Why Are We Here?
Like most of us here, I have spent time learning about and investing in cryptocurrencies because I believe they are a good way to make money. I certainly like and agree with what they are doing - decentralizing currency, taking power away from governments, disrupting age old fields with new and revolutionary technology, etc - but the primary reason I am getting involved with it to the level that I have is because I believe them to be good, long-term financial investments.
That seems to be the case for the vast majority of cryptocurrency investors - they believe in the technology and invest because they believe it will make money. Investing can be in the form of purchasing the currency on an exchange or mining the currency. Mining in particular is necessary to make the currency and underlying blockchain technology function, but I have never heard of anyone say they are mining only because they want to help grow the technology - they mine because they make money doing it, and helping to support the revolutionary technology behind it is an added benefit.
In It For The Money
Similarly I have never heard of anyone accusing a miner of being “only in it for the money”. That seems actually quite silly because that’s why most everyone is in it! If mining wasn’t profitable then few people, if anyone, would do it and the entire technology would likely die out. The ability to make money mining a cryptocurrency is perhaps one of the most important parts of the technology’s success.
The same applies not just to cryptocurrencies - take taxi services like Lyft and Uber. No one accuses Uber drivers of being “just out to make money”. Of course they’re out to make money - the great thing is that they are providing a very useful service in the process.
That doesn’t seem to always be the case here on SteemIt, however. In my first month here I have often seen people being disparaged for upvoting their own posts or comments, or talking about how they are trying to make money on SteemIt. If that mindset prevails, I think it will be a big deterrent to the success of this great platform.
Mining For the Win
Posting and voting on SteemIt is no different than mining any other cryptocurrency. The more people that mine Bitcoin, the better its chances for success, and the more people that post and vote on SteemIt, the better off the Steem platform will be as well. People mine Bitcoin and other currencies because it’s profitable for them, and people post and vote on SteemIt for the same reason.
The creators of SteemIt know that - that’s why the tag line of the SteemIt.com website is:
Money Talks - Your voice is worth something. Join the community that pays you to post and curate high quality content.The unique, and great, thing about Steem is that instead of using computing power to mine it - posting good quality content is used instead. But it’s still mining, and it’s still incentivized by making money.
If some people are not interested in making money but still want to use the Steem platform, then that’s great! Some people will also use Bitcoin only to make purchases and transfer money around the world. But the system is kept running by the miners, and as a reward for their efforts they are paid - and that’s just how it should be.
Rock the Self-Vote
So all that being said, if a stigma is attached to mining Steem via things like self-upvoting, or talking about how you're trying to make money, then it will reduce the number of miners (a.k.a. posters) and overall hurt the platform. If people start to be openly disparaged for trying to make money on SteemIt (as I was with one comment on my last post, for example) then the very people who make this platform run will leave for other platforms instead.
If you’re worried about people posting a bunch of junk just to up vote themselves - don’t be. There’s not much money to be made that way and while it might happen a little bit now it will die out over time. There is MUCH more money to be made posting good content that other people like and upvoting your posts is a really good, albeit small, way to help get your content out there and seen by more people.
Let's Celebrate
Just like the tag line on the SteemIt home page says, we should openly discuss and celebrate making money on SteemIt. We should encourage people to up vote their own posts and to invest money in Steem so their vote is worth more. We should let everyone know that they too can make money mining Steem with no technical expertise is required! It’s the simplest cryptocurrency in the world to mine and anyone with an internet connection and something to share can do it!
So who’s here to make some money?!? Let me know in the comments section - and be sure to give yourself an upvote because you deserve it!