A Discussion About Blockchain and the Digital Renaissance

A Past Outlook Moving into the Future

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Some of you may already have seen the video we made last week likening this generation of blockchain technology to the Renaissance. As you’ve probably figured out, we get super excited about the potential of this new crypto-universe here at Sndbox. That’s why we made this first video in a series about the state of blockchain technology today. In this series, we’ll hold general discussion to explore how blockchain technology impacts artistic individuals and their respective practices. Specifically, we’ll talk about the many connections between creativity and blockchain.

Today’s post will outline most of the key concepts and ideas behind each of the video’s segments. Creativity and Blockchain - Usually, the two concepts aren’t often linked together. However, we believe they have a lot more in common than most people may initially think.

With Steemit, we’re beginning to see the developer aspect of blockchain effectively intertwine with project creativity in a way that could serve as a launching pad for the digital renaissance. The following are some of the major ways that Steem can invigorate such an environment.

Creativity

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In the 14th-17th century, the Italian Renaissance was a culturally transformative period in which art and architecture were deeply celebrated. Artists like Michelangelo and Rafael took center stage. Patronage empowered new value towards artwork and craftsmanship. We’re excited about Steem and Steemit because we felt this new ecosystem gave us an opportunity to treat diverse disciplines differently. Similar to the Italian Renaissance, blockchain technology is changing the game for value-infrastructure and they way we interact with visual content. By using alternative forms of currency, like stakes and influence, blockchain’s are providing metrics to measure the value of artistic skill sets.

Production

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Think of all the craftsmen, architects and painters needed to construct a Renaissance building. Using their individual skill sets, contributors had to work together in an organized and productive way to complete these intricate and breathtaking structures.

Steem mirrors this collective production mentality by having our users collaborate and staking their own time, money and efforts into projects they care about. Even while focusing on different topics, working together on this platform creates an ecosystem that starts to self-mobilize in a way that is bringing about great change.

This feeds nicely into a perpetually collaborative mindset of making where anything that could impact the value of Steem has a hugely beneficial effect on others. This implicitly promotes a collective atmosphere of support and collective advancement.

Patronage

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One of the most effective aspects of staking is the concept of delegation. With Steem delegation, you can take your Steem Power stake and lend it to other users. As an example, delegation is like lending a superpowered mining rig to a Bitcoin miner (but without the expensive and costly machinery) - you can leverage these assets to mine more effectively and yield stronger influence within that ecosystem.

Delegation is bootstrapping more and more communities and ventures, mirroring a Renaissance-like patronage for certain projects and periods. By delegating with Steem, you can grow and improve your influence. We’ve seen it work really well so far with starting new initiatives and incentivizing growth.

Networks

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As creative professionals, we’re always digging to find ways to use the raw tools in front of us for professional or social purposes. With Steem, people are looking into teams of projects to find who they’d like to work with based on influence or ratings. This new metric of influence and value can help you build or find your ideal team. Almost like investing in a company, you can use these alternative incentives to fund a project.

For example, you can leverage the fact that big influencers are working on a project in order to attract others to be involved. With other methods, like cryptocurrency, SMT’s and derivative token systems, we’ll see more of this variation occur. We’ll be seeing the physical imprint of blockchain on the real world soon, and it’s exciting to see the early stages of development with Steem.

We shared our thoughts about how blockchain will become the next big thing in creative production. Now, we want to hear yours. What do you think about Steem and the digital renaissance? Do you think we’re on the cusp of something huge? Let us know!

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^{B/W photographs by @voronoi}

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