Social Steem capital and transactions of relationship

Maybe I'm sort of "old fashioned" in the way I approach my tiny stake in this environment: Just do the best you know how to do, have integrity and stand by what you feel is right. @denmarkguy

This is a quote that came in a comment a few minutes ago and one that I have spent my time on Steem doing for my entire time here. The reason I have taken this approach to Steem is very, very simple: it is what I do in life also.

I see that one of the most important aspects of living within a community successfully is having a character that people can trust, and the integrity to do the best one can, even when what that is changes with conditions. This is not always easy as there is the temptation to bend with the expectations of others and that is a slippery slope down to losing the thing that makes a person unique.

It is interesting how short some people's memories are and on a blockchain like Steem, this is going to get precarious as data is immutable and histories are connected. For me, I have remained consistent in my goals and even though my actions have shifted, the long-term view has remained solid.

I have talked about patience before and when it comes to Steem, crazy or not, I am very patient because I see a great deal of potential here, but I also understand that there is very little chance of moving ingrained habits quickly. I do believe though that at a bit at a time everything changes and we can direct those changes.

It has been two weeks or so since the Hardfork and people are hailing it a success or a failure depending on what position one might have, however it is actually neither. What the Hardfork was, was a stepping stone position, not a panacea for all of the negative aspects that afflict Steem.

People need to remember that this is an economy and one that is like no other due to the way in which it operates on stake-based voting, ownership, decentralized governance, transparency, open wallets, active direction and redirection of resources and a highly diverse set of participants who all have an individual hierarchy of needs, wants and motivations that drive them. It is complex.

My long-term position is to be able to be part of building a place where all kinds of people can own some digital land and build a home that can support them in some way depending on how they manage their position. I also want to benefit from this process because I believe that work comes with reward, though it might not just be economic reward.

For example, I work very hard for my daughter's well-being and - it costs me greatly - but her health and happiness is a reward in and of itself. Money doesn't necessarily buy either of those things, but not having money can definitely impact upon them and I have spent most of my life ill and poor, which is not optimal for happiness in a world that demands some level of financial availability.

The problem that I have faced when it comes to my economic position is that I didn't realize that ownership was the only way to really secure some level of stability, and that meant ownership over all aspects of my life, not just economic. A long time ago I started working on my emotional ownership and I have always held work ethic responsibility regardless of the job I am doing.

Over the last few years and after I was finally diagnosed and got treatment for a condition, my motivation returned to move from a subsistence lifestyle position to one that worked toward ownership and abundance. Abundance doesn't mean having more than what one needs, it means having access to what one needs when needed. That means building resources that can supply what one needs and that is what I am working toward on Steem - not just for me.

However, I do not believe that there is anything in this world for free and in order to be self-reliant one has to put in the work in order to build personal resources. But having said that, when it comes to being self-reliant within a community, one has to be the kind of character and person that is able to get supported by that community and that means, supporting the community in return.

Again, this is an economic position and while most think of economy as financial, it is actually transactional with every interaction being a transaction between parties. While most do not like to think about it in this way, friendship is an economic position as it is a trading process in a marketplace of social context. If one is stingy or mean-spirited with their social transactions, it is unlikely that they are going to hold social capital.

While there are many aspects to Steem, social capital is a massive component of the economy as it is through the network of social interaction that relationships form, trust is built and interactions and therefore transactions take place. Those who have built up a strong social network are much more likely to be supported than those who have not.

We can see this since the Hardfork where the accounts that have built up their network over time are much more likely to get support and the autovotes that provide financial value also. What is interesting in my opinion to see is that while not a perfect system, the accounts that have bought, powered-up, engaged and worked consistently over the bear market are the ones who also have a network that they are now benefiting from financially. Is this wrong?

Hardly. The reason is that it is these people who have made it through the bear and likely also encouraged others to stay here, and while a new account might struggle a t first, it will be these accounts that are more likely to recognize the value of social netwrok and therefore help others build. But remember, there is more to Steem than STEEM.

SCOT Tribes and the coming Communities and SMTs are going to be the places where newcomers are going to find their place and build their own network for the future and it will be more interest focused. Many worry about the smaller accounts growing on STEEM but this is an alignment problem as there will never be enough STEEM for many accounts. in 15 years from now and based on the current code which could change, there will only be double the STEEM in the supply and, there will only be around 6 million more added each year through inflation. That is not enough for a hundred million accounts as each account could only have a max of 6 STEEM.

Owned Communities and SMTs are the only way Steem scales for the masses and while for the stability of the future of the platform it is useful to get us much STEEM into the hands of as many holders as possible, eventually the STEEM will only go to holders. There is an alignment problem though because while people worry about the small accounts and creators, what needs to happen to really empower them is that eventually those creators have places to create and earn that do not draw on the STEEM pool.

What I am trying to say for the one millionth time is that for those who want a future where Steem is successful, they need to understand that STEEM is required as it is the enabler for SMTs and what encourages development for the communities and the future users. While some might take the STEEM they get for granted, for me it is a future position that helps others, the same as it has always been, and as I want to have ownership over my experience including the work I choose to do, having the resources to do that work is necessary.

There is an alignment problem on Steem though where people want outcomes that are not possible under the current conditions and then get frustrated by what they see. For me, it has been a long process to get to this point today and we as a community are far from finding the equilibrium where the economy is balanced, but we are improving.

The problem with,

Just do the best you know how to do, have integrity and stand by what you feel is right.

is that the best some have, the integrity they hold and what feels right is not conducive to future success and can instead be a harmful roadblock to it. When it comes to the maximization of personal resources over the development together of the entire community, it is not likely to add to a strong future relationship. When you look at it from a social capital perspective, those who are self-absorbed and consistently maximizing their own needs over that of others in the relationship will eventually find themselves alone and without access to the resources that support health and happiness.

At the end of the day, we all do the best we can. Some do better, some do worse than others and outcomes reflect action.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]