Maybe I am delusional. At least, I believe that the future of Steem is bright while all things point to the contrary. While some people are content having a happy day today, I am working toward changing my life for tomorrow also and when it comes to never having the wolves at my heels again, I see no other nor better way than crypto at this time. It just takes some investment and a whole lot of collective luck. I say collective because for crypto to reach its potential, it takes a whole range of people to play their part.
Steem for me is like that package out of the Tom Hanks movie Castaway. You know the one that washed up on the shore but he never opened and delivered at the end, never knowing what it contained. It could have helped him in his time on the island but, it was a package of hope and no matter how bad things got, that package empowered him to find a way without opening it.
That is an overly dramatic view of Steem I understand but at the same time, how many people would like to be free of the wolves of debt and how many have a realistic way with more promise than crypto? I don't think that many people are ever going to work their way out of the cycle as an employee. How many people are working right now for an hourly wage that has the potential to grow 20x its value in 6 months or even 5 years?
Now, 20x puts Steem at 8 dollars, the last all time high and I see that the next real run might put it closer to the 20 dollar range, that is 50x from this point. Have you ever earned 100 dollars and turned it into 5000? That would be like a year of average Finnish salary of 30,000€ turning into 1.5€ million. What would you do to be able to work that year if that was the potential upside and the downside was time lost?
At the moment, I don't have fiat to buy in with but I am working hard to try and get a position to do just that but, it takes time. What I do have is a little EOS that I bought some year or so ago and although it was trapped when the price was very high, I am still well up on it though so, most of it has now gone into Steem. I have a little on the exchanges still to play with as I think there is opportunity to clean up what people are selling.
This pushes me to just over 31K Steem Power. I will power up another lot about half the size when it unlocks from my wallet in a few days. This might be silly as of course EOS could do really well and potentially out perform Steem but from this point if Steem goes to 8, EOS would have to go to 75 dollars to outperform it. Steem has already hit 8 at the ATH, 75 is 3x more than EOS's peak. It is a risk but I see that both are going to perform well overtime anyway. Plus, I think I have been able to buy more than 5x the Steem I put into EOS.
All of this is a gamble but, it is one that I believe will either pay off hugely so that my family will never have to experience this kind of struggle again or, go to zero and besides the time and work, we are in the same position. I have the benefit that I work in the real world and I have a work ethic that I can push to cover what we need so for me, Steem doesn't exist as a revenue stream at this point. I am glad that others can use it though as it helps many people and it shows decent use case potentials.
I feel that at the moment Steem is severely undervalued as a coin, a community and a future platform that can house a very wide selection of content material. Even many people here still see it as a blogging platform without recognising it as a digital content delivery system of all kinds of content medias. Essentially, most of the internet could be hosted on Steem in various ways which is why there is a lot more space than for one content delivery chain. This doesn't mean that Steem won't go lower in value though from this point so if buying with fiat, think hard.
What I am hoping now is for that decent people who are Steem positive are using their resources available to power up a little and become active distributors of the pool as the platform starts to grow in user base again. People don't seem to realize how much draw small players could have on the pool and more importantly, how much effect they have on things like user retention. In time, it is going to be a collaborative effort between apps, communities and the many larger accounts that are able to support and reward everything from individual users who deliver decent content to large scale developments of apps or the blockchain itself.
Anyway, obviously I am here on Steem and obviously I think that there is more of a future here than the doomsayers spread but, I don't really expect anyone to take part. One of the beauties of this Steem umbrella community and all the sub-communities that house individuals, is that is is all opt-in, not one person has been forced to be a part of this place and not one person is unable to opt-out if they so choose. In my opinion, that makes this place pretty special considering the potential implications if we are able to get it to work well.
The funny thing about all of this is that all everyone says is on an immutable blockchain for the world to read. One day there could be people laughing heartily at my stupidity and delusions or, wondering why they themselves didn't believe a little more. It doesn't really matter which it is of course because at the end of the day, what is the worst case scenario?
I will lose a couple of years of work, I will lose some face, I will lose the opportunity of something else, I will lose everything I have ever put into it. However, what I have done for that loss can never be taken away from me, all of these words, all of the effort, all of the people I have befriended and perhaps sometimes helped, all of what I have done is done, past, unable to be done again.
What is the best case scenario and, what is the point between best and worst when there is no known ceiling?
We shall see one day but because I back myself to always be able to provide for my family even if it destroys me, there is no risk in trying to reach out for what many believe is the impossible.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." - Muhammad Ali
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]