After joining Steem and being very keen to invest some cash in such promising platform I very quickly came across a stumbling block.
Buying Steem with Paypal is almost impossible. This represents a large hurdle. It holds back the accessibility of Steem and therefore holds back the platform. Bitcoin is tricky too. Unless you're a real 'techie' getting involved with any crypto currency takes a newbie very far out of their comfort zone. This represents another large hurdle.
So how do we get over these hurdles?
We can try and see if something comes along to help us.
Wait for a new Crypto wallet?
Ask a Crypto dealer to open a market for us for a hefty commission?
Or even wait to see whether Paypal implement something which will help us. But why would they do something to help a competitor?
No. We go back to first principles and we do it ourselves.
So, first principles of trade: barter, and the solution to the problems of barter.
In the very olden days people would swap things they had for things they needed. There was no other medium of exchange. Bartering was the only market. But eventually every society would realise that this was an inefficient and time consuming way to do things. If you had a pig and wanted a selection of smaller things you would have to work out a complicated trade deal to get these things unless the person you were swapping with held them all.
One solution to this problem is currency. A way to convert everything that has value so it can be measured against everything else which has value. But we already have that. It's just that the market it prohibitively difficult to access the market.
So let's use that idea but go another route. Instead of a market we use escrow. A trusted person takes control of whatever we want to swap and adjudicates, completing the trade only when both parties are happy. This could be done publicly, within the Steem platform.
There is one glaring issue. Paypal payments can be recalled. But if they are charity donations they cannot.
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/About-Payments-Archive/Can-I-refund-if-I-send-a-donation-to-someone/td-p/606569
So what I envisage is an escrow service run by a trusted Steem member where small amount paypal donations can be made to the Steem platform. It will be taken on trust that each donation is 'extremely likely' to result in an equal donation of Steem being sent the opposite way. The entire process would be absolutely public and absolutely transparent and the Steem techies can invest the paypal funds in the the Steem platform and thus boost the concept.
If you think this idea has potential and would like me to go into further detail please consider upvoting and resteeming...
Please also feel free to comment.
Let's make this happen and get paypal under our wing my new Steembuddies!