Rejecting Spikes And Welcoming Stability - A Milestone In The Life Of The Steemit Community
One of the benefits of writing the daily market snapshots (for more than 100 days in a row now), is that I get to spot various trends in the comments of my followers.
For instance, when we started to see a little bit of recovery after the bear market of the first three months, the majority of comments were like: "I love how markets are growing, nice and steady, not with big spikes". Those comments were more prominent when it was about STEEM / SBD: "oh no, not another pump, I'd rather see STEEM growing up nice and easy".
Believe it or not, this trend is radically different from what the platform (and I mean Steemit) experienced in the early days. As one of the people engaged in this for more than one and a half year, I can clearly remember the early days, when the expectation was: "pump it up, STEEM, just take off!".
I don't think that it was wrong to hope for a pump in the early days. I think it was just a stage. A necessary, but now almost over, stage.
Let me explain.
In the beginning, in the life of any startup, there's a lot of uncharted territory. Any new project is actually a bet: you have no idea if it will work when you launch it, you just hope it does and you make everything you can for it. But that's it, there's no guarantee. And between the moment of launch and the first real signs of success (or failure) there is this expectation, which is always filled with anxiety. "Well, did it take off already?". "I want to know if it works, just give me a sign, please!".
So in the first stage spikes were considered more like business validation signs. It didn't really matter if the pump was followed by a dump, as long as the project was worthy of a pump at all.
But as the project - and community - matured, the pumps (and subsequent dumps) are starting to be perceived as toxic. Stakeholders are now convinced there's some intrinsic value in the business (beyond the speculative bubble, that is) and want stability. Pumps and dumps, by their own very nature, are hurting stability.
I think this is probably the most important milestone reached by the Steemit community since July 2016 (when STEEM was, at some point, the third crypto currency of the world). It's a moment when we know the processes are valid, and we only need to scale up.
While enjoying this moment, I would also like to point an area in which stability is very necessary at this point: the witnesses ecosystem. Again, I clearly remember how in the early days all it took to become a witness was to brag a little, make an announcement, set up a working node, and wait. It didn't matter if you published your weekly updates at all. Just the fact that you thought to become a Steemit witness was enough.
But as the community evolves, I do hope the higher stakeholders will start to appreciate witnesses stability, and not only their spiking involvement (which is always appreciated, by the way). But scaling Steemit to millions of active users on a fragile witnesses ecosystem is very risky. It's like selecting astronauts for an expedition to Mars with a beauty contest. Being a witness here is a very complex job: it mixes technical abilities with communication abilities and with a certain political charisma, which is very hard to obtain.
Just saying.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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I know the feeling. That's why I created steem.supply, an easy to use and accurate tool for calculating your Steemit rewards |
We need more witnesses like you, who holds all these technical , political and communication abilities very well.
Thank you, appreciate it!
You deserve all the accolades!
I like your post..much about steem bcz its growing smoothly these days.
Indeed, you should at least be in the top 50 if not in the top 20 witnesses, for your technical and business abilities and also for the discipline in posting regularly, not to mention that you have made steem.supply and the fact that you answer the question that people ask you, and upvote their comments. Not many witnesses get so much involved in all of these things.
Thank you :)
I am one of those commenters that prefer steady growth over crazy 100% pumps.
Most of the cryptos have experienced a similar process. Those which had an ICO last year, all spiked the very first days just to quickly get its value down after all the pre-ico discount "hunters" sold their assets to get some quick money. Sometimes even the project team members.
At the very beginning of any crypto life, there's big amounts concentrated on few hands, speculators have a much bigger impact on price and global volumes are so small, any media rumor can generate a big price movement.
As market cap grows, volatility gets reduced and the market starts behaving more mature, Technical Analisys can be applied as mass behaviour starts to develop, an overall, the market is much more consolidated showing smoother trends.
As you well point out, the first phase leads to the second. The good thing is we are still in the very beginning of the platforms and cryptos which will survive and eventually get some of the money from the ones not delivering, so holding and growing is still the best strategy for me.
keep calm..and think about the concept...
steem community
I have seen you consistently post market snapshot every day since the day i have followed your account. kudos to your consistency.
Yes, i also prefer slow growth over sudden spikes.
@dragosroua you make me proud to be a Steemian because of the Way you look at the overall Picture with a Calm Demeanor. You are even Keel and Never get to excited or to down. I know that you know that it is good to be on STEEMIT in what I believe is still a very early stage. Benefits to all..........
Experience and close observation teach you a lot. Unfortunately majority of steemians are like me who love to see steem price rocket now without considering behind the reason of change. Although every one like stability in steem value but understanding is not much. Hopefully after speaking some time here and reading your views they have better understanding. Thanks for sharing @dragosroua
This is true
Dont blame me, i started with steem when it was on 8.0$ you can say im a bit spoilt lol
However, stability will do much more good.
This is very key. And to those of you witnesses that understand and uphold this cliche, i continually appreciate you guys, you guys are awesome
I like having the steady gains as opposed to the pumps and dumps. Also less stressful that way. Watching your account sway so much. Thanks for your insight and daily market snapshots