With special guest appearances from
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-- and of course,
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This image was cooked up all in good fun, so I don't want anyone claiming to be offended. It did take a very long time to put together, so I hope it's able to inspire a few laughs--especially from those who are featured in it.
STEEM POKER
I may have got a bit carried away with the development of this image, but my initial inspiration for whipping up a STEEM Poker table was because I feel it would be an excellent addition to the 2018 or 2019 roadmap. By then we should have a much larger user base and STEEM poker could serve as a great way to create a demand for STEEM and keep the price nice and high. Let me explain...
Online poker brings in a hell of a lot of business each year. While trying to find out how much profit pokerstars, the biggest poker site makes in profit per year, I came across this estimate which suggests that the site makes between $700,000 to $1,000,000 profit per DAY!
It's clear that there is a very large and very active market surrounding online poker. This in in spite of a google search for "Pokerstars scam" returning thousands upon thousands of results where people are complaining that the software is rigged.
Clearly there are a ton of people out there who are wanting to play online poker, but are not willing to play at sites such as pokerstars. With the inception of bitcoin, there have been some provably fair poker sites which utilise BTC as the main currency surfacing. I was thinking that if there was a STEEM poker site, with a provably fair, open source code, that can demonstrate how the cards are picked at random, there would be those out there who would jump at the chance to buy some STEEM and hit the tables.
Why STEEM poker if they can go to a BTC poker?
STEEM already has an advantage over BTC with its low transaction time and fees. The right marketing could highlight these aspects to create some healthy competition between STEEM poker and other provably fair poker sites. There would also be less need for STEEM poker to take so much money from the rake, or from tournament entries, as STEEM will be benefiting in a number of others ways already, so lower play costs could also incentive users to come across to STEEM poker.
Creating Demand For STEEM
Through drawing in players who are not a part of the Steemit community, the would-be poker players will have to invest in some STEEM before making a deposit on the site. If the site became a hit, the demand for STEEM would be constant as new players--and existing ones--purchased STEEM to play with on STEEM poker. If the site managed to attract some high rollers, we could be seeing $1,000,000 STEEM buys on the market.
Stabilizing the Price:
While the regular STEEM poker user would be getting low rake fees and minimal tournament costs, members of the Steemit community could have the option to play on rake-free tables. This would mean that all STEEM wagered on these tables would be won by the players, and none would be absorbed by the site at the end of each hand. The catch is, 50% of all STEEM which is withdrawn from these types of tables by players, will be transferred to their Steemit wallets in the form of STEEM power. I know that I would certainly be on these tables, as gaining influence through posting takes a very long time. The prospect of winning a nice chunk of STEEM power through playing a bit of poker would certainly be enticing.
If after a while, enough Steemit members were making use of the site, and the rake-free tables, this would dramatically decrease the amount of liquid STEEM in circulation and do wonders to minimize selling pressure and stabilize the price.
Added Bonus