Chasing the Bitcoin?
I came to Blockchain and Bitcoin because of the technology, not for the money. I struggled at first - because as I didn't have any cash in my moneybutton wallet, I could not post on the first platform I tried - Twetch. I was reluctant to use real cash to populate a waller that I did not understand.
I know how money works, - and I trust - sort of - how credit and debit cards work. I have far more reservations about electronic wallets. I had read about users losing their passwords and being unable to unlock their wallets containing millions of dollars. Why should I spend my cash on anything like that?
But a friend I first met on beleaguered (and now defunct) social media site Tsu.co in 2014 placed $5 into my moneybutton account to get me started (and showed me how to claim my eileenb@moneybutton.com alias instead of an uninspiring number. The $5 enabled me to start to post on platforms that connected with the moneybutton wallet
I published my first post - and received some micro-payments from likes and shares. This small amount of cash helps me to continue to post even now. I can even afford to tip others.
I have noticed that (with one notable exception), folks do not hustle for money here as much as they do over on the new version of Tsu, now called Tsu.social and still in alpha. That platform is not based on Bitcoin and relies on the network effect to gather new users to like, share and build community through posts and communities.
I think that model will fail in the long term and the pay to play model will eventually succeed. Get around the problem of having to pay to post your first post (Powping manages this), and rely on kind readers to donate micropayments into new users accounts to get them started. This generosity will bubble new users up into contributing for the value they get on the platform, and prevent users that are solely in it for the cash.
I'm not in it for the money. I have never bought any type of Bitcoin. I'm in it for the tech - and the potential of the tech. No more plagiarising, Universal ownership of the content for original content creators - and most importantly, the quality of the conversation will continue to rise. And that can only be a good thing can't it?
Only time will tell...