These are were my thoughts about two days ago. We've experienced a not-so-smooth transition but i am still hopeful things will pan out well.
It's really too early to say anything at this point but from my own observation, many people aren't happy about our current situation. Bidders aren't happy; content creators aren't happy; stakeholders aren't happy--haven't been for a long time because they are losing money.
My position. I haven't done the maths and I honestly do not want to because it will only point to one thing: I'm wasting my time. My earnings have dropped, engagement has never been great. Basically, there is no real incentive to post. Writing and posting are automated habits I have formed for the past one year of putting out content every single day! It's not a habit I can get rid off easily, even though everything is pushing me away. So at this point, steem does have something working in its favor and that's the loyalty of steemians.
It might get worse. Anytime soon dtube's delegation will be halved, going by the steeminc post about delegation. So I'm looking at less than $10 every week, half of it would be held as steempower, so we are looking at $5, roughly. I don't know what part of the world you're in but that's grossly not-enough. And before you jump into the comment section to tell me how steem is a long term investment, I want to let you know that I know that alright. It's a long-term investment and also short-term investment. I want quick gains and also want to hodl for the future. That's my position.
I actually knew this was going to be the case after the hardfork. My major option was to bid regularly on my post. The strategy was to bid regularly with the belief that most people trying to earn ROI would most likely find my post and curate, coupled with my bid, that should leave me with about 10%-20% ROI, which is quite decent for a guy like me. 4-5 bids weekly would have done the trick and I really don't need to buy steem. Just power down and pump that back it. Sounding like some Ponzi scheme but I'm certain it will work if I don't get downvoted which is gradually becoming a popular thing here. I heard of a group threatening to disrupt things here if their bidding business is affected. I believe we will be having many of such fights in the early stages of this said hardfork, so brace yourself.
Like I was saying, I was going to explore my bidding options but I'm not and for selfish reasons. But fundamentally, bid bots are anti-steem, whether you choose to believe it or not. Think of bidding as printing more money whilst the value of the said money decreases, plus you're putting more money into the pockets of those who already have enough. Like I pointed out in my previous paragraph. I can really increase the steem I have without necessarily buying steem by just powering down and using the liquid steem I get from that process to bid. In other words, more steem less value. Dumb right? But people still do it--i still do it.
Using bid bots was my last option. I wanted to become a dolphin. But of what use is being a dolphin when the value of your stake is equal to that of a minnow a year ago? There is a catch though: steem will someday increase in value when the bull run starts and cryptocurrency goes mainstream--that's the dream of an average steemian. Yes, someday this will payoff so let's ruin things now because the future is guaranteed--steem will moon.
I'm not here to make a case against bid bots. Whatever you choose to do with your money is fine. Hey, I might still bid because you know what? If this dream of ours actually becomes a reality, I will kick myself hard for not bidding my way to the top because it won't matter how i did then. So that's the dilemma. Bidding has become some sort of necessary evil.
Now back to steem. Despite all the changes some people are still earning quite well. They've been able to build good relationships with some top steemians, so they enjoy the benefits of knowing such people, one of which is regular upvotes. Also, they write some decent stuff. However, I feel one of the things that might reduce all the effort put into this hardfork to nothing is this kind of behavior--rewarding people because you're affiliated with them. Now, more than ever the role of whales and orcas is vital to the sustainability of this blockchain. People earning top dollar for regurgitating the same type of pseudo pro steem posts every day isn't doing the blockchain any good. If they are really passionate about steem then they should take that massage outside to the people who do not know anything about steem. But then again, they have the right to do whatever they like, as long as they are breaking no rules here.
#newsteem isn't easy steem. The stakes should be raised. If steem is going to be difficult to earn than I want to see people work for it or we should just all earn our 30cents and hope steem moons someday. That's something I'm looking out for in the next few months. The only change i have felt so far is that people aren't earning as much as they used to but content-wise it's still the same. I'm not here to argue what quality is or not. I know what i consider to be quality. If I begin to see that I might start to buy steem. Currently, the only place I can confidently put my money is in steemmonsters. Steem hasn't won me over yet. You know it's quite different: investing your steem earning and investing your fiat in steem, the former is easier. I can easily powerup all the steem i earn but putting my fiat into steem, that's another thing entirely. First of all, i must be willing to go through the huddle of buying steem and also convincing myself that steem is a worthy investment. Personal opinion: if you haven't invested at least $100-$500 of your fiat in steem than your faith in this project hasn't really been tested. Why do you think these so-called investors act in ways we think are against the interest of steem? Most of them have lost a lot of money. Their faith has been tested and most have failed. It isn't easy though. We can criticize them all we want but losing what most of them have lost, it is only rational to pursue self-interest.
The way out. This whole article will be useless if i don't proffer some form of solution. That's what separates me from a troll (i guess).
TRIBES.
I think we've moved from the era of dapps to tribes and this for me is the only way to salvage the blogging culture on steem. It goes beyond using tags. the communities should be active and small. Yes small. I strongly believe in the power and capability of small groups to deliver, especially when they include the right set of persons and resources. Like i have said in the past, most of the steem discord groups became useless because they increase in size and most where just duplicates of themselves. In other words, for #newsteem to thrive tribes must thrive. This way the blockchain is decentralized further into smaller groups that can cater to its member. They will need the support of big stakeholders to achieve this. So if you have a lot of steem and don't know what to do with it, then maybe you should find a tribe to support.
In conclusion, I want to say we are in the process of rebranding. We should not fall back to old habits if we are honestly concerned about the growth of steem because if we do, I can boldly say steem will have nothing more than 3 active years left of its lifespan. Collaborate with others if you can and if you're a lone wolf like me then put your best foot forward. Nothing is guaranteed but we can fancy our chances if we take the right steps.
