Steemit's First Charity Post Payout!! What I learnt and why it was a disaster.. But also, how Steemit's Plan for 'Cryptocurrency World Domination' may offer a solution.
I did Steemit's first charity post yesterday aiming to get support for Syrian refugee's. Thank you to all 38 users who up voted me, that was great. Overall unfortunately, it was a disaster raising $0.54 for charity.
The problem wasn't the users, or the post, it was my Naivety!!!
Naivety
Unfortunately I didn't put myself in the shoes of the Steemit users, or @ned who I asked for help on the identity verification side. Essentially I was looking for trust, something which was reassuringly hard to come by. It made me question a certain level of arrogance I must have to think, I wouldn't trust some guy on the internet asking for support, but they would trust me...right?!
Proof of Payment
I have attached proof (as best I can give it, which is a problem in itself) that I donated £10 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today. We can call the extra, a payment for arrogance and naivety, but at least this time the money is going to a good cause rather than in some con-artist's pocket.
The Future...
Feel free to share you thoughts. I know Steemit isn't a charity, and believe it or not, I am a capitalist at heart. My thoughts here were that, other social media site actually benefit from atrocities (like the 2 we have seen in France in the past year). They get a more engaged audience, which essentially leads to higher advertising revenues. The users support the cause with platitudes (with good intentions) which have little to no effect on the outcome of the event, or help the people who are affected. Steemit can change this!!!
https://steemit.com/steem/@dan/steemit-s-evil-plan-for-cryptocurrency-world-domination
https://steemit.com/sip/@dan/escrow-sip-steem-improvement-proposal
I will be using their escrow service to take the trust problem out of the equation. If there is an option to put my whole account in escrow until I can prove payment under the agreed terms has been made, this could solve any trust issues the Steemit community may have. This is a great example of why an escrow service is integral to Steemit achieving the ultimate end, and an eloquent trust case for how people could feel far more comfortable supporting me, when they know I have a lot to lose if I became a bad actor...
Steemit is all about incentivising users to do the right thing. Eventually, trust can be taken completely out of the equation.
Honestly, I don't think it's really a trust issue, people may just not have been interested in upvoting. I mean, it doesn't even cost anyone anything. I also made a post on Saturday evening about my dad's medical expense campaign and I garnered sixteen SND across 36 voters. I don't know what to say for encouragement other than trying again and hoping people with more SP hit that up button next time.
@robsteady Thanks for the reply, And I hope your Dad is ok, or least well soon. Your quite right. Maybe I needed to be a little more creative with my call for support. Something I will think about.
"Essentially I was looking for trust, something which was reassuringly hard to come by."
Coincidentally I talked to @ned about a charity fundraiser yesterday, and to give you the trust of the voters I would suggest to have @ned or @dan or @smooth to create the account, give you its posting key, and when the funds are raised they will make sure that money goes to where it was destined.
This is just to prevent scams such early in steemits history. Not saying you would run with the money, but others have scammed people for a lot less lately.
Charity through blockchain technology will become really big in the future. I read somewhere that the Red Cross had the lowest percentage (8%) of the amount raised that they use for themselves for fees and other. With blockchain we can give 100% to where we want to give it to.
@acidyo great reply.
I did contact @ned but I didn't think of your solution of only owning the posting key, that would be the best way to do this. He did say the problem is, he cannot be responsible for charity funds (but I will propose in the future when he is less busy, he has a lot on his plate update security protocols on the site atm...)..
Hopefully we will see some verified Charities coming on board to Steemit soon anyway :)
Completely agree with you RE: future relationship between Blockchain and Charity. Very exciting.
Thanks for sharing you thoughts.
I like what you are doing here on Steemit! Will follow.
Thanks @tinyhomeliving That's kind. I will check you out..
Great stuff, keep up the good work!!