The USDollar still hasn't lost 99% of its purchasing power (since 1913), but STEEM has done it in under 4 years!
Here's the first day of STEEM trading, back in April 2016:
STEEM traded in a channel most of the day, averaging about 0.0022 BTC.
Here's STEEM today, August 2019:
STEEM fell into a trading channel this afternoon, averaging below 0.000022 BTC.
Measured in BTC, STEEM has fallen to under 1% of its starting value!
Looking at a full chart of STEEM's price history, we see it has been essentially a straight line down:
"How low could it go?"
One sentiment you see out there amongst the survivors is "it can't go much lower, it's down so far already". And that's true... in some regards. The USD price of STEEM could fall from 20 cents down to 2 cents, and then to fractions of a cent, and even lower. So we can't be sure we're at a bottom just because it feels like it's cheap, or "down too much". Markets are larger than our understanding of them. Our logic doesn't sway them.
Besides, we're talking about the price of STEEM measured in BTC, which represents the greater crypto world. I think cryptos are going to continue to be huge, and paradigm shifts are yet to occur in this space, with massive inflows of capital coming. That said, it's not going to end up everywhere. Not every boat will be floated by the rising tide, if you catch my drift. In other words, it can go very low. Every time it loses 99% of its value, it can still lose another 99%. And another, and another, and so on - forever. We're not talking dollars, we're talking percent, so there's no limit to how far STEEM can fall against BTC.
A devaluation this steep has real-world implications. For example:
I've put in 2 years of daily effort here on the Steem blockchain, with lots of help from my wife, and a team of part-time models that contribute additional content for our team. I also injected 0.2 BTC ($5000) into STEEM, so our votes would count for something so we could get off the ground. With all those funds, and all that work, our holdings are currently only worth 0.05 BTC - $450! We're down more than 90%, and out 2 years of work!
It is really hard to recommend the Steem blockchain to family, friends, or subscribers. The few parts of it that function, like the payment system, aren't any good if the currency itself is hyperinflating to nothing. Nobody wants to touch it with a ten foot pole, and I don't blame them.
What's really upsetting is that we were so close to having it all. So many amazing people were so excited about this place, and it had such potential. We shouldn't feel like suckers for having seen that vision and trying to get involved with such a great concept. It wasn't we, the content-creators, who failed the Steem blockchain.
If only!
If we could send messages back in time, we could warn ourselves not to buy STEEM, showing ourselves the charts above 'from the future' as evidence. We could save ourselves all the posting, commenting, upvoting, clicking, and grinding we've been doing, by just warning ourselves to not get involved. It's rather sad that we'd be better off financially (and have more time to spare for other things) if we had never touched this place, but that is mathematically a truth.
And every day, as the price falls lower, that truth gets more glaring, and less palatable.
DRutter
