@tracemayer: this was an excellent discussion between you two. Thank you for posting. @marketingmonk knows his stuff.

IRT your discussion on 'controlling narratives', I wrote [this for BTCMagazine back in Feb and it ties in directly with that: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/i-m-a-former-green-beret-here-s-how-i-would-bring-down-bitcoin-1456165726

Nice to hear the topic regaining traction with all of the news about the hacks coming out recently. Awareness of the tactic and strategy is the best defense.

enjoyed listening to the conversation

"I stayed up late last night and read the entire Steem whitepaper"
Great! You might be getting the "Steem bug" ;)
I can't wait for your posts on the subject.

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.  Now you get paid for your uncensored treasonous truth with steemit.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Brilliant!

Exciting news to read, thank you, and, as for everyone on the Steem network, look froward to the bright future of it.  all for one and one for all!   Namaste   :)

Seeing Trace Mayer dip his toes in Steemit, the past 2 days, actually got me to buy some Steem Power for the first time. And Holy Cow! -- how easy it was via the "Buy Steem" sidebar.

Thank you for the info, I am new to this and have so much knowledge to share to help change this world and to lift the illusions that have plagued mankind for centuries, there are many old souls such as myself that found the genetic memory within the DNA to find that hidden knowledge from the start of the bloodline.

This is an excellent interview, and I reference it, as well as link to it in my own #introduceyourself post:

>>@tracemayer offers possibly the best advice to minnows by clarifying their incentive; he says Steem Power derives value from the fact that it increases your chance of getting someone's attention. Check out his interview What is the Steem Network and how does it work? to better understand this environment.

The post is located here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@geke/the-creator-of-those-geke-venns-is-now-on-steemit-and-advice-for-minnows

I think people will come to the conclusion that it is better to have some steem inflation eroding the vale of your holdings, but give you a chance for growth and a transparent stake in the organisation, than having the certainty of having your attention and time siphoned  out to benefit Zuckemberg's advertisers.

@tracemayer Excellent interview ! Upvoted ! (Already following) The more I learn of you the more I like. (This has been going on for a couple years now, lol)
As to the podcast. One of the points that I really liked is your excitement about the possibilities of steemit.com. I'm 55 and know that  MOST "older" folks and even most of the younger people don't (imo) really understand what the possibilities are of immutable access to information.
Were you aware that most small town libraries are now filling the shelves with "pop" culture books and retiring the "Books that don't sell"? We are being "professionally" (As was mentioned in the podcast) inundated with misinformation.  In America It is so hard to have a "real" conversation with a stranger, friends or even family because most (imo) are educated with "soundbites" and magazine articles that are for the most part, pure tripe. 

This Neo education is what all intellectuals are upset about.  How can we proceed to be free in this environment? Steemit.com could become an unbelievable resource (imo) as long as we continue to entice people like yourself, that are "classically" educated (Meaning, checking Referencess before accepting as truth.)

It is so hard now to talk to most people about economics, and the direct relations to freedom. Most don't understand the basic concepts, much less Austrian views. The discussion ends there with a plea to look at mises.org ...  People talk about freedom but have never read "The law" or have never even heard of F. Bastiat, or for that matter, Von Mises, Rothbard, Hayek or Menger and heaven forbid mentioning Rand or Atlas Shrugged.  Who IS John Galt !!!
Not to mention of course "Jekyll Island" or even "The Creature from Jekyll Island",  Kudos to you btw, for that interview with G. Edward Griffin !!! That was another great interview. what a great man !
Sorry for the rant, I loved the podcast !

My boyfriend just pointed me to Steemit, and this was the first bit of content I opted to explore. Wow...really interesting concept and enlightening dialogue about it. Prompted me to take a chance. Have now established an account and will be looking to curate and create. I feel more hopeful than I have in a long time about the possibility of overcoming--or at least happily navigating around--what I would term constant nannying and thought-shaping by public-private partnerships, as manifested via mainstream media, social media platforms, and related avenues of communication. 

One of the things that particularly struck me in this dialogue was the observation that lots of platforms start out well...Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The point was made that everyone's a purist at the start. But, as noted, where things often go terribly wrong with unfiltered content is when those running the platforms become more concerned with leveraging them as profit centers. Clearly, things take money to run. The fiscal need to ensure an enterprise can remain operational is not a triviality. I don't begrudge anyone the need to make ends meet and/or profit from a venture. What's depressing, though, is the way these platforms end up playing right into the existing power structures. The principle of making a buck shorts out the principle to have an unfettered venue.

As such, it's remarkable to see people thinking deeply about how actually to foster--and, moreover, truly incentivize, including monetarily--engaged and frank dialogue, philosophical discussion, information-sharing, journalism, etc,  in ways that do not kill free thought, honest communication, and open inquiry. Really intrigued. Can't wait to see what comes of this avenue and what role I and others I know might be able to play in bringing such a noble experiment to fruition. 

Steemit sure seems like a great skeleton--onto which a lot of healthy flesh and blood  can be layered as the concept and development continue to unfold. I'm in.

Awesome stuff. Wish it was longer. Please post all ur stuff here now!

Great discussion in so many ways, just one key missing.

Hey Trace glad to see more bitcoiners and ancaps here. Have you got a chance to check out any of our story yet? https://steemit.com/@lily-da-vine

<div>  <p>  This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.  </p>  <ul>        <li>      <a href="https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@geke/the-creator-of-those-geke-venns-is-now-on-steemit-and-advice-for-minnows"> The creator of those Geke venns is now on Steemit! (and advice for minnows) </a>      by      <a href="https://steemit.com/@geke">  @geke </a>     </li>        <li>      <a href="https://steemit.com/kr/@woo7739/5-20160820-steemit-digest-korean-language"> #5. 20160820 steemit digest (korean language) </a>      by      <a href="https://steemit.com/@woo7739">  @woo7739 </a>     </li>      </ul>  <p> Learn more about  <a href="https://steemit.com/steem/@ontofractal/steem-linkback-bot-v0-3-released">    linkback bot v0.3</a>   </p>   <p>Upvote if you want the bot to continue posting linkbacks for your posts. Flag if otherwise.   Built by @ontofractal</p></div>

@tracemayer, what is missing in Steem at there moment is a sophisticated curation system. Right now it is too much of a blunt instrument, but has the potential to be something very powerful. Unfortunately, potential is not a foregone conclusion. So people liked you, people with influencer in the community and long standing reputation, need to promote high quality proposals for improving the platform.

One way to improve the curation system is to have a more sophisticated tag system based upon the LinkedIn skill tags model. Anyone should be able to add a tag to a post and others should vote on them. Rewards can be given for adding semantic tags and for upvoting those of others, the same as posting, except weighted less.

Here is a post to explain more clearly: https://steemit.com/steemit/@manipulable/proposal-make-tags-useful-in-steemit-or-copy-linkedin

I believe with the above tag solution that steemit can seriously complete with Reddit.

And here is a post that has curated some of the best Steemit improvement proposals: https://steemit.com/steem-ideas/@beanz/give-steem-ideas-your-love

The best thing you can do for the community is putting your weight behind solid, practical, high quality Steemit Improvement Proposals that make it easy to find high quality semantically relevant posts so that niche subjects can thrive.

Sounds amazing !

Being new to CryptoCurrency and a contributor to steem, this is very enlightening, thank you for sharing!! Consider yourself followed so I can learn more! Thank you!!

https://m.popkey.co/390fea/oGme8.gif

"Where does all the money come from?"

I missed something in the discussion. I think it is very important to understand that the stories and upvoters get paid by the all the network's users. There is a 100% inflation rate on Steem. If you lock your Steem in Steempower you get 90% a year., 10% go to authors and upvoters. So basically you lose 5% per year (this is a simple explanation of how I think it more or less works). This is where the money comes from. The game is like this: can you make more Steempower than you lose every year by upvoting or posting stories? For populair authors this won't be a problem. Also someone could become a professional upvoter; shouldn't be a problem either. But the "every day average user" will probably lose money (of course there is a possibility that Steemit rises in value, but that will only happen if the system proves to be sustainable I think). What are his/her incentives to use Steemit above for example Reddit?

Could be:

1) It's decentralized, so content is always visible on the network. No censorship.
2) Everyday users like the game of voting and try to make money.
3) Something else?

I think in the end the "every day average user" will make the platform or break the platform.

wow , trace mayer was the reason why i joined the  cryptocurrency world. thanks for the utube videos.

I use to  listen to Trace Mayer Podcasts on BlockChain Technology. Now I can support Trace work here on Steemit. Congrat!

Great article @tracemayer
Thanks!

Regarding the whales cooperating to game the system for their benefit: If they annoy too much people, market cap of Steem will go down and whales are the ones who will suffer the most. That's why they don't have an incentive to do anything bad for the ecosystem.

It's easiest to whales to benefit by helping the ecosystem to grow. The bigger is the market cap of Steem, the more valuable is their Steem Power.

Great interview. I feel the whole Steemit universe is still finding its feet and as more high quality content producers join it will evolve and change. This is sure to piss of some of the early adopters but that's the way thing go.