Earlier this week we made an important update to our little Homesteaders Co-op (https://homesteaderscoop.com)

By popular demand from our vendors we have decided to price our products in USD fiat (previously in SBD)

This allows us to convert from USD pricing into STEEM/USD. The reason this was so important for our vendors was they wanted the ability to keep a stable price in the face of a volatile exchange rates.

At the same time this allows us the added benefit of being able to accept both STEEM and SBD!

Now buyers can choose which of the two tokens they wish to pay with.

Finally I took this opportunity to make another improvement.

Purchase transactions are now conducted directly between customers and vendors

Previously, we were acting as middleman in the payments between the customers and the vendors. There were two reasons for this:

it was easier to do technically,
being the middleman in the transaction gave us the option to take commissions from vendor sales

Now that I have committed Homesteaders Co-op to being free for vendors (No Transaction Fees, No Commissions, No Subscription fees) it was easy to choose not to be the middleman in the transaction.

I am so glad we have chosen this route, it feels right. It is more empowering for the vendors and it is less responsibility for the Co-op. Furthermore it feels good to me to let go of the desire of greed to profit from others.

You may ask how will we make money in order to sustain the co-op? That is a good question and I do not have the answer. For now the co-op is being fueled by passion. I would like to see if it is possible to generate income and sustain the co-op through steem rewards. This will be for the community to decide and express how valuable the Co-op is to them. So far we have had quite a bit of positive reactions!

Now that we have a strong foundation for our marketplace I will start asking for community delegations. Delegations will help us get the ball rolling faster towards generating our own SP as well as rewarding those in our community co-op that we are voting for.

I will also be asking anyone that feels some affinity toward our mission to help spread the word about what we are doing - and if you are motivated to be more involved there are plenty of opportunities for that!

Thanks for reading & thanks for your support :)

@sagescrub

A Free Marketplace for Steem

We provide a FREE marketplace for you to transact in STEEM/SBD. Our co-op vendors are committed to sustainability, ethics and quality in their lives and work.

Unlike other marketplaces our vendors are not charged listing fees, subscription fees or transaction fees. This service is 100% free to them.

Support our alternative economy:

Purchase handmade products with STEEM or SBD at https://homesteaderscoop.com
Spread the word that sustainable vendors are accepting STEEM & SBD
Up-vote our posts at @homesteaderscoop
Follow our Curation Trail on SteemAuto to automatically upvote our contributors and vendors
Delegate SP to @homesteaderscoop

Why Delegate to Homesteaders Co-op?

Your delegations will help us grow our community and reward our members for their ethical choices and actions.

In our modern world it is not always easy to choose to live sustainably. To do so often means forgoing income potential and the status quo. Our SteemPower is used to up-vote Homesteader Co-op contributors and vendors in order to reward and support their hard work. Some extra STEEM/SBD may one day go a long way for some individuals of our community.

10 SP | 25 SP | 50 SP | 75 SP | 100 SP | 200 SP | 500 SP | 750 SP | 1000 SP