A New Social Media Blockchain Challenger Has Arrived! But Is It Any Threat To Steemit?

Yesterday, after I got done with an article about what I thought were the only real threats to Steemit, I happened across something that made me sweat a little.

Before I go into it, I want to say that I think that it's really, really important for the Steemit community to keep its eyes on any would be usurpers to the throne. A lot of us have put a lot of time and energy into this platform, and we are all responsible for its success or failure. It's clear that the social sphere is going to have some dominating cryptocurrency unit in the future, and it's important we all work together to make sure Steem doesn't get blindsided by anything that has too many advantages over it. Steem is great, don't get me wrong. But we shouldn't assume everything is necessarily over, done with, and predetermined. These are early days for crypto. We're in the wild west and we need to make sure our gun arm is the fastest.

The new platform is called Social X, and it appears to be an app for smartphone a la Instagram. They still seem to be missing some important details on what their rewards system will look like so I wasn't too worried until I read this in its whitepaper:

Why​ ​we​ ​are​ ​different​ ​to​ ​STEEMIT

Steemit is a social network where its users post and share original content, usually in the form of text. The main feature of the platform is it’s built using a cryptocurrency upvote system: whenever a user upvotes another post, the user automatically sends a tiny amount of STEEM tokens to its author. Sadly, the backbone of the platform is somewhat complicated and can be hard for first time users to understand. SocialX isn’t a competitor to STEEM in any way; however, we definitely think a cryptocurrency based upvote system is an interesting concept. As a result, we decided to bring it to the masses by combining blockchain with the winning features of popular image sharing sites. We’ve also integrated a license management market, encrypted messenger and live stream functionality.

Wow. Not "a competitor to STEEM in any way"? Then, in nearly the same breath: "however, we definitely think a cryptocurrency based upvote system is an interesting concept.... we decided to bring it to the masses..."

....

What do they think Steem is doing? The whitepaper is either blatantly lying or missing the point: it's clear that one currency will dominate at the social sphere (if not, ultimately, the internet). And it sounds like these folks are making a play for top spot.

They seem to be taking the app route first, which is going to give them an enormous leg up considering that no Steemit-like app has managed to get an app working. If they get it working and it works great, nothing else may matter. Based on their most recent update the ICO launches somewhere in the next couple of weeks. Shortly after we can expect to hear about an app.

Steemit has made some fantastic changes on the site as far as aesthetic appeal and functionality... but where are we on the app front? Mobile is going to be the stage on which we make or break. We do have some interesting apps in the pipeline, namely Zappl (which is close to an iOS app) and APPICS (which was recently announced, sounds really good, and if delivering on its promises would probably swat Social X like a gnat [but it just released it's whitepaper and we haven't really heard anything from them since]), but the former is starting with an iOS and the latter won't see the light of day for God only knows how long.

This could be a problem.

But on the other hand, maybe there's no need to worry. I mean according to the whitepaper their current plans are to use the Ethereum blockchain which, despite the hype and the 'neatness' factor of it, doesn't really actually impress me that much because of it's inbuilt lack of scalability (at least from what I understand) - transaction times, it's ability to actually process it's contracts and events, transaction fees, etc. These are problems the Steem blockchain simply doesn't have. This is not even taking into account the inconceivable advantages SMT's will have over ERC20 - but again, feel free to correct me.

I think there are even odds that these folks will find themselves either switching over to SMT's or wishing they had. Remember, AKASHA is built on the Ethereum blockchain and it seems to be stuck in development hell as its developers scratch their heads and consider how the hell they're actually going to get it to work (I feel pretty safe assuming that's why the platform hasn't really seen any changes).

There's probably nothing to worry about. Steemit and Steem have an incredible head start and a rock solid proof-of-concept. Steem is in a lot of hands, and that's a good thing.

Still, there's probably nothing to worry about as far as someone entering your home without your permission at night. At least, statistically. You still lock your fucking door.

So let's keep our eyes peeled and our ears to the ground. These are early days, folks. We're in the lead, but it's still anyone's game.

Follow: @jenkinrocket

Thursday, November 2, 2017

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