I had been putting off listening to a certain podcast in my library. The podcast itself is called Anarchast, a podcast that curtails to the interests of anarchists. The subject of this particular episode that I was avoiding was called "How I made $15,000 in 12 Hours on Steemit..." Just the title itself sounds super click-baitey but that's not the reason I was avoiding it. A few days before, I listened to another podcast called Bitcoin Uncensored where two guys challenge the ignorance and naivety of the crypto-currency community to think critically about what they're putting their money into. To be honest I'm doing them a service by explaining it that way as its more of a condescending and childish bash fest of everyone in the crypto space. The sad part is that they make very compelling arguments and I tend to agree and trust in what they say. Ironic that trust is so important in a system designed to be trust-less. Thats the human element for you. On their Bitcoin Uncensored show they have regularly bashed Steemit for being an elaborate scam and thinking rationally without bias I can see where they're coming from, especially as someone who has been scammed in the Bitcoin space in the past.
As a mostly true free-market system (although continuing to decline as such) many people have seen opportunities to take advantage of those who are dreamers and ideologues instead of wise investors. Most of these suckers are young boys with little experience in this field as I was when I found the space. So with the skeptical side of my brain primed, I cultivated a bias against Steemit.
A few days passed and I was looking for something to listen to. As context I have to go back a little bit and deeper.
For as long as I can remember, at least from my adolescence, I have been addicted to the quick fix. Dopamine hits from novelty and easy achievements. Games, porn, gambling. When I discovered Bitcoin in 2013 a similar effect took hold. Not only had I found a rabbit hole of ideology that I had been looking for and could believe in, but the grasp of the quick fix came with it. Seeing the value of my money explode as well as promising opportunities arise that were novel and exciting put me on cloud nine. There were gambling sites that had no barrier to entry. "Investment" sites that promised to give insane returns (in hindsight these turned out to be Ponzi's or scams). And new coins with new technologies and new promises to make the world a better place while making money at the same time. As a 24 year old boy I thought I had struck gold. But like all things that are too good to be true, it was, at least for me. I spiralled into gambling and alt coin investments and lost it all chasing a dream that was never fully realized. That's the background that I'm working with.
Jump forward and I find out about Steemit.com. It looks similar to reddit with its ability to upvote but only allows blog postings to encourage original content. As a still-proponent of bitcoin, I am intrigued. Instead of Karma it tries to pull in "actual value" as being backed by a blockchain token. As someone who struggles with writing, especially onto the internet for all to see, I was in no position to actually post something to the site to try and gain upvotes/currency. So I just created an account to get my free Steem Power, checked out the kind of content being posted, and left.
Now jump forward to looking for something to listen to. I finally put on the Steemit podcast and start diving into what it really is. I don't get too far in but start getting the gist. The founders seem genuine in the interview, like they are trying to create an egalitarian product with legs for the future but I'm not completely sold. Learning now that new posts that are upvoted don't get other peoples Steem currency but instead receive newly created currency is a little off-putting to me but we'll see how it goes. I won't ever invest in it, but maybe I'll gain the courage to post something to the site and see how it goes. For now Bitcoin is the only religion I subscribe to. From an ideological perspective I hope that doesn't stay true. Time will tell. I think it's time to read the white paper.
http://ahbartsch.wixsite.com/curatorium
Aaron