[Simon_says]

> That's almost a grand in 2017 dollars... plus whatever I earn from writing this story. (You are going to help me make this go viral, right? Send it right to the top of the trending list?)

I can't believe steemit is still a thing.

[erikig]

Just out of curiosity - why not?

Content creators get crypto for creating and promoting content that would otherwise go to social marketing platforms and ad agencies - seems like a decent idea, no?

[Simon_says]

1) When I looked at it closely a couple years ago, all of the stories and all of the discussion were about proselytizing steemit. I would love to see a non-censorious version of reddit, but that place is so boring and self-referential. I took a brief look just now and my complaints are just as valid today. It's not a healthy ecosystem if everyone is just there for the money.

2) The business model seems nuts. I could never figure out how value was created or where the money came from other than suckers buying in, and there's going to be a limited supply of those. It just seems like a ponzi scheme with more steps. (Note, I don't necessarily feel this way about all cryptocurrencies; steemit's business model is just particularly nonsensical.)

[erikig]

These are valid concerns. When a platform is young, it tends to cater to acolytes, sycophants and charlatans.

I had high hopes for steemit or any similar platform given the success of its various centralized competitors especially with the wide adoption of cryptos. I can’t wait to see how things turn out.

[creatir]

Hi, erikig,

If you have the chance, please have a look at my comments about Steemit in reply to commnts by Simon_says. Steemit is far more than this comment thread has represented thus far, as I hope the quality of my article about the chicken machine might indicate.

[erikig]

Will definitely check it out

[creatir]

1) A quick glance at the Steemit "front page" today (https://steempeak.com/) pretty strongly counters this assertion. Lots of art, photos, travel, music, etc.

Not at all what I would classify as "self-referential."

Perhaps you were only looking at the "Trending" page? It's far better to see Steemit raw. Steempeak is a nice interface.

2) To understand the business model for any functional currency (STEEM, BTS, Bitcoin, etc.) you need to understand that the true source of wealth is not something external.

Wealth derives from the human soul. Jesus said "What would a man give in exchange for his soul?" Much later, R. Buckminster Fuller observed that wealth is our ability to "live into the future" and it is entirely based on the application of human thought/ingenuity to raw material resources.

Steemit (as any other viable, useful currency) is a "wealth magnet" that transfers existing human capital out of corrupt, inflationary fiat currencies (e.g. $USD) because it is a superior store of value and medium of exchange.

One of STEEM's greatest claims to fame is that it is a (reasonably) stable currency that is free to use and frictionless. Built on a Graphene blockchain, STEEM enables any holder to transfer wealth anywhere in the world, in a matter seconds, with no fees, no hoops to jump through, no questions asked. What other financial instruments can claim as much? And STEEM is tradable on major exchanges, decentralized and otherwise.

Furthermore, as a social media platform, Steemit provides a potentially perpetual free internet archive for content creators. You don't have to secure a domain name; you don't have to pay perpetual fees to maintain your work. The fact that the blockchain not only holds your content, but is the basis for a financial ecosystem, makes its self-perpetuation far more likely than your "average" public site (think Geocities, etc.).

BTW, I am the author of the Chicken article and I would be happy to address any specific questions about the machine and how I created it. Furthermore, you can see an example of what I mean by the archival nature of Steemit by visiting my Steemit Library:

https://steemit.com/a/@creatr/b

I hope this helps explain the present and ongoing value of Steemit. It most assuredly may not be trivially dismissed as a nonsensical "Ponzi scheme" that "suckers" buy into.