Steemit's Only Problem: Whales (And Others) Acting Like Banksters

I will start out by saying that not all Whales are like this. In fact, many are the exact opposite. At the same time, this mindset/behavior is not exclusive to the Whales. It exists at every level, thus must be pointed out.

Over the past couple months I defended the Whales from what I perceive as unfair attacks. Much of this is done, in my view, out of jealousy. That said, there are a few things I want to bring up that go counter to what I believe the Steem blockchain is all about.

My last few posts had "Sharing is Caring" in the title. I believe this is the main tenet on this site. Ultimately, this can start at the bottom but it is much easier when it starts at the top. Some might take offense to this but I learned long ago that at times we just have to let the chips fall as they may.

Jamie Dimon gets blasted on this site, usually for valid reasons. Make no mistake, I think Dimon and his elitist bankster buddies are the scum of the Earth. For decades these people enriched themselves while enslaving others. The fiat based system is what puts the power in their hands. They can print up money while putting onerous terms on anyone who doesn't have said money. Failure to pay and they take your stuff while screwing up your credit for 7-10 years (which messes up your prospects for most anything financial).

What is a damn shame is to see people on here who rail against the likes of Dimon doing the same thing. In fact, compared to some of these people, Dimon is a generous guy.

For the past few weeks I pointed out the actions of @fulltimegeek, @stellabelle, and @wwf. Each of them delegated substantial amounts of SP (more than 50%) that was in their accounts. What is heartwarming about this is that they did it without charge.

Sadly, while this behavior is not the norm, there are other examples. @ned delegated 500K to utopian.io to help further their cause of open source work. From what I read, someone delegated 1M SP to D.Tube to assist in their voting power in an effort to lure users away from YouTube. It is my understanding that each of these transactions comes without strings.

In my view, each of these 5 examples shows the new way of thinking. They are not looking at their ROI (a bankster term). Instead, they are looking at the growth of the ecosystem and what it provides to the users on here. Each is trying to develop this blockchain through the people (whether it be developers or content creators).

Now let us compare that to what we see so common on here. There is a practice called leasing SP. What happens here is people will "rent" out steem power to someone in an effort to create a ROI. Do you see a different mindset from the one exhibited by @fulltimegeek, @ned, and the others?

The problem with this practice is that, no matter how you dress it up, it is still banking 101. Entities that rent out money do not collect rent, they collect interest. And the entities that rent out money are called banks.

Ironic, that people on here complain about Dimon yet have no problem becoming the bank themselves.

But wait it gets even better.

At least with Dimon, I can get a decent interest rate. If my credit is good, I can get money from him at 5%-9% depending upon the type of loan. I see some "leasing" out SP for 15 per 1000 SP...or 1.5%. The only challenge is this amount is monthly. That is 18% annual interest. WTF...I do better than that on my credit card.

Damn, ole Jamie would be proud. So would the loansharks in the neighborhood I grew up in.

I am not a religious man but I believe the term in one of those books is "usury". What is ironic is I was able to uncover two people who are doing this posting Bible quotes in the religion/scripture section. I have news for them, if what their book says is true, their Lord has a place for them for all eternity....just be sure to bring sunblock.

Why do people do this? What are they so set being what they despise? I mean honestly, the past 20 years makes it very difficult to defend bankers in any manner. Obviously, they are conditioned to get all they can and squeeze every dime out of a situation they can.

Everyone who reads my posts knows exactly where I feel STEEM will be in a year. Someone with 30K+ STEEM is going to be very well off at the time. Even if I am only 50% right, that is still a crapload of money. Now, I do not besmirch someone becoming wealthy, or making as much as they can. I do not believe in caps or limits.

That said, let us suppose someone has 500K. At the moment, that is roughly $1M. For example sake, we are going to presume that person wants $10M or a ten fold increase. I have no problem with that. At 18% annually, it will take roughly 4+ years to double the money. That is a sensational return. This is the approach of the bankers, they focus upon how long it takes to double their money.

Of course, they are not concerned about an ecosystem and what happens to the dollar. I am going to presume that people on here care about the price of STEEM.

Now the $1M will also turn into $10M if the price of STEEM goes to $20 (a no brainer in my opinion). Naturally, there are many variables of what drives the price of STEEM up (or down). However, let us presume that, at some point, what is occurring on the blockchain and the user base ties into that a great deal.

So let me ask you, what will enhance the ecosystem more, putting money out there to try to get an ROI or empowering people to dedicate themselves to moving forward? Some might say, why not do both?

My answer to that is look @fulltimegeek and the results he has. I use him as an example because I was delegated SP by him plus I know he is monitoring weekly what is being done with the 350K he put out there.

At 1.5% a month, @fulltimegeek is "sacrificing" 5250 in SP interest (I am sorry "rent") a month. Over the course of a year, that is a lot of money. Or is it?

He delegated SP to roughly 25 people. Personally, I know I am upvoting a few hundred different people a week. I do not know the average but lets say 100 people are touched by each of the 25, that is 2500 people or basically 10% of the active daily user base.

Of course, there are conditions that he set forth. When one "rents" STEEM, the only condition is to "pay me". You can not even log on for all I care as long as you pay me. As long as I profit, who cares?

@fulltimegeek's conditions aren't financial, nor are they difficult. His sole condition is someone has to be using the SP each day. People who maintain 100% VP are not fulfilling the terms and subject to having the SP revoked. He basically is pushing people to touch 100 people a month with his SP.

So, what is going to affect the blockchain more, someone getting 1.5% on the SP or @fulltimegeek essentially "employing" 25 people to go out and positively impact, motivate, and upvote 10% of the active user database? Of course, none of this takes into account the other users who are impacted as the second and third generation of all these upvotes.

Here is the major difference:

When I "rent" SP, I am concerned what I get out of it. I need to upvote in a manner that pays me. It is a business transaction and I am forced to look at my own ROI. The one delegating the SP to me could care less if I profit as long as the rent is paid. Therefore, so they do not "foreclose" with penalty, I need to look out for my own return.

Under the scenario that @fulltimegeek set up, there is no ROI pressure because there is no monetary contract. Spend the VP that comes with the SP each day...that is the condition. That said, I can tell you from experience that there is a feeling of responsibility that comes along with that SP. I believe the spiritual/religious circles call it being a "good steward". I am entrusted with SP to try and improve this site. To do that, I need to support and upvote others. That is how stewardship in this arena works.

To me, that is the banker versus non-banker.

Too much of the first and we will see 6 cent STEEM again.....a boatload of the second, $100 STEEM is in the sights.

Now that I wrote all this, is there ever a reason to "rent" Steem Power? My answer is yes and I found a couple of examples.

The first is @cryptoctopus. He is a Whale which means he most likely know what he is doing. I am not going to try and relay what he is doing, I will let his own words tell the story:

I bought almost 200,000 SteemPower in Delegation From BlockTrades . You've read that right! I will double my SP so that my upvote on your thoughtful comment is worth 2X as much as it is right now. I figured that with the SBD being that high, it would be a great help for my followers to get extra $$$ from their comments.

I hope you will join my fanbase. I will admit, this is not 100% altruistic. I sure think it's cool that I will finally be able to reward my most engaged followers with a generous upvote. I'm sure it will make a big different for them. It's also important to spread the STEEM around to the most amount of people as possible. But I'm also motivated by the fact that as I get my fans to get more and more SteemPower, their upvote will be worth more and more on my post over time. It's a Win/Win after all.

For full story:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@cryptoctopus/a-special-something-my-most-engaged-followers-i-hope-other-whales-will-do-this-too

@cryptoctopus decided to rent 200K SP to upvote his loyal followers in an effort to increase their SP. Obviously, Jamie Dimon would not be very happy with this approach which means that @cryptoctopus is a non-banker Whale.

The other is @jerrybanfield. He posted a couple weeks back that anyone who used his name in the tag section would make his voting bot and receive an upvote. This was open and free to anyone. Since that time, he ceased the free and started charging. Ergo, @jerrybanfield is charging for upvotes (another for of leasing). So why do I mention this?

Some time ago, @jerrybanfield had the idea of setting up a budget to fund new projects that benefit the steem blockchain. He believes that people should be able to submit ideas for funding, whether they are for development or marketing, in an effort to receive monies set aside for said purposes. Since I presume the idea didn't go anywhere, he decided to fund it through his voting bot.

Here is the story:

https://steemit.com/budget/@jerrybanfield/promote-steem-posts-and-fund-budget-proposals-with-our-voting-bot

In the first 36 hours, there were 300 SBD raised which was allocated in full. Here is the story of who it went to:

https://steemit.com/budget/@steempunknet/steempunk-net-mmorpg-on-the-steem-blockchain-already-in-open-beta-testing-attracting-players-from-outside-steem

Once again, since @jerrybanfield didn't directly profit, Jamie Dimon would be disappointed.

Nevertheless, I believe that the actions by @cryptoctopus and @jerrybanfield are going to help this blockchain and, ultimately, the price of STEEM. Their returns will be much greater since they are focused upon the ecosystem and the people in it.

Blockchain is going to destroy the banksters. Therefore, we need to stop this insistent need to behave like banksters ourselves and bring that onto the blockchain.

It seems to me the Whales I mentioned on here understand the new paradigm. I can only hope others will follow.

If your found this article helpful, please give it an upvote and resteem.

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