I used to think that rewarding something on the internet was simple. How hard can it be to just pay the creators instantly for their efforts with the touch of a button? Just get a PayPal account and fill it up with money from your bank and then wait a day or two for the transaction to be completed. Then you are ready to go and donate/pay as you please to those you think deserves it, just don't forget to continue filling up that Paypal account every time you want to reward someone, but that sounds really exhausting, to be honest, also there aren't any simpler solution in fiat existing at the moment and it's 2016.
There are no efficient payment systems between content providers and consumers in recognised social media as far as I know, you will have to use some kind of third party platforms like Paypal to send money across the internet, besides creators are only paid either by being hired as full-time authors, by percentage of ad revenues from the websites they publish or a fixed sum between 10-200usd per article, depending on the website or content. You can also donate directly to the creators Paypal page or something similar but It's such a hassle. And it's not incentive enough to bust a real good article only to be paid a little for it. Why aren't there any such solutions in this modern era is dumbfounding to me. It's a simple service, creative contents on the internet are also produce that people should be able to pay for easily and great contents should be rewarded well. I'd definitely pay 1-10$ for each great submission I read, and if it's really good probably more.
But why am I not doing it then? Because I don't want to bring my credit card for such transaction every time I want to reward someone. Also my ADD makes me forget things easily, specially when there's cats on the internet.
Probably the same reason why no one has created such system yet in the world of fiat, It's to much work and to much hassle for a simple consumer like me, I would have gone on to newer contents by then instead of taking out my credit card and paying for it. Also building such system with fiat has a lot of restrictions, it will also require a lot of security and regulations. Monetary transactions will need to be kept in a secured database and have 24 hours surveillance to prevent fraud and misuse. This is too many tasks for simple websites or publishers that only wants to publish and showcase contents. And it sucks because there is a market for these things and a lot of creators would get another source of income.
I remember following a writer on Cracked.com and enjoying his content. I was always looking forward to his new submissions and thought he must have been paid well for his submissions. But then I looked up and saw that published articles on Cracked.com are only paid 100-200usd for each content, 300 if it gave a lot of traffic and thought, damn that dude deserves much better and would probably receive more if there was a way to reward his contents easier. But he started to write a book and took donations on his website so he could finish it and I gladly donated some money because I liked his writing style and thought his book was going to be enjoyable as well. And when he finally delivered, that book became one of the great hilarious read I've ever have. It's was so rewarding to follow a creator from the start and support him, and the book got turned into a movie which was also enjoyable to watch.
As a consumerist that likes to support talented but unheard creators and doesn't mind to reward them, It's the payoff of investing in genuine and great artists that make me, a consumer to feel good and it also incentivize creators to not fuck up because they will have great support and following when they do it right.
I am not saying that creators should start to demand money to submit something, because that is not a good way to get a following, but as a consumer I should be able to pay the sum I think creators deserve, and my $1-10 might be a small reward alone but if others were able to pay that as well, it will incentivize artists to continue what they are doing and also make consumers engaged in something that they believe in.
So what does this got to do with Steemit?
I think Steemit is a great platform because it runs on a blockchain that nullifies a lot of the restrictions fiat currencies has. It also provides a new type of market that wouldn't work in the world of fiat, an effective and efficient market directly between creators and consumers. The Steem dollar has much potential and will have great use for future market projects on Steem. We are currently at the infant stage of Steemit and have already encountered growing pains but we have endured much of it and made Steemit more secure and easier to utilize and we are still growing, with a lot of promising tweaks and changes to come.
However, I am very skeptic regarding the rewarding system, that only whales and dolphins are able to have that greater effect on the rewards. Even though whales and dolphins have earned the right to have that power because they are invested so much on Steem and Steem power, the huge voting reward shouldn't be restricted to them only. Because even though my voting power is only worth 0.1 SBD right now, I also want to be able to reward more than that to contents I deem deserves more. By doing so It makes me, the consumer, to be engaged more often and it also bring another value to SBD as it's only used to cash out or trade with.
Having the ability, as a minnow or dolphin, to engaged in by giving greater rewards for great contents using SBD or Steem creates a sustaining economic circulation inside the community.
It will incentivize many to buy and trade Steem and hold SBD for such purpose because there is some use of it instead of cashing it out. Another aspect is that it takes off a lot of burden from whales because technically everyone can be a whale if they want to be and are no longer restricted to the SP ranking system. And being a whale just means that you have invested a lot on Steem power which will have huge value when Steemit becomes a big mainstream social media platform that everyone wants to join. I am not saying that voting whales are bad, but when whale votes are nonexpected, they will become something that will be soughtful, brings a lot of attraction to the community and also gives higher value to the community, but they shouldn't be the main focus of Steemit, the users should be the center of it all.
Not only will this add of code in the system incentivize many to put out more great content out there, this will also prevent great potential creators, who didn't do well on their firsts fewer post, to be scared away because they didn't get any rewards when a whale missed them, the users in the community who believe in them has rewarded them. This will create a healthy platform for everyone to use as a mean of recreation, and also bring a great reputation for the community outside Steemit. And great reputation is where Steemit will take over the world.
But you could donate to the users instead by sending them manually to their wallet? you'd say. But I think getting those rewards on the submitted posts are encouraging and also confirming the creators, also it's great to showcase how much reward a content has been given, so why not there as well?
So what I'm hoping is the ability to, besides using my Steem power, that I am also able to choose the amount of rewards I want to give, probably in SBD. This is what I think will attract many to join this community, not only creators but also potential whales that don't want to become whales immediately but just want to see that this type of rewarding system can also work. Also, it might make Steemit a birth place of where big artists started their journey, not because of the whales that missed voting for them, but the community that supported them and encouraged them to be creative.
Is it doable? I don't know, but it would encourage a lot of engagement in the community on a whole new level.
Also!
Blockchain powah to the people!