Brave New World: Steemit's Potential to Change Everything

A few months ago I had an idea for a website where people could share content or share their project and users could tip them or donate if they wanted to support it. Little did I know that website already existed, and the best part is that they didn’t have to spend their own money to support the creators.

That website is steemit, the place we all know and love. I only started a month or so ago and I started reading about steemit. I followed guys like @taskmaster4450, @aggroed, and @markymark as well as a few others who were talking about steemit: how to improve it, upcoming features like SMT’s, why it will be successful and other things steem related. I also noticed quite a few people who were developing apps and building on the blockchain like @goodkarma with his esteem and the whole @lucksacks crew with poker. And then people engaging community, like @khaleelkazi and @ashleykalila.

Watching these people work really motivated me to do well on the site, posting and commenting. It also started me thinking about the crazy potential steem has...

Investing in Progress

Observing people when it comes to crypto is interesting to say the least. On the surface, it looks like people are just hoping to get rich quick with the next Bitcoin, but dig a little deeper and you start to see an ulterior motive: the desire to invest in progress.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Blockchain technology has opened the door for people to create solutions to the problems we have with things like money, government, wealth disparity, and the changing work environment we are starting to see. People want change, we are starting to see just how poorly the system we have in place functions for the majority of people on earth. We can do better.

The great things about investing in this space are:

• Anyone can do it
• There are other perks to investing in some coins
• You can get involved in a variety of ways, it doesn’t always require money
• There are real possibilities that whatever YOU invest in will have an enormous impact on the world in a few years

Cryptocurrency in general is starting to give power back to the people, and steemit is taking it a bit further.

A New Definition of Value

The way steemit is set up, the content people value the most is the content that gets paid the most. We can find the most success here by adding value in the best way we can. That’s the beautiful thing about it, everyone has their own strengths and weakness and their own experiences and expertise. Here on steemit we have the ability to add content in the way we see fit, we don’t have to pretend to enjoy our “job” here. Let’s face it, steemit is, at the very least, a way to make some extra money. But it sure is a lot more enjoyable to add value here than at an 8-5 job we don’t enjoy.

Currently, the people earning the most steem are the ones adding the most value to the steemit platform itself, at least in general. And for good reason too, right now it’s in every steemian’s interest for the platform to succeed. Right now, steemit is the most valuable thing to talk about on steemit. However, I don’t think it will be this way forever.

Eventually, once updates and additions create an atmosphere that people love and thrive on, there will be mass adoption of steemit. If we reach the scale of something like reddit or facebook, which could happen rather quickly, content contributors of all kinds will find a lot of success.

Knowledge is Power

With the potential of the platform, we could have all kinds of amazing content, the biggest of which I think will be educational. The failing school system could be enhanced by work done here. We could teach eachother any skill we’d like to learn. We gain value in the form of knowledge and skill, the teacher gets paid for the low low price of upvotes. The perfect way to enhance a failing school system.

The New Desk
Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Kickstarter 2.0

The other thing that could be beneficial to people all over the world is fundraising. Pitch your idea to the entire steemit community and watch the results. Show people the results of building community in your town and see if they will support you after the fact. Good causes, are already being funded, steemit is already having a beneficial effect on a small percentage of the population. Project ideas like movies and books are being funded and supported. Artists are finding that they may not have to starve to do what they love. This is the place for dreamers, the means for people who have the drive to pursue their passion, even if they don’t have the means now. There’s room for people of all types to find success from simply working hard, creating, and adding content. And I often see people who succeed here paying it forward. It’s a beautiful, friendly community because there is no true need to compete.

A New Form of Entertainment

Dtube is already starting to take off, and we’re starting to see people creating film, music, and books on the platform, for the platform. While consuming entertainment here has a ways to go to catch up to things like netflix, spotify, and kindle, the fact that someone can come on here and post one song, one chapter, or one episode of some of their work and start getting paid immediately is really big. It will allow people who, with the previous resources available, didn’t have the means to create and market large works in an effective way. I’ve seen people posting chapters of their books, songs they’ve made, and even short films on steemit with great success. It will only get better from here.

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Other things could happen too, markets, services, pretty much anything seems to be possible here if enough work is put in. What types of things in our lives do you see steemit changing? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed this article be sure to upvote, resteem, and follow me, @jakeybrown