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I love seeing big idea and even bigger plans.  There is no reason to think small when discussing ideas on blockchain.  We are laying the foundation to change the world.

About a week or so ago, Steemitblog put out a post updating their progress.  In it, they mentioned the idea that they are moving ahead to the point where they are exiting the survival phase.  They also said that the thriving was next.

I have news for everyone: since the noted post in November alerting the community of the perils ahead of Steemit Inc, the Steem ecosystem has been thriving.  The past four months saw a radical transformation in this ecosystem as the community stepped up and asserted itself.  We saw a great deal of progress in a short period of time when it was realized the community could outperform Steemit by a landslide.

One of the projects that popped up is Steem-Engine.  This is one of many fundamental developments that is required on this blockchain.  Through the use of smart contract, this provides Steem with the ability to create tokens.  At the same time, there was a DEX created to provide the ability to trade the different tokens.  This is crucial.  Having it all tied together makes the value of the entire ecosytem grow.

@aggroed put out a post yesterday that affirmed something that he stated on his radio show a couple weeks back.  I did not want to write about it until he officially put it into words for fear of stealing his thunder.  I am glad I held off since there was an added bit to the post he put up.

The main idea is that some of the bigger coins can now be used on Steem-Engine.  According to the article, BTC/LTC/BCH/DOGE are now trading on that exchange.  We now have the ability to convert any of those tokens to STEEM (or any of the other tokens traded on there).  This is a major move since few have STEEM but many have the others.

While that is good news, there is another aspect to the announcement that has my attention.  This is where the big thinking comes in and a direction I think Steem needs to move in.

Here is the direct quote:

>We want to be the number one place that businesses go to launch LEGAL Security Token Offerings in the United States. **We want Steem-Engine to be the Nasdaq of crypto businesses**. We'll be combining a few things you can't find anywhere else in one convenient place: legal services, a place to host an ICO/STO, and a dex to trade the tokens.


*-The bold emphasis is mine*

https://steempeak.com/steem-engine/@aggroed/steem-engine-breakthrough-btc-ltc-bch-doge-trading-now-live

If this comes to fruition, this is enormous.  Security tokens are a way to radically alter the entire investment world.  At the moment, this is a centralized controlled system which excludes the majority of population, even if you have some money.  The primary wealth building vehicles are reserved for the "accredited investors" which usually means you are not included.

What really gets the juices flowing is the possibilities this holds.  Here are some of the attributes that tokenized securities offer.

-**24/7 trading**:  even notice how much bad news is delivered on Friday evening by companies?  That is done on purpose.  They know few people are paying attention and hope the news will get through.  Of course, if it is a major story, you have to wait until Monday morning to trade.  Security tokens can be traded any time, day or night.

-**Fractional ownership**: I challenge you to go buy a .1 share of AMZN.  How about going and buying a piece of a house.  These are not possible under our existing system.  With tokenization, one can buy a fractional piece of Manhattan real estate (as an example).

-**Lower cost to sell**:  Notice the fees you pay when selling stock compared to the cost of selling a house.  Which is greater?  A house is a non-liquid asset meaning there is a premium to sell it.  Not only does it cost more, it takes a longer amount of time.  Security tokens eliminate both of these issues.

-**Instant settlement**: The transaction is settled as soon as the token hits your wallet.  This is a radical different from the stock market where the stock might be listed in your account yet it not settled to a few days later (I will leave aside the fact that you don't actually own the stock anyway).

-**Asset Swap**: You ever try selling your art for a house?  How about trading a partnership in a law firm for some intellectual property?   It is not likely to happen.  With tokenization, these assets can all be traded for each other.

Today, if you have stock in, say, IBM, and you want to swap it and get stock in AMZN, you have to sell the IBM stock and then buy the AMZN.  It is two separate transactions (although many brokerage accounts allow for both transactions to be programmed once).  With Security tokens, there would be an IBM/AMZN pair for you to trade.

To go one step further, imagine throwing the art world on Steem-Engine.  We could create NFT for each piece of art along with tokens.  The digital asset is represented by the NFT and people buy the individual tokens.  The art (asset) could become an income generator by being leased out (maybe by @dlease).  Someone could essentially rent the painting for a year and pay the token holders for the use.

In my view, the best part of this is that we are seeing **a complete ecosystem being constructed that can provide both income and wealth building**.  Investing in assets is a tremendous way to build wealth.  It is why those in power want to keep it limited to their closed circle.  The rest of us are left on the outside.  We cannot realistically partake in derivatives that can be used to hedge against losses in real estate.  Nor can we invest in real estate in most major cities since we do not have tens of millions of dollars at our disposal.  We also are left out of IPOs until they go public, usually at a premium far higher than the banks and other preferred players were able to buy in at.

With Security tokens that all changes.  On Steem, we have the ability to earn tokens like STEEM, Hunt, AFIT, Dlike, DRAMA, CLEAN, and a host of other ones.  This is income we receive for engaging in particular behavior.  After that, with this latest announcement, we could have the ability to convert those tokens into assets which we feel will grow over time.  

Instead of being excluded, now we are included.

This is some of the potential I see.  

One final point:  assets representation such as stock are sold only in select places.  We cannot choose where the trading takes place.  Tokens are a completely different matter.  If an exchange decides to add a token, it can be traded.  Think about the possibility of having a major corporation traded on the Steem ecosystem.  How would you like to earn your daily AFIT and convert it into the Netflix token?  

If Netflix is tokenized, it can be added the same way BTC and LTC were.  

Obviously, I am not the only one who sees all this.  I am glad Aggroed mentioned it in his post.  It really does open up the possibilities for creating an enormous amount of wealth for the Steem ecosystem and the community that supports it.  

Remember, it is one big cooperative where we all benefit from the increased value of the whole.

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