Talking about Steem.DAO. What's that, you ask?

You might remember the Worker Proposal System from over three weeks ago. No? That's ok, that name was short lived. Maybe Steem Proposal System then? I hope it rings the bell, it's the same thing, different name though.

Not to be confused with Steem Alliance and Steem Business Alliance which, despite the similar names, are completely different things.

But Steem Proposal System name wasn't final either. Now we have Steem.DAO! Wow, I'm impressed. A new name every week!

Personally I don't like the name Steem.DAO, but I understand the reasoning behind choosing it. I think it's wrong though. Apparently DAO is a big thing in the blockchain world, called Decentralized Autonomous Organization. You might've heard of the alternative name version, DAC = Decentralized Autonomous Corporation.

To me, and that shows my age, DAO is a thing in programming I used to work with many many years ago, known as Data Access Objects, the first Microsoft API interface for databases.

And to the regular user, DAO means exactly nothing. But I get it, the new project is meant mostly for people who understand what it means.

Wow, I've talked way too much about the name. But I wouldn't if that wouldn't pop up so evidently.

I've listened to the recording of the State of Steem Forum (wrap-up 1/2), and one of the topics was Steem.DAO - as it is now called - and mostly Ned answering some necessary questions from Exyle.

What I believe is important here, is that Ned considers Steem.DAO will be able to pick up some blockchain development in areas that are not a priority for Steemit, Inc., but have the community support.

You might say, but development is already happening on the Steem blockchain without Steem.DAO! And I would agree with you.

But this development being done right now is done by entrepreneurs who can find other ways to monetize their work, or who can see the potential rewards after everything has been built, down the road.

There are some developers on Steem who still put in their talent and work in areas that would be hard to monetize, or simply they want to help Steem and/or other developers. But at some point, the question of money and fair rewards for their work will come up, because time is precious to everyone.

And there are other type of developers who, even if they have the skills, they won't do a job before they have a contract, an understanding, an agreement that they will be paid for their work, if they meet the specified requirements. The team from Blocktrades is one of them. They are a company, they pay salaries and taxes, so they need to justify their hours of work, there must be a payout at the end. And I'm sure there are others who are knowledgeable of the Graphene-based blockchains, who would only be interested in working on Steem paid projects. But isn't Blocktrades being paid quite well by being a Top 20 witness for a long time, you might ask? That is a good question, and I wouldn't know how to answer to that. On the other hand, there are some developers who run a witness node to earn more because they saw it as the only way to monetize enough their work to make enough money to live off. Would a separate fund for developers keep them from applying for witnesses too? Probably no, and probably not a good idea either, since witnesses jobs are mainly technical in nature. But will developing tools be enough to be high on the witness list, having a developer fund at your disposal? Probably not. I think in this case we might have a change of the top witnesses composition, or at least their main interests.

We have a competition at the Dapp and tools level, but at the blockchain level Steemit, Inc. is by far the most contributor. If Steem.DAO can change that, and improve on the speed of development at the blockchain level, then it is worth exploring.

The fact that it starts off based on donations only, and doesn't make any economics changes is great. It gives us time to evaluate it in production and see how well it performs, if it needs adjustments, what other contribution sources are needed and when.