Hi, I'm Kyle. I've been a full-time Bitcoin writer for the past 2+ years. Now I'm trying out Steemit!
Hello. My name is Kyle Torpey, and I've been writing about Bitcoin (and related topics) since late 2013. I mostly write for Bitcoin or cryptocurrency focused media sites, but my work has also been featured in places like VICE Motherboard, Business Insider, and RT's Keiser Report.
I've been interested in Steemit-esque platforms for quite awhile now, and this appears to be the first project to gain some traction in the area of attaching money to upvotes or likes. I'm still somewhat skeptical of the platform, but I've decided to learn more about it by trying it out.
How I Became a Bitcoin Writer
I first became interested in Bitcoin back in 2011 when Gawker published a story about Silk Road. Initially, I thought anyone who thought they could get away with something like that on the Internet was an idiot, but I learned a lot about how Bitcoin works over the next year or two and realized I was the dumb one.
By late 2013, reading about Bitcoin was taking up a lot of my free time, and I wanted to figure out a way to turn my fascination with Bitcoin into a job. At the time, I was working in SEO (search engine optimization) and did a lot of copywriting, so I figured writing about Bitcoin would be my best bet. The first article I ever wrote was for Let's Talk Bitcoin, and the second one was for the now-defuct Yahoo! Contributors Network.
The piece for Yahoo! was about the various "Bitcoin 2.0" platforms in development at the time such as Mastercoin and Protoshares. It did well on the /r/Bitcoin subreddit and was eventually picked up by Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert for the Keiser Report. I should note that I no longer hold the views I held back then in regards to altcoins and appcoins. I poked fun at myself for thinking these were possibly good ideas on a recent podcast.
The popularity of the Bitcoin 2.0 article led to a number of job offers. I ended up joining CryptoCoinsNews as editor-in-chief. Later in the year, I moved to Inside Bitcoins as a writer and eventually took over as editor-in-chief there as well. These days, I mostly write for Bitcoin Magazine, CoinJournal, and CoinGecko.
As I mentioned above, I've been interested in a financialized version of Reddit for quite some time. I even shared some of my own ideas on the topic with the Yours Network team, who are building a platform similar to Steemit. Obviously, another reason for being here is selfish in nature; I'd like to see if Steemit can offer better pay than my current writing gigs.
My Initial Thoughts on Steemit
I'm not sure what to think of Steemit so far because I haven't done much research on it. I feel the best way to learn about it is to simply use the platform to post articles. I'll likely continue to post articles here as long as it makes financial sense for me to do so.
I will say that I'm turned off by the altcoin used in Steemit, and I don't plan to hold any STEEM. I will be moving funds into bitcoin or US dollars whenever possible. If the economics of STEEM work like other appcoins, then I don't have much hope for its long term success as a speculation. Daniel Krawisz has written a solid piece on why appcoins (which STEEM appears to be) don't make much sense. I'm not sure why a new altcoin (and perhaps even a blockchain) is necessary for Steemit to function properly. But again, I must admit I haven't done much research on this particular project.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to share for now. I'm looking forward to testing out this platform over the next few weeks!
Twitter: @kyletorpey
Website with links to some of my past work: kyletorpey.com
Hi Kyle, thanks for joining us on Steemit!
Having read some of your work and banter on Twitter, I am ecstatic that you came to check out the platform for yourself. You have my upvote.
For sure, Steemit is a huge and risky experiment. It will be interesting to see how these kinds of platforms fare with and without native crytoassets. My personal bet is on the former, but only experimentation and evidence will tell.
Welcome!
I think there may be value in something like Steemit. I'm just skeptical of the appcoin.
Kyle,
IMO, you cannot separate the native cryptoassets from the app. You cannot implement the economics of Steemit using Bitcoin today, and the economics are crucial to the key value proposition of Steemit, which is near-zero barriers to entry for mainstream users.
The "Bitcoin argument" goes that eventually all these technologies will be available in an implementation which has the Bitcoin blockchain underneath. IMHO, this very well might be the case, but this argument ignores two basic facts of life from technology and startup world: (1) sometimes generalist platforms aren't the best solution, and you need specialist platforms; and (2) time to market and aggregating network effects matter (ask Facebook, Google, and Amazon and not Friendster, Excite, and Jet).
Steemit so far has demonstrated both concepts pretty clearly in practice, and even if it fails tomorrow on post quality, there is now a clear path forward for such a system.
There are other compelling reasons to want to have -- to use your term -- appcoins, such as, for example, disrupting the world of fundraising and private equity. We write quite extensively about that on the CoinFund blog.
Edit: For clarity.
The only thing a website like this needs is digital cash (maybe not even that), and bitcoin already provides that. The appcoin seems to add a layer of complexity and volatility that is not needed. Having said that, I need to read more about how the economics work.
Except bitcoin is so slow per transaction rate. It sucks for use on a site like this. This blockchain is much faster and expansive. Start reading.
I disagree with that assessment. If that was "the only" factor, then ZapChain would be successful.
@kyletorpey Replying to first @.
Ok, I see what you're saying. Yet, it needs digital cash + special economics. If you implement those properties outside of a cryptocurrency, it's hard to get a point where the cash can be exchanged for real dollar value (you have to build an exchange). In the cryptocurrency implementation, it's hard to see how Bitcoin will be able to support a custom economics like this any time soon (and, especially, how it might be done in a fee-less way).
If you know, I want to hear it. But still, my impression is that by the time we find the answers, Steemit will add some more 10Ks of users.
Full disclosure: At this point, Steemit may be disproportionately compensating me for defending it.
@jbrukh not sure why i can't reply directly to your comment, so posting like this. zapchain and steemit have two completely different models (even when you take away the altcoin). zapchain isn't much different than reddit with changetip.
Maximum comment depth is 6. Hopefully a solution to this will be found soon. It comes up a lot.
Agreed, in 2 years there will most likely be a huge dump of the coins due to excitement; which is quite worrisome (edited to add possible solution to stabilize the future of steemit)
https://steemit.com/crypto-currency/@rogue91/idea-steemit-cap-of-1-000-per-post#@rogue91/re-kewpiedoll-re-rogue91-idea-steemit-cap-of-1-000-per-post-20160719t222401633z
No
You really need to do your research before making a comment like that.
Agreed. Apples to oranges. Not apples.
Sound logic
I AGREE! Thank you for posting. Hope you get this to snowball to the top!
I up-voted you too... BTW, should steemit let us steemers advertise using steem? Be sure to tell everyone you know to come vote here at: https://steemit.com/steemit/@kingtylervvs/if-steemit-ever-does-decide-to-advertise-there-is-only-1-way-it-could-work-in-my-opinion-debate
This is a democratic community decision.
pliss vote back and comend bang
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gilang-ramadhan/hello-steemer-d-steemit-pliss-suport-my-even-big-to-steemit-dont-miss
Is Steem another test network for Bitcoin and features Bitcoin can add? ;)
Good to have you on the platform and I look forward to the perspectives of an embedded & sharp skeptic. Cheers!
Btw Wang is a bot. He says hi to everyone.
I would say yes. Ryan X Charles (formerly of Reddit) is working on Yours Network, which is similar to Steemit and uses Bitcoin.
this is not going to work very well with something like BTC, the whole point is to get rid of micro-payments.
I just upvoted you, and you got an extra 1 cent - do you seriously think I am going to do a 1 cent BTC transaction? when just doing a tx costs more than 1 cent? ;D
I love bitcoin but it is not a panacea for all...
Damn straight bro.
Lightning Network makes Bitcoin transactions practically free: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-lightning-network-creators-fees-will-be-effectively-zero-1459955513
Simpler payment channels are already functional. This is the kind of stuff Yours Network is using.
this does nothing to address "the whole point is to get rid of micro-payments."
no one wants to pay to do something (micropayments), at the very least they do not want it to cost money (the cause with Twitter or Facebook), at the very best they get some return (Steem).
i'm sure there are many great use cases for lightning networks, micropayments for content and curation of it are likely not one of them.
i will go out on a limb here and claim that micro payments are completely uninteresting to sentient beings, however great for computer programs needing to do resource allocation in decentralized networks which need to function like agoric computational systems.
you don't get it Kyle
@decrypt I get that aspect of it. The model here appears to be different than appcoins from the past, so I'll need to research/think about it more.
I read about the lightening network closing a a chunk of transactions in some crazy time. I still think STEEM has a lot of value though and happy to contribute and see people with a professional career in crypto journalism hang out here. Welcome!
IMO the problem on BTC is the economy behind and the scale issue with, pls correct me still 7 TPS per sec, right? Anyway ... this won't happen with the bitshares graphene toolkit on which STEEM is based. Well, i'd bet after u have done more research about…anyway - welcome on board and happy steeming.. (The most important value i'm currently noticing - people all over the world start getting crypto) It's good for all cryptos so let's work all together …
I'm aware of Bitshares, but I'm not sure how well their tech has been tested. Many altcoins make large claims about scaling and other issues, but we don't really know if they work until they're tested in the wild.
SCREW YOU ALL!!!!! https://steemit.com/investments/@resten/so-i-finally-realized-i-m-a-total-useless-idiot-on-steem-i-m-leaving
still a good post - but you are spamming it all over lol
Who wouldn't want a "wang bot"? LOL
it's oddly suspicious how your initial post got $10,000. I could probably write for 3 months and barely get $5,000 based on my current calculations. Who do you know who works within STEEM and is already a millionaire?
Strategic voting by whales to bring big rewards to potential ideological(?) opponents.
It doesn't make sense to me either.
first official STEEM LOTTERY https://steemit.com/lottery/@willytrader/first-official-steem-lottery
Great to have you here Kyle, I like a lot of your earlier writings. However regarding your part of "appcoins"... I don't think you want to use bitcoin for everything, just look at the traffic going around here. Probably would just cause more blocks are full malaise. Dedicated "alt"coins with a clear function could be (the only) way foreward (or amazing sidechains etc must really be on their way).
Why is a blockchain needed for this platform?
Good question! And one I'm not too sure about. My take is: if we talk about crypto than how else would they be able to create something which from the get go is able to reward their posters? And using crypto might prevent dependence on adds what might also be a good thing. Regarding blockchain; safety, openness and immutability plus the accompanying token? Looking forward to your insights!
It makes the post immutable and censorshop ressitant. The Steemit can go down, but the post live on the blockchain.
Because all posts are on a blockchain. Why? Because first decentralized social network, no other way.
Could bitcoin be used? Probably, via a sidechain, but somebody has to store that gigabytes of data and get paid for doing it.
It's really encouraging you will dump any rewards you receive. Anyways, nice to have you here!
What's the incentive to not dump? Holding STEEM seems risky (even riskier than holding bitcoin).
its risky if you don't know what you are holding
Boom! Shots fired. :P
It is risky, but he might have the beginner's luck :))
I accept the"risky" proposition, considering this is likely to go up for a while. Let's see bitcoin 50x anytime soon...
Why, if you earned it from posting, all it cost you was time that you would have wasted on another social site that gave you nothing.
Not sure why people are comparing STEEM to BITCOIN. Bitcoin is great for moving money around the world with very little cost to do so. Steem does that as well + it gains value from its community adoption, which has the potential to be huge since everyone who joins has stake. This fact should make you think twice about dumping because steem just added a whole new value chain to the mix.
What's the point of this platform if people don't cash out their rewards? The whole point to this thing was so that content creators can get paid for their contributions, thus I don't see any need to vilify people wanting to cash out, otherwise these numbers next to our post are no different than Reddit karma.
Exactly!
@kyletorpey - welcome to the party.
Read the white paper... Once I saw the pieces come together, it made much more sense. The Steem Power long-term investment structure seems to be the most dynamic reason for what makes this platform different. The fact that ~98% of all STEEM was invested as SP right before the climb was what opened my eyes wide.
This post is going to earn you a pretty penny. I'd recommend converting most of it into SP ;)
Also -- here's a recent analysis I put together for future success of the platform arguing that it solved the Prisoners Dilemma
Keep writing! Looking forward to more.
He will convert it to SP if he is smart, check his wallet to find out.
Good to have you here!
Here are some tips if you're not aware of already:
#NSFWor for#testonlyNice to have you here @kyletorpey . I wish you to have a @smooth ride on STEEMIT. On, one more thing, I have just wrote a funny article about this, it worth reading it: https://steemit.com/steemit/@gabi-dumitriu/how-steem-changed-my-life-wait-what
Part of the reason you could not do this on BTC is the transfer times and cost. It's take BTC at least 6 mins to validate a transaction, here is takes 3 secs. Running this platform on BTC would be like using carrier pigeons for it's post. Second it is free to send transactions on here. The amount of Steem Power you have determines how often you can transact. The cost for just posting BTC at these rates would be huge for the user.
Agreed. Quick block times and no trx fees alone make the technology much more compelling than any other chain IMO.
Payment channels enable what are essentially instant confirmations. The Lightning Network is a generalized network of payment channels that means anyone can transact with anyone else with instant confirmations. Fees are also basically zero (and could be negative in some cases). I suggest reading about the Lightning Network, which is being built on top of Bitcoin.
Thats nice, but this network is here now and working. Plus the more uou put on top of BTC, the mor complex it becomes. Its already hard to make improvements on it now.
Yay, stuff that plugs into bitcoin and more points of potential failure, rather than built in...? Wait What?
Exactly.
Welcome to your new job!
Welcome to teem! upvoted