Where the panel landed
The panel split between curiosity about new systems and skepticism about their incentives. Theo Goodman saw Steemit’s early feedback loop as partly normal but warned that a site mostly about itself can collapse like Blab, while Tone Vays argued that Steemit’s token creation was too inflationary and that its content rewards were being driven by whales rather than organic value. On Monero, both Theo and Tone treated darknet-market adoption as meaningful but not proof of use, while Bitfinex’s BFX conversion left the panel largely resigned to a market where debt instruments, equity claims, and altcoins could be improvised after a hack.
What they were watching
The panel watched Steem continue falling after its early spike, with the sign-up bonus reportedly dropping from $10 to $7, then $5, and lower. Monero was rising after darknet-market integration news, while Bitfinex’s BFX token had fallen from its $1 peg to around $0.67 before being reframed through a BankToTheFuture equity-style conversion. The directional consensus was that these moves were driven more by incentives, speculation, and liquidity than by settled utility.
Steemit As Content Loop
Theo compared Steemit to Blab, arguing that platforms can stall when most content becomes about the platform itself. Thomas noted that some users were successfully bringing existing audiences, while Tone focused on whale voting and the way large accounts shaped payouts.
Steem Price And Sign-Up Bonus
The panel discussed Steem’s falling price and declining sign-up bonus, reportedly moving from $10 to $7 to $5 and then lower. Tone argued the sign-up reward did not matter much, but that Steem’s token creation rate and whale incentives created pressure on price.
Steam Power And Whale Voting
Tone walked through high-profile Steemit accounts and posts, highlighting how votes from large holders could turn a post into a major payout. This made the platform’s rewards look less like pure content discovery and more like a stake-weighted attention machine.
Monero Enters Darknet Markets
Monero’s rise after darknet-market adoption was treated as a legitimate privacy signal but not proof of broad use. Theo emphasized that adding Monero does not mean users will use it, while Tone said traders were speculating on the news before any meaningful adoption was clear.
Privacy Coins As Bitcoin Testnets
The panel treated Monero’s ring-signature privacy model as technically interesting and possibly useful for future Bitcoin layers or sidechains. Tone said he preferred privacy on top of Bitcoin rather than built into the base layer, because base-chain transparency could still be useful for public accountability.
Botnets And Mining Incentives
Theo noted that Monero’s CPU-friendly mining could attract botnet mining if the price rose enough. The discussion framed privacy coins not just as anonymity tools but as incentive systems that become attack targets once they are valuable.
Bitfinex BFX Conversion
Bitfinex’s BFX coin moved from debt token toward stock-like conversion through BankToTheFuture. Theo described the whole structure as another level of post-hack complexity, while Thomas warned that creating debt and equity instruments after losing customer funds looked like the wild-west edge of securities law.
Crowd Sales And Legal Boundaries
The BFX discussion broadened into ICOs, debt instruments, and post-hack financial improvisation. Tone blamed Ethereum’s token sale for opening the door to a culture of invented instruments, while the panel treated the market’s appetite for anything tradable as the real constant.
Have you heard about bit shares? That's before steemit.— Theo Goodman
what's impressive about Burwerks account is he brought his followers over.— Thomas Hunt
it will continue to drift down— Tone Vays
just because they added Monero doesn't mean anyone is using Monero— Theo Goodman
That's called making money while you're making money.— Tone Vays
The world is totally crazy.— Theo Goodman
Story of the Week
Steemit Meets The Feedback Loop
The dominant story was Steemit because it had become both a live experiment in rewarding content and a live chart of reflexive token economics. Theo compared it to Blab, where the platform became overrun by content about using the platform itself. Tone showed that prominent posts and accounts were being rewarded by large steam-power holders, while warning that the token’s inflation and whale structure were likely driving the price down. The panel did not dismiss the idea of paying creators, but treated Steemit as a system where content, promotion, and token incentives were hard to separate.
if there's nothing new that comes in there, then it's going to go away.— Theo Goodman