Blog. Get Paid? At first it felt to good to be true! Most of the time when I tried to explain the money system of Steemit, people couldn't believe me. Personally, it has always been a difficult thing to answer the question: "Where does the money on Steemit actually come from?" Like the Central Bank, Steemit creates money out of thin air! On this very day, Steem is worth like $0,10. Generally seen, if money production is too high, it brings difficulties and prices will drop.
Personally, this brings up the question: Is Steemit actually going to be successful after all?
Beurskrach - Monetary Crisis in Germany, 1929
By 1914, Germany had become Europe's most powerful nation. But the 1st World War had, during four long years of warfare, ruined Germany's economy. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles ordered that Germany had to pay huge sums in reperations to the Allies. In those years, food scarcity and high money production resulted into a crisis with extremely low value of the marks (the currency in Germany back then).
During the Beurskrach, banks kept generating marks (money) and this resulted into a case where the German marks (the currency) were actually worth nothing. A bread could cost over a million marks. One of the main reasons for this crisis was that banks simply created loads of money out of nothing.
The daily production of new Steem Dollars and Power is high and reminds me of this case in Germany. Every day, new steem dollars and power is being created out of nothing. The daily production of Steem Dollars is mainly dependent on the amount of Steem Power of all users together. The question is whether there's going to be enough demand to keep Steem Power valuable?
The Market System
In a market system, an increase in supply often results into a decrease of prices while an increase of demand will result into an increase of prices. There's an equilibrium where supply and demand are more or less equal. People prefer to hold their product when its value is low while in case prices go up, people will start selling their product as they find the new prices reasonable.
Figure 1: market system where q* is market equilibrium (S=D), S is supply and D is demand
This is exactly how Steemit works. Right now, Steem is relatively cheap, so it's more likely that people will buy Steem during these days. This means that demand goes up and so will the price increase. Prices fluctuate both in short and long term periods. If you power down, you increase the supply of Steem and this will decrease the price of Steem. If you buy Steem you demand and so will the price increase.
Central Bank
But taken these paragraphs together, I assume that we can compare Steemit with the Central Bank. The Central Bank also creates money out of nothing and they basically do this to regulate and influence the value of money. If the Central Bank produces too much money, the value of money decreases like during the Beurskrach.
And this is what I find an interesting thing on Steemit. Steemit daily creates money out of nothing and this goes on and on in high speed. The value of Steem will only increase if the demand is high enough. Since the supply is extremely high, it's questionable whether the demand will be enough to keep Steem valuable.
I believe that the only way to make Steem Power valuable is by increasing demand and minimizing the supply of Steem. High demand will increase the prices and value of Steemit. Too much Steem is daily generated, more than the current demand can hold. I see a lot of potential for Steem Power to become more valuable but we all need to contribute to that.
What is your opinion? Will Steemit be successful and what changes do we require? Start the discussion!
Follow @chrisadventures for more interesting subjects like this!