Hi @whatsup, I'm @checky ! While checking the mentions made in this post I noticed that @thecorbettreport doesn't exist on Steem. Maybe you made a typo ?

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Oh man. The mood is so dark around here. There's hope!

I hope it does have a future, but projects need to work out a business plan. I know some take a cut of post rewards, but they have to be very clear about that. Steem Monsters are selling the cards and I assume they do well from it, but many players will not get into posting and voting. A higher Steem price makes it more viable to operate the nodes and witnesses, but there need to be reasons for people to invest. I know some people are buying thousands of Steem to power up, but it will take millions to really affect the price. I think the platform needs to be marketed better, but I have little idea of how you would do that.

I get a sense of disappointment from your post @whatsup
It might just be me though...

After Ned's latest "bridge" there is uncertainty everywhere. People are trying to find solutions. Some are heavily invested in steem while others not. Some are just blogging / vlogging and haven't invested fiat money.

But the effort, the engagement  the time someone puts into his posts are equally important if not more. One thing is sure though..this.

>Nothing is free, someone else is always paying for what you get for free 

Don't forget...WE are steem!

Hello dear @whatsup everything you indicate makes great sense to me, I have very little time on the platform, but I have been learning little by little and certainly always wondered where the money came from. Someone must pay the price of what is received here, however here I am, I have tried to maintain myself with the little of the recompense, however the learning that I have gained for me has no price, also I have been able to meet people who never would have imained to know, one of them is you, so I am grateful. A hug, and here we continue trying to give the best.
Good vibe.

I don't normally link to my own posts but on the subject of apps not having a business model I posted a *'funny'* meme in response to seeing yet another dapp requesting delegation. [Here](https://steemit.com/funny/@b00m/delegate-schmelegate)

Some people I know thought I was being unfair on discord but I am glad to know that I'm that respect I was pretty spot on :0)

I still have hope for Steemit though!

Having invested a good chunk of money into this platform, I understand where you are coming from. Even more so I find it really hard to answer the question: "what problem is steem trying to fix or improve?" and if you can answer that question, you have the secondary question of, "does it even need to be fixed or how much can you really improve? 

All tough questions that don't work out really well with steemit's current usage is. That's the real working point if you ask me. What I do see, is steem blockchain being used for everything BUT blogging, sort of a public access blockchain that you have access to and can do as you please (the whole point of SMTs really). 

Are we still waiting for that???

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Wow - fully agree - that's what I pay you for :)

Yeah same here - everything from James Corbett in Aug 16 to arriving at a point of total disillusionment now...

I do think cryptos will have at least one more big pump and dump before any deliberate major economic collapse (hope like hell), but I'm not aiming to get scammed like this again!

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma4RMGYEsjXsV277n9eDnT2h78crWxNvMruv6MMu9FDuK/image.png)
Much as I love Steemit, because of the people (some of them), I now have the same trust for Steem as I do for pretty much everything else - none - work the scam or it will work me.

>This is not an attack on Ned, it doesn't matter WHO it is, it matters that there is a WHO.

I think you're wrong. Someone different might have gotten more done, kept the price up, and given time, the community could eventually take over development. Hell, someone different would have done things completely different in regards to open source development, and we could actually have some community development of the code in place. As it is, a few witnesses contribute. It's pathetic. I think Steemit has discouraged decentralization of the development simply by not making it easier to get involved. On that, I fully blame Ned and the Steemit team. I also blame them for various actions that have held down the price a bit. Under someone else, this would feel more like an open source project and they would have been possibly able to last out the "bear market" until the community could take more of an involved role in the development, if they weren't already. This place has a HUGE community, including a TON of developers, such that projects are popping up all the time. But how much work is getting done on Steem and Condenser, the Steemit front-end?

I think it was a successful experiment in any case. The question is, has Steemit learned from their many mistakes yet, so that this place doesn't sink?

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7letrMf_nE

Damn! that was hard to read. Do not lose your faith friend. Steemit is not dead, the night is darkest just before the dawn.

The fact that Steemit Inc. has been one of the first projects to come out publicly about these struggles actually has me a bit more positive that I would holding other blockchain related tokens.  The fact is that while remaining somewhat centralized there are also a number of businesses and projects doing well with their models like @blocktrades and @steemmonsters.  This will lead to more decentralization in addition to better DApp models that will enable the ecosystem to become sustainable no matter what the external economics are relevant to price.  At the end it is truly all speculation but there is value here as demonstrated with the passionate discussions taking place around the blockchain.

Posted using [Partiko iOS](https://steemit.com/@partiko-ios)

Cool post @whatsup.

For me, leaving Steemit, Inc's nest is long overdue. It was the subject of my [fourth post](https://steemit.com/steem/@novacadian/is-there-a-weakness-in-the-steemit-platform) on the blockchain.

What was very heartening for me was to see some [great brainstorming](https://steemit.com/steem/@apshamilton/decentralisation-of-full-nodes-essential-for-steem-s-success) only hour's after Ned's announcement, talking about how to get full RPC Nodes running on high end desktop systems finally!

We need to ensure to support those witnesses that have software engineering *know how*, first, and contest organizing, second.  We are graced by loads of them. 

The crypto market is down, yet STEEM is down within that market. My **Minnowhood** was bought for 0.00024??? BTC/STEEM compared to my **Dolphinhood** last week for 0.00008275 BTC/STEEM. You have to wonder if Steemit, Inc's  sell offs to meet their payrolls were a major factor in that price change. Might the ecosystem be better off with a leaner meaner Steemit, Inc.?

The dip may not be over yet my mood is still long on STEEM and my belief in this mid-ranged governance of DPOS continues. Even at the rock bottom price of EOS; governance able to change the blockchain scares me. Just can't bring myself to support it.

![steem-logo2.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdFdW6gwQqJ8DM65gcyntv5cEEc1LhbGDSypY9RFFNg2n/steem-logo2.jpeg)

right on whatsup, i always appreciate your straight approach. i appreciate the experiment too and would also love to see some monetary dividends someday.

> now I am wondering if we are really supporting any of the ideas of cryptocurrency, decentralization, immutable, censorship-resistant.

this sentence rings so true to me. it's similar to the "eco-village" thing that humans try cyclically to create- living together in community, sharing things to varying degrees of success and trying to live sustainable lifestyles. i've read that nearly 90+% fail. it boils down to the fact that we don't know how to live that way and it's really really hard to ground an alternative way of being. 

crypto, decentralization, censorship-resistance... these too are hopeful ideals *that we as humans don't have much practice in living out*... some of us wake up from the bad dream that is the modern age and we are thirsty, so thirsty for these "alt" ways of being only to realize that we need so so much practice. 

i , for one, also don't think ned is being malicious by any stretch of the imagination, but i do think he has been "resting on his laurels"- like so many in the space, and that i suppose as his pockets have been padded, he lost a true skin in the game. that's my felt sense anyway. yet ned and steemit inc and our thirst for them to lead kind of harkens too closely back to the demands of centralization, doesn't it? 

in the end, i think it's healthy that we're breaking our dependance on them. sometimes cutting ties hurts. but , from what i've seen, i don't think this community will die. way too many incredibly talented people care way too fucking much. and isn't that practicing decentralization after all? :)

The experiment should continue. On all levels. 

That includes SMTs, or whichever minimal version of it. As they will allow what Ned always called “UX issue” and those who want other monetization matrices can stake their SP to those SMTs. 

We truly should look al Apache, both the software and the org, and also W3C. Neither ever moved fast but they had a goal in mind and it happened as a community. 

Keeping their success in mind, it becomes blatantly obvious that the central institution in the experiment was the single point of failure (this isn’t an attack on Steemit or Ned, but an observation at this point) and has withheld the Steem dev and promo scene from growing and becoming more dynamic than all current rather small initiatives. Mostly by being the ever present shadow, an involuntary one I think, and also a sword of Damocles at times - an involuntary one as well but merely involuntary born out of naivety this time. 

All this is a blessing after all because it allows us to step out of that shadow and actually rather than always talk to/direct at Ned... this time the act needs to be cleaned up by everyone. 

Whatever that means for freedom is just as much up for grabs as before. Freedom in an environment like this is free, not as in beers but as in movement, and everyone has their own definition of it. 

Lastly, in a slightly more distant future than the “SMT release”, we should by now have learned that Steemit Inc should also be decoupled from being the blockchain dev crew and become a cog in the chain. 

Whether that means they become a witness then too... maybe they best throw that at the community given stake. 

It is an eventual necessity tho. Both for them and for the community to get a focus on the wider needs, a focus not dominated by one company. 

Example need: looking at the current witness server requirements... how will those ever scale to 2m daily users?

There’s work to be done. Lots. 

The game starts now. 

Posted using [Partiko iOS](https://steemit.com/@partiko-ios)

We're in a predicament, but things will move forward in the end. I think, like much in life, it just takes time to learn to do it better, even when others are saying things to make it better, often failure is required to "Get it".

I think Steem and social media interaction on the Steem blockchain will survive. I do think the price will fall more in the short run though.

Steem has been very slow in releasing development updates. In a highly competitive market, you need to be on your toes all the time and plan atleast 2 years ahead which includes financial planning as well. Clearly, Steem Inc failed in those regards and I believe they are still not understanding the whole point. They can reduce the costs and everything but that is not a long term solution. What if we have another year of Bear market and Steem prices reaches below 10 cents. Will they still be able to sustain themselves? I am seeing many businesses shutting down their shops and can't even handle a year long bear market. Financial planning is so critical and now when they should really be focusing on creating revenue streams for the platform, they are busy cutting cost, completely wrong approach in my opinion.

Posted using [Partiko Android](https://steemit.com/@partiko-android)

>To be fair, I haven't seen Ned try to bully the community with his stake or even so much as pull a power play.

Then you havent looked, or dont want to see.

You know people who can do the math, how much do the top 100 delegations take daily from the pool?
What percentage of daily rshares go to ned delegations?

If the top is going to continue to only allow the top 200 accounts to take enough in rewards to make the game attractive to them, but unplayable for the other 30k of us, dont be surprised when only 200 people want to play.

Make that 201, i may hangout just to point out the obvious.

And stop with the pie in the sky about being the next  fedbook, the math doesnt support it.
We will never have that many users, absent major changes to the math.

But other than that, i hope you have a perfectly peaceful day,...0.o

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