Why I love STEEM & What Can Change

The STEEM blockchain is getting a lot of buzz now that the underlying currency, STEEM, is over $5 as I write this, and the STEEM Backed Dollar is over $9. Most people that blog on Steem know what this is all about. I am not claiming to know everything about STEEM or blockchains in general.

There are many more people out there blogging that have a far greater knowledge than I. If you want an expert opinion about the future of this platform, they are not hard to find. What we are discussing in this post is not how much I think the cryptocurrency will be worth, but more along the lines of why I keep producing content here.

Disclaimer
I am not a financial adviser, only a blogger and nerd that fell in love with cryptocurrency. Nothing I say in this post should be used for trading or investing. This is only my perspective on the STEEM ecosystem.

Why I Love Steem

The reason I started to blog here was because it is based on a cryptocurrency. If that did not exist, I would never have joined in the first place. I know first-hand how hard it is to make even a lone dollar on any blogging platform.

Steem sparked my inner nerd and mixed it with my love for creating readable content online. It only took that first introduction post to show me how much potential this platform has. Seeing one post make $5 SBD (about $5 USD at the time) opened my mind to the potential we have here.

That is a unique perspective, and while it is money-focused, it is not the average 'get rich quick' thought that pops into most people's minds. The first time anyone loads a site to access the Steem blockchain, they are greeted with the top post which is earning hundreds of SBD and sometimes even close to a thousand.

Blogging for over fourteen years at the time, I knew this was not the norm and was able to dismiss it and form a proper reality. But even then, that reality was mind-blowing. My blogging experience and understanding of the blockchain got my wheels turning.

It has now been about six months since joining Steem, taking what I know, and mixing it all together. I love Steem because finally the hard work is paying off. Most of my earnings are thanks to @sndbox, but had I not put the work in to create the best posts I could and networked with others, I would not have gotten the invite.

Technical STEEMy Stuff

What Steem has going for it, in my opinion, are a few things. These include a super fast block confirmation speed, tapering inflation rate, and first-mover advantage. All of these combined make the Steem platform a winner to me and probably to you. It is when we share this understanding that we get people excited about blogging.

Confirmation Speed

Three-second blocks is the fastest confirmation speed that I know of in the entire cryptocurrency space. There may be one faster, but there are just so many out there that it would take way too long for me to check.

These fast speeds and high transaction volumes not only make Steem a usable blogging platform, but also show the power blockchains can have. Most people only know about Bitcoin, and now it is slow and expensive to use (insert Bitcoin Cash plug here). The same people have never even heard of Steem, let alone how fast it is. I say we spoil them with Steem's speed!

Tapering Inflation

The inflationary aspect of Steem was my biggest worry after I got serious about posting on this platform. Knowing that fiat currency is inflated and falling to the wayside, I did not want my effort to be for nothing in a few years.

After a bit of research one day, I came to find that there is a limit. Learning that the inflation rate decreases over time and that the end inflation value is very low put that fear at ease. Supply and demand is very important in my mind if we want to see purchasing power increase.

First-Mover Advantage

This is why Steem wins. It is the first blogging platform to be placed on a blockchain. If another site comes along to do the same thing, they are already behind. This is why Bitcoin is so expensive. When people think cryptocurrency, they think Bitcoin. It's the band on top of the technology.

Since Steem was first to 'market' with this idea, it has more time to allow people to create content and infrastructure. We see search engines picking up Steem posts and placing them on page one for relevant keywords. All that is thanks to doing it first.

What I don't Like about Steem

Of course, nothing is perfect, so I will add what I think Steem has going against it. The first is the amount of drama we see. Every other week there is some new drama that makes the main trending page, and the entire community goes wild.

It is fine to downvote, upvote, agree, or disagree with someone. However, making a public fuss about it will only turn people away from Steem. We need downvotes and self-regulation to keep this platform fair; we don't need the drama.

I am also not a fan of how the first page newcomers see is the trending page with huge payouts. This will only give people that 'get rich quick' mindset. Then they join not knowing that blogging is a marathon not a sprint. They create a few posts that make no money, get frustrated, and quit.

It seems to me that displaying such high payouts to new users is not helping the platform. An easy way to fix this would be to make the site hide that information if the person is not signed in. Chances are that if a person learns about Steem, they know that there is a monetary incentive involved.

Thanks for reading!

Let me know in the comments why you love the Steem platform!

All images came from royalty and attribution free sources unless specified