Source: https://smartcash.cc/

Five months ago when I first dipped my toes in the cryptocurrency waters and joined Steemit, it seemed like all of the talk and fuss about cryptocurrency was which coins you should invest and how high the price was going to increase next week. As I learnt more about blockchain technology and the benefits or potential it would introduce in the way people interacted in the new digital economy, I started to realize that there were some very important questions that needed to be addressed.

Even though SmartCash has been going for a little while, I only found out about it a couple of days ago through @simplifylife, and because he was also linked to a few other groups I was involved in I thought there was no harm in reading a few of the posts on @smartcash to find out more. But rather than tell you about what I learnt about it, I want to talk about some of the issues/limitations I have come across on Steemit and why I think it is a good model for addressing some of them.

Governance on blockchain communities

Self-organisation vs. formal structures

Something that is very apparent when you join Steemit.com is the lack of a clear governance within the community. This is not necessarily a bad thing because on the one hand we have seen the social dynamics shift and change in many different directions that has opened up unexpected possibilities while on the other hand it seems like no one is ever sure what the overall direction is for the community as a whole. With SmartCash it appears that the SmartHive Discussions and SmartHive Voting (using the SmartHive Governance Portal) is aimed at having a more formalized structure for governance. This takes it one step beyond Utopian.io by allowing the community to play part in making decisions about where the value created is re-invested back into the platform.

Example of proposals on the SmartHive Governance Portal

Distribution of Power/Wealth within the Community

What little semblance of governance that is maintained on Steemit is mostly in the hands of investors that have financial stakes in the platform or the witnesses that maintain it, while the community and contributors that are needed to ensure the long term growth and success. According to the information on the website, SmartCash has a different take on the distribution of payout in its community.

I have a feeling that the figures are probably reversed on Steemit

Community versus Economy

When the community comes first

I think of Steemit as an example of a community that can be used to create and drive an economy. I have often heard many people say that they would be happy to remain on Steemit and use it as their social media platform of choice because of the people that it attracts that want to move away from the more self-centred types of social media into something more community based. When this community reaches a critical mass then it is inevitably that additional products and services will be built around the community to support its various activities, but in a way the economy is separate from the community because one can exist without the other.

When the economy and community are equally important

I think of SmartCash as an example of creating a viable platform for a digital based economy that can serve various communities that exist and is looking for a solution to link the various products it is producing and services it is providing. What makes SmartCash interesting is that the community is directly linked to the economy and therefore one cannot exist without the other

Limitations to growth

Transition into the gig economy

It is my strong belief that blockchain applications will strongly push the future of work towards the paradigm of the long promised 'gig' economy, and one of the limitations of Steemit is that we are all waiting for SMTs to unlock this potential for the many creative people that are earning by posting rather than the value of the products and services that they provide outside of the social media capacity (i.e. getting traffic). SmartCash was designed to solve this problem upfront so hopefully there is less friction for people wanting to get a foot in the door and into the new digital economy and establish new careers.

Establishing trust and credibility

Early adopters see the potential for blockchain to help lay the foundations of digital economies of the, but the hype and misconception about cryptocurrency is working against the open and transparent nature that these systems are designed to reinforce or address with current centralized financial systems. The signs for SmartCash with more emphasis on governance and feedback from the community can go a long way towards easing people's fears about adopting a new way of working.

A disclaimer or two

These are my first thoughts after I went onto their website and read through all the information and comparing it with my experiences on Steemit thus far. I would like to learn more by registering an account and also talk to more of the people involved in various aspects of the platform (the same way that I learnt about Steemit), and hopefully I can come back and write another post about my experiences to share with people on Steemit.

I would certainly encourage you to find out more about SmartCash and perhaps read about other people's experience thus far. I assume that even after SMTs are released it will take some time to iron out a few issues because no one is going to be able to anticipate all the problems that it could create. In the meantime, here is something that you can try out and compare when you do get a chance to find out how SMTs will work.

If you would like to learn more about SmartCash please visit https://smartcash.cc/