The Conundrum of Getting, Having & Keeping A Buttload of Steem
Public Disclaimer: I love and believe in Steemit and am in no way implying any similarities between it and Zimbabwe.
But you have to admit, if you found one of these bad boys on the ground, at first glance you'd be considering calling your boss and telling him to take this job and shove it.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about How I Found Peace among all of the recent drama here on Steemit.
And in embracing my insignificance, I've noticed a few things that are pretty fascinating, and objectively speaking, impressive as hell.
I'm not going to call anyone out or make any accusations, knowing I'm insignificant (and ignorant about the topic) makes that a no-brainer.
But my mind works like a pinball machine and one thought bounces around and often ends up somewhere totally unexpected.
@lexiconical has been writing a series of posts about Valuing Steem for Tax Purposes (BTW, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one.)
And @dwinblood has started investigating , for lack of a better term, possible shenanigans.
Anyway, those posts and the great comments that they inspired, got me thinking about the incredible balancing act someone would need to be doing to keep anything shifty on a grand scale going.
@lexiconical 's first or second post in his series about taxes points out that the estimated account value shown in your wallet isn't representative at all if you actually do have "a buttload of Steem".
In a nutshell, (and he should feel free to correct me if I'm representing it wrong or my math sucks) trying to dump a buttload of Steem into an exchange would almost immediately cause the price to crater.
While your account may show an estimated value of say, $1,500,000; a huge selloff could conceivably cause the price to go from $1.50 per Steem down to $0.015, leaving you with $1,500 worth of value (I think).
I don't have the slightest clue (nor do I care to be informed) how you go about creating an army of bots, or thousands of fake accounts or how to move funds around through shell accounts, etc.
The flip side of the coin, and possibly an even more impressive feat, is amassing a "fortune" in Steem without compromising peoples' confidence in the system that you're exploiting.
So anyone gaming the system on a large scale has to be doing some pretty impressive shit without anyone being the wiser!
I'm not going to bring in morality or the ethics of finding and exploiting the weaknesses of a system for your personal gain; morality is totally subjective.
Accepting and embracing ones own insignificance gives one a unique perspective and, from as objective as my point of view can be, I simply say:
With that said, if people are upset about this sort of thing being able to happen, I would recommend that you lock the back door when you leave the house.
Don't complain because someone keeps coming in every time you turn your back and taking your stuff.
Close the loopholes, fix the bugs and calculate the effects of the changes you make before you Hard Fork yourself.
Ah, what do I know?
Upvoted and resteemed.
Thank you.
Regardless of peoples' feelings, someone appears to be pulling off an impressive piece of work.
Another great article. I actually own several of those Zimbabwean Dollars you can buy them on ebay!
I agree with your points and would like to add that it shouldn't be taboo to question Steemit or question anything actually. Criticism is constructive and is vital in improving an idea. Steemit is far from the finished article, if it aims to be a decentralised social media platform that rewards quality content agreed upon by the consensus, then it has a long way to go and may well end up a stepping stone rather than the end product. Having said that participation by ethical, creative users who aren't financially motivated is vital in refinement of the concept and new ideas, critiques and suggestions should be encouraged. Lets hope Steemit has the ability to evolve and embrace changes otherwise it may become the blockchains "Myspace" and then those Steem Dollars will truly become Zimbabwean in value
I couldn't agree more.
would that be a metric buttload or an imperial buttload?
The way things are going, I'd have to say imperial.
Imperial buttloads are 1.23 bunchatons larger than metric..so that's a valid point of concern.
On a more serious note: I, too, am getting rilly tired those who see a conspiracy of some type behind every rock and bush.
It doesn't HAVE to be someone's FAULT. Shit happens. Murphy never sleeps.
I think there are things going on, wherever there is money involved people are gonna try and game the system.
But the aliens don't want us to know that they're sending all that Steem to the other side of the flat earth.
you got the 'game the system' part right.
people work SO hard to cheat.
when it's easier to NOT.
crazy.
I have yet to figure that out.
Maybe it's the challenge?
Prove that they're smarter than the people who set it up? Shit if I could do that, I'd set up my own and sit back on a private island drinking pina colladas, with my wife...
Morgan Fairchild, yeah, that's the ticket.
Yeah, pretty much like that.
Now I want to go listen to Quadrophenia.
See, never a straight line. ;-)
Pretty easy to work out what X amount of Steem is worth in USD if you sell it all off at once. Just fulfil each of the current buy orders 1 by 1 until you run out, you'll see how far down the price you'll get.
Might be worth dropping the steem across multiple exchanges too, to hit the higher exchange rates across them all.
@lexiconical's tax post pointed out how relatively small the market cap is for Steem and that it wouldn't be inconceivable for someone with a lot to overwhelm the "buy" side of the exchanges.
I think not crushing the price and pissing away the value of your holdings is the tricky part of the scheme.
I knew people that had their retirements planned around Beanie Babies. I think they may have moved in with their parents now.
Required reading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beanie-baby-fever-in-1999_us_58af7d12e4b060480e0661fe
OMG that's F*!ing hilarious!!!!
My wife has a bankruptcy practice and there have been clients who still valued their Beanie's in the $1000s.
Yeah, unfortunately it's beauty, not value, that is in the eye of the beholder.
Indubitably, this is what your wife still deals with (that's a SOLD item, btw):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Peace-Bear-Beanie-Baby-with-All-Tag-Mistakes-/272631472793
I was trading on eBay back then... and it was insane. Been down the "collecting" road many a time... rare stamps, old fountain pens, Beanies, other things. "Collectors" are fine, and often are the "market makers." However, when the investor-exploiter types enter the market... that's when it's time so pop some popcorn and watch the insanity.
Yeah, I remember when Alpacas were all the rage, breeding pairs going for $10k-$12k and yet the marketing still talked about future markets in Alpaca meat. ?!?!
And my wife's not dealing with those kind of Beanies, it's more often than not the ones that still sell for $4 (but I just know the market is going to rebound).
Read the post "How i found peace" and I must say I really related to it. Tho revelation came super fast for me (after a week or so)...maybe cuz i log in chat daily...still felt super stupid when i realised i was replying to bots. :)
I dont look on steem with the same pink shades but cant say I really given up on it. I'm still here am I not? :)
I'm not going anywhere either.
I'll continue grinding the way I have been, it's actually a little easier now that I can watch the spectacle without getting mired down in it.
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I actually thought this could happen from the start... I can't think of how steemit can maintain a long term benefit for every current whale, and every new whale in the next 10 years!!
for now, steemit is a good blogging platform for me, so I'll just.... enjoy the ~flow~
For one thing you have to remember (and this was also pointed out to me) that Steemit is still in Beta right now.
I'm enjoying my time here immensely, any monetary reward is just icing on the cake.
totally agree
I am really enjoying my time here on Steemit-- blogging regularly for the first time in 12 years, occasionally getting a small payout or two; we even managed to buy a pair of new tires for one of our cars.
I'm not ever going to have a "buttload" of Steem, but I do care about the Steemit community enough that I would like to see it live on long enough for me to at least attempt to have a buttload of Steem.... $5 a post worth till the year 2040. My point being that I care about the likes of @dwinblood, @paulag and others who are trying to shine some light on the layers of much around here.
My objectives are really quite simple: "I want Steemit to survive and grow."
Me too.
What concerns me is the heat that @dwinblood draws when he asks uncomfortable questions. "Transparency" seems to have different meanings depending on how much ca$h & influence you have.
@theblindsquirl got you a $1.93 @minnowbooster upgoat, nice! (Image: pixabay.com)
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