Today, five months ago, I signed up at SteemIt dot com. Blogging on a blockchain, awesome, although it took me some time to understand what was where. There was this US Dollar sign under the posted blog items and a wallet with Steem {STM}, Steem Power {SP} and Steem Backed Dollar {SBD}. And then there were VESTs, so, yeah, a bit of a different kind of Social Media Platform. Diving into deep, started blogging on a blockchain, how cool is that? Already I knew my way around the realm of crypto currencies, but this was really different, exciting! Let's do this!
For those who want to go back in time, it can be done easy using the @steemd website with /@yourownaccount added. Scroll to the bottom en go to the highest numbered block, click on it and hey presto! To my shame I saw that my first action was an accidental 'downvote'... It was something that could easily happen when using SteemIt at a mobile screen. Well, at least I have put it straight, thanks to the way back machine, that also is the Steem On Graphene {SONG} blockchain.
The excitement, the build up, it was all there
SteemIt was in beta when I got an account on may 26 2016. First paypout round would be at the 4th of july. A kind of special day in the United States, as I came to understand. Still, when I wanted to do some exchange using @blocktrades with DOGE to deposit to Steem, they still helped me at this holiday. And if you are buying Steem or Steem Power from within your SteemIt wallet, you are actually using their excellent service. And I started to use it more often, also to withdraw some of my earnings. To transfer them to Bitcoin {BTC}, mostly.
Yes, I actually got payouts for my posts, from 4th of july on. And the first times I was a bit stunned even though I had 'mined' several 'coins', this was something old, with something new. So, in effect, what happened was that I was plucking my own Fruit Of Work {FOW}, wow! And just like that 'mining' for 'coins' there was no guarantee that gold would be struck. It was a different approach. Of course there still were actuall 'miners' calculating how the data would be added to the actuall blokchain, but there was no need to get into that. Just start posting, create content and most important: attract attention! Because that is what it is about in the Social Media platform based economy.
All those who got in early, like @fyrstikken, that I already had seen on JoeTjoep, @stellabelle, who was so kind to give me a advice on how to attract attention by using images, we all were excited. Would we really get the payout that was shown? The SteemIt Incorporated dreamteam, with CEO's @dan and @ned, had already done some awesome job in creating this. No 'FeesBoek' or 'Twatter' that controlled the posts, no 'JoeTjoep' that was restricting controversial considered content, no, it was all there, open and transparant on the Graphene blockchain! Counting down, to the official going live date, the 4th of july. The day humanity got another step closer to becoming substantive.
The happy community became big
And even the sceptics had to admit after the 4th of july 2016 that this was the real deal! Word got out on the street and new accounts came in. Of course the first tries to scam, bots that wanted to do bad, also bots that did good, like the one that supported my posts a lot @wang. Sad that the reputation of this bot was wrecked. But sometimes I did misunderstand things too. Digging deeper into the way Steem On Graphene worked, ment going through the whitepaper. That was quite a big chew, even still, while I have spent many happy hour, reading and re-reading it.
More account also means more competition for the finite amount of Steem rewards to share every round. And some questions about how the voting system was working. Could it still function if just the amount of votes were counted, without the link to the amount of Steep Power an account had? Not as easy to solve as maybe it was thought at first. Accounts could be created automaticly, on a large scale, that would work as a botnet, trying to rigg the payout system.
So, different ideas came about to help content of unknown writers, artists and so on, to get more attention and thus gain potential payout. And there is going to be some kind of delegated voting ahead, through the creation of Steem Guilds. SteemIt, still in Beta, keeping it interesting.
And slowly there is a SteemIt community building, growing bigger, people finding others with the same interests, becoming friends. Lots of Apps came to life, like eSteem by @good-karma. Still there is so much more to come, thanks to a long list of great developers.
Like family and friends on a birthday party, we sometimes argue, discussing things that we consider wrong, that should be done otherwise. Even things like: "If that's your attitude, then I'm not speaking to you anymore!" It is all there, in the SteemIt community, the dynamics of humans interacting with each other. No, not always fun to follow, but most of the time it's a great wild ride!
So, let's party!
And then there were 'meet and greet' events, very quickly, where some parts of the SteemIt community even became stronger. The Russian speaking community even made their own version of SteemIt: Golos {Voice}! While we in Nederland {The Netherlands} have a world premiere, thanks to the innitiative and hard work of @roelandp and a lot of volunteers. It is called SteemFest, and it will be a great event for 300 community members that managed to get a ticket in time. And even if Amsterdam is a big city with about 1 million inhabitants, I'm sure it will remember @steemfest, the 11th, 12th and13th of november 2016. And thanks to @steemit Incorporated, the attendends get a whopping 1000 Steem Power, for attending.
And I heard that there were ticket give-aways? Wot...!? Ah well, too little, too late. Still, there will be a live stream for the rest of us who cannot attend, even if they would have wanted too.
Do you already follow the adventures of @l0k1? He's started his travel from Bulgeria, leaving what he had behind, doing his best to get to Amsterdam in time. Being a homeless survivalists, this is a tough ride, even for him. By the time of writing he is somewhere in Germany. And all the help is welcome. In return you can read his adventure, that is his day to day reality. Could you make it? Well, I think he will pull it off. And you can read it, at SteemIt!
SteemFest is going to be great, lots of famous and well known SteemIt community members attending.
The price of Steem? What about it?
To be honest, I don't even want to speculate about where the price of Steem might go anymore. Or worse even, where it could have been going when 'this' or 'that' would have been done in the past. Some things are too difficult to predict, that is why trading on exchanges is for a large part speculating. Where you have good 'gamblers' and those who follow their trails. And this can sometimes work out badly for the value of any crypto currency. Where some win, some have to lose at the same time. Not my type of game, really.
SteemIt is different in a sense that it is also, or maybe even in the first place, a social media platform. Unique because it is transparant and openly stored on a blockchain. With it comes Steem, a crypto currency, that will cost you nothing to transfer. You can get votes for your post, being appreciated, getting replies, grow your reputation, gaining followers, make friends. And yes, there is also a chance you can get some payout. You can even become a one day fly! To get 'the 15 minutes of fame', like Andy Warhol described it once, it could come true for you. And in the meanwhile SteemIt can be a free platform for you to express yourself. And the rest could be a nice bonus.
Where do we go from here?
Do not know about you, but I'm sticking around for a while longer @steemit. And the "what ifs" about the future, where will it all lead to? Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it...
Less worry about the stock markets, more fun in the community.
Light live, love life!
photo cc-by-sa @oaldamster "Termunterzijl"
This is a 50-50 payout post