If we truly believe in cryptocurrency, why is the value of posts shown in dollars?

If we want cryptocurrency to replace fiat, we need to move towards treating it like it already has - especially on Steemit - instead of continuing to value crypto in fiat terms. While the answer to my question (as some people have already pointed out) is fairly obvious, this is more of a thought experiment than anything else, so bear with me here.

The symbol above is one that almost all of us should recognize. It's the symbol of Bitcoin, the grandaddy that started them all and the anchor to which all cryptocurrency is tied (Satoshi be praised).

We know it, we love it (except when the price drops for no apparent reason), and we want it, and coins like it, to take over the world and become the new gold standard.

Of course, this won't happen until that symbol, and all the ideas and values attached to it, are accepted and recognised in the public consciousness.

Steemit, by attracting more users from outside the cryptocurrency world, is one of the best initiatives that can help us to achieve that noble goal. But in order to see the change, we must be the change. There's a psychological shift that needs to take place, and it can (and should) start right here.

This means starting to talk about money as cryptocurrency (and vice-versa), rather than converting it back to dollars.

Those dirty, dirty dollars

I can't help but find it strange that on a platform that ostensibly champions cryptocurrency, the symbol we see thrown around the most is the dollar sign. It's below every post, and holds equal footing with Steem itself on everyone's wallet page.

It's as if we're reluctant to (almost literally) put our money where our mouth is, instead treating it like our favourite problem child by putting its pictures up on the fridge (even if they're shit), but stopping short of actually framing them.

But is it art?

It's obvious that Steem as a currency is not well-known or stable enough to be used as an objective measurement of monetary value just yet (if there even is such a thing), but Bitcoin is steadily getting to that point. Within the next decade (if not sooner), we're going to see a significant increase in the ways we can use Bitcoin (and, hopefully, Steem) for everyday purchases.

We need to attach real-world value to cryptocurrency automatically if we want to push it further into the mass market.

Surely, if we want to be able to buy groceries and gas and whatever else with cryptocurrency instead of fiat, we need to start thinking and talking about it in the same way, and that means referring to the value of things - including (and especially) Steemit posts - in cryptocurrency terms by default. To this end, instead of saying that a post made $350, why not say 0.5 BTC? In a perfect world, don't we eventually want to be able to do the same with the value of a car or a loaf of bread?

Now, I realize this is not a practical suggestion at this stage, for many reasons. Admittedly, the implications of doing things this way right now would just force people to convert to dollars anyway to get a proper sense of the value their cryptocurrency has in the real world, so it's unlikely to be adopted anytime soon. But it's an interesting thought experiment nonetheless, and one that shows the importance of making a psychological shift if we are to make an economic one further down the line.