So where does the value for Steem or bitcoin come from? What is the point of all this?

When I talk about steem to people, they look at me like I have two heads.  How can a string of zeros and ones have value?  Where does the 'money' come from within the cryptocurrencies?  I wrote about money about a month ago and it is important to be familiar with the terminology as this topic has many different forms of money & currencies.  

My Oxford dictionary defines value in this context as:

The relative status of a thing, or the estimate in which it is held, according to its real or supposed worth, usefulness, or importance.

Throughout history, we have used shells, beads, stones, tally sticks, metals, paper and even electrons to represent value.  Some are defined as real money, paper money and even fiat currency.  Now we have a new one called cryptocurrency which is essentially a string of characters encrypted using algorithms to ensure that they are not stolen or duplicated.  Each of these different forms had value at one point or another.  

The value comes not from the item itself but from our impression or evaluation of its worth, usefulness or importance.  With value represented by physical objects like gold or silver, the value is found in the amount of work it took to find and then mine those metals, making them precious in the eyes of many.  It took a LOT of work to get them info a form that we could use as 'real money'.  They still have value because they would still work as money even when the power goes out.  

With fiat currency, the value was created when the state dictated that the only way to pay taxes was with their currency.  Even though the currency is debt based and they can print as much as they want, people were forced through coercion to accept the debt based fiat currency.  Inflation and usury has been used for thousands of years to steal from people and fiat currency made that process even easier.  That is why the implied wealth of the world is in the hands of a few and many go hungry, homeless, etc.  Poverty continues due to the concepts and principles established by the king under coercion and force.  It is these principles that I have outlined in detail throughout my blog.  

With cryptocurrencies, the value is found in the amount of work done just as work was required to get the gold and silver.  With bitcoins the work is done by rows and rows of computers, chewing on computer algorithms to find new tokens out of a limited pool.  This ensures that no one individual or central authority can print more, devaluing the currency as we witness with fiat currency.  

The thing I like about Steem is that the work is done by humans in their artful expression.  It is a renaissance of sorts as it is helping us get out of the dark ages of fiat currency, coercion and violence.  We love to create and there is value in that creation.  We have always valued music, art, meaningful writings, sharing of ideas, concepts, freedom and peaceful ways of life.  All those have value to us because they are useful, important and worth while to our way of life.  Much like food, clothing, shelter, water and air!  

So when we find something that is worth while to us, we vote on it to reflect the value we have in that expression.  The currency is created by us voting when we see value and importance.  That vote rewards the artist and the curator as both are important.  If there is nobody to enjoy or see value in the art form, then the value is limited to the artist.  But when the art form is seen and enjoyed by many, then true value is created.  That is why it is so important to vote, even if your vote is only worth a penny.  Vote!

The beautiful thing about this model is that the value is created with tangible, useful information or ideas, rather than debt, promissory notes or I.O.U.'s.  The algorithms ensure that the currency does not get watered down which would cause inflation and covertly steel value from the participants.  

In the end, every currency in the history of the world needed people to accept them and find value in them.  As fiat currencies struggle with the debt load and the covert theft of value as a result of the greed of the elite, people struggle with the burden of debt.  It is the debt that will entice people to find another alternative.  Steem is not a debt based currency from what I've found.  Its value is created by the very individuals involved with the currency and by those who value the creative genius of the individuals who choose to create art forms and meaningful content.  

It is important that we acknowledge that our contributions and creative genius is what brings value to this currency.  The only reason people value the plastic fiat Canadian, US or European currencies is because the majority of people accept them for the basic necessities of life through coercion and force.  That is changing and we see it as people are flooding over to the cryptocurrencies.

But what happens when people can provide for their basic necessities of life?  Their dependency on the currency falls significantly.  Like ourselves, our dependency dropped from about $6000 per month 11 years ago to about $750 per month.  That is a significant drop.  Our goal is to get it down to zero.  That is proving difficult without us completely withdrawing and disappearing in the bush.  

That won't serve us or anybody else, so we choose to stay connected so that we can still interact with people like yourselves.  Being on a platform that creates value by the work of individuals rather than being dictated by a centralized authority removes the control from that authority and puts it back into the hands of the individual where it belongs.  

That, in my opinion, is what give cryptocurrencies their value which multiplies the value of the art by 10 fold.  Make no mistake, the greatest value still rests in having a relationship with Mother Earth and being independent so that we can take care of our own needs.  That will always be the top priority and duty of each individual.   Cryptocurrencies are still dependent on electricity, computer hardware, telecommunications, developers and participants.  There are some vulnerabilities that are being worked on.  But we should never lose site of the physical relationships and use the tools like Cryptocurrencies to help get our independence established so that we can then venture into inter-independent relationships.  That has the GREATEST value.  Life here is ALL about relationships!  Money is only a tool and we should never loose sight of that fact.  Greed can grip us here as well.  

I choose to remain focused on my relationships and I'll let the cryptocurrency take care of itself and use it to help others as the vast majority of my needs are already met.  My goal is to help people become independent from the violent, coercive systems so that we can find peace and prosperity with all our relationships!