Are we ready for a USD/Steem exchange and a freelancing platform for Steem? Developing a peer to peer exchange where fiat to Steem is simple using PayPal and thousands of other payment methods will enable us to make it easy for anyone to buy into Steem and to sell any Steem earned. We can think of it like a https://localbitcoins.com/ for Steem except faster.

When we combine this with a freelancing platform where users can easily exchange Steem for services, we add massive value to Steem as a blockchain. Multiply this with what we have now and smart media tokens and we have the #1 blockchain in a few years. Will we take the next step today because this giant leap is very easy to continue with?

Hire 3 Developers for SteemJ?

After meetup with new Steem users today in Orlando, Florida, our need for a USD/Steem exchange seems critical because the most difficult questions we talked about today were "How to buy and sell Steem with fiat?" The answers we tried to provide include way too many complicated steps in a world with credit cards, PayPal, Chase pay, and a thousand other easy ways to transfer money for free or for a low cost online. It should be fast and simple to change USD to Steem. Instead it is a nightmare to explain to someone that has never bought Bitcoin how to take USD in the bank and make it into Steem. We almost always have to make a referral to services and exchanges we do not trust in order to buy or sell Steem.

What For?

We need to make it really easy for any user in any country to change local currency into Steem within minutes. When we make it easy to exchange USD and any fiat currency into Steem, we will empower easy buy ins which will be especially helpful for the masses of new users coming for smart media tokens. Currently this is the single largest barrier to entry we face and we need to smash it down with an app that handles any fiat currency into Steem completely with

No fees.
Peer to peer transactions.
Clear feedback system.
Ongoing improvements.
Effective marketing.

How?

We have placed a clear vision of how to build a peer to peer fiat to Steem exchange in this mind including the colors of the buttons, the procedure for completing a transaction, the feedback system, and the volume which will quickly exceed millions of dollars a day in 2018 as interest in Steem explodes. In previous posts below I called this idea SteemJ and I am open to rebranding as desired.

The main changes from the original posts include:

Pay the developers directly with a stable salary every month.
Start with the peer to peer exchange which we need the most now.
Handle all transactions directly from peer to peer without any fees or escrow while relying on feedback to guide users to healthy relationships with those trustworthy in making exchanges.
After the exchange is online, build in job posting.

What we need to make this happen is 3 developers that are paid to build and improve the platform every month. Up until now one issue has been the limitation: funding. Today we have a simple solution.

Funding is Simple!

To announce SteemJ and get it started, I paid out 2,000 Steem in a contest to build a prototype of the idea above but struggled with how to provide ongoing funding. After paying @sarasate the initial contest payment, I had no way to keep offering payments of 1,000 or more Steem a month to fund ongoing development.

In one failed effort to get funding, last month I wrote a whitepaper about budget proposals on Steem where I suggested a funding mechanism for all projects including SteemJ. After reading the feedback, I agree the implementation right now is not ideal because we need to get smart media tokens out first and focus on this completely. Fortunately we can rely on our existing funding when we collaborate effectively!

Our top 20 witnesses on Steem get 260 Steem power a day and already do an outstanding job using this to fund development of projects adding massive value to the Steem blockchain. For example, @jesta with ChainBB and SteemDB, @good-karma with eSteem, @busy.org, @anyx with @cheetah, @riverhead with steemit.chat, and probably 10 times more projects like this by nearly every witness in the top 50 that I cannot remember at the moment or do not know about.

Somehow out of writing that whitepaper I missed the obvious solution to offer my witness rewards to pay developers to build and improve SteemJ even as I was in the top 20 myself for a few days. The top 20 witness rewards are enough to pay 3 developers 1,000 Steem each a month to work on SteemJ while having another 1,000 Steem a month to fund any costs for hosting, tools, etc. We also could fund 4 developers as needed instead. The remaining 4,000 Steem a month is plenty to continue with advertising Steem as we have done now for six months together as seen at https://airtable.com/shrXuoYTnODWA0QG1.

Our functional exchange to Steem would also provide an outstanding advertising opportunity for those looking for easy entry into crypto without using Bitcoin. We could easily add support for Bitshares and individual smart media tokens over time meaning that our witness votes when used to fund this project can bring massive value back to us.

Who to Hire?

Our first choice for who to hire for this are existing witnesses that have already been serving the Steem blockchain, have an interest in building SteemJ, and who would benefit the most from an extra 1,000 Steem every month. Hopefully we can find most or all of the developers from our existing witnesses especially the newer ones receiving only a few blocks a day.

When we cannot find 3 developers among our existing witnesses, next we can reach out to all existing users and try to build a team that will have all the skills necessary to build and improve SteemJ. A lead developer/project manager and 2 or 3 specialists picked by the lead developer with the exact skills needed should be ideal. We should be able to find everyone out of those on Steem and those following me.

Finally, if we are not able to find what we are looking for inside our community, I have hired hundreds of freelancers on Upwork and can certainly find the right developers there as needed. In Bosina and many countries where the USD is strong, our 1,000 Steem a month payment would be good for 20 to 40 hours a week at $1 to $2 Steem from a developer just graduating from university with a degree in computer science or a related field.

With funding, we can easily build the team and make SteemJ a reality while providing a steady income for 3 or 4 developers free to contribute additional projects and support to the Steem blockchain.

Let's Do This!

Will you please help us make this a reality today by providing feedback about this plan to build a peer to peer exchange and freelancing platform named SteemJ for Steem because we will all be empowered to buy and sell Steem directly with each other and hire out of our own community first when we need help?

If you like the plan and want to fund it, would you please join almost 2,500 of us in voting for jerrybanfield as a witness at https://steemit.com/~witnesses because with a small number of witness votes, we can provide the full amount of funding for all three developers out of the witness rewards paid each day?

@blocktrades would you please add jerrybanfield to your witness votes because your one vote will be enough to provide funding for 3 developers to build a peer to peer exchange on SteemJ and to fund 4,000 Steem a month for advertising which is enough to reach millions of people every month? You helped inspire me to travel to Steemfest with your upvote on the post where I asked whether I should go and we appreciate your service on https://blocktrades.us helping so many of us buy our Steem out of a wallet.

@wackou would you consider voting for jerrybanfield as a witness to fund this also because we could easily build in a USD/Bitshares exchange as well? I chose to ask you on behalf of the Bitshares witnesses because we met at Steemfest last month and you represented the Bitshares team there!

Next Steps?

When we are ready to get started, I will do my part to immediately begin working on building the team of developers by reading any suggestions we have for who wants to lead the project and for who would like to collaborate with the lead developer to start coding.

As soon as a stable position in the top 20 witnesses exists for the jerrybanfield account, we will begin paying the developers to build SteemJ and provide regular updates for progress.

Within one or two months of our getting started, we should be able to have a functional version to test. Within three to four months, our exchange should be fully functional and moving thousands of dollars through a day. Within six months, we will have a fully built out freelancing platform for posting all types of jobs in addition to making exchanges. Within a year, we will be handling millions of dollars per day with the $10 to $100 Steem price resulting from smart media tokens and our combined efforts here.

Love,
Jerry Banfield

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Hire 3 Steem Developers to Build USD/Steem Exchange?