Walking the currencies

I have spent quite a lot of time and energy thinking about various revenue streams on Steem and in life in general trying to work out what actually has value and, what could be left by the wayside. When it comes to my real-world life, the things that currently have very little value to me is entertainment activities as they don't provide anything usable.

Sure there is the relaxation or the 'take a break' aspect of it but, I think there are better ways to get the same benefits. I see it as kind of like drinking when upset, sure it can take away the bad feeling for a time but eventually, one will sober up and have to face the issues regardless.

One of the things I used to do a lot is play FPS games and I would spent thousands of hours a year on these games, and from the early days of in game statistics at the end of a round to the quite comprehensive pages dedicated to stats and rankings, I would check my progress. At the end of the day though, what do I have to show from topping leader boards or having a high Kill:Death ratios? What did I get from levelling up characters or having high accuracy on various weapons? It was a form of collection like we as humans are prone to do.

Now I have transplanted my thousands of hours into collecting something else, Steem. Despite the price, all of the time I have spent here has earned me a much greater value than the big, fat zero gaming got me. Is it as addictive as gaming though, as compelling? You tell me. I think so though and due to the potential future value of Steem, there is much more reason to be here. Isn't it pretty awesome that we can do things that we enjoy doing and actually get some value out of it?

Although much too small now, image the types of localized businesses that could be set up to empower communities to better manage themselves at a local level. Just a basic idea but imagine having a tokenized babysitter network that can support trust in various ways or, a system that allows neighbours to do odd jobs for each other, bring food when ill or knit socks for the winter. Rather than relying on centralized services, we could leverage the skills of our own communities and share resources while still maintaining the capital aspects of business.

All of these things could be managed and fall under the banner of content delivery in various ways and Steem could empower communities in the real world to provide for each other. This is far more than a text based blogging platform and in time it has the potential of spiraling out and spilling into the every day betterment of our lives at many levels.

Again, Steem doesn't need to be seen if there are SMTs but having a core infrastructure of Steem would mean that there are other options for the SMT usage that simplifies the processes for the user. Potentially, a single app could house all suitable SMT utility applications and streamline processes. Booking a babysitter or having socks made for the winter could run on an separate SMTs but be driven through the same interface, much like a menu selection for multiple restaurants. It would also mean that it would be simple for those who are able to offer multiple services to do so across currencies and still maintain a simple structure for their management and billing options.

As I see the future, we are going to have to become much more self-reliant on our skill sets if we want to have more than a basic income and having the tools available to be able to provide service at local areas is likely the best way for more people to have more potential. One thing people don't often factor in with centralized companies is where the majority of the resources go.

Yes, we all know it goes back to the company but what about where the tax gets paid? A global company not only rarely pays much in the country of action, they find ways to minimize tax burden at every point. In Finland there was one car inspection service that earned north of 120 million locally but paid just 200k in tax in the country. That is quite a big economic drain on the system. The more we are able to cut out the middlemen rentseekers and deal directly, the better we are personally and the better the local economies will be but, there are more important things to consider.

Due to the automation of industry and service, we are becoming much more irrelevant than we have ever been previously which is affecting us in various ways from social disconnection to heightened sensitivity that increases our propensity for depression. Being able to serve each other directly at a local level means that we have a chance of building much stronger social networks and relationships that connect us more and more.

If the goal is for technology to help us improve, not replace us, we can't rely on the technology of the centralized corporations and governments to use it in this way as they are continually on an optimization for profit model that will minimize irrelevancy, reduce us. If we want to leverage technology to improve our experience, we have to build it ourselves in a way that increasingly cuts the optimization of resources out of the mix if it encroaches on improving human experience.

Personally, I think that the more valuable things we do in this world are the things we do with and for other people and we have a chance through the technology we are creating to leverage it to improve the way we are able to organize and manage our real-world communities. The sum of us together is greater than the sum of us as individuals and with the right paradigm framework and technology to back it, we would be able to build vast communities across the globe and likely more importantly, at the local level.

What is the value of being on Steem now? Well, what is the value of being part of building the infrastructure and thinking that makes humans relevant again? Proof-of-brain might one day be replaced by an Artificial Intelligence.

What about Proof-of-heart?

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]