Hello everyone, a warm welcome to week 2 of season 5 of the steemit contest. I'm indeed happy to be participating in the contest series this new season. I hope everyone joining is happy to do so as well.

_{Image was designed with PowerPoint}
The crypto academy community wants participants to discuss and explain their understanding of The Steem Blockchain, I will be responding to the assignment given.

---

Question

Discuss the consensus protocol used in Steem, Proof of Delegated Participation. What are the differences between DPoS and PoW?

---

Steem Blockchain Consensus Protocol

Steem blockchain introduced in March of 2016 by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer is a crypto incentive-based blockchain that rewards creators for creating original and unplagiarized content and engaging with other nodes on the Blockchain. The Blockchain's primary aim is to encourage social engagement globally through writing and media-related content, this provides a wide library of open-source information based on the writer's personal experiences and also provides a means to earn through cryptocurrency.

_{Image Source}
Steem Blockchain uses proof-of-delegated participation as its consensus mechanism. The proof of Delegated Participation (PoDP) consensus mechanism adopts the vested interest approach, where participants (stakeholders) with vested interests are allowed to participate as validator nodes and Steem Blockchain witnesses. Similar to real-life scenarios where stakeholders in companies make critical decisions about the company's future.

Ideally, the Blockchain users vote for delegates with vested interests to become witnesses and validator nodes. The vested interest can be fully owned by the delegates or can be delegated to them by the users. The combined vested interest listed under the stakeholders serves as their stake in the Blockchain.

The proof of delegated participation approach aims to reduce security risk and the required computational resources of the Blockchain as the stakeholders with vested interest vote and act as miners, to verify transaction blocks.

---

Delegated Proof of stake vs Proof of work

There are some notable differences between the PoW and the DPoS, some of which include

1. The PoW utilizes high computational resources to validate blocks of transactions while the DPoS rely on the voted delegates to validate blocks of transactions.

2. PoW is considered not to be easily monopolized as nodes with high computational power participate in block validation while DPoS is likely to be monopolized as validator nodes that rely on the votes of the users to maintain their status as validators can easily collaborate with users to maintain votes and split the profit. This can lead to a 51% attack on the Blockchain.

---

---

Question

How often does a block occur in Steem and how many tokens does it use? Discuss this topic.

---

Blocks in Steem Blockchain

Steem Blockchain validators produce new transaction blocks every three seconds using the network time protocol to synchronize the block production time across the Blockchain network. As previously explained, Steem delegates are selected through votes by the users, and there are 21 delegates selected with 20 delegates being active. The active delegates participate in block production and signing of a transaction within the given timeframe.

During each round of block production, the selected active delegates are shuffled from time to time to prevent any form of collaboration between the delegates. This ensures that the process is truly decentralized, hence giving the opportunity to every delegate node willing to participate in the block production.

---

How many Tokens ?

The steem Blockchain has a native token called STEEM. Steem was introduced alongside the steem Blockchain in 2016. Though, there were no public records of token sales of the STEEM token. The token had struggled to an average price above the $1 mark. According to coinmarketcap's official website the price metrics of the STEEM token has been bearish, following the cryptocurrency downhaul of price in 2018, the STEEM token has struggled to maintain its price above $1

Steem is used within the Blockchain as the governance token, which allows users and delegates to vote and participate actively in the validation and signing of transaction blocks on the Blockchain. This implies that the number of steem tokens owned by delegated determines how weighted their vested interest would perform on the Blockchain.

---

---

Question

Do you know what was the first application to run on the Steem Blockchain? Discuss this application.

---

First DApp On Steem Blockchain

_{Image Source}
The first DApp to run on Steem Blockchain is the Steemit blog app which was launched in 2016. Steemit is a content-based social blogging website that rewards its users with incentives for creating refined original content. Steemit's blog is based on written content, where users can join communities to engage and share related content. Steemit blog was the first decentralized social network app built based on blockchain technology standards.

Steemit's blog has a token scheme that is comprised of four tokens. The Steem Power (SP) is used as a governance token and the other three as incentive tokens which are Steem Backed Dollar (SBD), STEEM, and TRX. The Steem Power (SP) token is used by the Blockchain user as a vested interest in the Blockchain that gives them the power to vote for delegates or give delegates power to validate and sign transactions when voted. Ideally, the vested interest expressed in Steem Power (SP) is weighted, making it an essential token for governance in the Blockchain.

The reward other three tokens are used within the Blockchain as incentives given to users (nodes) as a reward for content posted on the blockchain, usually assessed based on the public appeal of the post created, where curators (steem users) can either upvote or downvote a post. The valuation of the reward depends on percentages allocated to the post by the steem token curators, where users with high STEEM token staked on the blockchain has more voting power than users with fewer STEEM token staked on the Blockchain.

Steemit being a decentralized blog has a unique feature over other forms of social blogs as it banks on transparency in the activities of its users. Users can publicly see the earnings of each content posted and can openly investigate the genuinety of the content of the post shared.

Steemit's blog encourages users to follow the necessary processes of reading and voting for a post. This is done through reading to verify the post's originality, if the content is unplagiarized, curators (users) can Up-votes a certain percentage of the post, otherwise a downvote. Steemit curation weight on contents is dependent on the voting power of the user expressed as steem power. Ideally, the steem token is in an equal ratio of 1:1 to the steem power, making it possible to power up steem tokens to increase voting influence on the blog platform. Steemit is indeed a wonderful DApp to use!

---

---

Question

What is Proof of Brain (PoB)?

---

Proof of Brain (PoB)

_{Image Source}

Proof of Brain is an incentive consensus algorithm used in a decentralized social network that rewards creators for their intellectual properties. i.e rewarding users for creating unique content on the decentralized social network. The PoB is usually comprised of a reward pool, weighting mechanism, and knowledge of the users. A good example of this concept is that of the steemit blog.

The PoB in Steemit combines these three elements to structure its consensus algorithm. Ideally, when users create unique content, they get rewarded from the reward pool. An assortment of recently mined Steem tokens is included in the reward pool. The reward pool is divided, and on the Steem Blockchain, authors and curators receive around 50% of the reward as compensation for their work.

Users' ability to read, assess, and vote on content based on their judgments is referred to as their "user knowledge." Furthermore, making it possible for curators to detect copying in content, this aids in the continuing battle against plagiarism on the Steem blockchain. Users' influence on the Blockchain is expressed through the weighted stake. Steem power (SP), which has a 1:1 relationship with the Steem Token, is used to symbolize this. The user could ideally have a greater impact if their Steem power is high. This pertains to selecting content to vote on, getting incentives from the reward pool, etc. According to this, content that receives upvotes from highly influential accounts is probably going to receive greater rewards.

---

---

Conclusion

---

There are many consensus algorithms used across different Blockchains, with each having its benefits and drawbacks. The PoDP which is similar to the Delegated Proof of stake is what is used in Steem Blockchain as its consensus mechanism. This mechanism allows for total decentralization of the Blockchain as it allows for rotation of the delegates through voting, while the PoB is usually comprised of a reward pool, weighting mechanism, and knowledge of the users.