After 5 months of talking to "regular people" about Steemit, this is the question that I keep hearing:
Which got me thinking... how could Steemit quickly meet the common expectation that money/currency has value because it can buy stuff?
So... what if things were set up a little differently?
What if new users had 2 things as soon as they signed up:
1. STEEM to spend
2. Stuff to buy
Imagine a new wallet looked more like this:
(our current wallet becomes the "Advanced Wallet Settings")
1. STEEM To Spend
What if new users got 8 SP and 2 STEEM when they signed up?
What if the default setting for newbies was powering down and called a "weekly allowance"?
2. Stuff To Buy
What if there was a Steemit Store linked right to their wallet where they could immediately go and start buying things to enhance, decorate, or "pimp-out" their individual profiles?
These items could be very cheep and still very lucrative for developers, graphic artists and designers.
An example of low cost products might be:
$0.005 SD for The Original Steemit-Blue Background
$0.025 SD for The Steemit Gold Background
$0.095 SD for a Steemit-Star Banner
$0.067 SD for a Six-Pack of SteemBEER icons that you can give to your top followers
$0.100 SD for a Steem-Bracelet icon to give to your new Steemit BFF
(you get the idea...)
User profiles could have shelves or displays where they collect Steemit-items, in the same way the current world collects pokemons.
Eventually the Steemit Store could sell lots of different things that integrate right into Steemit's website (and lots of them could be for micro payments that new users could afford on just their weekly allowance).
Developers could sell apps to individual users so that each steemer has different abilities.
Musicians could sell their tracks to go on personal profile playlist.
Eventually users could buy their own virtual rooms where they could hang out with other steemers (like IMVU or Second Life)... but that's further down the road.
So instead of incentivizing new users to save STEEM, we're incentivizing them to spend STEEM immediately right back into the Steemit economy, by buying backgrounds, apps, digital flare, etc., enhancing their reputation, "avatar-nality", and overall user experience.
Disclaimer
I realize I'm probably not the first person to think of all this with respect to Steemit. Maybe the idea has already been dismissed or maybe some people are already silently working on it. I've heard lots of talk of a "marketplace" but not one that looks like this. So I decided to make a post.
Also,
I'm not at all suggesting we replace Steemit's front end, but rather I'm exploring all the possibilities for both the expansion of Steemit as well as third party apps. I think the "reddit-like blogging format" will always be one of the main sections of Steemit. But it may not be the best on ramp to the site for "regular people".
This post assumes that regular users are an asset to Steemit's economy, not because of their money but because of their attention.
Some Theories Behind The Madness
People are more invested in something if they put value into it. This feeling of investment happens when someone buys STEEM POWER with fiat, but "regular people" are not going to be quick to buy SP. That doesn't mean that we can't get them feeling invested. If they get STEEM for signing up and then actively spend that STEEM on something that enhances their own individual reputation and experience on the site, then they will feel more invested in the Steemit experience because they've actively put value back into the system in ways that benefit them immediately.
Just because you're ahead in one area doesn't mean you're ahead in others. Steemit's economic innovation is incredible and the intention seems to be firstly about merging cryptocurrencies (or the blockchain) with social media. But if you're merging 2 things, it's often important to be on the cutting edge of both of them. With Steemit I see a lot of cutting edge blockchain ideas being merged with "not-so-cutting-edge" social media ideas. With VR and AR on the rise and people already familiar with The Sims, Second Life, IMVU, Pokemon GO, Minecraft, etc... a virtual Steemit Store or Marketplace that caters to users' digital existence over their physical existence may be in order.
What are your thoughts?
- Could a virtual Steemit marketplace be a stepping-stone to the real economy?
- Are we ready to attract "regular people" or is that still a ways off?