In the search of value

I don't know why, but I didn't post anything yesterday, part of it was just being ded lazy. I still have some photos from the cycling trip to share, but I guess I would've felt like just spamming the blockchain.

Perhaps it's because of the pressure of auto-votes and the "responsibility" it brings to me. Perhaps it's imagined or perhaps I still need to be somewhat accountable to myself.

"Are my intentions pure? Am I just milking the cow? Is this valuable?"
_{Thank you for your support by the way, big and small users.}

That's what we like: value. "Bring value to the blockchain."

Though what we usually perceive as value is just the dollar value before Steem. The problem is, though, that we don't really know how to really evaluate the worth of these things. Yeah, yeah, market cap, I know, but that meter isn't perfect. In a lot of cases it's about speculating what something will be of value, and these speculations are largely based on emotions and trends, because in the end, nobody knows how all this will turn out.

On the uptrend people were sure of Moon. But upon the downtrend many weak hands are going doom instead. In small and unestablished markets people get caught in whatever current trend going on. They want to believe in hodling, but the faith in dollar seems to create some problems for holding on to the belief. Fiat is still the most important sign of value, because we don't have any better for replacement. But what were doing here, is creating a new economy, of some sorts. What it will look like, and what role Steem will hold on that, I don't know. But looking at the world where global value transfers can take up to days with third party cuts in between, to me it seems obvious that the progress will be towards instant global transactions. It already happened with information, and it will happen with value too.

There are just a few obstacles before that and the global adoption of cryptocurrencies, like the stiff legal system we are in which tends to react, instead of predict – enough people have to demand something until it could be even considered a law. Right now there's not enough demand to make reasonable laws, because the infrastructure isn't ready for mass adoption. Unfortunately, some governments – while understandably being careful in the absence of information – neglect the future potential that cryptocurrencies can bring in the form of new businesses that cryptocurrency enables.

Anyway, people get excited for cryptocurrencies – mainly for the wrong reasons from the perspective of today's economical measures – expecting it to take over the world by storm. And when it doesn't happen overnight, people lose faith. But even with rapid advancement in technology, things won't happen in an instant; even computers have taken a few decades to come to this point, after all.

There needs to be realistic expectations, otherwise, the time of the waiter is long as the Finnish proverb goes. I've said it already, but progress isn't always linear, and that also goes for the Steem price. There's constant development behind the scenes, and that is exactly where the magic happens, by developers, not by users. Still, the price of Steem keeps stagnating. Why? Because the markets are irrational. When the Bitcoin price boomed in November-December 2013 to $1000, it entered a three year long "ice age" – dipping below $200 – before it reached its all-time-high again. What if something similar happens to Steem? If all you're waiting is the price to increase, it's gonna be a long time, indeed.

I'm no developer, so I don't know if what I do could be considered of value, heh, I don't even know myself what I'm doing, but perhaps I get to be just a tiny influence at the least.