[EcoSysteem] Digging in the detail of Steem(it) ecosystem

cryptohazard (63) in ecosysteem • 8 years ago

Dear all,

After 6 months here, I am exploring the other side of the curtain.
I am little by little learning more about the technical details.

Unfortunately, the code is the documentation

This mean I have to spend a good amount of time digging into it.
Some details are laying around on Steemit, like some posts from @steemitguide, @dantheman and others.

My main focus is security

Since I am into blockchain first because I am into cryptography. I am also into art/writing, hence my second account @jyezie.
I will also look at the user-friendliness and see if I can do something about it.
Roughly, my ~~roadmap~~ battle plan is:

Steemit cryptography (already done)
Security interactions: using your posting key etc.
UI for noobs: how to explore the blockchain for non-technical users
Security enhancement Integration: hardware wallet, offline Steemit, docker-ish local steemit
Other: busy, steemd, steem tools, eSteem

Any help is welcomed

Any help at all, from upvotes, to links, to code, to discussion, to idead...
Any help!!

Thanks all
@cryptohazard/ @jyezie

Image from Pixabay

ecosysteem documentation steemit security

8 years ago by cryptohazard (63)

$0.05

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!

Sort Order:

Trending

[-]

transhuman (60) · 8 years ago

Documentation is problematic for modern day technology. Engineers are great at solving problems, but many, if not most, lack the time and energy to write a plain English explanation of their work. Traditionally, this has been the role of the technical writer who has a good grasp of the subject matter and has the ability to translate technical jargon, abstruse equations and engineering mumbo jumbo into a plain English explanation.

The problem with having technical writers is that it is seen as an unnecessary expense because the computer engineers know what is going on and they don't need a technical writer to explain it. In addition, the technology these days moves at an exponential pace and what is a standard of the industry this year can be deprecated or obsolete the next. Who needs a pile of deprecated manuals? What we need is a living mutating document that reflects the technology as it changes. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an excellent example of this concept, providing open standards and tutorials on Internet technologies like HTML, CSS JavaScript and many more as they progress.

Furthermore, IMHO, now the trend in technology is for users to guess how the new gadget works. Take the Smartphone as an example. You either know how to work one or you don't and there is no manual save FCC warnings and how to insert the charger. When an icon appears, what do you do? Press it? Press it twice? Once? Three times in frustration and get propelled to a hell of confusion or the device mercifully freezes up and you saw someone pry off the back to remove and re-install the battery once, so you do the same and that at least brings some order to the chaos?

What Steemit/Graphene (correct me if wrong, but Graphene is the blockchain underpinning Steemit) needs is it's own Andreas Antonopolus who wrote the open source book, Mastering Bitcoin. As his story goes, he locked himself up for months on end gathering information, decrypting the engineering mumbo jumbo and creating a book that is probably the bible of Bitcoin. Graphene (Steemit) would greatly benefit from such a work. Developers and others could now learn the ropes in days rather than months of pounding of one's head against a wall.

Moreover, Ethereum, which is a direct competitor to Steemit with it's new AKASHA social media, has managed to publish a Homesteading PDF to guide users. Here is a quote from the work:

This guide should serve to be an entry level for all Ethereum users and developers. The goal is to create documentation
with information, short tutorials, and examples that will cover all of the basic and intermediate functionality
of using Ethereum to interact with dapps or develop a dapp.
Any information that is overly specific, technical, or not necessary to accomplish the documentation’s goal will
remain on the Ethereum Github Wiki. It may be referenced in this guide if necessary.
Although much of the information will be similar between the Frontier Guide and the Homestead Guide, efforts
need to be made to make sure the information ported over is still accurate. This document is client agnostic, and
examples and tutorials may be based on any client that the author decides to write on, as long as a distinction is
made as to what client is being used in the examples/tutorials.
Although overly specific and technical documentation will not be included in the first iterations of this guide,
community use and popularity of this guide will dictate future decisions to move Github wiki documentation to
this format.

In fairness to Steemit, I need to mention that Steemit is open source and free to use. On the other hand, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) underpinning the Ethereum "smart contract" system etc. while being free to use, charges for many transactions; creating a contract, exercising a contract and every transaction even as fundamental as addition and subtraction incurs a cost in gas. "Gas" translates to ether which is the underlying cryptocurrency of Ethereum.

Finally, Steemit and Ethereum have different MOs and philosophys and it remains to be seen which one will stand the test of time. Perhaps, both will find their own niche as the crypto world evolves into the future. One thing is certain - it will be interesting to see what develops.

Thanks for your post. I had been thinking about this recently and you inspired me to post this comment also as a blog post.

$0.00

[-]

cryptohazard (63) · 8 years ago

Thanks for you valuable comment/post. I will answer you on your post too.
My main problem with the lack of documentation is that you somehow assume your average user to be developer savy! I know that for project that have been around a lot, it takes time and dedication but for any NEW project, this is unacceptable.
I mean, how many time did I have to stop and help a newbie because there is no complete and correct F.A.Q?! Ethereum is still in heavy development but they have so much documentation.
On your example on smartphone, I used to like discovering a new device. It is not everyone who has this hacker mentality and most likely we end up asking Google to be the world documentation. Google sensei enlightens me, once again.
I have to admit I totally lost sight of Graphene, hence I just didn't check it. We'll see what I can learn from there.
Since there is not much documentation next to Steemit code, I don't have much choice but to learn from there. I sincerely can't tell how long this is going to take me... if I don't get bored or distract before I finish it.
So I will advance little by little, and see where I get.
(for the Ethereum vs Steemit comparison, I am answering directly on your post)

$0.00