Any consistent Steemer has been watching the price of Steem steadily decline. But, the big question is where is the floor? Where does the price actually end up and what is the base price where Steem will actually settle.
Here is a look at the 1 month chart of the price of Steem/BTC
The Concern
The concern with the current trend is we are not seeing any rallies - any temporary boost in price has been very short lived and the downward trend is continuing and consistent. Now, this is could be for a number of reasons.
- There is not enough interest to Buy Steem. The benefits of purchasing Steem aside from speculation are not great enough for someone to spend BTC, where there is more short term growth in other coins.
- The consistent decline would also demonstrate - consistent selling of Steem. When people earn for their posts, even if half is tied up. The other half is cashed out and sold for BTC.
- The combination of the two lead to a steady decline in price, there are simply more people selling than buying. It's basic stuff.
This is where the problem lies.
Now the issue with this, if the price of Steem falls. The reward benefit for contributing to the platform diminishes. Resulting in less people likely to continue writing content and seeing how it is actually beneficial for them to contribution.
Past The Hook
How many of your introduction posts got a great reward? A large number. This is the hook. It captures peoples imagination of what is possible and gets them contributing. A fair tactic on those who it truely matters to. But, this effect is short lived. When there isn't enough power players to go around and not enough invested in the platform in any serious way, the majority of content goes unrewarded. Which begs the question to alot of authors...Why contribute if I'm not getting paid? After all that is why the large majority would sign up to this platform. It is human nature to want to gain reward for time and effort.
But once that initial hook wears off. Where do we end up?
We end up here.
We end up with a problem where the platform cannot advance quickly enough to keep the majority entertained and give them good reason to continue to contribute to the platform. The inclusive nature and idea of content being rewarded on value to the community goes a miss as well.
For those who are not natural born writers, artists or creatives. The majority are left going "how can I make this work for me?" There are simply not enough avenues for the people to earn Steem beyond writing.
Now I can hear a lot of you saying what's wrong with that we are at Beta.
Sure we are at Beta. But, this is a little different. Because although the concept is new, it is not actually new. We already have social platforms that are working and people are deeply embedded in them. Unless people gain from their efforts consistently, they will put their attention elsewhere on things that do. This again is human nature.
The Problem With Open Source
Now you may think at first glance open source is fantastic, it creates more avenues for this to expand to. But, just because people are creating tools around a platform. Does not mean it's being created in the right direction.
Successful businesses are this is essentially what this needs to become. Need to be carefully guided and thought through. Otherwise you get a lot of something but not a lot of anything in particular.
You can argue with me as much as you want on the this but...I will simply say....this....
The majority resulted in two things this year...
1. BREXIT
2. Donald Trump
This is not just effecting the everyday steemer, this is effecting influencers.
There are a bunch of accounts on Steemit, that have consistently performed. But, if you find some without naming names, go through them and you will notice a steady decline in their rewards for their posting.
This is problematic as well, again a lot of these people are switched on and smart individuals. Thats why they are considered influencers. They have valuable things to share. But again, if they are not being rewarded they will stop contributing to the platform.
Where is the floor?
The floor...well I'm quite unsure. I don't think we have seen it yet. The reason being is because the same behaviour will continue to occur. Those being rewarded will continue to withdraw, there is little incentive to buy into the platform. It is a 2 year speculation on anything that you put into Steempower and if it's not spare cash lying around. That is a long time to gamble with your funds.
The Fate Of Steemit Is Firmly On The Line
Something needs to budge and to change. The actual platform needs to expand and improve quicker than it possibly can. If the price keeps on dropping. We may see it in dire state.... where we may indeed see a slow exodus of people from the platform.
I hope it doesn't happen. This place is fun!
STEEMZINE