My Humble Response to Tone Vays, of the World Crypto Network: Re - Steemit

in #steemit8 years ago

I am very thankful to have listened to Tone many times over.  He has helped save me lots of money on various projects that have popped up, most recently with the DAO.  The whole team at the The Bitcoin Group on the World Crypto Network is a huge asset for the Bitcoin and crypto community.

I am an amateur Bitcoin and crypto enthusiast.  I also really like Steemit.  There are a lot more qualified people to speak on these things than I am, but I found myself strongly disagreeing with The Bitcoin Group, particularly Tone Vays, in regards to his perspective on Steemit, and I felt compelled to share my thoughts.

Let’s first start off, by looking at this video here:

As you can see, they are all very pessimistic about it.  Tone goes so far as to call it “nonsense..total scam...ponzi...like stealing bitcoin”.  Let’s break down some of this.

Is Steemit a Ponzi?

Steem, Steem Dollars, and Steem all derive their value from the market.  Of course, this can lead to big swings of valuation in either direction.  With a high inflation rate, particularly in the short term, given the total coin supply, a general downtrend won’t be too surprising, even as we on-board more and more people.

However, this market doesn’t really effect Steemit content creators much, since if the market is depressed, their Steem Dollars earned can be converted to a dollar’s worth of Steem each through a one week process through Steemit, where it is averaged against the market price of a dollar's worth of steem.  Content creators cashing out $5 today, will be able to do so a year from now, whether the market is bullish or bearish.

If the market is bullish for Steem Dollars, like we've occasionally seen, then they can be instantly converted to Bitcoin via Bittrex or Poloniex for sometimes over a dollar a piece.  There are also arbitrage opportunities between Steem and Steem dollars, that help provide liquidity to these markets in the long run.

Like Stealing Bitcoin?

People do not have to invest anything.  In fact, pretty much everyone I have gotten interested in this project never even cared what Bitcoin was.  These people are joining, creating, and cashing out Steem Dollars for their first bitcoin.  Whatever they do with it from there, is their business, but Steemit simply sparks a curiosity and fascination in crypto unlike anything I’ve seen in the space yet.

You can’t believe how many people are shocked about Steemit, then immediately become curious about Bitcoin, as I explain to them the pillar of our system.  The value of this process can’t be overstated.  I explain that Steemit is in beta, there may be temporary issues, it’s only three months old...who knows what will happen?  But why not join, share your stories, and cash out your first Bitcoin and start getting passionate about that just as you become about Steemit?

People who do decide to speculate on the price, by buying Steem and Steem power, are doing just that.  They think the price will be higher in the future.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  We live in the crypto world where every single coin, including Bitcoin, acts first and foremost as a unit of speculation.  It's not unreasonable to see why a social media platform that incorporates crypto would be an attractive project to speculate on, given the rapid growth we've seen in other social media platforms.

Scams?

Paycoin, Onecoin, Auroracoin, yes, these were and are all clear scams.  I am not invested in Bitshares, but that has been a relatively successful project to date, and these guys came from that, as you know.  I am also not really invested in Steemit.  What I am invested in is Bitcoin, and I continually look for opportunities to make that grow while simultaneously getting people into the same mindset.  Steemit is the only vehicle in the space that I’ve seen yet capable of consistently getting people interested in Bitcoin.  Not only that, but it gets them their first bitcoin without them spending a dime.  How is that a scam?

Long Term?

“Broke!”  

Ok, well, we of course saw this coming after hearing them talk about it.  However, I believe that they are overlooking some key possibilities.  If Steemit continues to gain traction, even with a falling price, it will eventually reach a critical mass of users that will attract advertisers and promoters.  These people will be the first people to have a real, practical use case for Steem Power.

Tai Zen and Leon Fu do a fantastic job talking about this here:

Imagine 1,000,000 users on Steemit, and some big entity wants to create a presence.  They use Coca-Cola as an example in the video.  The smartest thing Coca-Cola could do is accumulate a ton of Steem Power and support people who help promote their product with quality content.  They could encourage people to tag them, and content their team deemed commendable could get upvoted and that user would receive money.  They could also create new ad campaigns and gauge interest from the Steemit community based on how much it gets upvoted.  There are loads of possibilities for them.

If this happens, worries about the long term sustainability of the platform will basically boil down to potential legal problems in the future.  I could see content on the blockchain that they will be legally forced to scrub.  Who knows what else could come up?

Security issues could arise again.  The price could absolutely tank.  Or worst of all, people could just stop using the site altogether.  But in the end, this doesn’t matter to people new to crypto joining the site.  They are not buying Bitcoin to go invest in this site.  They are just joining, creating, sharing, and getting a little payout in the process.  This is not a bad thing for crypto or for Bitcoin, at all.


I love Steemit, I have a good amount of Steem Power, I am not powering down.  I am here to stay, for better or worse.  The money is a plus, but we're doing bigger things here.  We are working with the best crypto on-boarding vehicle to date, and doing more to get people interested in Bitcoin than I think you realize.


Why don’t you come join us, Tone?  Make your points, chat with @ned and @dan, and let's have an open discussion about it all.  Simply cash out your bitcoin from your upvotes and then never come back if you feel as strongly about it all after that experience as you do in this video.  But give it a chance and maybe see that even if you think the economics behind it are flawed, the potential for this whole idea is through the roof.


And thanks again for all the work you guys do, everyone from The Bitcoin Group, as well as Tai Zen and Leon Fu!

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It's a waste of time and energy to give Tone Vays attention, he disrespects everything that is not Bitcoin, and just because some things fail, does not make him an authority, or means he is right... If I claim that NOT every man masturbates, then once in a while I will be right, but that does not make me an expert on the topic

I feel that there are still people who carry lots of influence in the Bitcoin community, like Tone, who people listen to and trust. When they speak this poorly about a project a lot of us on here, like me and you, are real passionate about with good reason, it just bothers me. I mean just look at @brookdemar and how can you not get inspired about this whole thing? No way Brook ever buys a Bitcoin, let alone open a bank account without Steemit. But you're right, I suppose you just can't waste time on those that don't listen...

Tai Zen comes off to me as someone who is NOT intelligent, and has allot of money to spend on crypto because maybe he has a well paid job, or he invests in every IPO so for sure he will have certain amount of success doing that, no big deal.. when I watch his videos all I keep thinking is "this guy is an idiot"

He admits his friend, Leon-Fu, is the brains behind the operation. I definitely don't base my decisions solely off of youtubers and alleged "experts", but sometimes everyone has some good insights to bring to the table. These guys are good guys and had people like Sasha from the Waves project on their show a couple of times.

yeah, for now I am done with all cryptocurrency, only into steem and bitcoin, and bitcoin only because steem needs it, but when users can buy and sell steem tokens directly on steemit.com without using bitcoin, just like WordPress users can, then bye bye bitcoin. I know bitcoin is good to hold, but I already have enough money, so holding bitcoin to get rich does not fit into my lifestyle

That's cool. If you do get back into crypto, keep an eye out for Zcash this fall/winter, only other real project outside of BTC, ETC, Waves and Steem that I'm really going to be keeping an eye on.
https://z.cash/

ok.. that's Dash with a Z...

LOL, seriously, it's legit. Check the team: https://z.cash/team.html Some serious heavy hitters in there...

Plus, if you check the tech out, it's exactly what every other anon project claimed to be, except this works: https://github.com/zcash/zcash

As soon as Steemit appears on the radar of big commercial companies billions of their marketing budgets will flow into our ecosystem. And the best thing is, that the vehicle for promotion will not be annoying ads but quality content that finds community support, because its perceived relevant, entertaining, informing, inspiring, etc.

Great times ahead!

nice video @derekareith
vote done

Very good point you mentioned about how much steemit is waking up the masses to crypto currencies and in a way that bitcoin never could have . Its a very unique platform we have here and for better or worse we faithful believers of steemit are here for the ride what ever happens. fingers crossed its all good though : ) . good post , happily upvoted.

Very good article! and i totally agree with you!
you can start with steemit without putting any money on it and still made a good profit(of course, it will be harder)


Check this one too
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@raphma/hey-steemit-professional-poker-player-and-senior-member-from-bitcointalk-coming-in

I have leave trading for steemit and I'm waiting to sell all the crappy coins that I have now to invest all in steemit power, power is the key, if people know the real value of steemit in 2 years they will sold evry thing to invest here, you hake make the good choice to choose steemit , thank you for this inspiring post

yes, I sold all my crypto for 20,0000 steem power, and it feels great

yeah I know Craig I saw that video that you have sell all your eth to invest on steem, I was following you because you are very smart guy

I know lots of Crypto people who think anything they didn't get in on early is a scam and a ponzi. lol.

Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 7.0 and reading ease of 77%. This puts the writing level on par with Stephen King and Dan Brown.

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