A common question people ask when they come across Steemit is, "Where does the money come from?"
In a week's time I'll be pitching an idea to a company to get involved with Steemit and I have been contemplating how to answer this inevitable question.
I also got into a conversation today with a friend on discord who mentioned Steem (more specifically Steem Power) potentially could be classified as a security by the SEC.
This was news to me as I had never considered the possibility of Steem being put in this category.
So is Steem a security and do you really get paid for posting on Steemit?
I don't think so but how can I explain this ...
Let's examine for a minute what the MD of this company I'll be pitching to is going to see when he heads over to steemit.com
Money talks
The splash screen for new users doesn't help my case.
Trending Posts
When you look at trending posts you see posts with 500+ Dollars beside them.
This is all the MD will see. The impression is instant and lasting. Someone is paying these people 500 dollars for their posts. Is this really the message we want to get out. A message of the potential sure, but if you create false expectations you may quickly lose respect.
What is happening with payouts is a little more subtle and the reality of joining the Steem community is world's apart from the impression that the MD will get. Not only will the MD be misled but imagine the pain (we have all felt it) when, as a newcomer, you have spent ages writing the best post ever. Just to see tumbleweed blowing across the screen as you hit the refresh button.
Get Paid
Does the community really pay you?
Pay give (someone) money that is due for work done, goods received, or a debt incurred.
Source: Google.Com
- This implies there is money involved but as far as I know no one is getting paid money to post on Steemit.
You may or may not get a reward for your work. This reward is also not in the form of fiat money, which is most peoples perception of money, so the tagline is misleading to the majority. - It also implies pay for work done.
You may get no reward at all for work done.
So is it still fair to call it pay?
What do I plan to say to Mr MD?
Digital Tokens
The pitch I will be using at my meeting next week will be, the community rewards participants for their contributions.
The reward is far from certain but the hope is that in time you can make connections and earn more meaningful rewards. You don't get paid but the rewards you get may have value that can be traded for cash.
If questioned further I will explain the reward is a daily allocation of tokens generated by the blockchain. This is the economic incentive used by this blockchain to incentivise the community to maintain the system.
Perception
The subtly in the difference in language will make this more palatable for my audience and in my opinion is a much more accurate description of what you get for posting and curating on steemit.Com.
I am no expert but I would also argue that this description means Steem should not be considered a security by the SEC.
What language do you use when describing Steem and other Cryptos?
Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Travel and lots of random topics.
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