The darkside of the moon

Come across to the darkside. With Market Cap crossing 200 Billion and Bitcoin Dominance at a massive 62%, next week at the split we are likely to see some very fast divestment which will run vast amounts into the alts again that have been driven down.

But, it seems that there is a lot of new money pouring into Bitcoin above and beyond the usual suspects driving the price. Much of this is coming from the banks and investment firms but, there are likely a lot of little guys trying their hand.

They must be fairly happy so far if they got in the last couple weeks as they watch their investment skyrocket to new highs. Hopefully they are ready for what comes next or are sensible holders with a long-term view, otherwise there are likely going to be many burnt fingers and toes.

This is a dark side of the crypto world when people jump in with a normal trading mindset. The yearly volatility that they understand from the stock markets is eclipsed in a day and if they think they understand fast gains and losses, they are in for a rough ride.

This is great for those who have some understanding of what is going on but is likely one of the forces that hold many back from stepping into the arena. For people at Steemit though, it is a lower step.

For me for example, I have been able to earn most of my cryptocurrency through working at Steemit, which means it is already within the system, forcing me to learn about it. Plus, at Steemit there are a myriad ways to develop the understanding required to be able to be somewhat successful at trading.

Combine these things together and current Steemit users could become the greatest pool of traders and a real force to be reckoned with in the marketplace. This is of course unlikely however, as to be great at something requires, time, effort, investment and understanding.

The darkside of the moon for Steem and steemit is short-term views of users, not the UI or development team alone. Firstly, as we saw when Steem boomed and at Hardfork 19, an influx of new users flooded the platform. This is heralded as great news in uptake numbers but, type of user matters.

Many of the new users were not interested in the platform, they were interested in the money. This means that they looked to game the system without understanding the community and whatever they did happen to earn, was likely to be taken straight out and sold for profit. After all, it is all profit when the personal investment is close to zero as it is when spamming and plagiarising.

This also means that the new users interested in actually engaging and being part of the community have a very hard time to be seen in the muck left by the cut and runners.

But, it is not just many new users who cut and run. There are very large accounts that are continually powering down and taking it off-site too, most likely into other coins. Everyone has the rights to do this of course but it also has ramifications for the future and value of Steem. For markets, scarcity matters and not many seem willing to hold onto Steem. Perhaps it is because for some, they get it almost free.

I don't know much about trading and the market place, I am more of a casual observer but it seems to me that Steem holders have a lot of potential as their coins come with several revenue streams inherently attached, not just a buy and sell position.

There are not many coins out there that can earn additional coins while still holding. Curation is this and it is a much better return than any interest rate. Plus, the value spread through curation engages more users and if they hold and curate too, it attracts and engages more users and the coins get 'locked' away making them more and more scarce on the markets.

This will drive the price of Steem upwards and with the potential almost guaranteed earning power of holding Steem if engaging with the Steemit community, more people will be driven to adoption. This of course makes more demand on the chain and coin, driving the value up further. This means that the holders value also increases, as does their potential influence on the community as increase in coin price increases voting value.

This is why I think it is critical for those in positions that enjoy a lot of support from the community to keep the majority of their earning on platform, at least for the time being until there is a much larger user base. They are role models here and new users learn their behaviours from them. Shit posting and moving value continually out is not going to make Steem boom.

The darkside of the Steem moon is that instant gratification mindset bites and people abandon their Steem like a sinking ship which puts a ceiling on an otherwise almost unlimited coin. This mentality lowers engagement, creates disillusion in users and makes Steemit look much scammier than it is.

I can't give advice as honestly, it is nowhere near my wheelhouse but I will continually to take small parts of Steem out as I have done to trade with but hopefully keep the majority of my earnings here working for me while I use it to engage others with decent content and comments. The more successful I trade, the more I will bring back in.

If more people did the same, I think that Steem would be significantly higher than it currently is and it would be a coin that grabs the attention of many more people. Considering the brilliant and lightning fast performance of the Steemchain, ability to earn through several channels and a community of people who literally back the stability of it in the real world, Steem should not just moon, it should hit the sun.

The reason it doesn't? Us.

Perhaps this is not even all correct, I don't know as I said, this is not my area but, for me, working at earning and working at understanding why I am working to earn here has meant that I am starting to see that my early approach was less than useful for my long-term views. More and more I am seeing that something that had a lot of potential when I began, has a massive amount more I didn't realise before.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]