Are there any plans to allow us to exchange Steem for gift vouchers and other stuff

in steem •  9 years ago  (edited)

In order to prevent the Steem price tanking on July 4th, it would be great if there were sites we could exchange Steem for gift vouchers and other goods, instead of sending Steem to the exchanges to be to sold.

There are some voucher sites that accept alts already, such as Cryptodechange, and perhaps we could lobby them to add Steem.

Or the developers could set up a voucher site where we could exchange Steem for Amazon, Target, Walmart (or Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose or Aldi, Lidl) vouchers. It would also be really nice if we could buy cellphone/mobile top-ups using Steem.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

If people using the platform believe in it's long-term success, isn't it possible that the rewards on the 4th of July will be turned into SP as soon as possible? This may cause the price of available Steem to go up rather than down.

Yeah it is definitely possible. Plus remember the maximum sell pressure created through that payout would be 1/104th of the payout every week. And that is if every single person powered down immediately, which of course wont happen.

Another real intriguing part of this whole experiment that I don't see people talking about too much is that both individuals and companies will want to buy STEEM to have steem power without going through the process of receiving it through participation. This is where STEEM can really be amazing in my opinion because what it would indicate is that getting your post upvoted on STEEM brings you exposure you cannot get elsewhere. So the interactions between all different types of participants will be fascinating to see.

Steem power increases your voting power, but I'm not clear that it necessarily means your own posts will get more votes (aside from your own). Did I misunderstand you there?

you are right it doesn't mean you are going to get a bunch of votes on your post automatically or something but think about it this way, having a bunch of steempower lets you choose what types of posts are popular

Certainly. And I also think that anyone who wants their content to rise to the top might seek you out anyway, because even if it's one vote, the weight of it may have more effect on the post rising higher.

  ·  9 years ago (edited)

Some of it will definitely get turned into SteemPower. But you are kidding yourself that some won't be sold. Some people are putting a lot of work into this platform, as though it was a job, and that's probably because they need the money to pay bills. Not everyone will have an alternative source of income. If they could buy their groceries by exchanging Steem for Walmart or Sainsburys vouchers, then the Steem economy develops further (you can earn and you can spend, without ever having to resort to fiat).

You are probably right......I wonder what Sainsburys would do with the Steem? Maybe put it into SP? That could be a very interesting situation. Good shout alyssas! We are running out of time a bit though....

  ·  9 years ago (edited)

Well a voucher site would involve someone purchasing vouchers in fiat for a discount (perhaps buying a years worth) and then selling them slowly for Steem. For the owner of the site, it would be like buying steem for a nice discount. It would also control how fast the Steem got converted back into fiat.

Getting companies like Sainsburys to invest in Steem Power is a completely separate issue - I imagine a future where advertisers for the big companies buy Steem Power to upvote anything that mentions their brand, as a way of promoting their brand.

Selling slowing is mostly just prolonging the agony. It could reduce short term volatility around July 4 but it would mean a lot more selling pressure longer term, which is not a great thing either.

This sounds good on the surface but it doesn't really work. Where will those gift vouchers come from?

You buy them with fiat at a discount. That is basically how businesses like Gyft work. They purchase vouchers at a discount and sell them at face value (the difference is their profit). And users of Gyft exchange bitcoin for them. So it is a good business model for the owner of the site if they wish to purchase Steem at a discount

Understood, but to be at all sustainable this means the Steem Dollars have to be sold anyway, to get the fiat to buy the vouchers. When Bitcoin merchant signups became a big thing many observed that this was just an indirect vehicle for more Bitcoin selling.

I would rather have games or services sold first with Steem Dollars first. This way it is more sustainable.