In today’s episode of The Steemit Podcast, @andrarchy interviews the Managing Director of Steemit, Elizabeth Powell (@elipowell). Elizabeth was made Managing Director of Steemit in the wake of the decision to reduce Steemit’s staff by 70%. Ned Scott, the founder of Steem and steemit.com, made the decision to step aside and hand the reins of the company over to Elizabeth who had spent the previous 6 months building Steemit's Communications team from scratch.
At that time, Elizabeth was facing a Herculean task. Steemit was hemorrhaging money. During the crypto bull market, the cost of running Steem nodes had ballooned peaking at around $220,000 a month. Those nodes aren’t just used by steemit.com, but by most of the major Steem applications.
Returning Stability
The length and depth of the crypto bear market meant that Steemit was eating into its cash reserves at a rapid rate. Drastic measures had to be taken in order to return Steemit to an economically sustainable path, and restore stability to the Steem ecosystem that depends on Steemit Inc. to run public nodes and produce software upgrades to the Steem blockchain.
In this interview Elizabeth describes what Steemit has been doing over the course of the last 6 months to right the ship, and what we have planned for the next 6 months as we transition from “survive mode” to “thrive mode.”
About @steem.marketing
@steem.marketing is an account created by @andrarchy (Head of Communications & Advocacy for Steemit Inc.), that is intended to be used for the purpose of hosting and supporting content that helps to market Steem. If you are interested in being featured on this account e-mail him at [email protected].
Steem Marketing
Thank you.....really appreciate hearing how Steemit is doing.
Wishing you all the best in your endeavours!
Cheers!
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Hi Elizabeth and co.
I really hope things improve from here on in and if there is anything I can do to help, please feel free to send me message.
There are two big challenges that I can see need addressing before we can thrive - I believe addressing these will be critical to rallying.
Long term, loyal Steemians have lost trust - since the the team committed to a SMT release date and didn't make it. In many people's minds its a bit of a Yoda moment, either do or do not. The price of Steem was dropping at the time @ned gave a committed date, many people trusted and held on, ignoring the power down by Steem inc an @ned promised SMT and committed to a date. What steps are being taken to repair the damage of a promise not kept. An apology from @ned and a new commitment date, would go a very long way I think. For those who follow the politics its pretty clear some powerful steem holders have also acted...unfairly. However for most of us we don't care much about whales, we just want Steem to work and so we look to Steem inc to respond.
Most Steemians who did the right things, supported the platform, brought friends and family onboard and powered up - are now facing a situation where a platform designed to reward content actually only rewards people who cash out as soon as they get it!
Many of my posts which paid up to $100, I powered up...now to only be worth a few $. I don't have the huge reserves to sell off that Steem inc does and I'm needing some incentive to keep working so hard (as selfish as that sounds). In many ways all the content creators who ever powered up are also like employee's - Can Steem inc please deploy some short term/immediate relief to the extended Steem family (those content creators who have put in effort and no have little to show), now the immediate threat employee situation has been taken care of, how can you restore the faith of the greatest, long term supporters.
I have some ideas, should you seek thoughts
All the best to all of us and a more successful future Steem blockchain.
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just stumbled on this, really great to get communications in whatever form, just gives everyone the confidence needed to not get scared and pull out. @steemit needs to keep the channels open so we don't lose faith.
thank you
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It was nice to hear some dollars mentioned in terms of costs and then also savings. We haven't gotten too many specifics like that before. Thank you.
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Better late than never, for once I feel hopeful for the future of Steem and Steemit! Eli seems to be a great leader and a true professional, I'm glad Ned listened to the community and decided to step down. Steem has wasted so much potential and time that it's insane!
You're on the right track Eli, I'm keeping eye on the advances you make. Perhaps I'll be buying more Steem even, that's something that hasn't happened in a long, long time.
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Yea, I bought some recently when we went down to the low $.30s. I bought it mostly because steem seems to be priced like it won't do much right while many of the other projects ahead it are priced as if they will do a lot right. If steem gets some things right, it has a lot of room to run.
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Yeah, we've been building a solid foundation for a long time. And even LTC boomed hard after being "dead" for years.
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Hello @steem.marketing Please forward this message to Steemit Inc. please read this post. It could be a game changer for Steem...
https://partiko.app/@streetstyle/can-steem-make-a-move-to-get-on-the-spedn-app-using-flexacoin-crypto-wallet?referrer=streetstyle
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Great news! I've been here for 3 years and I plan on staying aboard the mother ship.
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I can feel the STEEM price wanting to rise more each time you release PR :) keep it up!
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I despised seeing Google Adsense - it made me want to leave Steemit.
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Just leave Steemit.com and use SteemPeak.com. Steemit is not Steem.
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@quochuy please explain or share a link that explains the difference between steemit and steempeak - they look the same - how are they not connected? Thanks.
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Steemit is just a frontend (dapps) that talks to the Steem blockchain. Steemit is owned and maintained by Steemit Inc (the company) and SteemPeak is owned and maintained by some Steemians.
You can create your own frontend website that also talks to the Steem blockchain and decide whether to display ads on it or not
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Thanks @quochuy - I actually started to figure this out myself after I replied to you - I think will switch to steempeak because I detest where steemit is going.
Thanks for the suggestion...
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You’re welcome.
Although I do understand your frustrations, I was also attracted by Steemit due to the absence of annoying advertising banners but I also do understand their stance in the current situation. They need some revenue and ads are an efficient way to get some. I hope they will add some kind of revenue sharing with the content creators too.
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I agree with both of you, and can add that using adblockers in your browser works just fine on steemit. Never seen an ad on steemit because of it, I couldn't even tell you where they are normally displayed ;)
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At last we already surpassed the bear market. Thank you for this significant update. A good thing I never lost hope with the Steem blockchain. Keep steeming everyone!
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Welcome to Steemit @elipowell
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What's in SMTs that makes us excited?
I guess other cryptos out there already have this kind of project similar to SMTs.
Maybe we're late on this SMT's thing?
Other cryptos already have advanced projects going on.
Are we not being left behind?
What's slowing us down?
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Some SMTs are actually doing good more than our dear coin itself. Even thou am too young to get the whole bit, you are right there's need to do much than what is done right now.
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Could you give examples of those advanced projects and similar tokens? No other blockchain gives developers the ability to launch a 3-second fee-less cryptocurrency that can be distributed by the upvotes of users and scale to meet the needs of tens of thousands of daily active users. That's what SMTs will deliver, and no other blockchain is yet capable of matching those features thanks to Steem's application-specificity. Steem-Engine tokens are great, but they're not cryptocurrencies and they don't have the level of security and decentralization SMTs will have. Both token protocols have their strengths and weaknesses, having both will add even more value to the Steem ecosystem.
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But do developers really want these things? There hasn't exactly been a flock of developers coming here over the past 3 years, why is that?
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In short:
SMT's will have all the good from Steem and none of the bad. If you're a long time user, you know what I mean or know the history. I'm sure many would like to integrate the technologies behind Steem token to power up their community but don't really want all the baggage that comes with it currently. SMT's will also allow developers to have way more control; supply, issuance and so on.
I personally know many developers who have chosen to just fork the Steem chain for their own projects, so there's demand for the technology, SMT's can't come soon enough.
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Ok, so for the projects with resources (that happen to like the tech), why would they choose an SMT over just forking the chain like many are already doing?
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Network effect, faster implementation, having a community of people that have interest in seeing your product succeed and so on.
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Is that enough though to forego the other option? Those reasons don't sound all that tangible.
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Jondoe, you're asking questions you could answer yourself with some thought and research.
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wait i’m confused.... when they are talking about a business and there cost and stuff that is just talking about steemit.com right? not the steem blockchain right? I thought steem was a decentralized platform with no one in control? so is steemit just a website that interacts with the blockchain and that is what they are talking about? plz help me understand.
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The Steem blockchain would go on working with or without us. Steemit is a business that runs one frontend interface for the blockchain. We use the revenue we generate to produce code that can be used by the Witnesses to improve Steem through Hardforks. Some of that revenue comes from selling the STEEM we accumulated at the launch of the blockchain, and now some of that revenue comes from selling ads. Short version, the more revenue we get, the more free software we can contribute to the Steem ecosystem.
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You are right. Steem is the blockchain. Steemit is a descentralized app that uses Steem. In my case I use @partiko a dapp that also uses the steem blockchain.
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Not just Steemit.com but also their various nodes: seeds, full RPC ...
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I was listening to her interview ;) she is talented.
Another hard fork :'( Hopefully this time it will not affect the new users as it did last time :'(
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thanks for the updates ✌
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Also, the $220,000 to $38,000 a month reduction cost is indeed an extreme effort. Commended 3000!
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Fantastic interview! Fast and to the point. Learned a lot. Thanks so much!
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There is optimism here. Steem and it’s frontends are getting better and stronger.
We are STEEM!
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Thanks for the update. Resteemed :-)
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Thank you for the update.
Looking forward to the SMT roll out.
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☺Hola, greetings to @andrarchy, @elipowell and all of you, esteemed Steem-friends. As a humble Venezuelan plankton and artist I feel I must say that I - and I think many like me - have found in Steemit a refuge and a hope... I recently celebrated a year here and as everyone I went through the difficult times of the end of 2018. But it was about trusting that better times would come... and they came.....
☺ When I see this beautiful smiling lady -beautiful not only on the outside- so trustful and trustworthy, so rational and competent and, at the same time, so dreamy and " eating flowers " as any of the craziest of us, I feel that I am in the right place and with the right family.... I think it's time to trust and, on the basis of that trust, build creative things. I myself, and the publicity be worth it, am starting a Stem-School of Contemporary Art, basically for the pleasure of sharing some knowledge and with the hope that better times will come for steemians.... And listening to Elizabeth Powell confirms to me that we have the "power".
I hope I can count with your permission to make a Spanish version of this hopeful report.
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Great interview! Feeling optimistic about the future 🌟 🌟 🌟
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Great progress which can compound with improved prices for making the future of the protocol more sustainable over the long term. Thanks for the continued communications!
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Great update... it is nice to receive updates such as this, it keeps the momentum going. Keep up the good work!
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well done guys.
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More discussion about the upcoming HF21, please.
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thanks for the update
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Mournful salute and reverence,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Greetings.
Welcome, @elipowell, you hopefully have the momentum the bulls bring to this reset table...
Love is the Law, love under will,
The Reverend Maelstrohm Black
https://smoke.io/@maelstrohmblack
https://thereverendmaelstrohmblack.wordpress.com
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I hate you. You are fucking pathetic bunch of know-nothings.
Put away your fucking smug faces and adress that this currency is dying in lightspeed. Fucking hell DO SOMETHING ANYTHING
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Wow. Just wow. From 1 - 10 real quick. Wishing Steem all the best. A little dump please for catchers.
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Hey , thank you for the update
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Steem needs marketing, especially a social media influencer. just sayin'
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I second this. Or some sort of partnership with a media tech giant, just one.
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A lot of people here are refugees from the Big Tech companies and hate having anything to do with them (even the ads, as someone else commented). Now you want to link to them so that we lose our freedom and get banned/blocked/ made invisible, as happens on the FB/Twits/YT etc?
Thanks a lot - with friends like you, who needs enemies?
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If a simple person like myself can get thousands of likes on facebook and instagram per post, I'm wonderingy why steem cant get more than a dozen on a post lol
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So you volunteering to be the next JB, Charles?
God, I'm sorry, that was over the top, bro. My bad.
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Should I start doing comedy videos about 🍆 🤣
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I'm not sure how I missed this interview. This was an excellent discussion. There's good synergy between you two, and Elizabeth is a strong presenter of no-nonsense updates with salient supportive info. Got a good vibe from this one.
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It was pleasant to listen to, and it is good that the platform has found a strong two legs to be strong at a low market price. This makes as very strong. I'm here 100% in, so I want see where we go here next years ;)
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