There is a fundamental premise that those who achieve wealth use: they put their money to work for them.
While there are some who get wealthy through their incomes, most do it by putting the money they earned to work. This is where investment is a major part of wealth building. People use stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate as a means to achieve this end. Whatever the vehicle, the premise is the same.
We are seeing something similar emerge on Steem. Since the beginning, staking was a way to grow one's account. By powering up, one was supporting the platform which also provided a return. To start, there is the inflation rate that is paid out to stakeholders who power up. Second, the increase in voting power enables one have more influence on the platform, this increasing the payouts from the reward pool. Finally, the ability to delegate enabled people to be compensated in either more STEEM or, as of late, in native tokens for different applications.
This idea is expanding. We are seeing a lot of other opportunities adopting a similar concept.
https://steempeak.com/smt/@dlike/dlike-staking-live-dlike-sponsor-report-46
One thing that I wanted to draw everyone's attention to is the return that is being offered here. By staking one's tokens for 180 days, he or she can earn the equivalent of 50% APR on your money. That is an astounding return. How long do you think it would take you to become very wealthy if you were earning 50% on your money in the markets?
People often wonder, how is any of this possible?
The idea of staking is a very basic function that serves a major purpose: it buys time.
When one's stakes his or her holdings, it is a sign of support for the project. Using Dlike as the example, in this instance there is a 25% return for 6 months. At present, the platform is on version 2.0 with the third version being rolled out soon. This is going to offer a lot more features along with different categories that users will fall into. People are going to have the option of upgrading their status.
This all ties into the network effect. What will happen over the next 6 months that will help out Dlike? Obviously, the moves that team makes is a big part of it. We have the technical features of the platform that will be, hopefully, expanded.
Then there is the user base. The value of a platform grows as the number of users increases. The moves the team makes is done with the intention of having the platform appeal to more people.
Finally, there is the overall growth of Steem. Being part of the cooperative, Dlike benefits from the expansion and growth of this entire ecosystem. As Steem grows, every application on here can potentially benefit. With the conversation of a few applications starting to reach outside the Steem ecosystem, we could see numbers escalate at a rapid pace over the second half of the year.
All this combines for the potential that a token can increase in value in spite of the increased number of tokens being distributed. Many focus upon the inflation rate similar to how it is in the fiat world. The challenge there is the growth of an advanced economy like the United States is stunted. It is impossible for that ecosystem to realize a 50% growth rate in a year. For start ups like Dlike, 50% is a failure.
The same holds true for all applications. We are so small compared to the totality of the Internet, that we can see some applications watch their user numbers grow in the thousands of percent. As more people are acquainted with cryptocurrency, the numbers that end up here should also increase.
Applications understand there is a value to having people support their projects by locking up tokens for a certain period of time. This provides some stability to the token on the open markets. It also removes the available tokens for purchase.
Many of us who are optimistic about STEEM long-term use this as a basis. There is roughly 115M STEEM that is not staked through the powering up process. While that is a lot at this point, if we see the addition of 5M or 10M users, that is not a lot of STEEM to go around. Powering up is removing the vast percentage of STEEM from the open market.
At the core of all of this is technology. Each of the platforms on Steem is a technological innovation that is meant to grow over time. A large part of this is the development that takes place. All projects introduce their platform in a MVP form. From there, most of them add to it, hoping to increase the value by adding to the appeal to users. Some will succeed while others will not. The goal for all of them is the same.
Staking allows a platform the time to expand the offering. Between development and users, the hope is that the system is worth more 6 months or a year down the road. While the market might not reflect it, the value is there.
And at some point, the network effect hopefully kicks in and sends things flying at an exponential rate.
In the meantime, we can stake our tokens for even greater returns in hopes that some of what we are holding achieves what the developers intend.
With Dlike, you receive 25 percent more tokens by staking for 180 days. To me, this is a pretty good deal especially if the platforms sees a lot of progress over that time frame.
So if you haven't staked your Dlike tokens yet, now might be a good time to do it. There is the choice between 90 and 180 days staking. If one opts for the 90 day, he or she will receive 9% more tokens at the end of that period.
Go to https://dlike.io/staking.
Personally, I am in the token accumulation phase so this is not something I had to think to hard about.
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