A graphic to help explain Steem and where the money comes from
Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself in the position of explaining what Steem is and how it works to a lot of people who are unfamiliar with it - which is a great thing! I am also planning to give a talk about Steem at the next Philadelphia SteemIt meetup which is currently scheduled to be held on Tuesday, February 13th. A big thanks to @hypnopreneur for setting that up!
One question that always comes up (which I know has been answered on here thousands of times) is “where does the money come from?”. I’ve now answered this question probably a hundred times myself, and it occurred to me recently that it would be helpful to have a graphic that illustrates what I am trying to explain.
So here’s what I came up with:
I don’t intend for this to be completely self-explanatory, but rather as an aide to help me explain the concept and hopefully lead into more questions and a further discussion.
I considered it very important to start with the government printing dollars. Even though most people know that there is inflation and understand that the government prints money, for some reason it seems different or unusual to them when in the context of cryptocurrencies.
I’m guessing this is because you don’t really see or hear about the government printing money for the most part since it happens behind the scenes and you don’t see where that money goes. All the more reason the transparent and clearly defined token creation process in cryptos is far preferable, which I hope this graphic also helps to highlight.
So my answer to the question of “where does the money come from?” is that Steem, like every other currency, has inflation - meaning new money is created on a regular basis. New USD goes to banks, new Bitcoin/Ether/etc goes to miners, but new Steem mostly goes directly to the content authors and curators who provide value to the platform.
Though it does have some issues and drawbacks, in my opinion it’s clearly the best option out of the three presented systems for distribution of new money.
Anyway, I have yet to show this graphic to anyone except you guys, but as I mentioned I plan to use it as a visual aid when explaining Steem and the concept of where the rewards come from. I’m very interested to know what the Steem community thinks of it. Let me know in the comments!
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Thanks for the info @yabapmatt, I learned a lot from the presentation at the meetup Tuesday. See you next time👍
Thanks! Glad it was helpful, definitely looking forward to next time!
Great graphic to explain Steem to newbies.
I might present Steem in some conferences later this year, do you mind if use this?
EDIT: Self upvoting for visibility
Of course not - go ahead! I posted it in the hopes that others can use and benefit from it. Would love to hear what you present also!
Thanks! Got a few open space in my area that want to organize events about crypto and asked me to come, but the big thing would be in August, I m thinking about taking a booth in Meet Taipei, which is the biggest startup fair in Asia, to present Steem, Utopian and maybe some new projects I ll be working on =D
This is super helpful! I'm definitely going to reference this whenever I'm talking up STEEM! I think the whole point is that we can recreate social networks and environments and reward each other as opposed to advertisers. Rising tide truly does raise all boats in STEEM if we continue to maintain and grow the community!
To the brilliant out there who were able to come up with this steem idea...a big thanks to you!
Imagine "Steem mostly goes directly to the content authors and curators who provide value to the platform."
There is freedom in Steem.... Long live Steemit!
I joined this community with no idea at all. All I knew was to make a post and earn money and it’s difficult for me to convince my friend to join because I couldn’t answer their questions “where the money came from?” But slowly, reading all other steemians post whose been here for a while was very helpful. I now have different strategies to let them understand. I would say, I earned a lot steeming than working 8 hrs.a day just to gain money from the bank. Here in steemit, I earned, grow, learned from others post and meet more friends. Thanks for sharing @yabapmatt.
steem is created by sharing and giving each other. steam is a way to get crypto with love and peace.
this is what makes steem in love by world of cryptocurrency.
@yabapmatt
I liked your graphic and explanation, steem pays for steem power which allows you to earn more curating, makes your vote worth more. Steem dollars can pay to “promote” your posts. How does the promote function work for advertisers? Anyone know in depth?
It's a good idea cos our brain tends to pickup information with pictures and graphics easily cos even when we forget, the graphical representation is still registered in our brains
I am sorry for interrupting, I want to know two things about bid bots. There is any method in which we don't need our computer to be always "on" for 24/7 continuous activity of bid bot? and second, Is there any code or script by which one can prevent is bid vote users loss in bids. I mean can we add some code that stop bids over a limit and auto refund users that after more their will be no more profit of bids in current round?
Anyway bro thanks a lot for you valuable contributions to the community ♥
@yabapmatt
This is an excellent visual that helps bring the Steem creation and distribution system to life. The graphic clearly illustrates the model that Steem uses as opposed to the government. I personally like Steem the best, more than any other blockchain / cryptocurrency.
My hat goes off to this community for coming together and creating quality content that benefits us all. Kudos to you @yabapmatt . Keep rockin' and we'll keep knockin'!