The Interview a Steem Stakeholder Series is a project to help inform the community about the views of the largest Steem stakeholders. The goal is to help "regular users" better understand the views of the largest stakeholders on the platform, so they can better align their actions with what the stakeholders are looking for.

In this post, @neoxian (a stakeholder with over 275,000 STEEM) answered several questions about his views on the Steem platform and community. Below are the questions that were asked and responses from the interview.

Keep in mind that the stakeholders are individuals, and not all of them will share similar views. The views expressed in the interview are the views of the one stakeholder conducting the interview. They are not intended to represent the views of all stakeholders.

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The Interview with @neoxian

How did you become a part of the Steem project?

I was looking for a censorship free blockchain type forum and found steemit.

When did you join?

July 2016

How did you acquire a majority of your stake?

Purchasing it

How many STEEM tokens do you currently hold?

About 275,000

Do you have a large stake in any other tokens besides STEEM?

I own pretty large amounts of most of the top ten coins, and others.

What Steem apps do you use on a regular basis?

Steemit.com
steemmonsters
steempeak
vessel
cli_wallet

What would you say repels investors or otherwise discourages investment in the Steem blockchain and STEEM tokens?

The trending page, the difficulty of finding posts of interest. Also, there is nothing that lays out clearly the advantages and benefits of powering up.

What would you say attracts investors or otherwise encourages investment in the Steem blockchain and STEEM tokens?

Steem is the world’s first forum on a blockchain. The steem currency itself has great properties, 3 second transaction times, no fees.

In addition to holding tokens, how else are you involved in the project?

I’m a witness, I run the best bank in Steem, I run my City of Neoxian discord server, and actively curate.

What types of things do you do specifically to get a ROI on your investment?

I loan money out for interest, I rent steem power, I sell various other services.

What are ways that “regular users” have potential to affect your investment in a positive way?

The more regular users the better. The networking effects will bring value to the blockchain.

What type of contributions do you consider to be adding value to your investment?

Projects that find new uses for the Steem token, like Steem Monsters. Any project that encourages quality posts, any project that helps onboard new people and make them welcome.

How do you discover and reward those types of contributions?

Discovery is either a resteem, or word of mouth, probably through discord. I can reward people with my vote and/or a witness vote.

Do you delegate SP to any projects? If so, what types of projects do you support?

I delegate 50k to Steem-UA project, and also have affordable delegations to the silver stacker community.

How “hands on” do you expect to be in projects you support?

I tend to be busy but I can spend some time, and do some writing for projects I like.

What type of accountability reporting do you expect to see from a project that you support?

There should be monthly posts describing how the project is going, this should include the money aspect.

What do you look for when casting witness votes?

The witness should be involved in one or more projects that benefit the Steem currency.

What sort of profit margins do you hope to see for your investment?

I’m looking for at least 15% apr (keeping in mind 8% inflation rate)

Do you have a time frame for how long you plan to hold STEEM? Or a price target?

My goal is to walk into a restaurant and upvote them for a meal.

Do you believe that the delegating of SP to bid-bots as well as self-voting/circle-jerking is harmful to long-term ROI?

I think some of this activity can be ok, but too much would be bad. Hopefully we can strike a balance, not sure how.

What factors affect your decisions to go after short term returns that may hurt Steem in the long run vs. decisions to take a longer term strategy?

Again, there is a balance, it might be worth it to make some money in the short run, so I can have greater influence later, but I wouldn’t want to do anything too harmful.

Are there other forms of obtaining a good ROI from STEEM that you think will be possible in the long-term?

There can be many “fringe” benefits to holding a lot of Steem. People tend to listen to you, in some ways it’s like free advertising just holding steem.

What do you think is the biggest disconnect between stakeholders and “regular users”?

I can image that large stakeholder could be out of touch with the average user. I have plenty of RC to do what I want but I can imagine how frustering it would be for someone new who doesn’t have much RC, plus my life doesn’t depend on whether I can make a few dollars from Steem everyday.

Also I would hope that the developer would eat their own dogfood, i.e use Steem/Steemit a lot and become aware of any short comings in the system or user interface.

If you strike it rich from STEEM, what do you plan to do with your money?

Again I hope to leverage my steem power to do wonderful things. Upvoting for meals and cab rides would be great.

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Previous Interviews:

• Interview with @steemed (500,000+ STEEM Stakeholder)
• Interview with @acidyo (100,000+ STEEM Stakeholder)
• Interview with @dhenz (270,000+ STEEM Stakeholder)
• Interview with @donkeypong (500,000+ STEEM Stakeholder)
• Interview with @riverhead (1,000,000+ STEEM Stakeholder)

Future Interviews:

If you are a stakeholder with 100,000 or more STEEM and would like to participate in an interview, please reach out to me on steem.chat or Discord.