In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. - Donald Miller

Sometimes we don't know the right answer ad hoc, but we know where we can find it. Then we start to dig deeper and suddenly find ourselves learning a whole bunch of new things.

Isn't information the real power in our today's world?

Thanks to @erikaflynn and her extraordinarily valuable comment on my yesterday's article, I read the Steem white paper again and found a really interesting paragraph about capital and value in it.

Then I started to talk with a couple of people about my finding and it suddenly dawned on me.

Did you know that according to Steem's white paper, investing time vs. investing money in this network is equally valuable? And did you know that SMTs will address exactly that principle?

Picture kindly provided by pixabay.com

Time is valuable

Now that's nothing new to us, but put into the right context you might actually be surprised.

Here we go, the first quote to study from Steem's white paper:

An important key to inspiring participation in any community, currency or free market economy is a fair accounting system that consistently reflects each person's contribution.

Fair? Does the Steem white paper effectively mention the word fair? That's astonishing! Well I don't know how you interpret that paragraph, but to me that's been a real eye-opener!

What the white paper doesn't promise - and we have to be fair again - is a guaranteed reward for that contribution. While it wants to ensure transparency about contribution it doesn't assure users of generating a specific amount of benefits.

That's quite important when it comes to expectation management!

Now the good news is that SMTs like the @communitycoin will be able to finally carry through on the given promise.

I haven't studied all the details about SMT Oracles yet, but according to the information given by Steemit Inc's CEO Ned Scott they're goal is to turn this game into a fair game.

I hope @ned doesn't mind quoting him here :-) The following description helped me a lot to understand the concept and goal of SMT Oracles - so probably it will also help you:

Currently Steem is like scrabble where every time you play a word, you get your letters back plus more, and the longer you’ve played, the less any new player can catch up. Oracles will individuals help move toward games with even starting points at regular intervals, just like regular board games. Or equal voting power based on being an individual.

To me that sounds really promising!

Time investments are real investments

That's also nothing new. The attention economy teaches us on a daily basis how important the currency time actually is.

Still reading it again in black and white in the Steem white paper really made me feel good.

All forms of capital are equally valuable. This means that those who contribute their scarce time and attention toward producing and curating content for others are just as valuable as those who contribute their scarce cash. This is the sweat equity principle and is a concept that prior cryptocurrencies have often had trouble providing to more than a few dozen individuals. - Steem white paper

Wham! Now honestly, how many of you knew that this was written in the books?

Of course I read that paper when joining Steem, especially because it was the very first time I ever got in touch with cryptocurrencies. Having some nerdy friends was of great help since they could translate the more cryptic parts of the paper then.

Still reading these parragraphs of the white paper again after 1.5 years was a true inspiration!

Maybe it's been the same for you :-)

Enjoy your weekend,
Marly -

Thanks for your valuable time!
This blog was launched at the end of July 2016
aiming to provide stories for open-minded
people who enjoy living on the edge of their lives,
stepping out of comfort zones, going on adventure,
doing extreme sports and embracing the new.
Welcome to the too-much-energy-blog!

PS: Don't forget that this is a troll-free zone.

Original content. Quote found on quotefancy.com.