Sometimes there is an element of what people might say that would make sense but then other times they don't really know what they are talking about.
Ton Vays is a Bitcoin Maximalist and he did a couple of debates back in 2016 about STEEM saying it was a scam. It was actually funny to those of us on Steemit at the time because he basically didn't know anything about how the platform worked. Anyone who had a reputation over 50 knew 20 times as much as him.
So it is kind of funny to me if the YouTuber was saying it wasn't backed by anything. Most cryptos only have demand because the investors play is capital appreciation. There are a lot of people who just buy STEEM on the exchanges and don't even know what it really is or that you can power it up or any of that. They just want the price to go up. Then it has all these other properties that allow people to make money in this ecosystem. It is actually crazy how many ways there are to make money on this platform.
STEEM is actually one of the only coins that drive demand to it outside of just trying to profit off capital appreciation.
Inherently every crypto is backed by electricity and computing power even if it is proof of stake. The resource requirement is a lot less for that than POW but even if a person took it down to its root level it is impossible to say that any crypto is "backed by nothing".
I know you know this ........ I'm like typing this as if I'm debating the YouTuber who made the video. Hahahahah
Just found the video that I had watched...
Cool. I get what he is saying. A lot of people don't like the idea of ads being on there but I actually feel that adding a few non intrusive ads could help fund the project even further in my opinion.
In the end a lot of the demand will come from content creators wanting to have more influence. So even if the STEEM blockchain is this weird place where people are just interacting with one another for their own gain and increased power relative to newer users / content creators coming in the platform will sustain itself.
If you really boil it down a lot of it is the same as the advertising model that Google and Facebook uses..... but instead of 3rd party advertisers trying to sell you something we are the advertisers who keep trying to get attention and promote ourselves and our lives.
It is sort of like everyone on STEEM is a mini Tai Lopez trying to get everyone’s attention and gain more and more eyes on them. Tai buys Slip Stream ads. We buy STEEM Power
I totally agree I look at it the same way. Facebook in a sense has no product, technically they do with messenger and payemnts and what have you but ultimately their product is people like you and I adding content which brings other people there.
Most social media platforms have no product, their product is the content we produce and with the exception of Youtube/Adsense none of them give back at all to the creators. I think Twitter had tried to make a play into video offering something like a 70% revenue split, I applied htey never took me on and I dont' think they were too successful with it.
Anyhow, I agree essentially Steemit is like a Facebook but instead of Mark Zuckerberg keeping all the profits from advertisers we all get a revenue share in it, almost like a co-op grocery store where all the employees are owners kinda deal.
I agree, I think having some unobtrusive ads would be cool, could be used to offer bounties or do fun contests. Steemit I believe does have a tee shirt and mug shop so it's not as if they are opposed to making money. I'd love to see ads if it benefited the community or benefited the platform