There is a lot more pessimism out there than I usually see. As the value of all blockchains falls #steemians have been getting more and more discouraged. Talk of bid bots and whales ruining Steem runs rampant. I think the increased frequency of these complaints has less to do with Steem's problems and everything to do with the continued perception that we're all losing money.
If you're like me then you got here when Bitcoin hit 20K. I was like, "Wow, blockchain is a thing now." I started doing research, found Steemit, and have been here for the past three odd months. A lot of the people that came with this "New Paradigm" wave did not realize that it was obviously going to crash back down. I knew, and I still lost a little experimenting with bearish swing trading and slowly powering up my account for stronger votes.
How much value did you think that the blockchain would retain after spiking up x4-x10 in a few days? I was thinking like 20%-40%, and here we are, Litecoin was at $100 and now it's at $120 after a very bumpy ride.
Now is not the time to be depressed or complain. Steem didn't lose value because of bid bots and whales, and it never will. These factors only prevent Steem from climbing to higher levels on the market cap rankings. It was simply bound to lose value no matter what, just like everything else lost value. It's all very cyclical. It will be interesting to see how people change their attitudes in the summer when everything spikes up again.
The cycle continues
The time to be excited and investing as much as you can into the blockchain is coming very soon. There may even be a despair phase where you can buy under market value. I'd say for Litecoin this would be anywhere from $80-$100, Bitcoin $4500-$5500, Steem $1-$1.25 etc. You'll know if it comes because every chain will be there.
Blockchain tech might be invaluable in the future but today the market is speculative. Money is thrown at all blockchains at once far more often than a single one climbs the ranks. Look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I gotta say it looks a lot like every crypto graph.
Unrealistic Expectations
How many people come here, invest nothing, and then complain about someone else's crap post making more money than their crap post? So, so many. You have no network, you have no stake, you have a false sense of entitlement. Proof-of-brain is the goal, not the reality. This is a new platform and a massive amount of work needs to be done to get where it needs to go.
Steem: high supply low demand
I've talked about the value of everyone being a producer and a consumer. Steem accomplishes this, but because the platform is new and underdeveloped, we have a massive oversupply of blogs with little demand for them. In the future there will be much more to do here than write and make videos, but until then, be patient and consider yourself an early investor.
Invest
The market is still speculative, you have the choice to invest in any platform because they are all linked. Why not invest in Steem? Clearly, a stake-based crypto is the best one to HODL. Steem is hard to steal and it's the only crypto with account recovery. Did someone say 3 second block times with no fees? This technology is massively undervalued. You're depressed that Steem went from $8 to $1.50? Really? It was $1 four months ago. Now is the time to buy. This illogical emotional response you're having is irrelevant.
Here's an idea: instead of buying those $200 shoes that were made for pennies on the dollar in Indonesia, buy Steem. You want to buy a $2000 grill so you can BBQ $100 worth of meat a year? Really? I'm tired of 90% of the population living paycheck to paycheck buying frivolous things. No, I'm not impressed by your super-charged Mustang.
Instead of buying insert impulse buy here, buy Steem. I'm working a shit job and I consider myself lucky to be able to save half of what I'm making. Guess where it's all going? All in.
Of course, you may want to wait a month for that possible despair phase.