Hi there !
I’m 28 years old, recently graduated in graphic and digital design, entrepreneur.
Oh, and my mother tongue is french, so feel free to comment and correct my english.
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I dived into blockchain and crypto-currency since two weeks now (so approx. 10th june 2017).
The jump happened when my girlfriend’s flatmate, a dutch student in philosophy decided to invest 200€ in Bitcoins and others crypto-currencies, “as a long-term investment”.
I’m working on an application project to share and discover music and videos. Few weeks ago, a friend of mine advise me to have a look on a project called “Resonate”.
Resonate is a Spotify-like / BandCamp-like application, but where the monetization is based on the blockchain technology.
Last christmas, I remember having a conversation with my cousin, a young dentist, trying like me to understand how Bitcoin technology works.
He was surprised that the currency was limited, and linked to the cost of electricity needed by a coin to be mined.
(When all those signals surround me, I’m deeply asking myself if we’re living a bubble, or the begin of a new era, like the internet was 30 years ago, or both…)
Earlier even, four years ago maybe, a teacher introduced me the concept of Bitcoin.
I kept in mind the fact that a network can replace a third party of trust. Like a bank for a transaction between two people…
Few days after I went for the first time at “The bitcoin house” (“La maison du Bitcoin”) at the heart of Paris.
There, I discovered servers of pool-miners (and the concept of mining).
I asked a lot of questions there, trying to understand what the fuck is all that mess.
Also, I was pretty surprised to discover for the first time of my life a ”Bitcoin ATM”.
In this machine, people were able to put a Euro bill inside and be credited in Bitcoins in their own wallet, by scanning a QR code with their phone.
At the time I didn’t understand where the cash was going. I remember asking to a guy working there :
“Does my bill will be destructed after the transfer?
_No! It’s against the law to destruct money!”
Okay, but that didn’t tell me what to do with the series of numbers in my BTC wallet..
And three years ago, nobody was able to tell me how I could have my money back (in euros).
So logically, I did not put my 20€ bill in this ATM, and my BTC wallet stayed empty.
Today, I regret it. A little bit :-)
It reminds me a book (I’ll find the reference later) where a woman described the arrival of the phone in her (rich-family’s) house, in Paris.
The access to the phone was forbidden to her, because she was a teenager, and if someone wanted to speak to her, the person must be approved by her father.
Also, the grandmother of this girl was afraid by the phone. For her the fact to speak to someone without seeing the correspondant was just unbelievable, so she was afraid of it.
Actually, in front of the Bitcoin ATM few years ago, I felt like this grandma a century ago.
I think it’s natural, and i’m not the only one in this situation.
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Few days ago, after having browsed Youtube videos and some Discord channels, I discovered the STEEM currency, and of course, the platform Steemit.
I’m very sensible to new medias : I’m the son of a TV journalist, and has said earlier I’m making with friends an application to share and discover music and videos.
I always been critic concerning Facebook and I’m very distant with this platform since my account have been “deleted” last year, because I refuse to replace my pseudo by my real name… (but that’s another story)
Facebook is one of the most valuable company today because we are living the “economy of the attention’s era”.
I understood that quiet young, after the first french TV private channel’s boss said a day :
“Our work is to sell to Coca-Cola some available mind-time”
Patrick Lelay, TF1.
The sum of our attention, given for free, is the propriety of TV channels, sold to advertisers.
The sum of our attention, plus the sum of our production given for free (here again) is the propriety of Facebook, sold to advertisers.
Same concept for Instagram, Youtube, SnapChat, Twitter… Whatever you want, were advertise are.
I’m currently writing the article you’re currently reading.
You’re literally “paying attention” to my production.
On steemit :-)
OK. Few questions for you now :
_ Who pay for the production I just made ?
_ With what will you pay.. Your time of attention ?
_ Who are you for me ? My clients ?
_ I spent 2 hours in a train to write it down. How much will I earn for that ?
_Will the community pay me the train ticket I bough to go from Paris to Rotterdam ?
_The fact that I’m “nobody”, just a guy writing, will affect my income, and how ?