I've been watching the price of STEEM & SteemDollars rise. I have to admit I don't understand the economics of Steem. When Steemit first came out, I was pretty sure it would be a fun platform to play on for awhile, but eventually STEEM and SBD would fall in price, people would lose interest , and the price would drop further sending both coins and the platform into obscurity. I wanted to believe it could work, and I totally believed in what the platform was trying to accomplish, I just didn't understand it's economics and was more than a bit skeptical. A year later I'm becoming a firm believer in the platform. I still don't understand the economics, but as I see an infrastructure being built around the platform, and STEEM and SteemDollars, I'm starting to get it. This can really work!
To start with, more and more people are getting introduced to this platform. I understand supply & demand. I also think, and I've said this from the start, that more and more content creators will come to the platform as people learn about the true power of cryptocurrency and what it means for individuals and society as a whole. I now think that's starting to happen.
I always said how much I loved the fact that the crypto community had a blogging platform comparable to Blogger or Wordpress, and for the first time in history content creators were actually being paid fairly for their work, and corporate entities weren't getting rich off the hard labor of the content creators. To me, this in itself is a reason to use this platform! I don't understand why every content creator on the net isn't here already. Although everyone generally makes something, there are some people on here making a really nice income from their Steemit posts. So if you're reading this from a link on my twitter or tumblr feed, you might want to head over to https://steemit.com/ and find out what this all about. So yeah, I get it, the platforms growing and this certainly could have something to do with the price rise.
Here's what's truly making a believer out of me! The infrastructure that appears to be slowly growing along side this platform. I've been using Zappl for awhile now, and I'll be the first to admit, Zappl needs a lot of improvement. For anyone that doesn't know, Zappl is the Steemit version of Twitter. More on that in a minute. I also discovered the other day both Dmania which is a photo and meme sharing portal, and Dtube which is a youtube competitor. Again both work side by side with STEEM and your Steemit Wallet. This is really cool. Here's a little more info on these three new (maybe it's safe to call them) "sub platforms" of Steemit.
Zappl
Ok, as many of you know from following me on twitter, The Dood is a twitter fanatic. I even bought a little stock in Twitter recently. Zappl is the Steemit version of Twitter. It's a micro blogging platform similar to Twitter where users earn SDB or SteemDollars for using the platform. I'll be honest, this one needs a little work, but the potential is there and I really love this concept. I've got my fingers crossed and really have high hopes for this one. I'd love to see Steemit add a feature where users could opt in or out of receiving ZAPS in their feeds. I don't use Zappl as much as I'd like because I'm concerned my feed might become too noisy from some peoples preferences. I currently send out a few zaps a week. That platform is glitchy from time to time, but is still in Beta like the rest of this stuff. I'm sure the future is bright for this platform as they debug the system, and develop a true competitor to Twitter. You can find out more here: https://zappl.com/
Dtube
This is awesome! I can't believe I just discovered this the other day. It's Youtube without the censorship, and scamming users out of their ad revenues. Users earn SteemDollars for posting their videos! I think the videos could load a little smoother, but hey this is fairly new. I'd love to see a working embed code to start embedding video into my posts like I do with Youtube. For the most part though, when Youtubers realize how awesome this platform is, they're going to be leaving Youtube in droves to get on this platform. This could be a Youtube killer IMHO. https://d.tube/
DMania
Recently I began noticing a sudden increase of memes in my Steemit feed. I kept seeing the DMania graphic posted beneath them but never clicked on it till the other day. I was absolutely delighted to discover a meme / photo sharing communtiy based on the Steemit model! Users earn SteemDollars for posting memes and photos. I posted my first meme here.
Here's the link directly to DMania https://dmania.lol/
To sum this up the price of Steem & SteemDollars have been on the rise. Currently 1 SBD or SteemDollar is worth approximately $7.26 USD at the time of this writing.
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem-dollars/
I don't know what's driving the price of SBD up, or why. I do know the platform is growing, new users are finding us, and it is working! In the beginning so many people said this would fail. So called crypto experts cried foul, saying the price would fall and the devs were scammers! You can't create a cryptocurrency valued on peoples time and creativity they said. Well a little over a year later, Steemit is still here, both Steem & the SteemDollars are stronger than ever, and the community is continuing to grow.
I still don't understand the economics of Steem & Steemit, but my guess is this growing community and infrastructure that's growing around the platform has an awful lot to do with it! I have to admit, like the rest of my journey into cryptocurrency, I'm no longer a Steemit skeptic, but a true believer in the platform and all it's starting to accomplish. If you are a content creator, I strongly suggest heading over to Steemit and learning more about these great platforms. I've met some great people in this community, learned a lot, have earned a little crypto, and it's great watching a platform grow and develop the way Steemit has! Cryptocurrency is going to change the world as we know it. We are all participating in the greatest socioeconomic experiment in the history of man. If you're not here already, I hope you come join in the fun and join this great community of content creators! You can find out more about Steemit here: https://steemit.com/