The Witness Files - Issue 9 with @good-karma

I had the pleasure of having a chat with @good-karma for today’s issue of The Witness Files. He is the developer behind Esteem, and various other mobile apps for the Steem blockchain.

If you are new to The Witness Files, it is a series of interviews I did with some of our top witnesses, to get an insight into who they are and what they do.

You can find the previous issues of the Witness Files below: Issue 1 with @complexring, Issue 2 with @riverhead, Issue 3 with @picokernel Issue 4 with @jesta, Issue 5 with @roelandp, Issue 6 with @pharesim Issue 7 with @klye, Issue 8 with @clayop

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Welcome to today’s issue of The Witness Files with @good-karma

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me.

It is my pleasure! Thank you for doing these series which is helping me to know fellow witnesses bit better about their personality and projects.

Tell me a bit about yourself. Who is @good-karma?

My name is Feruz, somehow @good-karma is the nickname/alias I chose during registration here on Steem. I believe in the law of karma and try to live up to see good in everyone and contribute the best society we live in. My background is Software Developer in HPC (High Performance Computing). I have been in crypto for a while now and love the technical and social side of it.

When you’re not on Steemit, what do you enjoy doing?

I am full time on Steem(it) for last 3 month now, been actively developing tools and application on top of Steem. I enjoy working on mobile apps as well as gardening, play chess, table tennis, being outdoors with my family.

How did you first find out about Steemit, and when did you first become a witness?

Like most of us here, I found out about Steem(it) in July, during market spike. As I mentioned earlier, I have always looked through crypto projects and learned about their future potential, innovation, impact, etc. Quick spike at market price, took me to whitepaper. After reading whitepaper I was amazed by the idea and solution, have quickly registered and started to try out the system. Being engaged with community, I found that there is a need of mobile application for Steem(it) which at a time there was none. I did mobile applications daily as an independent contractor so I started working on eSteem (formerly known as Steem Mobile). Shortly after, in August, started being witness. Currently, I am backup witness @good-karma#38.

In your mind, what makes a top witness?

Top witness, who is constantly working with the community and for the community. Ultimately, our goal is to reach mass adoption, every user and their voice matters.

Usually, saying words are easier than doing. So in my opinion top witness should be example for all.

You have developed several smart phone apps for Steem, with the most prominent being eSteem Mobile. Tell us about these apps, and your future plans for eSteem.

Sure, creating first mobile app for Steem gave me some possibility to engage with senior/new users. And find out answers to what user needs, what market needs, how these tools can bring value to the platform, how to engage users, how to keep users on platform, etc. questions. And goal of eSteem app is to cover as much of these needs.

eSteem - is stand-alone application for Mobile (Smartphones, Tablets) and soon for Desktop (Computers). It is open-source and brings functionality and features with according to community feedback as well as how I want to interact with Steem and with my followers. eSteem is not only social application for keep engagement of users with lower barriers of communication but also have mobile wallet/banking, market exchange, in-app post management, notifications, image gallery, etc. and more in-development. And I am excited for future of the project. Already seeing number of developers forking and using project for their own Steem/Golos related projects which is great. Inspired few users to create mobile application. That alone is great. Short term future plan for eSteem is to release 1.3.0 version and release desktop 1.0.0 version of the app (which is based on mobile version but with most parts re-written) before SteemFest. Long term future plan is to get some funding/support to continue working on project. Bring some more features that Steemit.com or other websites doesn’t have. Implement self-sustaining solution so that app can maintain expenses and continue to evolve to platform in itself. Also, looking for designer for branding and by the end of the year have production ready app and get out of beta and start marketing with full Steem ahead.

Are there any other apps or projects you’re currently working on that you could tell us about?

Steem Monitor - is yet another mobile application for monitoring the Steem blockchain. Main functionality right now is to check market price, blockchain state, notifications for witnesses, notification on participation level, etc. More features currently being worked on and it is also open-source, if you are developer, feel free to contribute.

SteemFest - is another mobile application for amazing SteemFest attendees. I wanted to contribute to this event in some ways, so best way seem to contribute with the skill-set I have, like I have done so far with all Steem projects. And @roelandp and @cass was kind enough to help out with information and design works. This app is donated to event organizers and will be used in future SteemFests.

There are couple other project which is still not fully detailed, once I have clear picture, will keep community posted.

If you could change any one single thing on Steemit at this moment, what would it be and why?

Steemit, I think, we all are learning in this beta stage and we should work together to apply what we learned and keep improving. Engaging with users/community is essential. Ultimately, we are building tools for them and if they have any feedback/criticisms, working on that is our duty if we want platform to succeed.

How do you see the Steem ecosystem evolving over the next year or two? And what new features and projects would you like to see implemented?

I think, we will certainly get more users, better social experience. More developers and apps which will derive more users in, businesses being built on top of Steem, etc. etc. Exciting times ahead! I will do my part by creating tools that helps community/businesses.

Thank you for your time

Thank you for reaching out! And Thank you reader for taking time to read through and participate on this amazing network!

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Hope you enjoyed this interview with @good-karma.

For more interviews with our witnesses, please follow me @nextgen622.

And to vote for a witness, you can go here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses

Jimmy