Suggestion: An "Easy Mode" for STEEM
We all know the Steemit platform has three assets - Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollar. However, there has been a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about them. It's understandable - it is a complex system. Steemit needs a complex and robust system, so it's well justified. Just that it can be overwhelming to most of us. Reading the whitepaper can be intimidating as well. There are several guides on Steemit, including one I wrote, but a guide shouldn't be required if a service has to go mainstream. No one needs a guide to post on Facebook or Reddit.
The chief promise of Steemit is amazing - Do what you have been doing on Reddit or Twitter, but potentially get paid for it. That is a concept that will attract millions of users. But the moment they get to Steemit - it's confusing.
So my suggestion is, how about implementing an "easy mode"? It can be really simple - just have one currency - Dollars - upfront. No Steem - all cryptocurrency works in the background. And tie up with an exchange that converts Steem Dollars (visible only as Dollars) to US Dollars. Of course, the situation has to improve at the exchanges as well - it should be a simple solution where the user can link their bank account and the money is credit directly to the bank in US Dollars. Under the hood, the Steem Dollars are transferred to the exchange's wallet, then sold on the exchange for US Dollars, and finally deposited into the user's bank account. But all of this need not be visible to the user.
So new users can come in, post, earn Dollars. In the Wallet, they just have a single figure - which they can click a button to withdraw to their bank account. A simple solution like this is needed to get the hundreds of millions of Reddit users onto Steemit. For curation, the Steem Power can be directly linked to Dollars at an equivalent rate.
Of course, if they really want to participate in the more advanced features of Steemit, they could switch to the "Advanced Mode", which gives them full access to the inner workings of Steemit.
What do you folks thing? Is this workable? Any other ways Steemit can be as simple as Reddit or Facebook?
The easiest mode is to ignore the money aspect and just work the content for now. What I do is put everything into SP. That's your voice.
#minnowcodeofconduct
You are absolutely right. But people at large aren't going to leave Reddit or Facebook unless there's a killer feature. For Steemit that killer feature is, of course, earning from posting.
Ethereum just got on Coinbase where you can use dollars to buy it. I think it will be hard to get Steem into a situation where people can trade Steem Dollars for real dollars just as easily. I think there is an equilibrium that would be messed up if a large group of people only start to earn Steem Dollars and not Steem power. On the surface things could look better and easier, but it could cause unexpected valuation problems. Maybe easy mode could just be a way to view Steemit where simple explanations of just about everything are just a click away? Your main point about all 3 Steem cryptos being complex and confusing could be corrected with some easily accessible non-techie explanations.
My latest post is here: https://steemit.com/ethereum/@bitcoinmeister/the-ethereum-classic-coin-the-free-market-s-answer-to-the-hard-fork
You have a fair point about the relationship between Steem Dollars and Steem Power. What I was suggesting is that Steem Power continues to operate under the hood, but the valuation the user gets is a single one.
But yes, perhaps some easy and precise explanations might do the trick instead.