ART: @rocksg

So the story goes: May, 2017

I got a call one day from a NY headhunter, looking for web developers experienced in Javascript. I told her I would be interested, and would agree to talk to Ned. She described a social networking site I believe, but I really don't remember talking to her. She immediately set me up and Ned gives me a call. Ned is calling from the East Coast, which is unusual but one reason I was interestd, was it was for remote work and I could live anywhere.

So Ned called me one day. And he started describing something like Quora, Reddit, Medium, built on top of a blockchain and having a sophisticated front-end web client with a web wallet.

It took him about 3 minutes to describe this in an overview, and I instantly understood what he was talking about. A new Killer App.

So he and I really connected quickly, and I thought he was an excellent salesman. I was hooked. He had me. And I went and looked at the site, and it looked like. Reddit. Only much more simple. And not anything like facebook. And I was thinking, ho hum... no big deal. It was unimpressive at first.

And I'm looking it over, and there was just so much about it that was not intuitive. It was rather a mess, and I began quickly to give feedback on this, it just seemed so obvious to me. But Ned understood so many reasons for why things where the way they are, and it takes months to learn all the various issues invovled, years.. not a 1 hour phone call even.

So I talked to Ned a few more times, and he put me on contract for a 1 month trial. And I agreed to those terms, and I felt it was going to be a great learning experience. One reason he and I connected was because I did understand BTC and ETH. And I understood how DPOS was so different, there could be no fees. The first time Ned attempted to explain DPOS vs POW, I was lost, but I looked it up that evening and started to educate myself immediately. And I watched interviews with Dan and Ned, and I read the whitepaper, etc, etc.

And for 1 month, I joined the team. It was a great experience, although I soon realized I probably don't want to be an engineer anymore. Engineers don't get out much 😉 And they don't have much time to socialize either. So I was busy studying 16 hours a day, and using STeemit and posting and really trying to understand the app. And the security. And the permissions, and the wallet and the currencies, etc, etc.

It was difficult and I'm a seasoned software engineer, and I understand bitcoin and ether. But there was just so much to know. And I realized I really just want to work with the STEEM BC and contribute articles to Steemit, and I can make a living from doing that.

Frankly I can't imagin much else making me happier. So that's were we left it, and it's all good.

But the view from the inside did inform me to some extent, and I try to help others with that knowledge of what is in the roadmap and what features might create a better user experience on Steemit and for STEEM blockchain in general.

I worked with Tim Cliff (@timcliff) and some other amazing people. Meeting Tim changed my life, and I never told him that, but it really did. He was very patient with my questions and is one of the coolest people on the planet. I was asking him if he might go to Anarchipulco, and he said "no, I don't get out much" 😉

I knew the feeling myself. And NOW, I'm putting some changes to that situation myself, and moved out of California for a while. Spending time with my family, at the beach and with people I’ve been meeting on Steemit, like @azkza and @truestory157.

I plan to make friends all over the world, travel and meet a few of them in person. I want to start communities on Steemit, communities that host the best parties on earth, and really have some fun. 😉ARTzone was last week, and WAfrica will be next week! ARTzone is already over 2400 followers in 2 weeks!

Of course, in many ways Steemit was Dan’s and now Ned’s baby. They are both visionaries, no question. I hope to see Steemit release both mobile and executable apps on all platforms, as well as the best STEEM User Experience on the web.

STEEM is a new model for the social internet, and it was first; history will always remember it as such. At this time, I do not believe it has a viable competitor, and it now has a wonderful thriving ecosystem. For developers.

Less so for typical users. There is not currently a viable replacement for Instagram and it’s competitors, and that seems to be a real FAIL for STEEM. But APPICS will ICO next week, which could be the first SMT ICO so that will be quite a milestone as far as I can tell, but not sure it will be issuing SMT at that time. https://appics.com

And EOS?
Until I see it actually attempting to compete with STEEM, and STeemit, we really have no idea if that will happen or not. And if/when it does, it could be years behind STEEM in many ways and take years to catch up.

Meanwhile, SMT is exciting.
If it really can create a better ICO platform than what exists with ETH, it could be a game changer. I assume reorganizing ICOs will be one of the first use cases for SMT, but there is much we just don’t know yet about how SMT will work, the regulatory issues involved, and if SMT can somehow be rolled into the new Communities feature, even if thru a separate domain name somehow (to personify a separate business entirely).

Photo Credit: @pijon

Art: @web-gnar