Like a lot of people here, I road the Steem train to the top and bailed out. I saw this as the only guaranteed way to make money. I looked at the 100% yearly inflation rate and was sure I didn't want my money to sit there very long. But I realize that Steem was designed to grow over the long term.
What I don't understand is, beyond the initial hype and the ensuing bubble, where will the money come from? As an investor I see no reason to keep my money in steem or to power up. Powering up in the hopes that more money piles in behind me doesn't seem like a good strategy. What happens in two years when everyone wants to cash out?
As I understand it Steem doesn't sell anything. Its free to join. If Steem itself has no income how will it offer interest? How does it plan to reward investors who power up?
The lure of cryptocurrencies, at the moment, is the chance to ride the wave to the top. Whether it is the long term wave or the short term, we're all doing it. These currencies have various other uses but none of those uses have been fully realized yet. Are there plans for Steem to monetize parts of its service in the future?
Thanks in advance for the answers. I really do like the basic idea behind steem and the posts so far have been great.
Edit: I just wanna link to this other post it elaborated on some of my questions and answered some of them. https://steemit.com/investments/@coinfund/blockchain-investments-and-the-new-problem-asset-for-conventional-vcs
This basically summed it up for me.
"Mainstream users of SteemIt enjoy incredibly low entry barriers: they can post content and get compensated in cryptoassets right away without the learning curve of buying cryptocurrency, and the value of their holdings is upheld by the market demand for the platform asset. In turn, larger entities like content publishers and advertisers could eventually create demand for the asset by purchasing influence and audience reach, thus validating the long-term position of asset holders. "