In the past, I complained about what seemed like general apathy towards the Steemit.com front-end on the part of STINC. Truth is, it often seemed as if Steemit was an afterthought which had been in "beta" for many months before, and since, I arrived. New features are rare and existing features are sparse. Much digital ink has been spilled over the lack of even a basic resteem filter.
Even STINC itself regularly refers to a vision of "tokenizing the web." You'll note there is no mention of blogging, paying content creators, or cultivating an online community. It's pretty explicit - it's all about the "tokens", which in this case, refers to the forthcoming Smart Media Token functionality being added to the Steem blockchain. In fact, I've even seen Ned state that blogging/Steemit is not their focus, though I don't feel like searching the comment up.
This used to irk me, as I was a "blogger." The thing is, I didn't intend to be. I was simply a crypto investor before I found Steem - at first, the blogging just seemed like something extra I could do with a coin I had a small investment in. Before I knew it, I found myself buying a lot more Steem and powering it up.
However, lately I've decided to take a "wait and see" approach. The more I use other cryptocurrencies, the more I am annoyed with the fees and transaction times. Even Ethereum has been slowish lately. Steem kills most other cryptocurrencies on both transaction times and zero fees - a fact I am reminded of far too regularly.
Is the best use of Steem really a blogging platform? Perhaps not. Perhaps this has all been a large dress rehearsal for bootstrapping a young cryptocurrency, while giving decisive proof-of-concept that it can handle huge transaction load without fees. On top of that, Steemit comes with the advantage of distributing some of the currency to early supporters based not only on financial investment (although this is an option,) but also to some extent on merit. This would hopefully eliminate the Steem-concentration problem we currently have, with some 90+% of the Steem held by the top 1% of users.
Most of us look at Steem as Steemit rewards, but that is only one use. Some other users, particularly certain large and notorious whales, simply look at Steem like any other DPOS coin - they vote themselves most of their own stake each day, albeit usually with some attempt to either cloak or make it "culturally" acceptable.
However, if you don't look at Steem as primarily a blogging tool, then you would have never found that unacceptable. I can't think of a single example of a user "donating" his share of DPOS or staking rewards on another coin - of course you take them for yourself. On Steem, we get quite angry by users who do this, but that is the right you receive by being a large buyer.
You get to choose your way on Steem - you can buy it, or you can earn it. Either way, the more you have, the more you are likely to get.
Perhaps Steemit was always simply intended to showcase the capability of Steem for this "tokenizing the web" plan all along. Maybe nobody really cares about the "social" platform and that is intended to simply function at it's current level or taper off.
Since most of us can't do anything to steer the ship either way, let's wait and see.
We also have a Radio Station! (click me)
...and a 10,000+ active user Discord Chat Server! (click me)
Sources: STINC, Steemit, @ContentJunkie, Google
Copyright: Steemit
Good points!! I believe that Steemit is being used as proof of concept for upcoming SMTs. However, the fact that Steemit is amazing at SEO and slowly taking over Google Search, I believe this will be the platform of choice for anyone who is serious about blogging. Instead of hosting a word press blog on your website, you’ll simply use Steemit and get organic traffic that way. Outside of that, I believe there will be much better social platforms in the not too distant future!! I’m keeping an eye on APPICS ICO coming soon! Thanks for the post!
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This has been a long beta has it not?
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You're tellin' me, cute dog avatar.
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I agree with all this. Really, how can any modern company think steemit.com is even close to a competitor to facebook or any other decent social media platform?
It's not about steemit.com, not about the content we sweat over for hours, not about the whale battles and upvoting and downvoting. It's just about the blockchain, and by extension, tokens/SMT. If that's the ultimate end game, all of us are trapped in the pointless backwater eddies of social media content games while the rest of the world moves on.
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It's true, everyone just acts this way to conform to social norms on the site, lots of people want to push a pro-social agenda but it will actually matter as far as the ultimate distribution of steem and who controls how much of the network goes.
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It's important to take a step back to remember this from time to time. Thanks for summing it up concisely.
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I'm a strong believer that Steem's economic model can be improved. At the moment, even though there are abusers of the system, people are still creating high quality content on it and at the end of the day, we can treat it as a free blogging platform.
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The no fees thing certainly is a biggie. I kind of jumped into crypto with some fiat on Coinbase and have lost about 40% of that at present ( I know - just wait 5 minutes and the market will swing.) But when I really analyzed the trades I had lost a good chunk in fees! I don't even pay fees to my bank - always find the way around them and I was rather embarrassed I unwittingly paid that much in crypto fees. Nonetheless - live and learn. Thanks for your insight and thanks especially for that awesome ummm General Cat picture :P
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I'm getting killed on my alt-coin withdrawal and deposit fees. I think I had to pay 6 ark for a withdrawal once, wtf. Ark is over $4.
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I had bought Steem on OpenLedger but then their gateway was broken so I couldn't move it to the platform so I ended up changing it back into btc and then transferred it - all in all I think I paid about $40 usd in fees. Guess I'll chalk it up to paying for the learning experience. Which exchanges do you have the best luck with? When I tried I couldn't even open a Bittrex account. Ended up on Binance and OpenLedger - both of which leave something to be desired (like ease of use and low fees).
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To a large extent, the ones who will make a killing in this blockchain revolution will be the exchanges and their fees. Since this is a global 'anyone who has a few buck can participate', the vast number of transactions being made trading cryptos and their annual fees is going to mind blowing.
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I actually was so shocked after some of my earliest withdrawals that I made a spreadsheet for all my altcoins that included columns for trading fees AND withdrawal fees, then a calculation for the two. The exchange that is the cheapest to buy a coin on is the one with the best combo. I lost 100 coins on one withdrawal, which was a full 10% of what I'd bought!
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How are you upvoting a comment?
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@skyefox - to upvote a comment use the little green circle with the up arrow in it at the bottom of the comment. To the far left of the reply text link you used to create this reply. Is that what you're asking?
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No, I saw many comments come in through a service. I figured it out but I appreciate your help!
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I too invested in steem(a little) originally and started blogging just to offset the inflationary nature of steem , then the alts went way down for a long time and steem became a welcome distraction.
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An interesting and probably true thought but this has long been beta and is not going to disappear anytime soon
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Ah, you never know when things could heat up! Change tends to happen slowly, then all at once.
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So very very true :’(
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Wonder if placing a social media on Eos is the game: Eosit.....
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Sorry but I do not use steem to trade or make money, I use it to post my art , photos, and poetry. I like that I am not censored as FB is now becoming famous for. Sorry all you Midases but coin isn't everything.
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I certainly love the censorship resistance around here, especially with YT having the same problem. But there's no denying most people are here due to the "currency" part of "cryptocurrency."
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I believe you are correct. I have never seen Steemit as the main usecase of Steem, but more as a branding of the Steem blockchain.
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I am eagerly awaiting the launch of SMTs to see how things shake out.
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I want to do a Steem based SMT for our business or for disc dog, dog training, and/or dog sports content.
I think it would be amazing. There is tremendous value being siphoned off of niche markets by FB and Google. If the value of dog training and other niche content were properly assessed in terms of time and effort (of viewers), I would be a rich man.
If that value were to stay in the community via niche SMTs and other niche SMT based web and service applications. Online social locations would serve to spread the cultivation of reputation all around the social and local economic space.
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This is really interesting to think about.
''Is the best use of Steem really a blogging platform? Perhaps not.''
We have to remember that Steemit just like cryptos in general are only at the beginning of the journey. 2 years in crypto seem like 20 in real life I know but it is really hard to make prediction and really hard to say how Steemit will evolve in the future.
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Any crypto still running and used in 20 years is going to have done very well!
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Perhaps you are right and steemit is just a way of showing the world how this blockchain can work, so when the SMT’s arrive, the people will already have an idea about its implementations and features, similar to google and their nexus phones where they tried to show every other company how an android phone should be.
Maybe this blogging platform and its success is not the ultimate goal for the developers in the long term (prioritizing the adoption of SMT’s), but for now, we are here, building communities and trying to make this place worth a visit to people how aren’t yet on steem.
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It would seem they have outright stated as much, so I certainly hope this is the plan.
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Ok maybe it wasn't meant as a main social network. But it looks like it works. If creators of Steemit are smart they will make some progress in this way. And finally, put out their 1.0 version. Because this one is good only for big fishes. I have a lot of improvements in my mind. I will write an article about it, but there will be no effect due I got 10c for mine 1000 words good content one with original pro-style photos. Anyway here are some hints:
I am also looking for some programmer to make one steemit app we could use. Will also post the inquiry and will see.
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Interesting take, steem is way underrated, the potential here is astounding with SMT's, communities, and third party apps. If this is just testing the waters then who knows how crazy it gets here. I'm excited
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Very good point
But if this is really just a beta and steemit.com as such is not important then those that have been using it for a while and have not powered down will be in good position to be a lot better off then we were.
The Fiat investments are not for everyone and the option to "invest" by proof of brain will probably change lives all over the world
Because all the steem that we have accumulated will be worth sooo much more...
Either way, we do not know but blogging on is a given for me and I guess for you as well.
So just keep at it, keep powering up and STEEM ON
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I've suspected it was the other way around, Steemit was the hook to finance everything else, first up was EOS and now SMTs.
That's fine, except for the huge campaigns of "get paid to blog" and the ever present (at least early on) "we're going to replace Facebook" mantras.
Then again, Its just my naivety to think people on the internet will be honest.
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steem has a small market cap at the moment $869,397,910 USD early days for the currency and the platform. a number of upcomings platform will be either utilising or emulating the graphene 100k TPS with no fees. it's the future and steemit will be here for a long while to come !
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I hope this is true.
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I foresee a solid $price for steemit later this year and as more people realise graphene is the way, the more people will buy into steem. SMT's will be interesting
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The market cap of steem isn't very relevant though, is it? I'd much rather know how much steem is locked into steem power, which is a much closer analog to market cap than steem supply * steem price.
I'm trying to do the math here. Steemd.com shows there are currently 381 billion vests. With 489 steem per million vests, you can calculate that 186 million steem are currently locked into steem power.
(381B/1M)*489=186M
Maybe my math is wrong? Would love a double check.
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yeah whatever you say then
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Blockchain technology is going to disrupt social media, but it will take years until it only starts to unfold its potential. For me, the question is not if, but when.
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We can also use this platform as an incubator for ideas and find like-minded people to collaborate on future projects! That's what excites me most about Steem, and not the up and down prices of cryptocurrencies...
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Excellent post. I hadn't thought too much about steemit perhaps not being the main reason for the steem blockchain to exist. I wish I could have been at the initial concept development meetings to hear what the real plan was. I've often found it strange that steemit is still in beta. Now your post is making me wonder if this is planned because they want steemit to be something completely different.
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Is that the grumpy cat's new uniform?
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Considering the rapid rise of dTube and the coming SMTs I think Steemit will remain a minor part of the Steem blockchain. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and doesn't prevent anyone from continuing to use it to generate a stake of Steem and SBD. The implementation of other platforms and tokens on the blockchain will also allow Steem holders additional opportunities in how to use their Steem.
So, I don't think Steemit is going away, but it also might not remain the largest user of the Steem network for very long.
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I like the enthusiasm and positivity and although I would love to agree, I feel like STEEM is STEEM and not really going to change much in the future. Dan Larimer moved on to EOS and all real innovation to evolve STEEM into something else went with him in my opinion.
If Steem(it) is a beta then it's probably a beta for it's counterpart on EOS, I'm afraid. I wrote a post about Dan Larimer's remarks about starting an EOS competitor not too long ago.
Personally I love Steemit and STEEM but as long as it's possible to game the system and 'rape the rewardpool' then it's never going to be a serious currency even if it has free transaction times and other benefits.
I am starting to feel like we need to start a publicity campaign to get @ned's attention and force him to reply to the issues that plague steem(it).
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The only way I see Dan beating steemit on EOS is if he makes a hard fork of steemit that is hosted on EOS.
It would be incredibly stupid, I think.
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Do you say this because of the user adoption headstart Steemit has?
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I think a better platform could outcompete steemit, but I still think it's too early to tell if steemit will be successful or not. There has been a lot of innovation on the steem blockchain. There are also a lot of bots here.
If you invented steemit, and then three years later you tried to kill it...what trust would your new platform's users have that you won't do the same thing to the new platform?
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I was thinking the same thing yesterday on that last point. I would absolutely lose all faith in that team. They'd be bitconnect to me!
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I've been supporting myself by blogging, writing books, and coaching online and in person for weight loss topics and social media skills for over 7 years now. This is all because of my extreme weight loss at 50 years old and the fallout from that.
I came here while working to create online courses with the help of tutorials by jerrybanfield. As you know, he went nuts for steemit in June last year, and I am one of the people who jumped. I had already been looking since about March when good steemit posts started showing up in my research and I also have a lot of blogging friends here begging me to come.
I did not come when I first heard of this because I did not want to learn about crypto. Oh, the irony.
So now here, like everywhere, I have to keep the weight loss info to a steady trickle and when morbidly obese people are ready to change, they will know how to find me and they do. In the meantime, I post into contests and challenge and actually make some money here. Steemit is now a big part of my monthly support and I hope that will continue since I've dropped the ball in many other places and had multiple financial catastrophes lately.
I stay out of chats, I stay away from whales, I stay away from drama. I focus on:
My guess is the the whales are abandoning ship for the most part. If you where rich and had people begging to you all day, would you stay in that place? No.
The only hope we have is for minnows to succeed in vast numbers. Can they do that in time? I have no idea and I really should get in exit strategy and pay attention to my other work sites so I will not be begging on the street in Thailand if the place dies.
I have been of at least 5 platforms that died in the last years. One day I was making money and the next day the place was gone. You would think I would learn my lesson but you cannot teach an old dog new tricks :)
btw - I have 6000 content creating twitter followers in multiple genres. They are all real and hand picked since I am like that. I get about 50% of my monthly affiliate sales from twitter when I'm on my game over there.
I have 200+ people on my steeming twitlist.. I check that feed for posts to RT a few times a day. The negativity, advertising, and mainstream news reposting, runs at about 90% so I don't rt steemers very often.
But I'm still in, still trying, and off to do another mung bean post :)
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Fee's in general no matter what the currency been my biggest expense in the time I have been active trading them. Not a surprise since this is the tech that hopefully will disrupt the old way of banking centralized rule. To your point about tokenization of the web... maybe. I feel like I am at the point in life that I am kind of just watching from the back seat as the younger generation takes over and starts to drive this thing.
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Clear thinking here. If you look at the whitepaper from a certain angle it says this more or less directly.
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Ist schon irritierend! Dein Beitrag regt zum Nachdenken an.
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Oke thank for sharing you i like
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I'd never considered the perspective that Steemit is the after thought. Usually a token provides a utility for a dapp, but the main event is the dapp's functionality. Interesting to turn that on its head and just keep coming up with new uses for the token and perhaps even abandoning the original dapp that established value for the token.
I hope Steemit doesn't wind up abandoned when SMTs come along. I do look forward to communities. As someone who has had there own blog and done a lot on FB, I am hoping to see Steemit be able to replace those tools, while allowing me to achieve the same things more easily. That it's monetized with the token is just the cherry on top.
You've given me a lot to think about here. Thanks.
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Somewhere deep in my cold heart it feels like Steem (blockchain) is the little engine that could. Don’t ask me why, but probably because the chain itself is kick ass. Steemit the site seems like it’s always going to suck, but quite frankly the only reason I stick around is because there is a ton of humor in the shit show of Steem world. I get a laugh in daily and that is enough for me. On a side note, wish we had a little more support for SPL. :)
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thanks your sharing
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I've taken the "wait and see" approach too, though I do think that it would help the valuation of the blockchain considerably if Steemit Inc decentralized their stake, a commitment they made in the past and that they have yet to demonstrably live up to.
As a reminder, at the time the 2017 roadmap was issued over a year ago, Steemit Inc self-admittedly controlled nearly 41% of the steem power supply.
What is the incentive for other application developers to think that they can outshine this platform as a true representation of the potential of the steem blockchain if Steemit Inc markets itself as "the Steem Blockchain’s first and best application"? That is the primary obstacle to further adoption that I see.
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Thank you so much for sharing an informative article. Excellent thought.
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There is a little devil that keeps telling me that steemit is just "they""them" paying pennies for the same kinda info they have been paying $ for,and all open and easy to see classifie,ect...
I can't say it does not have some nsa or other tracking /monitoring bot ,because I am a non tech.. just a paranoid ,skeptic..
it just sounds and seams feasible to me.
been wrong before,hope I am on that..lol
;-)
namaste
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