Honey Boo Boo
CryptoKitties
Pokemon
It is hard to predict what will capture the interest of the public. The strangest things go viral or become popular. Forecasting the tastes of the general public is difficult at best; impossible at worst.
We are entering an age where creativity should explode. Blockchain is providing a forum where developers are free to create whatever they desire. Unlike a centralized system where one has to conform to the parameters outlined by an employer, here people can develop an application and hang it on the blockchain without seeking permission.
It is the community that uses the applications who determine the amount of success it has. If nobody uses it, the project is killed.
At present, there seems to be a lot of jockeying to market different blockchains. Those that get recognition have tokens that shoot up the rankings on coinmarketcap.com. This bodes well for the token hodlers although it might be rather short lived.
One criticism that the Steemit people received is they are rather poor at marketing STEEM. Actually, we don't even know if they are poor at it since they do not do it. Their marketing plan appears to be non-existent. This is upsetting to users who want to see the growth of the blockchain with more sign ups.
But is that really growth?
I will agree there are some cool applications on this blockchain that could be of interest to millions of people. That said, I do not believe there is enough on here to make STEEM a top 10 token. All the marketing in the world is not going to change that.
There is one thing, however, which can alter that path. That is development. As was the case with the three items I mentioned in the beginning, one idea that catches on can attract the attention of tens of millions of people. A single individual creating something that penetrates the public consciousness can, instantly, generate that kind of publicity.
The development team is framing the STEEM blockchain as the "Blockchain of Opportunity". I think this is very wise. Providing a platform that is attractive to developers is what is going to separate STEEM from the rest.
There was great fanfare on here about hitting 1M users. While this is a nice milestone, it is not really an important number. At this point it time, I feel it more important to go from about 350 applications to 500. That is a bigger milestone.
We need to keep in mind how finicky users can be. For the most part, they lack dedication. Thus, the growth in the user base, especially now, is not worth a great deal.
Developers are different. They are not apt to jump from one place to another. Learning the code is too time consuming. When one has nothing invested in a blockchain, like a user, leaving is easy.
Yet if a person spends hours learning to code on STEEM, the likelihood of that person moving to ETH or BTC to create applications is not likely. That person's knowledge base suddenly is STEEM focused.
This is akin to having a town full of transient people who own nothing versus the business owners. Those who are investing time and money into a community are the ones who determine the growth of said area. The transients end up moving on for the most part.
The Blockchain of Opportunity is developer focused. A great deal of what the development team is working on is to make life easier for developers. There are going to be millions of people who know coding yet are unfamiliar with blockchain entering this realm in the next couple years. These people are, essentially, starting from scratch.
This is why I agree with the approach of catering to them. Forget the mass marketing to the masses. One application that strikes the chord of the general public will do more marketing than 10,000 blockchain business plans. I mean honestly, who foresaw the success of Honey Boo Boo?
The challenge is we have no idea what is going to interest the masses. Ultimately, it is the applications that are going to drive a blockchain. That is the growth mechanism. Sign ups on social media, even if legitimate, can mean little. It is like email addresses. How many do each of us have? I bet the average person signed up for at least 5 over the years. How many are used?
D.Tube is a wonderful application to have on the STEEM blockchain. It has the ability to attract millions of people. That said, I would prefer that we have 10 more D.Tubes built rather than another 500K users sign up. The long-term impact will be much greater with the former.
The entire blockchain world is at a stage where development is crucial. We are not going to see the next step taken without it.
Of course, all the development in the world means little unless a blockchain can scale. This is another area that the development team is focusing their attention, much to the dismay of a large percentage of the user base. Taking the time now, in my opinion, to scale is preferred to ignoring it until it is needed. The last thing that anyone wants is a repeat of Ethereum.
Think of it in layers. The blockchain is at the bottom with the user on top. In between, we need applications. While the blockchain is sound, some improvements in a lot of the back end stuff is required. That is being done. Then, when looking at the next layer, a thriving development base will only create a large user base.
It becomes a numbers game. The chance of finding the next CryptoKitty increases as more is developed.
I look forward to the celebration for 500, then 1000, applications on the STEEM blockchain.
That is the growth I want to see.
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I agree.
Utility > Users > Ps > Price > Sht
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I have high hopes for @steemmonsters being one of the first apps on the STEEM blockchain going Mainstream. They're going to do a Kickstarter and games are really popular. I already bought some card decks and booster packs and can't wait for this to explode.
It doesn't matter these people coming from Kickstarter might not really know they are playing and earning on a/the STEEM blockchain. They will be here and driving activity up. The cards are collectables (people LOVE collectables, like cryptokitties) and there will be 10 tournaments a DAY!
From @aggroed's blog:
Cheers! :D
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I fully agree with all you've written. The last thing the world needs is another Ethereum that chokes when something appealing to the masses finally comes along. The failure of Ethereum was all over the news. Now, Ethereum is left with core developers bickering over strategic decisions under time pressure with the price in a tail spin with the rest of the industry.
The year 2018 is when the industry will have to begin to put up or shut up. There will be no more mania in the short or the middle term. Steem is in a good place in that it is focused on a firm basis for developers to develop the apps that will bring on the masses. At the same time, a lot of people keep piling on it for no good reason. Some are shilling for EOS. Now, nothing wrong with EOS except that there is no main net, yet, and who knows what hiccups EOS will run into when the main net finally comes online.
As an investment opportunity STEEM is ridiculously promising at the moment. There is no need to even invest monetarily in it. Just keep blogging powering up.
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I think every new application attracts a different type of users and all of them will succeed at the end. The future will surprise us with other new app and more people will be attracted. I think what we really need here is an app to transfer USD direct to Steemit and from Steemit out to the bank, without going through that long process. That way many people will trust the system and find it easy to use. And we will have many new sign ups :)
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You have one. It's called Coinbase.
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Can I use it without converting Steem to Bitcoin?
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Just buy Ethereum on Coinbase. It transfers instantly to Eth from Bank account and then you can do a fast transfer to Steem via Blocktrades! 😳🏎🚄
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Thats what I meant before. It will be great if we dont need to exchange to any other currency :)
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Sure but it's so easy to buy others and the market moves up and down the same so it's not like you lose any by quickly go via another currency!
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Good thing it's not an important number — since there are around 800,000 dead accounts according to @arcange. :(
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Those are not dead accounts....they are non-transacting.
One who comes on here and reads but does not post or comment is considered to be inactive. They are here yet do not receive any transactions. The same goes true for new accounts that upvote then dust.
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On reading this, at first I thought you sounded pessimistic. But on a closer look, I saw that point you were trying to pass across.
I used to think the de-emphasis in marketing of Steem was intentional. To be fair, I haven't seen any aggressive core marketing strategy for Steem. It seem the strategy is to let the platform grow itself, sell itself and attract new users.
But you raised a very important point; moving from Mass marketing to focussing on the "masses". I think that's a fool-proof way of working this out.
If more attention is paid on user experience, building applications, like you said, which users find irresistible, then, in no time, word would get out there, drawing more people in.
But I think I would rather a fusion of both strategies: Focus on the masses and a subtle, strategic and more aggressive form of advertising Steem to new investors and users.
Facebook didn't grow that geometrically merely because it had happy users. It did because it had happy users and invested heavily on advertisement(s), R&D and other key enablers.
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There is some marketing of Steemit and Steem, as well as Bitshares. I got involved by listening to AM radio. I'd like to see, and hear a lot more.
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Thanks for sharing your insight on this matter. It's a little daunting for me as a normal user who just wanted to create good content for the platform and invest my earnings in SP. I do believe on this and want to engage and be compromised, but maybe I have to think in other ways to contribute (I can code but not familiarized with steem code)
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Then STEEM might be the place for you.
From what the developers said, they are creating a bunch of manuals to teach those who know how to code to code on STEEM.
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Where can I find that kind of announcements?
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@steemitblog puts out some of them.
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Thank you @taskmaster4450
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Well I really like this approach! Who would have envisioned that catching virtual Pokemons would be a great success!
The general public decides what will make it and what not!
That's why it is great to have steemhunt on the blockchain, maybe it would be the hidden gem, but like you wrote the more of these, the more chance there is that something will hit gold!
The question is: how does the steem blockchain attract these developers? Most of the developers who do have an intrest in the steem blockchain are already here and mostly developing tools to explore the Steem Blockchain.
We could say that the performance of the Steem blockchain is advertisement enough, but I doubt it that it will also give an insight to future developers and investors that it could be the new Ethereum (in a positive way then).
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Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
H. L. Mencken
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You are right in what you say. The interface that we use to watch stuff doesn't really matter anymore. People want a customized experience and a custom community. That will say the more niche apps that we can release the better because it will satisfy a persons niche so much better. Since we are building a world of micro niche content. That needs micro niche interfaces so people can get the exact experience that they want!
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And indeed, creativity is exploding! With blockchain,oppurtunity is vast, #Dtube, #DSound,name them all. In such a creative world,nothing should be centralized.lets make it real with #blockchain.Great post @taskmaster
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You bring a good point that the next step is to bring it to 500 applications!
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Great POst
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