Yes, that could very well describe a wheel, or a crypto fiat valuta fueled economy. One of the secrets of creation is that in everything there is a circular pattern. Like the TAO sign, also know as the Taijitu. It may even be stated that when something does anything but that movement, its path will lead to certain extinction, sooner or later. Taking a step back and taking a look at the realm of the public ledger blockchain it could predict how a lot of forked so called 'coins' will disappear as fast as they appeared. Mostly starting with the website, the faucet, the blockchain explorer and then it often is already end of story, very fast. Just have a look at some of the biggest owning addresses of some of those forks and you could know that a pump and dump would take place at the right time for the owner of that address. Over time they will turn out to be bad investments, at least that is what I believe.
So, why did I put time and effort into keeping Slothcoin going? Well, I wanted to dig deeper into understanding how this technology works, being able to mine and saw that 2 ^ (64-1) could never be a 100 billion with 8 decimals. The ideal time to get into the C++ coded software, at which I absolutely would fail if I were to take an exam in it. Yet, a great challenge lay ahead. All the way into calculating a new reward system to keep the little Sloth that could going, way into the year 2021. And thanks to others in the crypto community, especially at Cryptopia, we managed to release a new and improved version of Slothcoin. Pitty though that it already had been milked fast in the previous version. Yet enough left to get some more. But... There is also the path, TAO, which states that what does not have a circular movement, will eventually extinct.
That is why SegWit needs to be accepted
Even though Bitcoin could go through the next limit of 1200 dollar, it will need to make a change to its basic movement soon. Because right now it is still seems very lineair. Things like SegWit might be able to change this. But that would mean consensus amongst the current miners. Or, a huge new powerfull group of miners that will enforce it so. At some point the next halving will come and by then the price of Bitcoin should have doubled, like it should have many times before, in my opinion. And that it did not, so far. So, I do agree with those who state that Bitcoin is still way to 'cheap'. Hard to imagine that it has to get somewhere at about 40.000 US dollar, right? That for me also has to do with what Bitcoin could be used for: large value transactions mainly. So, you could have houses sold for 5 BTC and so on. All visible on the public ledger.
Yet, this would need something for the Bitcoin blockchain to make this possible to do. Currently it has scripts, but it needs more, to be able to do more. Seems logical, right? Yet, even though SegWit might seem a good solution for the future of Bitcoin, it might not take off. Because a lot of miners (bundled in huge ASIC farms) only are able to think short term Return On Investment {ROI}. Get rich quick, it still seems to be a scheme in many places. So, buy a lot of ASIC, near a powerplant, better even, use renewable energy, and have a go at mining Bitcoin. Yet, if it were to give a real good return on investment {ROI} it would have needed to be at least at 2500 US Dollar by now. And it is not, nor will it be when SegWit is destroyed by a large group of unwilling miners. Though understandable, for wanting short term ROI, they are wrong for the long term excistence of Bitcoin.
Any Graphene, based, blockchain has an advantage
Well, that is to say if sidechains become a reality for Graphene 3.0, or so. But time is starting to become an issue, in my opinion. No matter how one calls them, I prefer 'sidechain' as it suggests 'many', yet still puts an emphasis on the 'mainchain', they will be the next generation in Blockchain technology. And although there are many new developements out there, that already are on the cusp of a release, the Graphene Blockchain technology has one big advantage: it is already here, in version 2.0, yes, and it was the force that got Steem moving ahead! And it can do what others can not, work clockwise and getting a lot of transactions done in about three seconds. And I do not know if you were aware of it, but this is the engine that can for Steem, Golos, as it is for Bitshares and others.
For Steem to keep value though it does not matter if it has the best blockchain technology inside one can think of. Any Graphene based blockchain needs to fullfill the wheel function, it has to keep on rolling, on itself, by itself. In the Steem realm we know things like the @nul address. That in fact destroys Steem, takes it out off excistence, or puts it back in the future inflation, if you must. The more Steem gets send to the void, the less liquid Steem there is available. It is like a birth and dying cycle, the wheel of life and death of Steem. Yet, more circle like movement is needed than that to keep Steem going. Just creating new Steem would only be reasonable if the active user base would grow with it. Or the other way around. More active users, may need more Steem to be created at a faster rate. But how about the other way around?
Sidechains and Steem moving around in a circled path
Yes, advertising is one option to keep an open mind for. How to pay the ones that create posts in the future? Is it just by creating more Steem? That would flood the market, a higher risk of pump and dumps schemes leading to devaluation. There has to be a reason to have Steem in any wallet. Even those not being active at this site posting, but just using Steem to buy and sell. Why? Because it will cost them nothing to do so! Or send cheap messages for only 0.001 Steem. Without them even knowing they are using any kind of Graphene based blockchain technology. And I do not state that this is the way it should go, I just am trying to paint a picture how it could go. And sidechains, moving larger quantities of Steem on its mainchain, while doing smart stuff on one of the unlimited ones. Maybe charging for storage of data on one of those?
For example, artists may want a cryptographic protected data resource for their work to store. Or, the proof that it is them who created something. Just that, on a sidechain, connected to the Steem mainchain. Just storing proof of creation, or whatever to call it. But, it needs to be renewed, every so and so period. Remember, it has to have a circle like movement to go keep it going in its excistence. One thing that seems to be missing is that part where renewel of data is needed and thus the attached value to go around, to move, to be the fuel of that kind of economy. Then there is a reason to get whatever value type that is connected to be able to pay for storing secured data. Or that a house was sold to someone, with a block transaction to prove it.
Real life functionality beyond posting for rewards
To be honest, I do not see any logical reason in keeping the Steem reward system purely going by inflation. And I think it really was a good idea to slow it down drasticly. Even though it cost me about 24 Steem Power growth a day. The innitial inflation rate was understandable to be able to create a platform like this, that can reward for posting. Hard to imagine it would have taken the time Bitcoin does to even get to the final 21 million. Yet, therefore the price of Steem is way lower, but it has the advantage of extreme fast movement: lightspeed ahead. This is Blockchain the next generation, absolutely. But where to find the grease to move the wheel that is Steem into a long and prosperous future?
To me Steem is a way to post, free expression, and Steem Power is merely a temporary storage that was connected to my time and effort I have put into my posts. And when I need to take some out, I will do so. Therefore I do not see myself as an investor, like others here are. And at one point I might even suggest to split these kind of Steem holders. But I have come to understand that it is part of a controversial discussion and some will dislike me even bringing it up here. Even though I can argue how it would a good idea to do so. But, in the best interest of all, developers, investors, curators and posters, the community of Steem, it might be too soon to do so.
Therefore I leave it at the need to have a circular movement inside the Steem realm to lay a solid base for its future excistence. Keep the @nul address, as it is essential to keep the Steem available at an amount that will hold its value. A growth in active accounts would be good too, even though that will put a growing pressure on the possible payout per post. And when inflation goes on in a relative fast rate, that would force the price of Steem downwards. The million dollar question would be: How to create an effective circular economy {circleconomy} for Steem. So, yeah, not that difficult to solve right...?
Well, I'm kidding, of course it is a tough job to get this to become a reality, not just a thought. And I can state that Steem needs this, but how? This might be a tougher thing than it seems to be at first look.
All those that move up linear will crash
At least that is what I'm convinced about. Nothing grows forever, everything that excists for a long term, does move in a circular way. Yes, eliptical is okay too, as long as it has the effect to be able to go round and round for ever and ever. Most of the blockchain technologies out there today do work according to a linear growth path. And what happens then? What happens if Slothcoin gets at its 2 to the power of 63 amount of SLOTH somewhere in the year 2021? It should have a reason to be kept going around and around.
And although I currently am mining Slothcoin on one very energy friendly CPU core, I wonder why I still should. It is mainly to keep the Sloth going, because I feel obliged to do so. But I see the same happening for Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash and so on... At least Bitcoin has a chance going more circular with SegWit, what about the others...? And there are a lot of forks that fit the bill, although Pascalcoin seems to have a promising approach. ( Now if it only could compile like it should...)
In a short time I mined millions of SLOTH again. That also goes for TORUM on the NXT Monetary System, but what is the use? Now, Steem, or any kind of Graphene based blockchain, might have what it takes to create a self moving circular economy. At some point it needs to spread some Steem in a linear way, but after a while it should be able to move on itself, to go round and round. There in lies the real blockchain challenge, as far as I can see.
The Open Source has an advantage, but the banks are closing in
The banking system that had created a monopoly on their money system are very eager to get the blockchain technology into their private sector. Even by trying to enfoce patents that make Open Source licensed solutions their claim! Bit weird doing that after it all is done, but stranger things have happened. So, a sidechain that holds all Open Source proof of solution cases would maybe be smart move to make. Just like I stored the proof of my brandname 'OalDamster' on this public ledger. The Open Source community has a huge advantage over the closed source. Just like the open ledger blockchain technology has a huge advantage over the closed one.
And we have seen that the closed source has failed before in their efforts to take control. Thanks to licences that are securing Open Source. And now might be the time to have open ledger blockchains to secure those past, present and future developements. Backed by those licences that will keep Open Source Free for all of humanity.
So, there is more to Social Media Platforms like Steem, than meets the eye. It is not only about freedom of expression. It is about being free for the whole of humanity. One could state there is more at stake here than just the value of a crypto fiat valuta...
Have a great one!
image CC0 license by Typography Images at PixaBay
NOTE: Updated the original post to destinct between Graphene base blockchains and the Steem one. Although Steem was originaly based on Graphene Blockchain technology, it moved into its own kind of developement a while back.