.

These are purely my current views on what I see happening right now. I may be completely wrong, and wake up tomorrow to see Bitcoin has crashed, and Steem is now worth $1000 (wouldn't that be amazing). Don't take my opinions as advice to buy to sell anything. Do your own homework first, I wish you every success in whatever direction you go.

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Thanks for reading my post. I would love to here your thoughts on the current meteoric rise of Bitcoin, and the current downward trend Steem has found itself in.

Have a great day all :)