I read a post an hour or two ago from 
This means that I have powered up some percentage of the SBD gains. But, I have also used some of the earnings to diversify and hold some other coins including XMR, BAT, XEL, Smoke, Enjin, TRX, EOS, Iota and a few others. Unlike many though, I have never taken anything out to Fiat and never bought anything with crypto. Still though, it is pretty amazing and one day I hope that I will actually feel the benefits, like
Now, I don't actually have figures on this but, the Steem Blockchain has distributed a massive amount of Steem and SBD to many different users over the last 2+ years of its existence. Sure, it could be wider, have less high peaks and the mining debacle at the start could have been avoided but still, it has provided many with additional income of some sort.
What I am wondering though is what people have done with it. Yes, there are the people who have bought food or scooters, a beer or a block of land like 
If for example we took a baseline number of 100 million dollars worth of Steem over the last two years, what has been generated on top of that through the way it has been used? Remember that this is essentially money out of thin air but when used, it will go into real people's pockets, businesses, other coins. Those other coins for example may be up quite a lot. What about all of those people that took their Steem and bought Ethereum at 10 dollars and held (current price ~490), or EOS at 50 cents (current price ~10). What is the value of that 100 million worth of Steem now?
Considering that people here should on average be investment minded and investments are meant to grow over time, it is possible that people have made significant value gains on top of their Steem holdings. People seem to forget this part of the equation as Steem prices fall as for the most part for the holder of alt coins at least, it will likely still have created larger values than it took to obtain.
The people who have sold out of Steem completely but hold a lot of EOS for example should be very, very thankful to how they were able to obtain it as for most in this Steem world, it would be nearly impossible for them to have the investments and things they do if it wasn't for Steem providing for it. Some of these people who have complained about earning so little now are going to be millionaires if they have invested it well. This is not true for those who only bought food or material items but, at least they got some food and had some fun that they wouldn't have had otherwise.
People tend to look at what is happening on-platform but fail to recognize what is happening off-platform because of Steem. There are people investing like myself who doesn't have the possibilities otherwise, there are people able to pay rents, bills, groceries, medical treatment and there are people helping children get educated. It is really easy to get lost in the shit of Steem and forget that there is a lot of value added that we never really see.
Perhaps it is because I haven't used any of it personally or, because I am looking as long as I can hoping that this will amount to something hugely beneficial for me and many, that I tend to get lost in the everyday shit also. At the moment though, I am getting crushed so hard in the real world that I have to seriously consider selling my holdings to cover it but, even with this, I do have some holdings because of Steem. Without it, where is my fallback position? More debt.
I don't mind people using their Steem as it is theirs after all but I hope that people seriously consider the opportunity to invest into their own future and give themselves a chance to have a decent sized nest egg at some point or, have a safety net to fall back on if life's crush gets too intense. At the end of the day, the people here on Steem should spend a little time being grateful to have an opportunity to make their lives, and the lives of others fundamentally better both now and potentially massively in the future.
In all, Steem has already created a lot more value and cumulative improvement of life than any government could do with the same amount of value and that is something that people really need to consider for the future. The future isn't going to be in Fiat and begging governments to lower taxes or increase welfare payments; it is going to be in communities working together for each other and developing their own social currencies, crypto.
That takes individuals to opt into being a part of a community and pulling their weight though, not relying on authorities to grant their wishes.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Note: I do not know if