Steemit did what Bitshares could not!
It is really apparent now, but the creators of Steemit created something that Bitshares could not achieve. They created a blockchain product that appeals to a very broad audience and married it with social media. Steemit removed the learning curve that can be difficult for new users into cryptocurrencies. It is easy as Post, Vote and Earn. Brilliant!
Aha Moment
Yesterday, July 4, 2016, many newbies received cryptocurrency for the very first time. They looked at their account balance and could not believe how much had been earned.
New Convert
The reason I know Steemit works is because I've been trying to convince my 19 year old son about the virtues of cryptocurrency since 2013, however, he wasn't interested. Three weeks ago, I introduced him to Steemit and he posted his first article. It was well received and he earned some Steem.
Yesterday, when I told him the Steem rewards were paid out and he took a look at his account and his next question was,
"How do I get my money out of here?"
I really didn't have the answer myself, so we starting reading posts that provided guidance. The authors posts are listed below:
Our Next Steps
This is what we did.
- Powered Up half of Steem Dollars to Steem Power
- Sold some Steem Dollars on the Steem Internal Exchange
- Created an Openledger account
- Send some Steem (from step 2) to Openledger
- Created a Circle account to serve as a Bitcoin offramp to Fiat (US Dollars)
I could not have convinced him to do any of this with regular crypto. But now he is interested.
Thanks Steemit.
I love the fact that you are more into crypto than your 19 year old son, it's meant to be the other way around! Lol :-)
CG
It takes a certain mindset to be interested in completely voluntary monetary systems that are an alternative to fiat.
Glad your son is starting to see the wisdom that his dad was trying to press on him. Dad knows a thing or two, eh ?
I think the 'What's in it for me' factor is human nature. Steemit tapped into it.
I don't see how people cannot see the "What's in it for me?" angle when they first learn about decentralized distributed ledgers. An alternative economy not backed by a government? Who wouldn't want to build businesses based on this technology? It's like being in early days of the internet. Truly remarkable.
Edit to add: Glad that Steemit managed to make your son a convert to cryptotokens, so to speak.
I told several people about crypto and they just don't get it. In the United States, our payment systems are easy to use and reliable. Trying to get people to use cryptocurrencies has been difficult in my experience.
A few weeks ago, I offered to give 3 of my co-workers Bitcoin (very small amounts). Only one person took me up on my offer. They are computer programmers, so lack of intelligence is not the issue. They are just not interested.
As a community, we must appeal to the WIIFM factor. Combine that with a tasks people perform already, then it is a win win. Steemit solves these issues for people who post on social media.
I do. From birth we're taught how the world works and how to follow the status quo. Critical thinking is something that I believe less than 5% of the world knows how to do. :)
So you will decentralized distributed ledgers become common place in the far off future. That's what I believe. Our generation will play with it. Our kids will learn about it too. Their kids might use it more often, and finally the 4th generation will accept that as the status quo. If each generation is on average 25 years, that means in 100 years crypto and decentralized systems will be the status quo. Don't let that sway you. :) It has to start somewhere.
This is literally what my introduction post was about, I said hi but this is so amazing based on one thing, it appeals to a HUGE demographic. It draws people in who aren't part of the crypto world, I've had... Let me count... About 8 new people join in the last week simply from posting pictures of the dollar amounts the comments and posts I'm leaving are generating.
This is a massive momentum shift for the entire crypto world, steemit has accomplished what not only bit shares failed to do but also every other crypto to date has failed as well. Where they have failed steemit is blazing a trail. It's fuckin incredible.
Bittrex is a good place to sell STEEM too, and Coinbase for BTC to Fiat.