Steem: Between Privacy and Building Relationships

On Steem, if you want, you can remain anonymous. But you can also reveal your true identity.

There is a middle ground, where third parties or select groups of people know or can determine your true identity, but your profile and your posts don't reveal too much information to a stalker, for example.

It is your choice how you want to proceed about this.

Minding privacy has it's role, especially on a blockchain where everything is in the open, including your balances and transactions history.

That being said, we humans are inclined to trust people we know and like, more than someone anonymous. Unless that someone is Satoshi Nakamoto, I guess...

But since I know that, and you know that, and practically everyone knows that, you probably also know that it has been used against us more than once, when trust-inspiring persons marketed a bad product or stood behind the wrong candidate in politics or convinced you to put your hard earned money in a bad deal.

And still... we mostly trust people we know and like.

That is because, on average, our instinct doesn't fail us. It's just a lot more painful when it does, and we surely remember those cases as they are some of the worse in our lives. The good calls based on our instinct often go unnoticed.

That is why, on Steem as a social media and community-driven platform, anonymity doesn't help you grow your account (unless it's already big to start with).

Not everyone is comfortable leaving their full name on Steem, much less their address (I wouldn't recommend that to anyone), but you also can't hide completely and expect to grow your relationships successfully.

And building relationships is one of the best engines that can push your account forward, and that starts right at the beginning, when you join Steem.

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P.S.: I've been featured today in an interview by @steemsavvy, if you'd like to take a look.