The crypto market is taking a hit these days. 

Ok, these weeks. 

Ok, these last 3 months. 

And it’s taking hit after hit after hit.

Bitcoin price went from 20k to below 8k and STEEM is trading under $2. As a person who used to be happy when STEEM was trading anywhere higher than 10 cents, I am not very scared about this, to be honest. 

But the vast majority of Steemit newcomers who are used to see STEEM at $4, $5 or even higher, are probably frightened. Not probably, for sure. I know that, because something just confirmed it to me, in a rather sad way - but more on this story a bit later.

For now, let’s get back to the bear market we’re experiencing now.

There are many reasons for this bear market, but the most important is that there are more Bitcoin holders selling for a lower price that those willing to by at a higher price. 

Pure and simple. 

That’s the main reason. 

Why they are doing this? Well, that’s the million dollar question and I’m afraid I can’t answer to it with 100% certainty. And I doubt that anyone can do this. But here are a few potential causes for why the Bitcoin price (which was a driver for the alts increase as well, including Steem) is taking a big dive:

* the “Tokyo whale” keeps selling MtGoxxed Bitcoins (or, in other words, we’re still being MtGoxxed years after the exchange collapsed)
* the FUD spread by governments, banks and their PR agencies (from “Bitcoin is a bubble” rumors up to regulation and taxation) is starting to function and many holders are selling off, looking for “safer” investments
* institutional money poured into crypto (futures sold by CBOE, for instance) are dragging the price down (shorting the Bitcoin officially) in order to create better entry points and accumulate even more, in a predictable attempt to centralize and control this asset too
* the market is simply correcting, which is usually a healthy thing 

Well, these are just a few rational causes.

Alas, we, humans, are not rational beings. We’re highly emotional and, above all, we’re ignorants. I was going to say “stupid”, but I refrained myself. We’re all more or less ignorants but what makes a person stupid is the conscious choice to consistently avoid truth.

What this ignorance means? It means we’d rather believe something that confirms our expectations, than accept reality. We’d rather believe conspiracy theories, as ridiculous and convoluted as they are, rather than accepting that, once we bought a freely tradeable asset, we can no longer control its evolution - we can only hope it will increase in value.

We’d rather believe all sorts of scary bed time stories instead of accepting that this is the reality, period.

Ignorance is the most expensive thing in the world, because, no matter what, sooner or later, we pay the price for it. 

# I’m The Walrus! No, Wait, I’m The Whale!

Now back to that story about some Steemians being frightened that I was talking about.

Yesterday I saw a strange comment on one of my posts. It was basically saying that I was the initiator of the Steem price dropping. No less than that, mind you. 

There was also a question about why the fuck I don’t care about the future of this community and keep pushing the prices down.

The befuddlement this comment generated was briefly preceded by a rather nice feeling: this guy actually thought I was a whale. A big whale, moving the market as I want, whenever I want.

Awwww! That’s so, so, so sweet of him!

Except I’m not.

And I can’t push the Steem price down, even if I wanted to (which is absolutely ridiculous to even fathom, since I’m on this platform, day and day out, for more than a year now). 

What this guy referred to, probably, was related to what I do, as a witness, to bring the SBD price back to the peg, which is $1. This is true, I am doing this, and Im not the only witness doing it. And I was certainly not the initiator of it.

But who cares about truth anyway? Who takes the time to learn the ins and outs of such a complicated platform like Steemit, when you can basically just post a stupid fart meme and, voila, there’s a $10 worth of pumped SBD into your wallet, just like that. 

Why would you start learning what’s really happening when you get paid, as long as you get paid? 

Money for nothing and the chicks for free.

# So, What’s This SBD Thing Anyway?

Let’s get back for a minute to that SBD thing. 

For all those late newcomers: _SBD is not the main currency on the STEEM blockchain, STEEM is_.

I will repeat: there is a difference between SBD and STEEM, and the main token of the STEEM blockchain is STEEM. Not SBD. 

SBD is rather _a smart contract on top of the blockchain and was intended as a stable currency, pegged to $1_. It just happens that you are paid in mostly SBD, not in STEEM (but this again, depends on some blockchain parameters, and can be changed such that you get paid half in SBD and half in STEEM). 

SBD is a debt-based asset, because it’s not backed by real USD, but by “$1 worth of STEEM”, which means it depends on the supply of STEEM.

Reducing the price of SBD to $1 _might be possible_ (please note that I wrote “might” and not “will be”) if the SBD supply will be higher. That’s exactly what I am trying to achieve, by adjusting my price feed bias, so more SBD gets "printed". And that’s the only thing I can do, as a witness. 

The rest is up to the markets, which are always right, by the way.

# Who’s Driving The STEEM Price Down? I Wanna See Who’s Responsible For This Disaster!

So, who’s responsible for this market disaster? 

Of course, those stupid witnesses who are pushing the STEEM price down. It doesn’t matter that SBD is a different thing from STEEM entirely and that what those witnesses are trying to achieve is _a healthy thing for the platform, in the long run_. 

It doesn’t matter that _the entire platform is really run by witnesses_, they are keeping the whole thing spinning with their witness nodes, otherwise there won’t be any post, comment or vote. It doesn’t matter that _no witness will ever want to see his investment devaluing, on the contrary_.

What matter is that we need a scapegoat for this thing. 

Somebody else is responsible. Not us. 

Let’s find that SOB and teach him a lesson.

It doesn’t matter that it’s us, those believing that markets should obey our _expectations_ that need to learn the most important lesson of all: _the market is always right_.

It’s right when it goes up and it’s right when it goes down.

Ignorance is inherent to humans and we are all sharing a good part of it. 

But stupidity, or the conscious choice to distort reality so it matches our own expectations, it's ten times toxic than ignorance. 

Please, please, please stay informed. Learn how things work and accept the risks. Everything that goes up, must go down at some point.

And, subsequently, everything that goes down, will go up someday.
***
_I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at [Dragos Roua](http://dragosroua.com) where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua._
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![Dragos Roua](http://dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bamf-e1448824881306.png)</center>
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<h2>Wanna know when you're getting paid?</h2>
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<img src ="https://steemitimages.com/DQmY5EgrAesnAbWyBazuHaA2Rqb2y9kkJjX4SkGq4NqA9b1/Screen%20Shot%202018-02-16%20at%2011.30.44%20AM.png" width="250" heigh="100">
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I know the feeling. That's why I created <a href="http://steem.supply" target="_new">steem.supply</a>, an easy to use and accurate tool for calculating your Steemit rewards
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<center><h2>It's free to use, but if you think this is a useful addition, I'd appreciate your <a href="https://steemit.com/~witnesses" target="_new">witness vote</a>.</h2>
<h1>Thank you!</h1>
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# Psst: new to Steemit? [Start Here](https://steemit.com/@dragosroua/the-7-fundamental-questions-about-steemit)
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