Joy is the ultimate incentive and the most empowering knowledge is its closest relative. The most empowering knowledge can only be determined through the iterative process of taking risks and realizing profit
N.B. This article is part of a series of essays I'm currently writing.
"Without the risk of loss no true measurement of value can be made and no opinion can be trusted. You cannot even trust your own opinion unless you take actions that risk personal loss if your opinion is out of alignment with reality. The greater the risk you are willing to take the stronger your faith in your opinion and the greater your resulting profit or loss will be."
@dantheman
Every sovereign individuals thus every Steemians have as their highest interest the dissemination of the most mutually beneficial knowledge. In contrast, all other institutions, companies, governments, armies, etc., have as their highest interest the empowerment of themselves at the expanse of everyone else. Generals, elected leaders and companies always have more empowering knowledge than their subordinates and competitors and their power depends on it.
Synergistic empowerment is a greater ideal than systems of parasitic empowerment or empowerment at the expense of others. Empowerment at the expense of others is what currently rules human society and something we fundamentally strive to do away with.
Steem makes profitable the worldwide cooperative real-time process of determining the most enjoyable/empowering information and its mass dissemination, all of this in a decentralized, censorship-free, tamperproof manner. I've been pondering with its implications for almost a year now and it's been the most enjoyable/empowering endeavor I ever been part of. Learning what creates consensus is of the upmost value.
"The purpose of consensus is to reach agreement. People need to make decisions based upon what other people actually believe whether or not what they believe is true or false." [...]
"Assuming all individuals can communicate and have incentive to live in the truth then truth will prevail. If there is incentive to believe a lie, then the lie will prevail. This applies even on an individual basis."
Every Steemians have every incentives to see Steem price rise and it seems like Steem value is bond to rise. There is a growing number of Steemians competing to create the strongest consensus possible among an ever growing number of Steem Power holders. This make creating consensus ever more difficult and valuable which in return will influence a growing number of rational individuals leading to a virtuous cycle. These trends are already being observed. Also Steem is always being bettered in order to best achieve the will of its Shareholders.
Steem Inc. currently own around 25% of all Steem while Mark Zuckerberg own roughly 30% of Facebook. In the last 2 months Steemit Inc. has sent a pretty strong signal they aren't in a rush to sell. They too have the same incentives as other Steemians in regard to Steem price.
If the price of Steem were to rise 10 fold from its current ~$0.50 (May 7), each Steem would be worth around ~$5, Steem's market cap would be ~$1.3B and under the current algorithm top posts would be worth around $3,000-4,000 which is roughly what a top trending YouTube video makes for 1 day of ~2,000,000 views. It's fun to think Steem could become "The Big News" on every other websites which could ironically lead to their own demise.
N.B. YouTube stats can be seen here. (This article was born on May 7)
Steem can already do much more than any of these 2 centralized companies and arguably has more value than any other company period.
IPFS and Bitchute make centralized video hosting pretty much irrelevant for most use case. Anyone who has an incentive for some valuable video to be disseminated will make sure at least one version of its decentralized version is accessible at all time which is a much more efficient and resilient manner to host video. (This paragraph was written before this announcement was made.)
IPFS and Bitchute or not, Steem systems of value make it a lot easier to re-imagine a now truly benevolent economy.
"If Steem had Facebook's user base the Steem token would be a global currency larger than most countries and it would trade at market caps well in excess of Facebook."
This quote by Dan fascinates me for many obvious reasons. Here some more thought on it. But me and
As far as I'm concern, my primary goal is to help the development of all technologies and ideas that mutually empowers everyone.
I see a need for a worldwide crowdsourced plan to empower humanity beyond its wildest dream. There has always been a need for such a plan or be it just a blockchain constitution. Some 139 billionaire pledging to give $365B of their combined 2016 net worth of $731B doesn't solve any of the fundamental problems humanity currently face.
Any plan for a better world which does not mention money creation is beyond foolish. No quote or image could possibly better illustrate this point than the 2 below.
(Source)
"The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take away from them the power to create money and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in." (Often attributed to Josiah Charles Stamp)
N.B. The purchasing power of the US Dollar is less than 5% of what it was in 1913. (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
Recognition of these facts should be used to create the world we long for and not to punish anyone needlessly.
Whether or not such a group of people as described by US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy's quotes below still exists today or has ever existed, centralized power always empower some over others while decentralized system of powers naturally seek to empower everyone.
I see and use Steem as the greatest tool for mutual empowerment. I've shared on everything from joy, education, self-defense, sheltering, health, food production, technology, life extension, money, the beyond and beyond, etc., and I'll continue doing so as long as it feels like the best thing to do yo!
Steem is an ever evolving tool. The proposed change to the reward curve is currently the one change that enthuse me the most. Here's a comment made by 
"This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors who oppress, exploit and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves. Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both."
"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings." [...]
"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.(jfklibrary.org)
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