STEEM: World's Largest Social Experiment in CHARITY
Steem has given humanity a platform to better understand ourselves, our human nature, our capacity for charity and willingness to help our fellow man.
Steem is Charity with a Catch
What if I told you everyday I would give you $100 to spend.
However, if you didn't spend it at the end of the day you would have to give back.
Everyday you have the opportunity to spend another $100.
You can do 3 things with this money:
- Spend this money on yourself
- Spend this money on someone else
- Do nothing at all.
So, the question is - "How will you spend your $100?"
Equally interesting is - How will humanity at large choose to spend this money?
Where we are today
As a member of the steem community you are given an allotted number of votes that have value every day. Those with more vested steempower have higher valued votes. If you don't use it, you lose it (in the sense that votes only regenerate to a max of 100%).
Charity & Inequality
This is a great social experiment in what I call "Charity", but really would be better defined as our ability to share something of value (and limited supply) with another person based on our value of their creative work. It's been fascinating to watch this platform develop and our human nature mold it into what it is today.
There are some interesting "problems" which are starting to crop up. It's true there are many Whales which have the ability to change someone's life with a single upvote however choose not to vote.
There are also many minnows struggling to get noticed plowing everything they have and all their votes back into the community but not getting the recognition they deserve.
Fortunately, these concerns are being noticed and many new minnow support projects have been started such as minnow booster, Boost and Random Whale as well as many new new community projects are underway to put support systems in place that help to create more value and value based equality within the community.
It's wonderful to see humanity support humanity as we continue to build steem and make it a more equatable community.
It's a Revolution
We truly have a mechanism to make a change to humanity for the better. Blockchain, cryptocurrency and related tech are all new paradigms to conventional thought and wonderful advancements. However, IMHO I don't believe this compares to the ability that Steem has to dramatically impact the world at large on a wholly beneficial way.
It is a revolutionary concept that we "the people" now have the ability to vote for those things that are important in our lives. No longer do we have to put our faith in governments and non-profits to use our money in the best way - We can now chose ourselves.
It also offers the individual the ability to help people out of financial hardship and the opportunity for financial freedom. All achieved by creating value. No dropping bombs, no devalued fiat currencies. Steem is about assigning monetary value for "creative value".
World's Largest Social Experiment
As the world's largest social experiment in charity, I'd just like to remind everyone (that goes for you Whales too) we have an opportunity here to make a huge change.
Let's make this the best it can be, one upvote at a time.
and yet Steemit is still in Beta mode,
I'm looking forward to its full mode
Not just you. Me too. Please follow me @bewajijohnson
I see it more as abundance than charity
Yeah, in the post I say "Charity" really isn't the right word to describe it. Abundance - I like that :)
It is more like give and take scenario, people give votes and others and in return they get the same treatment from the community members @altcointrends
This is a Fantastic Post we Resteemed it as well :)
Much appreciated! Thanks @adsactly
I think the experiment is working too! You bring up some great points, my favorite being the magnitude of opportunity that Steemit is providing. People want to help others, encourage them, and fight their internal desires to be greedy in favor of charitable acts of service. I think what Steemit facilitates is an incredibly user friendly and efficient way to be charitable on a regular basis. Thanks for solidifying these concepts for us.
There is an interesting "struggle" happening - between "Scarcity mindset" and "Abundance mindset".
I also see and have experienced many people coming out of the woodwork to help others become more creative, offer more to the community and in return the community is supporting them and with this more people are believing and living with more abundance - pushing away their scarcity beliefs. It's great to see these types of shifts taking place and being part of it.
Definitely. The old saying is so true. It is more blessed to give than to receive! And I see plenty of people leading here by example.
I wish we were given $100 a day to give away. that wold be awesome!
I'd probably give away all of it and then try to give away some more.
I love watching the counter when I upvote a post to see how much it goes up.
Just after HF19 it went up almost $4. Woohoo!! I was actually giving people enough money to buy a whole icecream.
Ah such heady days........
Now my vote is only worth $1 something, and I'm trying to get my voting power back up to 100% so it is worth something.
I don't look on this platform as a place of charity.
I'm not giving money away. That would imply I'm giving money for noting more than the joy of helping those less fortunate than myself.
Many of the people I vote for are in a much better position then myself, so in the regard they should be giving me charity.
What I am doing is paying for good content. I'm tipping the author for displaying their communication skills and / or entertaining me.
What a wonderful comment to read - thank you for taking the time to write it. You are right - Charity is probably a poor choice of words. This is an opportunity to share wealth based on your perception of value.
As for "gifting" $100 per day to others on steem - It's happening all the time. The whales all have it in their power and those who are striving to be whales.
I guess what matters now is those that have the power, use it wisely to help direct and foster the right type of culture and attitude on this platform.
Thanks for that. :-)
I try to be constructive where I can. And I'm giving my $1.50 away to as many people as I can hehehe.
This is a double edged sword, I believe.
Whilst the whales may have the opportunity to give away $100 per day, I think it is wrong to expect or require them through coercion or shaming or whatever to give it all away each day.
We each have our own ways of voting and sharing and I think whales have the right to decide how they give away their share too.
If they want to share it amongst themselves, and revel at the minnows schooling around them begging to tidbits, then so be it.
There will always be schools of fawning minnows. There will also be those who swim their own path, and those minnows are the ones that will become the new whales.
I will become a whale one day in the long distant future, and I would like to think that I will bring a few fellow minnows with me.
great statement
Thank you ;-)
Well said Trevor! Well said.
Thanks ;-)
Great piece. My two cents' worth: some people will be generous, and some won't. It's the nature of the human beast. What the platform incentivises will be most interesting....
Hopefully Steem will provide the right incentives to motivate the right actions :)
Yip!
Yes! But, use your upvotes wisely and upvote because you are inspired. That way the best content rises to the top! Happy upvoting! Resteeming this one!
Thanks - much appreciated!
This post has received a 2.73 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @altcointrends.
nice post. i liked this post. keep it up with good work. thank you
Thanks
How can it work for an actual charity I work with the Orlando Dream Center
http://orlandodreamcenter.com
There are already a few "Charity Coins" out there. Here is an example - Clean Water Coin
Each Charity can have their own unique coin - the sky is the limit.