You won't get rich with Steemit and here is why you should migrate from reddit and Facebook anyway

When the cool kids had a 486 with Win 3.11, I was loyal to my Commodore 64 and wrote my homework with GeoWrite.

Initially an avid BB poster (imladris.net, a few German discussion boards and even editor for Forennews.de for a while), I looked at MySpace and at first dismissed it for its clunky interface, but then I joined and had a few good months - it was just in time to witness the great MySpace redesign mass exodus to Facebook, where, soon, with trembling hands I deleted my account too when the AI started to talk with me.

Twitter isn't for me and my long-winded ramblings anyway, so I already gave up, but then there was still reddit, but not long after I signed up there, their canary died, "moderation" goes completely haywire and /r/all is what is wrong with the world.

Mod censorship, opaque algorithms, data collection, lolpics and cat fail videos, spam, bots, trolls and disastrous admin changes - all the shit you go with, all the risks you take (having years of hard work, sweat, heart's blood and tears flushed down the toilet by an admin deciding to give up or sell the platform (chiptuners may remember the 8bc debacle)) just to watch or participate in an enlightening debate about the inner workings of the universe (or why Yoda and R2D2 did not recognize each other in ESB, how Gandalf got Glamdring back or if there is a fifth channel on a DMG-01). And you don't even have a right to complain, using a "'"free"'" service. "Create your own subreddit", they say and then "quarantine" it.

About 10 days ago, /r/conspiracy (where else) has a link to steemit.com, which has a whitepaper, which I read and find interesting and they're giving out 2$ (IIRC) worth to every new subscriber. Why not?

It is a strange wave that pulls me into these waters. The imperative is introduceyourself, where comely faces occupy the first ranks and collect wealth. I devour all the posts that make sense, work 3 days hard for my intro post, and within minutes after my posting and deciding whether to paint the Ferrari it is going to afford me Hello Kitty pink or cornflower blue, steemit goes guru meditation because of "the hack", so the whales have more important matters to care after - 20 cents it is, then. Which is roundabout infinitely more than I have ever earned writing stuff.

But I'm not in it for the money. I am not a trader, and although I understand what a blockchain is and why it is supposed to work, I have so far never considered doing business with Bitcoin or learning more about Ethereum than what shows up on my reddit front page from time to time. I am looking for an alternative to reddit, Facebook, BB, Twitter, MySpace. I want censor-free debates, a tool to reach people who might be like-minded, a place to learn new things and teach new people. Is Steemit it? Will it remain so for a long time, or is all the hard work at risk of entering the oblivion of digital nirvana as so often? Will the "wealth disparity" turn the community into a hooray democracy, or will it - in the long run - reward the new, the unheard of, the controversial, the fringe, and an overall diversity of topics and themes on the "trending" page?

I write two posts about a fringe topic that greatly captivates me - physics and engineering - and one about my first impressions of Steemit, with a collection of links to posts that I found helpful understanding the philosophy, culture, hopes and projections, fears and anticipations of this new community.

This one goes through the roof: it earns 38 votes, 11 comments, $1.71, a repost by @meteor0 and a bonus steem from @razvanelulmarin - just the kind of "incentive" to keep doing what I'm doing that always worked on me: "Good job, OP!"

So I am writing a new post to help you, dear redditor and Facebook enthusiast, esteemed Tweeter and BB keyboard warrior with a cause, decide whether or not to abandon your sinking ships and jump aboard the Steem hype train.

Originally, I planned to just update my previous post, but I found too many good new stuff, so this is actually Part II of From a newbie for the newbies: meta-discussions of Steem's economy, power structure, hierarchy, functionality -- projections and predictions, concerns and objections, hope and opportunity. That one is for Day 1 Steemians, still with links to mandatory n00b-howtos and tutorials and Steem oceanology 101s (big fish, small fish, whales, dolphins, minnows, sharks, kraken, sea monkeys, krill, amoeba).

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more noob tutorials and how-tos

Some more fundamental stuff just in case you skipped Part I.

• @noisy: STEEM Bug Bounty Program - How to reports bugs and new ideas
  What the title says.
• @rahmat: Understanding Steemit For Beginners (Fundamentals of Economics)
  Translated from Polish via Chinese and Kiswahili from the looks of it, but still a nice basics rundown: what is Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollar?
• @engineercampus: Handing out likes on Facebook&Co. isn't the same anymore since Steemit
  How to milk those cowration - err, curation award incentives udderly. Utterly, I mean.
• @dantheman: How to Maximize Curation Rewards
  The same.
• @starlord: Steemit is simple. Friendly infographic for new members
  If you are still confused about how the posting and curation rewards, $$$ and SP are split.

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philosophy and culture, protocols and analysis

Steemit having no moderators, there is an overwhelming spirit of pioneering, reminiscent of the early days of the internet: one of discovery, of anarchy and entrepreneurship, with just a dash of Wild West mentality; but also, barbed wire is called for to allot the Plains.

policing

• @cryptoctopus: [BOUNTY] WE NEED THIS NOW. ALL STEEMDOLLARS WILL GO TO THE BEST SOLUTION.
  Puts up a bounty for anyone who has the technical know-how to create a bot that searches new articles, check if its been copied elsewhere on the internet(or steemit), flag the article if it is the case, add a comment to put everyone on notice with a link to the original article. Already, bots downvote for tag spam and police against tag abuse for the "wealthier" communities, hashtag photography (personally, I would invest in a bot that first downvotes all caps titles and then asks questions). And this is only the beginning; it seems it is only a matter of time until Steemit becomes a battleground for bots (if you have ever seen /r/conspiracy's AutoModerator dishing out np warnings against a helper bot, you know what I mean: this times a hundred squared and then doubled). An example of the confusion it caused:
• @leta-blake: Question About Tagging -- when to tag with a topic, when not to tag with a topic
  In other words, how to tag, when to tag, and are there rules? Help a girl out! - The rules and protocols are developing in front of our very eyes. Anarchy means there is no ruler, and there are none that are ruled - a true democracy (demos = people, or more precisely: village) will always be anarchic. Thus, Steemit may well grow into an anarchy. But Steemit will not be an anomie. Misbehave, and you will be "punished" by the collective.
• @beowulflegend: How Steemit Self-Polices Content
  "Anecdotal evidence", you may say, but this example may show the way to a Steem without copbots.
• @positive: Steemit, The First Truly Self-Evolving Crypto: We Don't Ban, We Incentivize! - or The Inefficiency Of Forced Central Regulation #doyourpart
  This shows the power of distributed governance, which in this context acts as a sort of digital natural selection, to prune out valueless posts. This could not be done as efficiently if censorship were forced centrally. Digital Darwinism ftw!
• @williambanks: Bot Warz!!! A hybrid approach
  Posits: Bots are nothing more than a force multiplier[. The "cat fishing"] noise floor is the real problem here, not the bots. [...] We want to starve the bots that are encouraging bad content and feed the bots that do a good job. Proposes: Build a tool similar to adblock plus, but intended for steem content. Concludes: I believe that by leveraging the power of a human/hybrid approach we can have the best of all possible worlds. High quality content that targets our real interests; A healthy stable community and currency; The most intelligent bots.

the (not)problem with usury and inflation

• @positive: How STEEM Can Learn From Bitcoin's Flaws!
  Usually, my concerns about usury (interest on interest) fall on deaf ears; here on Steemit, however, the concentration of central banking skeptics and critics is naturally higher than elsewhere and some even extend their skepticism towards the promises of wealth, democracy, anarchy, abundance, and fairness to the blockchain paradigm. Bitcoin essentially created a new class of the "1%" rather than creating a non-elitist monetary system. Indeed, this notion of "democratization" is little more than a marketing ploy, used to rope in libertarianism and those disillusioned with the state. Keep this in the back of your head for a second, we'll come back to it later.
• @msutyler: A potential flaw with Steem Power? Does it actually solve the wealth distribution paradigm as some would suggest?
  Did I already tell you how happy I am not to be the only one to ask questions like these? The issue that I have with Steem Power is that it seems we are still in a situation where the rich get richer. Since Steem Power can both be bought and earned we are in a situation where a select few (the whales) have great influence over those that do not have as much in Steem Power. The amount of Steem Power SHOULD dictate your voting and curation power but NOT if Steem Power can be bought. This sounds way too similar to most governing bodies and politicians. People that have bought they way into power and are now decision makers. If Steem is a 'Platform of the People' then Steem Power needs to be earned, not bought.
• @razvanelulmarin: An open message to the WHALES: please, make the revolution happen!
  _{Occupy Steemit! Viva la steemolucion! Hasta la victoria steemit! Allez, enfants de la bloquechaine! Steem free or tweet hard! Don't tread on steem! This is the final struggle, let us group together, and tomorrow Steemit.com will be the human race.}
  Is also more concerned with the next generation of whales than this one. If the whales act or are perceived as being corrupt, the new whales will follow through. We see that in corrupt societies that hope the new generation of politicians will be different. THEY AREN'T [ i'm romanian and every ex-communism country resident can agree with me ]. It's a fucking immense responsibility.
• @jcweiss: What is the Gini coefficient of steemit?
  0.988. 0.988, people! Now place your bets: will it rise or fall as Steemits user market shares approach the saturation limit (100% adoption)? [Side note: this post reinforced my belief in Rupert Sheldrake's morphogenetic fields. In my first post, I wonder what the wealth distribution is; in Part I of this series, I can already link to an article on the wealth distribution. In a comment, I ask for the Gini coefficient, and voilà, a few days later, Part II features an answer to that question as well. I love it when a plan comes together.]
• @arkanaprotego: Why would anyone invest into STEEM if it is so inflationary?
  I really cannot figure out the economic model of STEEM., OP wonders, If nobody has a good reason to buy STEEM, then the currently rising price is a bubble resulting from pure speculation. What is going to happen 2 years from now, when huge volumes of STEEM have been powered down and nobody is there to buy it? and @gavvet explains, confirming your worst fears: steemit.com will gain in popularity and once there are many users there will be double the eyeballs. Advertisers Promoters etc. love eyeballs and will buy up Steem to increase visibility for their content. Note also the answer @ynotplay has to give: Market cap may increase if publishers and content creators with money realize that they can buy influential power on the network. Also, people tend to be greedy and like to speculate on price so sky's the limit on that one. That's the only reason why I'd purchase- if you think this site will get popular and market cap based on speculation goes up. If you're a conservative investor, I would just earn as much Steem by becoming a early adopter and use the site as much as you can. We will come back to this later...
• @frostwind: Steem Hyperinflation
  You weren't scared when you heard "Inflation"? What if I say... hyperinflation? Jokes aside, this is the philosophy I subscribe to: I want steem to succeed [...] Decentralisation appea[l]s to me, and Mark Z does not need to get any richer. Especially with selective censorship decisions made by the power that be, is simply wrong.
• @sigmajin: OMG INFLATION!!! THE SKY IS ABOUT TO FALL!!!
  [allcapsbot beeps] The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that Steem is not currency or money. It is a commodity like gold, tea or wheat. So is money, though, although it should be nothing more than a "veil over barter"! The true reason not to worry is provided by @justtryme90: Every three years the total number of steem is reverse split 10:1 which takes care of any and all inflation.
• @afilja: Is Steemit a Ponzi? Lets investigate!
  You better have a bullet-proof vest, because shots are being fired here.

game theory

• @sean-king: Why Steem Means the Decline of Capitalism and the Rise of the Collaborative Commons
  A post right after my taste. I only read Rifkin's groundbreaking "Entropy" so far, but the quotations from The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons and the Eclipse of Capitalism nourish the hope that we will not be stuck in the false dichotomy between Capitalism and Socialism forever. If you understand my reservations about the wealth distribution and how it will develop once the user market is saturated (full adoption, leaving FB, Twitter and reddit in smoking ruins) however, you will also find it a little too optimistic that the Steem economy will not repeat the mistakes of the "old" debt economy. Steem runs on a blockchain, fine and well; it is still a machine and operates after the GIGO principle. A thing does not automatically become "good" by virtue of running on a blockchain. The ground rules can still be unfair (a hidden Ponzi scheme, for example), or misconstrued on purpose, as the DAO disaster exemplifies. Hence, it is a bold claim to say "The post-capitalist era of the blockchain-enabled Collaborative Commons is at hand." before we know whether or not the math contains hidden mechanisms to distribute wealth bottom-up in the long run - sustainably.
• @conspiracy-guy: Do you guys realize that we are about to teach each other everything that we know?
  Just a short showerthought: This platform is going to create a hyper-intelligent hive-mind because of the incentives involved. Optimism galore, but this also belongs to the part we'll come to later.
• @anonymint: Improving Steem’s rankings to cater to diverse content preferences
  Does not use the words "game theory" and doesn't even mention the Nash Equilibrium. The problem: @guerrint answered your question "what does her always take so long in the bathroom?": the war paint. That not in and by itself, but that this post occupied the top of the trending page while the majority of users could not have cared less seems to be a problem: The one-size-fits-all ranking system makes it impossible for whales to act rationally, because they can't compute a set of votes which would reflect their individual preferences for quality which might be shared with other like-minded users. [The] system disincentivizes the whales from participating in voting, for they will come to see that either they become one dysfunctional groupthink monolith or they more or less effectively nullify each others votes in terms of anything other than a uniform ranking which is functionally equivalent to no ranking. The reactionary solution: clustering. A thought worth thinking, but I think that problem should be solved with the interface, not the engine. Grassmannians are tricky beasts, @complexring submits for example. But more on that... you guessed it: later.
• @biophil: What's a Minnow to do? The Game Theory of Steem, Part 4
  I recommended the first three parts of "The Game Theory of Steem" in Part I, and you should definitely read part 4 as well, as it comes to a mind-boggling hypothesis. Does mention Nash Equilibria, though.
• @msutyler: 6 Reasons Why you Need to GET OVER the fact your Post isn't Trending!
  Ties in closely with the thing we'll come to later.
• @lukestokes: The Steemit $$$ Challenge: Prove To Yourself Why You Are Here
  Proposes an interesting experiment: use a small script to hide the $ values under each post - and see how you'll vote then!
• @brunopro: Proposal: For quality content sake - REMOVAL of all UpVote buttons on the listing pages
  Having a UpVote button on the listings pages enables the possibility of doing an Upvote even without viewing the post / article. Yes, but it is easily circumvented; other interfaces will be developed. Steemit should empower, not shackle. More on that... later.
• @gavvet: How to catch a monkey…. let’s not be monkeys on Steemit
  About the downsides of greed *gasp* and how to distribute our wealth.
• @razvanelulmarin: THEY Should Fear Steemit Unleashed
  Compares Orwell's vision (Nineteen Eighty-Four) with that of Huxley (Brave New World) and how Steemit comes in. Choo-Choo!
• @wingz: Steemit is much fairer and democratic than you think... here's why...
  Observes: the size of the pie has gotten bigger and a marked increase in the number of superusers and heroes. A couple of superheroes have even moved up into the legends category. Concludes: Keep posting, keep offering up value. You're not only in the early adopter phase you're also in the phase where your content and curation means relatively more to the whole system, due to most of the Steem Power being out of action. Will this continue in the future... probably not. At the moment [...] the allocation mechanisms look incredibly beneficial to content creators, stake your claim! All aboard.
• also @wingz: Steemit has all of a sudden become a lot more democratic...a lot fairer, and it's all because of the payout
  Raise your hands, touch the moon.
• @ekzjuperi: Why Steemit may fail
  A video of Dan Pink explaining why financial incentives provably only work for mind-numbing work nobody wants to do, not for creative, healthy and valuable "work" *ducks away from rotten tomatoes and eggs*
• @resten: So, I finally realized I'm a total useless IDIOT on Steem! - I'm Leaving!
  Epic. Pure epic.

rtfm, n00b!!1!11eleventyone

• @shawn-brewer: So STEEMIT has introduced you to CRYPTO'S!! Know the HISTORY, were we come from and were we are GOING!!
  In case you haven't noticed: us social network folks are guests here on the turf of cryptonauts -- and we better catch up. This is what it is truly about: I am so not against people making money, that is everyones goal to improve there live and provide for there family and more power to you, but look at it as a ongoing commitment, not a snatch and grab, invest in it, contribute to it and watch it become a powerful and useful tool and platform for everyone.

hug the system

• @coder: Finally some steem accounts for sale!
  Remember how Part I raised the concern that one day, whale accounts will be sold for great sums of hard cash? You decide whether this is the gift of prophecy -- or the curse of common sense.
• @roelandp: How certain people try to game Steemit... Will it work?
  Step one: write bots to upvote your posts. Step 2: ? Step 3: profit. Comes with an important warning too: some [...] have registered "typo usernames" to popular BTC - Steem Exchange Platforms [...]. Watch out when you transfer out of Steemit and be careful of typo's! [sic ;]

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first whale problems: the liquidity reward debate

It seems there is a problem with the engine. Big players can rig the game in their favor with wash sales and receive huge awards for providing liquidity, without serious competition from smaller players. If you are here for the social network and not the currency, you will never know the plight of those trying to get a thicker slice of the cake, but may still find the discussions interesting, because they shine some light on the way these problems are handled around here: the "accused", @abit, did not shy from controversy and calmly elaborated his view on the matter. Personally, I got the impression he is not entirely happy with the situation either and only using the bug to "hold the door" so someone less benevolent does not wreak total havoc. You know, like Eddard Stark slitting Lady's throat so Cersei stops nagging King Bobby's ears off. The villain Steem needs, not the one it deserves. Batman stashing kryptonite so Lex Luthor can't use it against Superman. Snape avadakedavraeing Dumbledore. Some situation like that.

• @sip: STEEM PROPOSAL: Abolishing Liquidity Incentives And Reverting The Funds To Provide Actual Autonomous Liquidity
  Proposes an alternative to the incentive to provide liquidity, and refers to
• @blakemiles84: Handful of Users Are Gaming the Liquidity Reward System And Earning 1200 STEEM per Hour
  ...where the problem is explained and abit joins the discussion to challenge the other traders: If I don't do that, others will -- already detected indeed and some of my bot's strategies are to counter act on those. But it's sad that my bot is stupid enough and is losing much every day, for example more than 20K STEEM in last a few hours, kind of punishment. It's not funny at all. Competitions are welcomed, leave more orders on the book please.
• @jasonmcz: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- a Day as a STEEMIT Market Maker
  A wonderful (noob-friendly) tale of a (failed) attack on a whale. Very recommended reading.
• @complexring: A Mathematical Analysis of Obtaining Liquidity Rewards
  Some more mathematical background on the problem, and an attempt at a solution
• @pharesim: The centralization of Steem, and how it is killing off Pevo
  In a sense, it belongs in the "philosophy..." category, because it highlights the problems with the current wealth distribution, albeit from the perspective of a 400k leviathan.
• @positive: Why You Shouldn't Criticize Liquidity Monopolists: Liquidity Is More Important Than Spread - It Gives Steem Value!
  ...and out come the apologists for plutocracy and the hoarding of wealth :p

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technical considerations

• His Whaleness, bombad general @dan of House Steemit, first of His name, Lord of the blockchain, Breaker of reddit and Facebook: Steemit Releases Groundbreaking Account Recovery Solution
  Listen!
• @arhag: Can you remember your Steemit password? If so, you are in danger.
  Why the 21st century wants to become familiar with password managers.
• @fyrstikken: Steemit - Security - Exchanges & Why - By a guy that has been in Crypto since 2009 - [NEW PEOPLE - READ THIS NOW]
  More Public Security Announcements. Take them seriously.
• @rok-sivante: A Raw, Soulful Open-Letter To The Steemit Hacker: (Heartfelt Reflections From The Forced Break In My Steemit Addiction)
  In case you missed it: Steemit got hacked, compromising the accounts of a few whales and dolphins even. This letter toes the fine line between "well done, thank you, and best of luck in all your endeavours" and "rot in seven hells, you frigging frigg". It is listed here as an example of the culture this community is developing.
• @filip-martinka: Hacking The Top 100 New STEEM Posts - First Text Mining Analysis for Fun & Profit!
  _{like one get steem time people would also i'm it's know see even new could make way first want kite kit steal playing must}

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"more on that later",

I promised a few times.

From what I have seen, most complaints about this new thing concern Steemit itself, not the underlying engine, and should be attacked by the interface, not by adding multiple layers of complexity and patronization to the engine.

Again: Steemit is in beta. There are still good things to come; it is clear that containing the hack took precedence last week. And let us not forget: Steem is open source. Anyone can code a new platform, or Python executable dedicated standalone browser, for example (hint hint).

• So I won't complain about FUBAR markdown implementation anymore.
• But for example the complaints about a terrible "recommended" page, a "trending" page teeming with irrelevancies and a noisy "created" queue. @jesta wrote steemstats.com (for trading purposes), proving that it is possible to create a "Facebook feed" of sorts (and to bring my CPU to its knees, but that is another matter). A proper interface would allow me to group Steemians I would like to follow into "circles" (traders, whales, mathematicians, authors, musicians, philosophers, afk friends, favourite foe watchlist). And unless I choose to follow a bot, this feed will be 100% spamfree and to a great degree relevant to me.
• The complaints about botspam, plagiarists... a proper interface would allow me to simply mute accounts that misbehave. Withholding attention from them is the greatest punishment. It will have a pedagogically valuable effect on them to notice that they receive literally zero exposure if everyone has this powerful tool.
• And of course, it would be great if I could sort by tags, with boolean operators, and group search operators into bigger topics: AGOT = gameofthrones OR asoiaf NOT spoilersADWD; RETRO = c64 OR commodore 64 OR dmg-01 OR dmg01 OR gameboy OR chiptune OR chipmusic OR 8bit OR 8-bit; TREES = (marijuana OR cannabis OR weed) AND grow... just imagine all the junk I'm never going to see!
• Can't wait to see PMs become a thing.
• vote/post/transfer logs à la steemd would be great
• Bookmarking posts - like reddit's "save" function - is an absolute must.
• A tipping box would be great for artists who present their work (latest album, newest book) on Steemit.
• A nice-to-have of such an interface: profile pages and profile pics. An even-nicer-to-have: costumizable CSS for your pages à la MySpace. These really kept the room together.

I think you see where this is going: Steem will stand and fall with its interfaces, and the power they hand to the user, just like you keep or delete your VST plugins depending on the richness of their OOTB presets. The markets that will evolve here - curated spambot lists, dedicated votebots, analytic plugins for the GUI, vote snipers etc. cannot even be fathomed yet. Speaking of new markets - but more on that...

"More on that later", I promised a few times, and here it is. Now. Here. Are you ready yet?

Can you keep a secret? Come closer and listen well, I can only tell this story once.

I have a whistle to blow about the most obscure conspiracy, the longest con game in the history of mankind.

9/11? JFK? Moon Hoax? Phoebus Cartel? MKUltra? Operation Gladio? Space alien lizards? Amateurs, forget them all.

steemit.com is a trojan horse

This is not about the hidden SS runes in the logo, which has two letters. This is also not about the 666 it presents, and how the 3 actually stands for a hidden triangle, which is the silhouette of a pyramid that has 5 vertices and humans have 5 fingers (most of the time), quod erat demonstrandum - illuminati confirmed.

This runs deeper. I must start at the beginning:

Yesterday I had the privilege of hanging around with the fine guys at slack and we partied hard and they shared their esoteric knowledge with me and this is what they said: steemit.com is a trojan horse. It carries a weapon - the most disruptive weapon of mass acceptance you can think of - into the heart of society, on all continents of the [globe|flat earth].

Let us say someone wrote a post to sell something he has which you would like to have, or offers a service - a translation mayhaps, or a logo re-look, or mowing your lawn - you wish to engage, and you can pay him with the Steem you "earned" en passant doing what you usually waste your time with - scrollscrollupclicklikeloling;

or let us say you could buy your weed sitting in your dealer's crib by entering an amount and clicking a button on your smartphone, and buy your morning newspaper, coffee and cigarettes with that weird useless cryptocurreny you initially thought had something to do with posting and voting;

or let us say you are already a dolphin by accident somehow and find in a few years that you can hire-purchase a car simply by powering down...

or let us say you are a poor artist, finding a Maecenas to pay your rent via Steem... and a weblabel to offer you a contract with yearly payments in Steem Dollars...

and now let us say you're applying for a job and the boss offers to pay a higher wage if you accept them in Steem Dollars...

Steem is not just reddit, Facebook, twitter, tumblr, flickr, Wordpress, Blogger, BB. It has the potential to be Ebay, Wikipedia, Amazon, your bank, your wallet.

And Steemit will ease you into it. You'll "trust" that mysterious "blockchain" you once read something about in an article on Bitcoin without knowing or wondering about it, simply because it works. Because Steemit is just the new WordBookredditFacePress everyone migrated to when their eternal septembering sucked too hard, right?

All of humanity will be buying, selling and trading in cryptocurrencies before they even know it, and with it, the concepts of value, money, currency will be overturned. This will shake the foundations of our planet, and we are observing the hour of its birth! We are pioneers, scouts, explorers of a new world, witnesses to the dawn of a new era.

ein volk, ein reich, ein steem

I once heard you are expected to include best case and worst case scenarios in your business plan.

Best Case Scenario: "early adopters" and developers and marketers manage to lay the foundations for a thriving and consensual community and a new, healthy and sustainable economy, with new definitions for "value" and "worth", "money" and "barter", "trade" and "gift". A truly free market evolves. Mankind communicates. Bots arrange supply for demands. Governments become obsolete, as their citizens take management of their affairs into their own hands, globally decentralized. Armed conflicts go out like candles in the wind and the "military industrial complex" consists of your local firearms dealer and repair shop. Vegetation reclaims the deserts, the oceans replenish, and Steemit-funded projects heal the wounds torn into Mother Earth by our forefathers. Knowledge, enlightenment, spiritual strength and wisdom replace money, bling and bitches as a youth's respectable life wishes, cures and solutions for illnesses and long-standing engineering problems are found collaboratively, organically, chaotically, anarchically, consensually. In"efficiently", but reliably and sustainably. Steemit turns into a þing; and finally, all nations, tribes and races join the chant "free at last, free at last, thank Steem the Blockchain, free at last." World peace, ascension to the fourth plane, Satya Yuga ahoy.

Worst Case Scenario: everything stays the same as before! Censorship and spambots, circlejerks and catpics, financial crises, needless wars, artificial pestilences and famines, mass surveillance, slavery through usury, propaganda, torture and brain control, panem et circenses, divide et impera, Planet X and finally, total global nuclear annihilation -- just on a blockchain.

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tldr;

This is how I learned to stop worrying and love the Steem.

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Thanks to everyone writing the stuff I'm linking to for thinking their thoughts. Shoutouts to all the good folks in the slack channel so patiently helping me piece my understanding together. Grüße auch an die deutschsprachige Community, die hier auch schon fröhlich vor sich hindampft.

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#steemit #philosophy #math #economy #distribution #ginicoefficient #gametheory #steem #anarchy #steemit-potential #analysis #reddit #facebook #ebay #wikipedia #hope #love #peace #prosperity #abundance