RE: Is STEEM a good buy at $0.98 USD? #discussion
I think STEEM under $1 is a partial buy at this point. I wouldn't pay more than that right now.
When I say partial I mean that my take on it is that if you've got a chunk of change that you want to invest take half of it and buy now and save the other half in reserve for a lower price. Probably around the .60 - .70 range.
I love the long term potential of the project but there are a few hurdles that need to be overcome before I'll buy outside of those ranges.
- Simplifying account setup and entry level for new users.
- The current amount of new accounts being created is in a downtrend from it's peak in June. Link
- Current active users is only around 28k out of the 375k plus accounts. Not the best retention rate. Link
- The number of unique visitors to the site has dropped significantly. Link
Really, all of these points are going to be an issue until we have HF20, a website ui/ux redesign and mobile apps.
If Steemit can execute well on those points then I'll adjust my view on the target price accordingly but right now the barrier to entry is stopping mass adoption and in turn restricting the price.
I know the Steemit team is well aware of this as their roadmap for the year shows, so I'm hopeful that we'll get past these issues. I'm actually really excited for this final quarter because I can't wait to see what kind of progress has been made. We really are entering a critical point for this project.
I'm very hopeful that we'll be very happy with the results. I'm already very impressed with the platform and am looking forward to being able to spread the word a lot more once we're on the other side of beta.
For now I look to add to my holdings when it makes sense and if you haven't yet, anything under $1 is a good place to start.
Phew, I think you certainly nailed the key usability issues around Steemit and the need for a UI/UX redesign.
I came here from Reddit, and I still spend at least half my online time there because the content is king and easy to filter. Once I'm logged in I can easily get the content that I want based on my login.
The fact that we can freely pay each other on Steemit and be rewarded by actual money for good content might say that usability is certainly one of the things holding it back from truly ongoing explosive growth. If those issues are overcome then people may never leave.
Granted, this may be more of a personal interaction community here, but finding valuable information is not as easy as I'd like it to be.
(serves @solarsherpa a triple espresso shot)
I use 3 different devices and still have a hard time keeping up!
Whoa. I would love a triple espresso.
But, my buddy Bill turned me on to the Quad espresso at Starbucks. For $2.75, I get 4 shots of espresso in a small paper cup. I add some milk and then pour it over ice - either in my off-brand Yeti, or I ask for a Plastic Venti cup of ice.
Bill says it's the best caffeine value out there. So, it's my morning ritual to hit Sbux on my way to work and get a Quad. That keeps me going most of the day!
As a previous barista, I can vouch for this method! You can save a lot of money by ordering straight shots and doing a little quick doctoring. I actually do the exact same thing you do... shots with cream over ice!
Have to stick with 3 shots NO CREAM NO ICE!!
Just STRAIGHT!!!
P.S. That EXTRA 4th shot will over due it for me...
This sounds like we need a side Post covering coffee and the best places / ways to order it when we're out and about.
Great. Now my mouth is watering for a Quad! ;-)
Haha that is a great idea! As an ex barista, I have lots of tricks up my sleeve. 😉 I could probably put a post together today!
Excellent. I can wax poetic for days on good coffee. Well, maybe just a couple of minutes, but...
Ok - my post is live! Thanks for the inspiration on a fun post idea. Here's the link -
https://steemit.com/life/@coruscate/insider-tips-from-a-barista-to-save-money-at-coffee-shops
I'd love to save money, but no thanks to their exclusive politics.
Completely agree, they've really got to make it easy to filter and get to the content you want. There's so much hinging on the website redesign, usability and user experience.
If they get it right, man, that alone could cause the price to jump quite a bit because those of us here will realize it right away.
I totally agree with all these points.
The other concern I have is if Steem does go up significantly it can hurt the platform as many whales are sitting on a lot SP and it would encourage a mass exodus if the price went up significantly as it would be too enticing.
I'd only be concerned about this if the price ran up with no corresponding change to the platform. If the price runs due to the issues I mentioned getting fixed, then I'd be more than happy to buy up as much Steem as those whales want to drop.
There's a lot of built in incentive to keep your steem in the system. Right now you can easily make 24% returns on your money and you're not going to find that anywhere in the current banking system. If you're a whale and you can live off the money your steem is making and the platform is sustainably increasing in popularity and usage, there'd be a very strong pull to not move your investment anywhere and to instead just reap the rewards of it.
That's even more true now that you can actually just power down a percentage of your steem instead of having to power down everything.
Interesting thoughts, I agree it could be a risk, but if Steem is a good investment many of them will hodl.
It will actually benefit many of us if some of them sell, it will increase distribution of the stake and we need more people with more Steem. :)
Yeah, there is no clear answer. I see many whales in jail they can’t get out easily but they are not actively participating. On the other hand a large increase in steem would be a be hard to resist to many just sitting on SP and not participating. The end result would be a shift in power to the active players but not sure there would be able to get back to where it was.
There's always an interaction going on. If the whales sell their shares because of the price, there is also an ever growing group of people interested in buying.
It may hurt a bit in the beginning, but in the long run it would be beneficial since all the power is no longer shared between a group of early adopters.
Yeah, I'ma follow you bud, that was a fucking awesome answer!
Now, to hit on why I'm not investing in Steem yet:
That's it, what say you?
Hey @tolkatore, really good points there.
I'm going to add my thoughts on a couple of them.
In the longer run the bots probably are a hindrance to true growth. As people can manipulate the perceived value of their work, then the
The self-vote issue can go away, but then people will just set up a new account and upvote the heck out of that one, too.
Will be a challenge to unlock so much of the value that Whales hold.
See, many people say this, but those other duplicate accounts won't have any Steem power, so would those little votes from the duplicate accounts even matter?
And if they have a big amount of steem power and rig the system, those duplicate accounts will be pretty obvious. Absolutely rubbish comments with a good amount of $$$$$.
You definitely add some good points.
I'm not sure how you really solve the bot and up voting issue but if the platform takes off it will definitely become something that is going to come into play far more than it is now.
From my perpective what they really did here was gamify blogging. The whole point is to try to accumulate steem power, the fact that it actually has real world value in the market only makes the gamification stronger. Bringing blockchain into the game throws in a unique twist though.
Because it's decentralized and only censored by agreed upon code there are far more ways to play the game because the rules have been built to reward and the blockchain, by design, is made to be interacted with.
Just because the easiest way to play the game is to engage with the platform doesn't mean that's the only way. So when you take into account that the real goal of the game is to accumulate steem then you realize that the game is going to be played on many fronts. Buying on exchanges, loaning, delegating, contests, betting, marketplaces, bots and all kinds of other yet unseen ways.
So yes, Steemit is going to have to address some issues, but if it's at all even mildly successful and as a result brings enough people into the ecosystem where we see sustained usage then we're going to see all kinds of other markets and products pop up around the Steem currency that will eventually render the success or failure of the actual Steemit platform irrelevant.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I only really see the price of Steem tied to Steemit until it hits a critical mass, at that point, Steemit itself will just be one more way to play in the Steem world.
Make no mistake though, if that's ever to happen, it'll be because Steemit was the catalyst.
Yes, you are so right, but if the bot and whale front succeed in this battle, everyone else will just leave... wouldn't you agree?
What do you mean by whale front succeed. Whales are ultimately the guys who enable lots and lots of the users to succeed. What we need is conscious whales that will support good work and not some reward-pool-rape pricks. Also some of the bots are useful. What you’re doing here sir is strict categorization and that frankly isn’t going to help anything.
If you’re addressing the buy-upvote bots, then it is completely legitimate way of any whale how to work with their accumulated SP. As long as it is worth it for both sides it will flourish and when the whale gets too greedy its bound to lose in the competition that has already grew quite well here. None of the Whales is going to sell their "whale status" (too much Steem) and the only option left is to either buy in or work yourself to their level (frankly even big minnows now have quite some influence. You don’t need 70 bucks upvote to make someone stay. Regular 10 cent upvote just from one minnow is pretty awesome too (it will help you grow get some views and stuff).
If you’re addressing the spamming bots than I agree. Flag them. I have stopped caring about those long time ago and when I see a spam I just flag it, there is no need to speak about it. We all know that it is bad and our responsibility is to censure it. When people realize that there is no way how few individuals are going to kill all the spam and everyone will start using their flags, spam will disappear in time.
Also to address what you said in the other comment above. Creating new account and delegating SP to it will totally kill your suggested solution. It would need to go hand in hand with some restriction on creating accounts and that is probably never going to happen.
Great comment, I tend to agree with your take on the responsibility of the whales as well as the up vote bots.
Personally, I love minnowbooster and think they fill a completly legitimate role on the platform.
If you're a whale there's certainly a lot of pressure from the community to behave in a certain way and I think as long as they have a viable means to earn a good ROI on their investment through community approved use then they'll likely follow one of those paths, ie. delegation/loans/curation etc.. rather than just blatantly upvoting worthless content for the rewards.
I also agree on the spam. You've got to just flag it when you see it. Right now though, I think it doesn't happen enough because there's a lot of fear of what kind of backlash you'll incur. Everyone is worried about their reputation taking a hit if you accidentally piss off the wrong user. I think as the user base grows and matures and we get more high level reputation users, we'll see more flagging. This will make it much harder for spammers to get any kind of foothold.
I do led out my SP through @minnowbooster too when I have no time to curate myself. We do have similar vision of Steem/it’s future:).
Perhaps, but only until a certain point.
At this point, I don't think the bots and whales are an issue. It's still possible to play the game, and win at it, even with both. More importantly, the platform still adds value to the user and is fun to engage with (for me at least).
If that scale tips before we hit a critical adoption point then Steem will die. On the other hand, if that scale tips after we hit a critical adoption point Steemit will die but Steem will be just fine and another product will step in that learns from where Steemit failed and deliver the service in a new way.
You’ve struck the main problem. When i started on Steemit, Steem was at 0,23. After few months it settled down in between 1-2 bucks. The community seems to see the value over 1 dollar peg, since the only time it ever dropped lower was when BTC droped (but that imo doesn’t count because every crypto goes down during that time). I agree though that the 2 dollar peg can only be surpassed when the issues you have mentioned will be dealt with.
Yep, something has to change, because a less than 30,000 active "real" user base is not going to cut it, that's for sure!
I agree with you take on buying and keeping some money behind for future purchases. If I had the money to buy right now, I would do that too.
And yes, with everything Steemit is working on, we can expect a increase in number of users.
One thing though that is seriously overlooked in my opinion is multi-language support.
There is a huge crowd out there that does not speak or understand English, and would not even consider writing in English.
For them the current Steemit is useless. As far as I know that is one of the reasons Golos was created, specifically for the Russian(speaking) community.
I am a new user to Steemit. And even though I and my family has invested in STEEM, we feel that Steemit is too slow in comparison with other social media channels.
** By the was it is very restrictive approach steemit has to add new users. It is comlicated and time consuing process just to add new users in the system. For example we are 7 people living in one villa. We have same external IP address & we even share each other mobile numbers. Some of us could not create accounts at Steemit...
Lot of improvements are needed in Steemit before someone else come in the market... :)
Agree 100%