The relative risk and keys to own

To finish off the night I thought I would add a little freewrite on whatever comes to mind as after all, it is Saturday and has been a week of work, travel and more work. It was nice to get home today, but the day isn't over yet. This has been one of my most unproductive Steem weeks in a very long time and I feel that I have been Steem-lazy, where I haven't put enough content onto the chain. Many people post for rewards and while I like to increase my stake, I also have many other reasons I post what I do, when I do.

Speaking of stake, I think that is what I might lean into now as I find it interesting when people talk about disparity in stake due to life position and economic opportunity. Yes, I understand that people have differences in living standards around the world and I probably understand this better than many having lived in varying circumstances, but when it comes to Steem, everything is relative.

By the way, do you like the picture? I shot it through an open door in Belgrade with a long lens. I think it is quite pretty and will get used again.

Anyway, as Steem is relative, the risks are also relative and while the fees might not be the same on an exchange, when it comes to earning on platform and whether it is getting staked or not, everyone has the same opportunity - whether they know it or not. While I know that some use Steem to live, 3.5 years ago it wasn't even an option yet now people feel that earning Steem is an entitlement granted them by their government. Nope, it isn't. It isn't governed by anyone other than those who have stake and those who can influence stake into using it one way or another.

You know that advice to save 10% of income that most people are told as children? How many do that? Out of curiosity, what if you had? I find this interesting as even though I know there are many reasons why one "can't", I also know that others have while others didn't. I didn't, wish I had, but can't go back now.

If I had, I would have plenty of resources available to cope will all the nonsense things that have arrived as well as have excess to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they arose. I wonder what would have happened if instead of coming into Steem struggling financially, I came in and bought a couple thousand dollars worth of stake that I would have been able to afford to lose.

2000/0.06 = 33333 STEEM

That would have made for an interesting start, wouldn't it? It took me over two years and thousands of posts to earn that same amount, which means how many hours?

Best not to think about it.

However, if I had done that I do not believe I would have had the hustle I had and without that, I wouldn't likely have met the people I met in the way I did with the content I produce. If I had the economic availability of if I had saved 10% of my income all my life, I may never have found Steem as an early adopter at all.

This is something to consider because many people who were first into Steem were either already crypto traders of BTC and ETH, tech nerds of some kind, friends of them or - people like me - the financially ruined. Without friends, tech skills or buy-in money - hustle is all I had to my advantage. Hustle, and experience.

The thing is though, that regardless what one holds, the price of Steem is the same for us all and has the same economic possibility relative to the holdings for all of us. 100 Steem Power has the same draw on the pool as 100,000 relative to its stake on the platform. And as prices rise, the value of each STEEM is the same regardless of how many STEEMS are held.

This is also relative to the real world.

_source

I will take these numbers with a grain of salt (they are from 2013 too) because my first wage in Australia was 4.40 an hour at a fast food chain. Although, that was a "year or two" ago. However, according to this, someone in Sierra Leone on minimum wage would have to work 562 hours to earn the equivalent of 1 hours work in Australia. So, that means that an Australian can earn a Sierra Leone yearly wage in 4 hours.

I am guessing the job for 0.03 cents an hour isn't a cushy desk job either.

For those who are on Steem, count yourself lucky - firstly, you have an internet connect, something only about half the world population has access to. But, the problem is that while there is this disparity in the world, Steem can't do much about it at this point because if the Steem was sent for example to Sierra Leone, it would be valueless. For the Steem token to offer any significant at scale help, it has to hold value and that means that it can't be a charity coing, it has to have an economy to support and stabilize it.

If someone wants to give Steem away to charity, that is great, but the inflation pool isn't a charitable organization, it is a resource that requires competition to obtain and scarcity and demand to value it. The competition on it is actually pretty well thought out as while it is stake based, it also gives a window to redirect the flow of the resource. As I have visualized it before, the Steem pool is like a shared wallet and the 7 day window is all people with access negotiating what is going to be bought with it.

For me, I have been powering up what I have earned and buying with what I earn in the real world a fair bit, and this has left me with some Steem Power, but also a great deal of exposure. Well, "great deal" is relative too and for some it is a massive amount, for others it is a pittance. Considering I came in here with nothing and struggled to buy food, I consider my position now well earned.

Yes, earned. With every post I have ever created I have competed for the pool against all other posts hat are open during that time, and I have even competed against posts that were "near" guaranteed earnings as they bought access to the pool. I am not overly competitive in the real world, but on Steem I think my content holds its ground relatively well in comparison and since there is so much stake to go around, there is never just one winner.

Now with the EIP, there are many more winners than before, even though each might seem that they are getting less. That might not be true though as there are some who weren't getting anything much at all before, who are now getting something. But regardless, the relativity of the system is still the same when it comes to price and that means that no matter what one has, the only time price matters is when it is sold.

STEEM as STEEM has the same draw on the pool relative to its stake whether it is 13 cents o 13 dollars. The difference is between the two though that at 13 dollars, the draw is worth that factor more than at 13 cents.My vote is worth 50 cents which draws about 2.5 Steem from the pool. This is the same 2.5 if Steem was 13 dollars but the difference would be that instead of 50 cents, it would be 50 dollars worth. One day Steem, one day.

But, this is relative also as while a smaller account might have a 1 cent vote, at 13 dollars it is a 1 dollar vote or according to Sierra Leone, 33 hours of minimum wage work - almost a normal 40 hour week. That is about an 1100 Steem Power vote today for the 1 cent.

It might not sound like much but if Steem did hit that kind of figure, one vote from that 1100 SP account could employ 30 minimum wage employees from Sierra Leone. I don't know what they would do, but it is pretty crazy to enumerate and visualize. Whether anyone does that is beside the point though as the point is that the higher the value of Steem goes, the more that can be doe with Steem and while a smallish account could feed people in very poor countries, a bigger account could have a much larger impact on all kinds of things, relatively.

Again though, this isn't a charity and while some people would like it to be so, without that competition on the pool that creates demand in various ways, the higher prices can't be seen other than in the odd pump and dump, like we saw between 2017/18.

It isn't always easy to think that we are at least partly to blame for our own position, but how many of us have been told time and time again to make sure we save something for a rainy day, only to believe that every day is too rainy to save. As a result, there are those who never have anything and those who have something to invest once the opportunities present. Steem is an opportunity to earn extra, but more importantly it is an opportunity to save something that not only wasn't available as a revenue stream earlier, but has a great deal more mobility, flexibility and potential for rise in comparison to any minimum wage.

Anyway, there are some random 3am thoughts to ponder and make sense of or throw away as you see fit. What I find is that in order to have some understanding of the world, one has to experience enough of it and the challenge when it comes to investing is, most never work out a way to do so yet believe they understand the risks and rewards which makes them less likely to invest.

Ownership is key. Key is ownership. Steem offers ownership and Key.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]