The Steemit and Steem Economy is WORKING! And a Shoutout and Thanks to @steembay and @rheteric!

Whereas I am definitely a big fan of cryptocurrencies, I am particularly interested in currencies you can "do" something with, other than just trade as an investment.

I believe Steemit-- and the underlying Steem token -- is uniquely positioned to develop an actual economy, including internal peer-to-peer marketplaces. This, in turn, will benefit everyone in the long term: With an actual economic reason to exist, the Steem token will be head and shoulders above most other coins, and thus look attractive to external investors, which will cause the price of Steem to rise.

@SteemBay and Developing a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace

Because of my enthusiasm for developing commerce within the Steemit Community-- that is, trading goods and services without having to "go external" to either fiats, or using Bitcoin as an "intermediate" currency-- I was thrilled when Hive account@schererf and Hive account@pollux.one announced the Hive account@steembay initiative last year.

@steembay is basically an auction/for sale utility bot in the manner of eBay, except it runs within the confines of the Steemit ecosystem, and payment is in SBD... so it's an opportunity to actually use your SBD for something other than buying Steem or BTC! In many ways, it has to potential to become like eBay was, back when it was cool... in the late 1990s when it was almost exclusively used by individuals trading collectibles and art with each other.

To learn more about Steembay, there's both the original introductory post, as well as a quick tutorial. To see what other people are offering, visit @steembay and click on the most recent "Daily Report of Steembay" post... or you can simply click on the#steembay tag, anywhere you come across it!  

So I Tried SteemBay-- and it WORKED!

Naturally, I had to "put my money where my mouth was," and support these good folks who were developing a commerce base.

My first attempt didn't go so well, but that was really nobody's fault.

I listed my first item for sale in December of 2017, and it just happened to be at the time where SBD suddenly took off from about $1.00 each to about $8.00 each! Naturally, not a lot of people were interested in bidding on an item whose price increased eight-fold in the course of a 7-day listing!

As I said, it was nobody's fault.

When the markets settled a bit, I decided to try again. 

My second attempt-- listed on January 21st and ended on January 28th-- was a success! Several people placed bids, and the Hive account@steembay bid bot flawlessly kept track of the bidding and declared a final winner when the post expired after seven days.

After the Auction Ended

The whole process was very easy and painless. 

A quick dialogue between myself and eventual winner Hive account@rheteric followed in the post comments; payment was made through FREE and almost INSTANT wallet transfer (try THAT on eBay and PayPal!); I got Hive account@rheteric's address information through an encrypted wallet memo, and that was all there was to it!

Then all I had to do was box up the item (one of my painted mandala stones) and mail it to Switzerland. About a week later, the box arrived at its destination.

Too experience "the other end" of the transaction, I encourage you to read the "Unboxing Experience" as Hive account@rheteric describes it in his post! 

Needless to say, we a both fans of SteemBay and will continue to use-- and encourage others to use-- Steemit as a way to trade with fellow Steemians.

Some Nice Features You Just Don't Get Elsewhere...

There were a few things about this transaction that sets it apart from other experiences I have had with peer-to-peer selling online-- and I say this as a 20-year veteran on using eBay, as well as later marketplaces.

First, everything is recorded on the blockchain. So you can always refer back to what happened. But beyond that, everything relating to a transaction is stored in one place: The item, the bidding, communication between buyer and seller, payment.

Fee free and immediate. As I mentioned previously, we're transacting on the fastest blockchain around. And it's free. Selling is free-- no eBay fees; payment is free-- no PayPal fees. Honesty is encouraged because someone not fulfilling their end of the deal will also be permanently recorded on the blockchain. If you get "black marks," odds are people won't trust you again.

Helping out far away buyers. Hive account@rheteric lives in Switzerland; I live in the USA. Postage across the Atlantic is not exactly cheap, which might discourage some potential buyers. However, I was able to upvote several of Hive account@rheteric's "bid comments" to help offset the 2.00 SBD postage costs I charged. Of course, that's totally optional-- I just chose to do so as a courtesy. 

In Conclusion: I Will Definitely Use @SteemBay Again!

And I would encourage you to try it, as well! 

We're still in the early stages of building a "Steem Economy" here, and the system remains under development. However, there have already been quite a few successful transactions for art, coins, services and other things.

A Steem Economy will only come about if we use the features of the site, in this case Hive account@steembay. I personally like the auction format which allows potential buyers to set the price by bidding-- in a sense, a variation of arriving at a consensus about something's value.

There are several other initiatives also working on the marketplace angle: Hive account@steemgigs, which is more service than product oriented; Hive account@steemshop, which is a fixed-price market of both goods and services; Hive account@happyme's "The Happy Store" initiative, and long-time contender Peerhub which is outside the Steemit community but none-the-less accepts Steem and SBD as forms of payment. 

How About YOU? Have you used any of Steemit's "commerce" initiatives? Do you think you are likely to? Do you think it would be a positive for the Steemit community to have a fully functional peer-to-peer marketplace? Do you like the idea of "fee free" online trading? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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Created at 180212 21:48 PST