So, like many others, up until now Steemit has somehow managed to go under my radar, not completely, I did notice it, but I did not really look into it as I am wholeheartedly interested in Bitcoin.
However, after looking at Steemit more closely, browsing the website, signing up and just generally thinking about what Steemit has the potential to distrupt, I had a lightbulb moment, actually, quite a few lightbulb moments! There are a number of reasons why I am taking a shining to Steemit, firstly the potential profit I can get from being part of Steemit, but more importantly is the ability to make Social Media great in this time of meaningless dribble that we see so much of on the likes of Facebook and Co. and steer social media back onto a path where everyone has the incentive to contriute useful content as well as useful feedback. This is my Steemit post :)
There are many things that Steemit has the ability to do on just so many different levels, when I try to think about it all, my mind just starts to short out. In my mind this is a good thing. So instead of trying to think about it all I though I would write it down and share it with the community to further explore the possibilities. . .
But at the heart of it all, basically, what Steemit has managed to do is completely turn social networks and blogging sites on their heads! This is something that will change this space forever and will give power back to the people who actually post interesting and useful content and take power away from corporations and thus sharing the fruits of the success of the platform with the people who actually give the platform it's appeal and contribute to it's growth. This is what social networks should be, where the users have a vested interest in the growth of the platform and have an interest in seeing it succeed.
Blogging/Posting Content
Paying users for thier content is just an amazing concept, it gets rid of the need to rely on advertisers in order to earn profit, but then a gain, the platform does not even need to earn profit! It's decentralised and the users themselves give the platform value! Steemit has the potential to draw in user bases from facebook, Twitter Reddit, WordPress and just so many more. It has the ability to be Facebook/Twitter, Quora/Reddit etc. all in one space as there is a financial incentive for the users to use the platform along with the assumption that comments/conversation will be above par as people are incentivised to leave thoughtful and constructive comments. Above this, as Steemit becomes more and more popular, the audience will become much larger giving the bloggers/posters, the ability to reach more people and to also potentially earn more profit from their stories, blogs,posts etc. It's a win,win.
Appealing to the Masses
As a social network, well, most people on the planet are on Facebook. People know what a social network is and know how to use them. Not so many people know how to use Bitcoin.
Try getting someone to create a wallet on blockchain.org or any of the other wallets. yes they might create one, and then what? Unless you really look into what Bitcoin is and how it works and what it could do for you, most people I have spoken to would not go past this point as to go past this point, one has to aquire bitcoin. and then, once they get some, then what do they do with it? Most people acquire bitcoin for longterm speculation.
Enter Steemit.
"Hey, you can earn money using this social network just by posting interesting content". Job Done. People can use the platform just like they use facebook, ok, it's early days and Steem hasnt yet got all of the functionality of facebook, the point is is that people can use it from the moment they sign up, even you Grandma can use it comfortably, and essentially, understand it. Post good stuff, get paid money. And once people start using it and seeing the potential financial benefits of using it along with really feeling like they are making a contribution to the platform, they will most probably use it it often. So essentially, it's user base is potentially limitless, adding that there is no other platform out there that does what Steemit does, pay its users for using the platform.
Remittance
Sending Bitcoin to anyone can be a little problematic if they do't really know what Bitcoin is, don't have a wallet, and dont know how to cash out the bitcoin. Now I'm not saying that Steemit solves this problem right now, but the thing is, it could in the future. Facebook have been looking for a way to integrate payments into thier platform where people can send money to one another easily and safely, but at the end of the day, the foundation that Facebook is built on is just not built for this kind of thing as it is just not secure enough, there would be too many liability issues for them to implement it, at leat thats what i believe. Steemit is built for this and is built solidly. Created by the same devs that created Bitshares, you know that things in this department are pretty water-tight, might be a couple of teething problemsa t the beginning but ultimately the platform is built around making a decentralised and secure payment system.
Now, with this being said, the local currency of Steemit is easily transferable to anyone with zero fees. If i wanted to send someone on steemit some money, I can do that easily, I find their profile and can send them money in an instant, no need to search for any wallet address, no need to make sure I put in the address details correctly, its as easy as send a message to someone on Facebook messenger. Effortless. As Bitcoin continues its growth, converting Bitcoin to your local curreny will be come easier and easier so converting any Steem will become equally as easy, convert to Bitcoin and cash out.
But there is also the possibility that steem could be accepted as settlement of payment in the future, as a lot of steem is locked in as steem power, the likelihood of huge drops in price are limited which means that the price should remain fairly stable, and more likely to increase as the adoption becomes stronger, so, why wouldn't this crypto-currency become accepted as a form of payment by merchants?
If this happens, then not only will the marketcap steadily grow, bringing profits to the users but it can be a place that could almost replace google as a home page. imagine, you have your Steemit account, you have your friends and family on Steemit, you can send money to your friends and family, but what if Amazon and ebay accepted Steem one day? Yes, I'm looking a little way down the road, but if Steem does manage to get widespread adoption, itwill be in thier interests to do so. need to buy a birthday present for your Mum? okay go onto Amazon, find what you need, click to buy, pay with steem, get redirected to Steem, send to 'Mum' in your contact list, and then one click payment. Done. in the future people will be be able to list their address if they so wished so doing something like this could be quite possible.
Now I might be getting ahead of myself here, but this is where I see something such as Steemit going. It has the ability to grow exponentially as it is just so easily understandable to use by the masses and the use cases are quite simply limitless. The Amazon use case I mentioned is just one Dapp that could be built on top of the platform, even if Amazon didnt accept Steem, there would be a way around this in the future as crypto is only just getting started and now that blockchain tech is being taken seriously by the the big guys, this is not as far fetched as it sounds.
Advertisers can Pay Me!! So the Advertisement had better be a good one!
Okay, so being decentraised means that nobody really controls the platform. So how do advertisers get a piece of prime real estate on this groundbreaking platform? Currently, the owners of the platform would make $$$ by selling advertising space to the advertisers. Not anymore.
I dont know if this will ever come to pass on Steem, but lets just say that someone wanted to avdvertise on Steem, who would they approach? Why, they would need to approach the user of course! Not only do usres of Steem have the ability of making money from the content that they post, but for the first time ever, advertisers would need to pay the user to put their advert in their post. So if a popular blogger with a huge following wanted to make more money, they could accept adverts and get paid for listing adverts in their posts. Now you might be thinking, hang on a minute, we dont want adverts here, if this was the case, the people voting for the content would let the user know and if the user was too heavy on posting third party adverts in his post, their up voting would suffer and so would get less revenue from their content, thus self-moderating the amount of advertising users could get away with having in their blogs as the user would have to consider what the audience was saying as thier profit would be directly affected by this.
This is just some of the stuff that has been flying around in my head ever since I found out about Steemit, which is a couple of days ago. I'm sure there will be more in the days to come. I would be very interested in hearing back from people if they have any thoughts on the points I touched on in this post.
Steemit has really got me excited, I like the concept and am looking forward to seeing Steemit grow.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and hope to hear what your thoughts are!