Dear readers,
Ever since joining this community a year ago, I've been accumulating Steem Power by posting, voting, and commenting about all sorts of things. That said, I've also purchased Steem using Ether during Steem's Great Depression. So I've mostly just held onto Steem Power, investing in Steem's potential long-term value. It's only recently that I powered-down ~15% of my total Steem Power to upgrade my equipment and for investing in other projects in the blockchain space.
Reasons to accumulate Steem Power?
For newbies: there's a distinction between Steem and Steem Power. Steem is a token that you can trade freely, but it can also be transformed into Steem Power. Here's what Steem Power is, as explained in the Steemit wallet interface:-
Influence tokens which give you more control over post payouts and allow you to earn on curation rewards.
That's what Steem Power does, but I suspect many of us have different perspectives and motivations, so I'll explain what Steem Power means to me and why I've kept it for so long.
1) I want to have an amplified influence over the network
The more Steem Power, the more weight my vote has over the network. I would like to shape the network in my own little ways, going for a diversity of content and individuals alike. As highlighted in one of my posts - The New World Blogger, I want to be an active investor on the platform and Steem Power seems to be the best way forward. It also helps that I have the agenda of helping myself and others pursue our interests.
As a content creator
I get to reward engaged followers and build myself a swarm of users that assists me with little things, whatever it may be. I don't want to be just another social account with many followers coming in to like my stuff, so having a good amount of Steem Power is a great simple way for me to reward those that help enrich my online presence around here with their comments and contributions. It totally makes sense for me as a content creator wanting to build my own following to accumulate Steem Power.
As a content consumer
I get to reward exactly that - great content, and great accounts. Voting on them is also a way of giving them more influence over the network in the future, as long as they accumulate Steem Power. There's really no better pleasure than to be truly supporting content creators that I like. It's a paradigm shift that is light years ahead of any social media platforms. I wouldn't be just another random account coming in to increase anyone's number of likes. My vote is actual social currency. It has the ability to financially support and enable independent producers.
As a co-owner of Steem
Just like everybody else with Steem Power, I get to reward new accounts trying out the platform, and influence activities that will improve the platform over time. The only difference is the magnitude of our influence. So in that sense, I've accumulated Steem Power and kept it more than most users just so I could maintain a growing influence at the early stages.
In short, having skin-in-the-game aligns our interest in building out the network, and it's my hope that the community sees this and support long-term players.
2. I want to grow my share of Steem over time
Personally, I have plenty of reasons to believe in Steem's long-term value. You may check out one of my old posts - ASDF: The Simplest Explanation for Steem's Key Characteristics for Long-Term Growth. With more Steem Power, I am able to acquire more curation / voting rewards out of my activities influencing the network. In short, I get more Steem just by spending time on the platform - this is great, almost like a passive income too, and I can be on-the-move doing this!
Check this guide out for curation rewards: @liberosist/mind-your-votes-ii-a-guide-to-maximizing-your-curation-rewards
Also, consider this - if Steem's inflation algorithm remains the way it is, we'll have about 660 million Steem in existence by year 2036. Think about that number for a second. If Steem has the ability to land in the hands of everyone on this planet, everybody will on average, own less than 1 Steem! Imagine how valuable that can be. But let's be way more conservative: if there are 1 million users by 2036, then each user will on average own 660 Steem.
3. I want to invest in the platform that I believe could bring us into an economy of abundance
With Steem and any other blockchain platforms running on accountable ledgers with limited production, its peer-to-peer nature in distributed-judgement could supercharge capital distribution and also provide aid to individuals and collectives all around the world that could use it the most. I think Steem's qualities could effectively bring us into a shared economy of abundance through social activities that anybody can perform. Maybe I'm taking this a little too seriously, but I would like to believe that I can do something in helping out with that idea, hence my accumulation of Steem Power.
Conclusion
I think Steem Power is actually highly-underrated in the blockchain space. After actively using it for more than year with others, I can say that it's changing lives. Personally, I hope more of us see the potentials of Steem Power being the extension of our own will in building the platform. This is my opinion why anyone should consider accumulating Steem Power, either by earning them or buying them up (but please, only use disposable income for stuff like this!).
Shameless plug
If you like what I'm doing, please consider supporting my works, delegate SP, or follow my trail on Streemian. I will write more about my plans on building a swarm of power users one of these days. I'm seeing way too many great new accounts coming in and could use more help on this front in retaining users, at least through engagement and reciprocation. Thanks for reading!