When I got into Bitcoin, I saw a much bigger picture than simply carrying some money around on my phone. I saw digital scarcity that was transferable in a permission-less way through a decentralized, growing network. I also saw a whole lot more getting built out.
Bitcoin Solving Problems
Bitcoin solves a lot of things right now, such as enabling an individual to be their own sovereign bank, with the backing of one of the most secure networks on the planet, but there is hope for much more. We can handle remittances better than traditional banking, if we innovate better on and off ramps to fiat around the world. We can handle micro-transactions better than alternatives, if we improve Bitcoin itself with the Lightning Network or something better. So much more is coming to make Bitcoin a fabric of our world.
We know these improvements are being built out. Just look at Yours, 21.co, and so much more. It's all getting better. Sure, some stuff will fail, but there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic.
Steem Solves Problems Too
The way Steem was designed, there are no fees on transactions. We take it for granted here, shifting our Steemtoshis around with ease while not worrying about a single fee, but this is a big, big deal. With Steem Dollars having an approximate valuation of $1USD, one can safely and freely send a stable unit of account to anyone with a Steemit account, anywhere around there world. Not only that, but it enables microtransactions without fees that just aren't possible today.
Not only does Steem not have fees, but it can handle about 500,000 transactions a second. That's only about 100,000 times as many as Bitcoin. Some other alt coins claim this capability, but without use cases, many test this transaction limit only when holders start to panic sell. Steem's multi-layered use cases are built into the blockchain, and open up a plethora of incredible, stable options for us all without having to wait years for innovation.
Steem also processes transactions at a fraction of the speed of Bitcoin, much closer to the transaction times of Visa and other major credit card companies. Why wait 10 minutes to an hour for your Bitcoin transaction to confirm, when you can just use Steem or Steem Dollars instead?
One thing Bitcoin does has to its advantage is that there are thousands of people working in some capacity to build out apps and use cases to make Bitcoin better. Steem has a fraction of that, but still has magnitudes more talent than most other crypto projects out there. Really quality tools, apps, and more are getting built out quicker here than any other project I've seen since Ethereum. With time, our tool belt will only grow.
There are many reasons to have hope and optimism about Steem. We can do so much more here with this project than just blog for votes. We can build Steem out further than you might have been able to imagine. However, you don't need to be a developer or coder to understand this.
Just take this into consideration when working in a beta project that is about four months old, which is the first application on a relatively new, and completely innovative blockchain. Subjective mining is a massive concept. The three token design is brilliant. There are so many things fundamentally right about this project, and we are only a few yards down the field on our first drive.
Many thought Bitcoin would be dead by now. Some still think it will die. Many worried about petty price fluctuations every step of the way up and down to where we are today. However, there were some throughout who believed in building something bigger than many around them understood. They didn't care what others thought and held strong to their beliefs because they knew that they had valid reasons to believe what they did. Through six years of hard work they took Bitcoin's value to the world from under $500,000 to $10,000,000,000.
What can we do here if we put our minds and hearts into this? What can we build in 6 years? I think we can build a lot and I can't wait to see what's possible. Perhaps we can make Steem permeate the Internet and lives in the real world in ways we never imagined. I have a lot of hope and optimism about this project, and I hope others reading this do as well.
Each time I make a Steemit/Steem related post I will pick two contributors who you may have not met:
@jesta - http://steemstats.com and http://steemdb.com/
@kaptainkrayola - http://steemshovel.com
I learned about bitcoin when it was valued at $10. I didn't quite get impressed because of the power consumption and hardware depreciation so I didn't push through the mining. After a year it climbed to $1,000!!! It was the greatest regret in my life. I am not making the same mistake with Steem and Steemit. I can see Steemit's potential to really grow big. And I am so excited!
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Great post. It's not just Steemit, but other things like Watchmybit.com where people finally get a fair chance at making money on their videos rather than something like Youtube or Facebook reaping all the benefits. You also have merchant store options like Open Bazaar using P2P bitcoin sales allowing for smoother ways to sell things to people. Yeah, things are getting somewhere for sure.
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Steem may end up being the thing that gets a lot of people into crypto ... via Steemit. They may have Steem and SBD before they know what Bitcoin even is.
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I totally agree with you here. Steemit will be the gateway drug to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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It's really fun to watch some of my friends get into this stuff for the first time. I've known for years how much they'd love it. Steemit brought them into our world, and while some haven't stuck, many have, and I can already tell that collectively, this project will have a massive, profound impact on crypto as it continues to grow.
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Yeah I'm very new here but already I'm feeling so optimistic about it that I feel like I should be telling everyone I meet about steemit lol.
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That's pretty much me to a T! @derekareith did used to mention Bitcoin to me a lot long before he introduced me to Steemit, but because I didn't fully understand any of it at the time, I was wary. However, as soon as he got me into Steemit and then started doing side-by-side comparisons, as well as keep me up to date with the values of both and the potential both have, I was sold. I'm not usually one to jump into things I don't fully understand, but he just made such a convincing case for both Bitcoin and Steemit that now I just can't help but feel optimistic about both. I'm not invested fully in Bitcoin yet, only because I don't feel I've made enough on here to start transferring, but as soon as I reach that comfortable sweet spot, I'll be invested in both Steemit AND Bitcoin! I have Derek to thank for why and how I'm on here, and why I'm so sold on it. He has made it easier for me to understand what it's all about and where it's going, and how fast it's getting there. I just HAD to jump on this boxcar!
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still getting into bitcoin.. enjoying the ride!!
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Bitcoin is the first step into the economic future!
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I wonder if we could create a Steemians city...
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https://steemit.com/@steemitcity :)
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Great positive post!
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Great post!
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