First, what is a Barrier to Entry?

It seems kind of obvious. People choose not to get involved in things because they can’t afford to be, or for whatever reason had not been provided with the proper resources to be involved.

Most people may say they do not have enough money to take part in cryptographic currencies. I understand this barrier because I know blockchains are an investment, just like an investment in any corporation. That being noted, if one has the money to invest in the corporations of the stock market, they definitely have the money to invest in block-chains. I would personally say whatever value I have invested in corporations, I should have an equal value invested in at least one blockchain. Let’s take our heads out of the clouds, I don’t have enough resources to invest in any corporations so investment in block-chains is not something I should be doing.

Or is it…..

Two ways to obtain a share of a block-chain exist, buying(investment) and mining(use). But now, thanks to Steemit, a new form of mining has emerged. So new, so convenient, so simple, so “barrier to entry” abolishing, we can hardly call it mining. In fact, it is not mining, it is blogging. Now, I don’t claim to have an immense understanding of blockchains. I only have an appreciation for them, as corporate entities incapable of members that break the bylaws.

The “barrier to entry” has not disappeared and bots should not join Steemit.

I was welcomed into Steemit by an entourage of bots, who quickly became down-voted and abolished by the members. Had no bots existed I may never have received such a welcome, as what I normally have to say is most often unappreciated by the average person. So, I still think Bot Lives Matter. But, I know this opinion of mine is not shared.

The real fear I have is of the threatening bots. The ones that pretend to be human are the greatest threat. Bots who are honest where the creator opens the account with something like “this is a bot”, are great in my opinion. But what about the average "Church of Kopyims" member or "YouTuber" that is doing their daily work and suddenly realize “I can make a bot that does this, and everyone would still think it is me who is posting.” The house of cards will fall once the humans realize the money makers are all anonymous impostor bots (if that happens).

This is my true fear for the future of Steem

Because this was the fight from the start; How can we reward “True Humans” thus lowering the “barrier to entry”? POS, coins tried to give to those who owned good portions of the block-chain, but only gave the wealthy more wealth. NXT birthed NodeCoin, but the wealthy just created more virtual machines to use more electricity and produce more CO2(I don’t actually believe this CO2crap, but I’ll save that for another post). Along comes Ethereum and "real money" from "real banks" (The Real Thieves) start backing it, but the lawsuits are quick to come after what is left. At the end of the day every effort to identify “true human individuals” on the block-chain was a failure. Except maybe this Steem block-chain… Who better to identify humans, than humans, right?

Dishonest Bots, what will we do once they take over?

Remember the story of “Go”, well humans had been the best at such a game… That has all changed. And given the ease of programming today, and the increasing ease, this may become a real problem. You know what I’m talking about… “I can make a bot that does this, and everyone would still think it is me who is posting.” The lives of “Dishonest Bot Impersonators” don’t matter. Now that my fear for the future of Steemit is clear, what does this have to do with “barrier to entry”?

The Moving Barrier to Entry is the Endgame for Steemit

This is my first two weeks on Steemit. You can see climbing network ownership(Steem Power) and rewards with declining value of account. It was a daunting thing to see any time I looked at it. Good thing I was not into Steem for the money. But what about the person who was? They could never justify continuing this work. Time is more valuable to those with small amounts of resources than it is to those with enough resources. Propitiously I have ways(like most US citizens) to obtain what I need to survive despite owning nothing myself.

How can we measure this “barrier to entry”, and how will it change?

Surviving and earning more money on Steemit is about trying to prove you are human, right? Maybe, but we can only know one thing for sure: the bots will use the "true market" value of Steem. Told you I would bring bots back into the picture. The "true market" value of Steem is the cost of obtaining it outside the markets. Because steemit.com has opened an avenue for getting an account with 3 Steam Power, it is the difficulty of this avenue that defines the value of Steem. I don’t know that some hack has people in Ethiopia setting up Facebook and Reddit accounts, but the price will adjust under the assumption that one could do such a thing. Steemit.com in my mind rightfully has the ability to create boom and bust cycles by adjusting the “barrier to entry”. But I don’t fail to receive some of the guilt of the dropping price as I asked the Steemit group on Facebook to reopen the “barrier to entry” just the day before, and the flood-gates opened. Hold on now; we have 2 competing “barrier to entry” options don’t forget about

. And, in the future, we will have more options. Besides, I still have a lot of family and friends I need to get on Steem before the price goes up and then the “barrier to entry” becomes a huge contribution on my part.

So how do we know the adjusting value of Steem based on newly discovered lower “barrier to entry” option? Look to the Steem Dollar; it pays interest on its pegged value. If the Steem value is soon to drop, it would be wise to gain ownership of the Steem Dollar; because you will be capable of obtaining more Steem, once that price has gone down. So, the Steem Dollar going up in price is a reflection of a newly created lower “barrier to entry”.

Conclusion, the adjusting “barrier to entry” is defined by the future price of Steem, observable in the inverted price of Steem dollars.

^ This has probably been said a million times by the experts, so if you are out there please comment, that way me and others can give you acknowledgment. I’m sorry about being lazy with my research.