Much like De Niro, it took Amazon more than a decade to become Amazon. For the better part of 20 years, Amazon existed without the phrase "being Amazoned" being uttered. What started as an online bookstore has become one of the most feared companies in the world. The simple mention of them entering a particular industry will send the stock of the existing players in that industry on a downward move of about 5%. People realize that the limits of where Amazon can go are few and far between. Their market is basically whatever they decide it to be. Who would have thought that an upper end, physical grocery chain would make Bezos shopping list? Yet that is exactly what happened with Whole Foods.
Why do I bring this up? Anyone who followed the cryptocurrency market for any time quickly learned the potential of the blockchain. Like Amazon, this technology is a disruptive force that knows few limits. The market for the blockchain is basically whatever it decides it to be. There are people working on applications that are going to wipe out entire industries. In the end, those industries will not know what hit them. It is very similar to what retailers are experiencing from that little online book store located in the Pacific Northwest.
So how do I draw a correlation between one of the hottest companies in the world and the Hive blockchain? To start, I wanted to emphasize that Amazon was not always the giant it is today. In fact, for most of its history, Amazon lost money. Only recently has the $500B behemoth been a darling of [Wall Street]9https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-wall-street) in terms of its' numbers. Over time, it built upon it successes creating momentum which ultimately caught everyone off guard. I see the same thing happening with blockchain and Hive, in particular, is well positioned for this.
Following technology as closely as I do, I can tell you for certain that many high ranking executives are completely unaware of the disruptive forces that exist. Much in the same way as the C-level types at Sears, KMart, and JC Penny were all caught napping, I see similar behavior out of people in the financial, oil, and automobile industries. To them, it is business as usual. This mindset is exactly what Amazon exploited on its' path towards total domination.
Hive is a blockchain that basically focuses upon the social media/publishing realm. One interesting aspect to blockchain is how things often evolve differently than originally intended. Many visions start the chain down a particular path only to find developers going in a different direction. Oftentimes, this direction can be a lot more profitable.
At present, Hive has answers for most every social media genre out there. While Facebook is still king in terms of users and functionality on its site, others have direct competition for apps already in use on here. This is something I wrote about on a number of occasions. For a quick recap, the major social media sites have roughly 3.5 billion user accounts. While many of these are duplicates and bots, the true accounts are a target for the Hive blockchain. With the development of Peakd, 3Speak, Leofinance, Dbuzz, and Liketu, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and blogger all face potential decentralized threats. I will project that there is not going to be one area of social media that will not have a valid Hive-based app over the next 12-18 months. There simply is too much development taking place on this blockchain.
So why am I so bullish on Hive? My answer to that is simple: many of the issues confronting other blockchains do not occur when talking about this one. The ability to scale up is something many blockchains are trying to confront. To realistically be a blockchain that acts as a currency, one needs to be able to push through a ton of transactions very quickly. When you consider that Visa does millions of transactions every minute of the day, that kind of makes ethereum's 25 per second look almost laughable. Bitcoin has even a larger problem. Hive, on the other hand, already handles hundreds of thousands of transactions a day with the ability for a lot more. There is no scaling problem with Hive, at least for the foreseeable future.
Since scaling up is not an issue, this puts Hive in a rather unique position. Notice in the preceding paragraph, I did not mention social media companies. Instead, I listed the number one company in the world for handling financial transactions, at least in terms of number. What does this have to do with Hive? Visa is a third party verification entity that handles transaction in many different currencies almost anywhere in the world. Traveling today is a lot easier than it was 30 years ago (remember traveler's checks) since you simply swipe your Visa card and it will convert whatever charge in a foreign currency back to the one you regularly deal in. Travel to Europe and buy a bunch of things priced in Euros and you will find that your bill is in dollars when you arrive home. Visa handles it all for you.
Hive does the same thing. The blockchain is a third party entity. Much like Visa, it can handle the transactions in one currency on the blockchain while converting it back to another like $HIVE. This is the main essence of the smart media tokens. One can create a token for his/her site while anyone with Hive can use that currency on the same site. The blockchain itself will handle all conversions AND TRANSACTIONS. Every site that creates a token using SMTs will have all transactions handle by the Hive blockchain. Just like the Visa network is in most countries around the world, the Hive transactional network will be in most of the "digital countries" known as sites. While they might all have different currencies, this blockchain takes care of all of them.
Now many of you are probably saying to yourself " yes Task, what you say is correct...but there is no clear cut winner in blockchain". With that point I have to agree. However, when you delve a bit deeper, you realize that Hive has an advantage over every other blockchain out there. The advantage Hive has is the curation reward system. This is what separates it from everything else at the moment. And here is why....
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the Western world. It has an Alexa (a company it owns) ranking of 12. This is very impressive. However, think back to the entities that Hive apps can provide competition for and how big a market that is. If we look at the top top Alexa ratings we see: 2. Youtube 3. Facebook 8. Reddit 13. Twitter 17. Instagram. Now you can see why it is a target market of over 3 billion people. The curation/reward system is ideally suited for the social media/content creation arena. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and Ripple do not have it. This enables Hive to target the most populated online arena.
Which brings me to my last point. If you are not excited by now, there is one more aspect that should get your juices churning. At present, Hive is a currency we earn and then convert back into something else. While the Hive blockchain has the transactional market covered, $HIVE the currency has few uses. Right now, it is basically a way assign rankings to different individuals. This brings us to the next phase of Hive's evolution: the commercialization of the blockchain.
Last night I wrote a post about Steembay. This is an app that works within the steemit framework to allow people to buy and sell items similar to Ebay. Basically, it is steem's very own auction house.
https://steemit.com/steembay/@taskmaster4450/next-steem-target-ebay-post-your-bids
But wait, there is more. In addition to Steembay, the steemfleamarket was also announced yesterday. I found this by buzzing around last night trying to find things to upvote. From what I can gather, people now have the ability to set up their own "storefronts" on Hive. How cool is that?
Here is the post announcing it:
What this means is we are starting to see the transformation to commerce. People are going to be able to use their $HIVE directly to acquire the goods and services they need. Over the next year, I believe we will see a ton more development in this area as entrepreneurs start to embrace this blockchain. Remember, we already have the ability to handle all the transactions, something that Bitcoin and Ethereum are still trying to work through. Imagine the evolution where content creators, commentors, and upvoters have the ability to earn $HIVE (or other tokens created via SMTs) while also purchasing the things they want and need without ever leaving the ecosystem.
If this takes place, 1000 in Hive Power might not be worth $100K but, rather, could make you a millionaire. Over the next 20 years, Hive could be as disruptive a force as Amazon was the last 20.
Hold on...it is going to be a wild ride.
If you found this article helpful, please give it an upvote and a rehive.
Pictures from google images.
It’s amazing how many people who are asleep at the wheel as to just how much and how fast the world is changing.
Just on the weekend, I went to my sports card shop, and the owner suddenly started trashing Bitcoin. Calling it a scam, saying it’s not backed by anything, blah, blah, blah. I told him the paper crap in his pocket was backed by less, but he just doesn’t get it.
My personal favourite part about that night had to be the other guy in the store, who is a Canada Post letter carrier, who also said Bitcoin was a scam.
That man hasn’t a clue just how fast he’s going to lose his job delivering mail thanks to drones.
How about the Edward Jones financial advisor that steered his colleagues away from bitcoin in 2013... The company hasn't changed their policy to my knowledge. Fast forward to 2017 and I hear a 'successful' adviser say, "You can't just go creating your own currency"...
Well, you twisted bunch of Keynesian ****s, you can't print your way out of inflation. Bastards.
I saw you mention sports cards and checked your blog, awesome to find another fan on here finally! I posted a few of my favorite cards a couple weeks ago. Following you (obviously) haha
Great!
You never know, maybe we can do some buying, selling, and trading one day!
And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel at Shaun’s Collectibles if you can! Lots of Box Break videos there!
hahaha ... the indoctrination of a man ... is the saddest thing in life!!! :/
I see your posts, and I look and see my cryptocurrencies went up in value today. 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
good karma! :D
Great post taskmaster - I have resteemed for future reference.
Personally - I watch the new account creation happening at https://steemd.com/@steem and wonder how long Steem prices can possibly stay down at these levels.
We have now passed 460,000 accounts. When I started in May - we were at 160,000. This is massive growth!!
Some say that they are not all new users - but many could be existing users setting up multiple accounts. This does not matter however, as it demonstrates belief in the platform and the future by existing users.
We average nearly 2,000 new accounts a day now.
I agree with everything you have said - my only concern is EOS. I have found a most ingenious solution to this problem however, I am buying BOTH!
IMO Steem has enough of a head start now to ensure success.
This is the way I am looking at it. If we grow to a mere 7% of the current size (market value) of Facebook - expect a $100 Steem token price! With respect to your analogy, we would need to grow to 70% the current size for $1,000 - possible, I guess.
Anywhere between $100 and $1,000 I will be happy though ;)
Will need to check Steembay now.
If we start winning the business away from the online trading entities as well as social media as you suggest - MOON!
SirKnight
Thanks for the reply @SirKnight.
One point that I would contest is regarding Facebook. I agree with your numbers. However, look at the value of Reddit ($20B), Twitter ($16B), and the other entities I mentioned (What price would you guess Youtube is?....$100B? $150B).
ETH blasted off on the ICO craze and it is a network that cant handle nearly the same traffic that steem does.
But yes, I am not forecasting $1000 steem....not publicly anyway. :)
$1,000 is a very big number for sure - probably best we take it one day at a time. The journey will be half the fun anyhow.
SK.
Yes....people, including me, will be over the moon with $10 steem.
First goal is get over a dollar.
Thanks for keeping me grounded. :)
Mad respect @taskmaster4450, you make some of the best SteemBull content out there, right up with stephenkendall :)
I see parallels between the attitudes of Steem now vs. bitcoin in mid 2011. Bitcoiners were a small community often disrespected and marginalized by stock traders and gold bugs. Even those with less arrogant views tended to miss the implications of decentralized payments with a capped supply (unfortunately, including me).
Only 1 in 100 of my fakebook friends actually care enough to join Steemit and kick the tires a little.
I'm glad I'm no longer clueless and ignorantly apathetic. Wish I'd stacked a lot earlier, as I heard of Steem before the website went online, I just didn't - you guessed it - realize the implications...
We're on good footing now at least.
It's GO TIMES!
@overkillcoin I totally agree with you. This post of taskmaster4450 is a must read for people outside cryptocurrency too. Steem has a huge potential and a lot is being developed. By the way, I remember the great bitcoin is accepted here icon you made the other day. upvoted your comment. @gold84
Thanks, I really need to do a "Steem accepted" animation next!
Yes @overkillcoin , make it as a contribution on utopian-io. @gold84
Thanks @overkillcoin. I am glad you appreciate it.
Yeah, I certainly feel that I have my pom poms out and am leading the cheering section.
The truth is the more I research what is going on with this blockchain, the more I am drawn to the conclusions I am. Blockchain is going to upend the world and most things will end up on them. I foresee the almost the entire economy operating on blockchain which means close to $100T a year.
That is why the valuations are so high...we are talking a huge market.
:D !!!
Just like in the early days, though, maybe more so now, so many of us are spooked about losing what we have stored up, whether hacks or a financial crisis that demands a withdrawal of funds... Adds to the excitement I guess lolz...
Thanks to @sirknight for resteeming this.
Great article with heaps of logical information.
I just had a quick scan through some of your other recent posts ... looks like I've got more reading to do!
Thanks for the kind words..I hope you find the articles helpful and informative.
This is a great discussion, I do see big things and have been also excited about seeing steem being used more as a currency for trade. I really think we're in the verge of soemthing big.
I like the Amazon analogy, but I hope Steemit itself doesn't succumb to the forces of centralization. The other potential issue I foresee is that everything is transparent on the Steemit blockchain, and many people might just a have a problem with that.
Something to think about.
Good points @techwizardry.
Yes people might have a problem with that although I think, like anything else, they get use to it. Besides, things are out in the open anyway...the difference is the 3rd parties are the ones making the information available through their selling of data or getting hacked.
Neither of those are an issue in the blockchain world.
Thanks for spreading the good energy around, and so logically too :) **SMILES!!
@taskmaster4450 great insights and correlation between steem and visa, and between steem and amazon, and how steem targets the largest population market of all industries. upvoted. @gold84
To hit $1000 a Steem with roughly 250 million Steem currently in existence we’d need a 250 billion dollar market cap. I think $10 or even $100 Steem is possible but $1000 is insanity. I hope we hit it, but it seems like an unreachable goal.
Market Caps:
Facebook $500B
Twitter $20B
Reddit $25B
YouTube $100B ???
And that is solely the social media realm. What is it worth when you consider that the world's economy is heading towards $100 trillion dollars. Since most of that is going to end up on the blockchain, it is unreasonable to thing that .5% ends up on steem?
How much is EBay worth? What if Steembay evolves and takes a portion of that market from them? We also saw the introduction of the steemfleamarket which could put a dent in sites like Etsy.
I am not saying that steem will be $1000...not by a long shot. However, the numbers in the cryptoworld are unlike anything we saw before. So far, the values are in the platform, not the apps that go on them.
I get that but I feel like to hit $1,000 a Steem Steem would have to be a top 3 crypto and get there before too many more Steem are created. If it takes a few years to get to $1000 Steem the market cap would need to hit $1 trillion.
I could definitely see Steem having a Facebook like market cap, so $100 Steem I could see in the next few years.
Right now a $25B market cap would make steem a top 3 cryptocurrency.
In a year, $25B in market cap might not crack the top 20.
Wall Street is going to dump close to $1T in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space in 2018. My forecast is that we see $1.5T in marketcap by the end of 2018.
It would be nice but that eth bug, the “delayed” fork and the unfolding tether drama will probably hold Wallstreet back. I’m guessing next year we’ll be around a 500 billion market cap at best but only time will tell. Hopefully you’re right :)
Wrote a post containing your comment...my reply.
I hope you dont mind me citing you.
Good article! So long as the quote doesn’t take my words out of contest I have no problem with being quoted. Thanks for the heads up though :)
that quote is awesome
It very well is possible however the amount of coins in curculation is crazy higher and is subject to change unlike bitcoin which is a limit supply. As the community continues to grow small adjustments such as interest and supply reduction or increasing will play a huge part in terms of price.
I recently received 6 silver coins as payment for two months' delegation of 10K SP.
That sentence was incomprehensible two years ago.
Yeah, interesting times for sure.
Excellent article once again Task!! I'm so pumped for the STEEM blockchain! Nice to see you mention @steemfleamarket too, I happen to have the FIRST every item ( a platinum rimmed gravy boat!) up on the flea market as I was floating around the other day and saw @kaliju post about his idea. I don't want to spam the comments with a link but if you go to my blog you will see the post, still three days for a chance at the gravy boat.
:)
Once again, excellent post, thanks.
Great article and info. I'm gonna have to go check out steembay and flea market now. Cause I got stuff to sell!
Way Cool!
I had already known that the steem blockchain handles more transactions than any other, but this article pulls it all together for me!
My good friend and crypto-mentor "Stan" directed me here to steemit early this year, and I am pretty much "all in" for STEEM! My account is >3200 SP atm and screaming towards Dolphin Status :D
I'm in for the long haul! HAIL STEEM!!!
In my opinion, 3200 SP already makes you wealthy. In a few years, you will look at your account value (I am sure it will have more steem by then) and be amazed. That 3200 might well be a million.
Yes, I hope to keep growing!
My posts have been really killing it lately, "slightly" better content but
my people have made it really Pop! Very generous ^up^voters^ ;)
Thanks for the encouragement, Task! FOLLOW!
Nice
I wish i could too.!!
Thanks for inspiring........
The utopian-io platform will be an accelerant for Steem as more open source contributors get rewarded. Thank you for your illuminating post!
Absolutely....that is a wonderful project and should open up a lot of doors to developers.
I heard @ned just delegated 500K SP to them to help push it ahead.
For the first 3 or 4 months of my time on steemit I was unconvinced about the future potential of the platform. But for the past 6 weeks or so my dial has turned totally to the positive.
My main reason for this is the mad, crazy pace of new developments on the steem blockchain.
It is like someone has kicked over a bucket of steem-goo and it is spreading out into every nook and crannie of the internet. Filling the gaps and swamping over everything that was there before.
In the last few weeks alone we have seen DTube, DSound, Utopia.io, PaywithSteem, Steembay etc etc.
That is all without mentioning SMTs, APPICs and all that is to come on that front.
With such a massive wave of steem-based developments it feels impossible that they won't succeed.
Do not overlook the fact that porn is now here. The fact that a porn token is going to be on steem is huge. Regardless of one's viewpoint on it, one thing is for certain, porn tends to have a big following.
I have a feeling getting paid to watch porn will not be a hard thing to sell. That one token could bring millions onto the steem platform.
Getting paid to watch porn? Surely teenage boys have better things to do with their spare time - like learning algebra, or studying scripture? I don’t think it will catch-on.
I've heard mention of Vice which I believe will be on SMTs?
Members will definitely expand with that.
Yeah that is the name of it...I couldnt remember although it is fairly easy and appropriate. :)
Porn is always one of the leading industries to embrace technology (along with gaming).
The VCR, internet, Web cam, and now virtual reality all were/are embraced by the world of porn first. Being one of the first to embrace the token concept isnt surprising.
Thanks to @sirknight for resteeming this post
The article is wonderful and logical in all respects and it's very useful; and informative,
happy thankful day all