Extending Steem and Steemit into the real world

Being fascinated with the whole concept behind Steem and Steemit, I felt inspired to explore other possibilities with it that exceed its current application within the blog. Laying in my bed last nigh feeling rather sleepless, I decided to let my mind wander freely. This morning, I figured it wasn’t a bad idea to visualise and share some of the concepts I came up with that incorporate Steem and Steemit. So have a look below at some of the ideas I came up with and let me know what you think yourself. Hopefully we can get a good discussion started.

Steem tipping card

The first idea that manifested itself in my mind was a Steem-based payment card, specificially aimed at distributing small amounts of currency in the real world. This ‘Steem tipping card’ could be used to pay for goods and services which are relatively low-cost such as making payments in restaurants and bars, hotels, taxi fares and so on to organisations that accept Steem currency. The main idea is that there is a physical card connected to the blockchain which can be used to give out small amounts of Steem when a service or consumption of some kind was experienced as positive. The owner of the card could then for example be asked to blog or review the subject of the payment within Steemit.

Concept art:

Steemit ‘mobile like application’

So playing around with this idea was getting me quite excited, and urged me to explore the possibility of the card being connected to a mobile application. This connection made the following question pop up in my head; ‘Could Steem in the future be used to distribute amounts of currency without a card to specific users that you meet in real life by means of a mobile application?’ For example, when you find yourself having a good conversation or positive discussion with a friend or you learn something valuable from another Steem-user in the real world, the Steem app would enable you to award them for their pleasant company or useful knowledge by giving them a ‘real life like’. The level of tipping would be the same as it is on Steemit, but would extend the scope from ‘just online’ to the real world. The application lets you add the Steemit user, and from there on you are able to make Steem transactions to this person as well as following their actions and posts within Steemit.

Concept art:

Steem ‘IoT (internet of things) economy’

When there would be a Steem payment method available in the real world such as described in the examples above, maybe we could also invent and create an ‘internet of things’ economic model based on Steem currency and payments. As an example of such a self sustaining economic model I thought about a simple vending machine that distributes soft drinks. Would it be possible in the future that such a machine would accept payments with Steem currency (like with the card or application as talked about) when you would want to buy a drink at it? The vending machine would automatically register, buy and order its stock with Steem currency at the supplier. Real time data analysis would even enable the owner of the machine to measure the efficiency of the machine and be able to move it to another location if sales were not high enough. This is just a small example of how an infrastructure based on cryptocurrency like Steem would be self sustaining and more efficient then what we have today.

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Crazy or what?

These were just some small examples of the possibilities I explored for extending Steem and Steemit into the real world. I understand and know they are far from perfect but I hope they make you think for yourself about this subject. Hopefully we can get a good discussion started in the comments below and explore this topic together. I’m curious to find out what you think.

@spectral i used your'e symbol designs if you don't mind