A Case of Discovery: Steemit & Dtube! A New Home for Networking? Published 1/31/18. Ignore the Irony. Feel Free to Comment. (Stay Tuned for follow up in April 2nd!)
Two Way Sun was recently able to upload "2018 Predictions: The Positive, The Negative & The Remarkable" which was a rundown of many of the social, political and economic phenomena of recent years (namely 2017) and predictions of what is to come in 2018. Unfortunately, something seems to have slipped under our nose for years and we were lucky to discover it in time before it explodes. What we have found is a little known social networking website called Steemit and its spunky sidekick Dtube a decentralized Youtube competitor.
You are likely thinking we have seen Facebook and Youtube competitors before. The sheer quantity over quality aspects of these industry leaders has made them almost untouchable. The only thing that could possibly compete is something that completely avoids a direct competition by promising such quality that it is unheard of in social media and video sharing sites. Why should these be different? The answer sounds underwhelming unless the brilliance is explained to you and if you have not heard of Steemit, this is probably one factor as to why.
Steemit rewards all participants with a cryptocurrency called Steem Dollars that are easily redeemed for real dollars. Simply posting, liking and sharing on these sites will mean you are entitled to a share of the blockchain that makes up the site and some currency. This is much more brilliant than one might quickly understand.
Let us examine the industries and their individual problems and how they are handled by Steemit:
1: Social Media:
If you are already doing something productive with your time, effort can be applied to use these sites productively and positively.
However for the average person these sites exist purely for the sake of entertainment and represent a significant waste of time and memory.
- Video Sharing:
For the average person, video sharing sites are at best a fun diversion.
However, if you are a creator, you need a significant audience before you start getting paid and if you speak about anything of political or social significance you may be demonetized for the sake of political correctness.
- Cryptocurrency:
Unregulated though it may be, it is still just a fiat currency. It has no value outside of the supply and demand of an idea, which is literally unpredictable in its best case scenario and could potentially flop entirely if invalidated by something else.
Lastly, you need money or hardware to invest in cryptocurrency. There is the equivalent of penny stocks but considering how erratic it has been lately I am not sure anyone questioning their financial situation should invest now.
How can all these issues be handled by Steemit? Here are some explanations:
Your social media activities which usually have no productive effect whatsoever are now essentially internet real estate claims.
Every video on Dtube is incentivized to be valuable. That means everything you watch will likely be held to a high quality even while you are rewarded in cryptocurrency for your interactions.
Unlike most other cryptocurrencies, Steem dollars are not purely fiat because they actually represent work, interest and a personal share in Steemit and Dtube itself. You are treated as a shareholder rather than an employee and the instability of fiat is almost completely nullified.
Steemit was started in 2016 and participation is still free. I for one will take advantage of this opportunity and hope Steemit and Dtube represents a new even more interactive media world. It won't be easy to tear people away from the giants like Youtube and Facebook but if you remember what happened with Myspace you will know... If enough influential people move on. no one will have to.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/steemit-new-social-media-platform-which-pays-you-to-post
https://news.bitcoin.com/steemit-pays-users-massive-growth/
https://www.investopedia.com/news/steemit-disruptive-blockchainbased-media-community/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/steemit-website-hacked-ceo-promises-to-reset-accounts-in-48-hours