Just a few minutes ago, the 4 hour long radio show The State of Steem Forum #2 ended.
It was mainly about Technology regarding Steem (API nodes, RocksDB, SMTs, RC Delegation Pools, Account Creation), but drifted heavily towards development.
I gave my thoughts here and there about the different topics. However, just now, after the show ended, I realised how passioned I was about a certain topic. Now, I felt it while I was talking about it, as well. But the aftermath is, that I feel quite exhausted.
Why? Well, because it's a damn important topic.
Optimism & Realism
Sorry for the strong word.
It's just - I'm normally the optimistic person here on Steem. You probably have read at least one of my posts in the last month. And in them, I usually talk about how important it is to keep a positive mindset, which is something I truly believe in.
However, even if a positive mindset is important, realism is essential as well. And sometimes, reality just kicks in - and a shift in thinking is necessary.
Now, I want to say one thing first: all the people on the show were amazing - I felt the passion every single one of them had for Steem. I had a lot of fun on the show, and I'm very grateful for it.
Especially, since it brought me to a very important topic.
Steem is lacking in development
And with that I don't only mean Steem as in the blockchain, but also in Steem as an eco-system. (tools & apps for Steem)
Now, please don't get me wrong - we've got great projects on Steem (Steem Monsters, Utopian, Dtube, Partiko, Steempress, +30-40 more), but is that really all, for a blockchain, which is 2 1/2 years old?
The only real desktop wallet Steem has, was updated about a year ago. And keychain (like metamask) was only released 2 months ago.
As much as I know that the 53th place on CMC for Steem is not good enough, I don't really believe in it's current state it deserves to be at the top.
EOS is only half a year old and has already tripple the amount of apps, than Steem. It has a newer technology with faster block-times and is attracting more developers than Steem. Even two of our most important community developers on Steem saw a future in EOS - which I'm not condemning in any way, but it's a fact and we have to take this fact seriously.
Now, am I saying that Steem as a technology is not good enough?
Not at all, but over time - this gab between Steem's tech and the state of the art will become bigger and bigger. And if we're not able to change something, the best developers will not choose a 2 1/2 years old blockchain, but probably something else.
I'm with Steem - but something has to change
Before you might think otherwise: I'm still with Steem.
I've build quite a few projects here already (https://therealwolf.me/projects) and am planing to continue my path on Steem as developer, witness & steempreneur.
However, a good amount of realism is important and something needs to change.
- We need to attract more a+ app developers (like crypto.talk) and give them an incentive to build their app on Steem instead of on EOS, Ethereum, NEO or any other blockchain.
- We need to attract a+ blockchain developers, so we're not dependant on Steemit Inc. (I'm honestly tired of running around the tree talking about the fact that Steem needs RC Pool delegations, Incentivised Downvote and other important changes, only to realise nobody is able to implement it and Steemit Inc doesn't have time. And what good is a community repo, if nobody uses it?!)
- We need to keep the developers, entrepreneurs & project, who are already on Steem, here on Steem! (Could you imagine what would happen if Utopian or Dtube would decide to leave for another blockchain? Not saying that they would, but they are still businesses and if Steem wouldn't recover ..)
- We need to have a landing app for Steem users, which doesn't look like it's been in maintenance for 2 years. Besides the redesign to green, nothing much has happened to condenser since I'm here. Please don't get me wrong - this is not an attack against Steemit Inc, but a statement of what is currently wrong)
- We need to make sure witnesses have an incentive to keep building. I know, after HF 16 and the major cut-off of witness rewards, the only task for witnesses is in making sure the blockchain runs - and I agree. But there are a lot of (backup) witnesses who do major work for Steem's success (just naming a few: Holger80 with beem, emrebeyler with dpolls, wise.team with engrave & wise, and of course myself) - but the rewards we're receiving, it's not much of an incentive. (On EOS it's normal for block producers to provide A+ tools, why not here as well?)
And last but not least:
- We need to use this god damn but amazing reward pool to incentivise value creation for Steem. Over 20 Million Steem has been generated through inflation this year alone and just a friction of it has been powered up. Most of it was probably sold. I personally, have powered up 99% of it and my plan is to keep it this way. I've even powered up every post for the last 30 days - thousands of Steempower)
I'm not writing this post to take a sh*t on Steem - not at all.
I'm writing it, because I care about Steem - probably too much.
I want it to succeed, but I'm honestly not sure if we will ever reach anywhere near of the TOP 20/10 if we keep on the path, we've been on for the last year. (2 1/2 years)
Is the possibility of Steem 2.0 being created on EOS a real threat? Definitely - without a doubt. And even if not, technology is advancing extremely fast.
Normally, I'd say that we have time - but the reality is: we don't.
The longer we wait, the more competitive the market becomes.
Will it be easy? Not at all.
Do I know exactly what needs to be changed, besides what I've listed? No.
But what I do know is the following
Support the right projects & people on Steem
The same way, this bear market in crypto has forced people to stop believing in ICO hypes and invest people in real products that bring value - in the same way, we have to make sure our actions on Steem are supporting the right people & projects.
Do we want more Partikos, Steem Monsters, Utopians & SteemApps.com or do we want more lazy people, cashing out Steem?
Now, when I say we - I don't mean to tell you what you have to do. If you think I'm an idiot and wrong, that's fine, but if you believe that what I'm saying is true - then feel adressed with we.
I truly believe that the biggest strength this blockchain has are its people - its community - including YOU!.
I personally have decided that I will focus the next year on Steem (as I've done this year) - as long as I see that this community is making the right decisions.
Are we going to attract more Dtubes, Steemhunts & top notch developers? Are we able to develop the blockchain without relying on Steemit Inc?
Or are those just empty words, we're going to talk about every few months?
Are we going to find ways to solve the problems Steem has, to secure its success in the future and bring it back to its place in the TOP 10?
If the answer is yes, then please comment under this post what you think needs to change and what you can do to bring Steem into the right direction. I will read and answer every single on of them (as long as they're valuable).
We need less theoretic talk and more doing!
The future of Steem is relying on you - and me - and us.
WE ARE STEEM!
Do you believe that my work is valuable for Steem? Then please vote for me as witness.
EOS block producers are paid in a month what Steem top 20 witnesses are paid in a year (more or less, not sure of the exact numbers). The resource requirements for EOS are higher, but not that much higher.
It is true this depends on the price to an extent. EOS launched with a heavily marketed and promoted ICO (e.g. signs in Times Square) which attracted an enormous amount of capital and helped to create the high price (and also funded the developer team with billions of dollars without ever needing to sell a single EOS). Steem launched with a ninja-mine which has Steemit dumping millions upon millions of Steem constantly for years just to keep their lights on and doing no marketing, killing the price.
Different models, different inputs, different results.
I wish it weren't so, but if we don't get a ton of Steem-growing output in return for all those millions of ninja-mined Steem that have been dumped and likely will continue to be dumped, destroying the price, we're fucked. And unfortunately we have not been getting it. There is no way for the rest of the ecosystem to replace that lost value on the back of 29c STEEM.
Sorry to be blunt. As you say, optimism vs. realism. Hopefully the situation will improve.
this 110%.
Top EOS BP was making $3M/year at one point. Top 20 Steem witnesses make $21K/year. Less than top 20? Then you are looking at $3,000 or less /year now.
Just the way Steemit has to function (selling ninja mined Steem to pay for development) is self-destructive to the price.
That's a bit of a strange comparison. The highest EOS earnings vs the lowest Steem earnings now.
Top 20 Steem witnesses were making $400k/year at one point. Maybe not EOS territory but far from shabby.
They still making almost 700K/year. Still dramatically different than 21K on Steem. Below top 20? The difference is 800% lower at best.
You get more than 21K working at Walmart. Most top 20 are likely spending at least $5,000 a year in hardware, expected to delegate all their SP to communities, host a full node for another $10,000+/year, not power down, pay 35-45% in taxes, and review and write blockchain code. All the while getting paid in a token you can't touch unless you power down.
Okay so 35-1. I didn't know the exact ratio but that's an even wider gap than I thought. Thanks for the numbers.
TOP 20 block producers on EOS are making 700+ per day. Top 21 - 80 are making between 368 to 100 EOS per day. (https://eostracker.io/producers)
Now, putting this in comparison with STEEM, TOP 20 witnesses make around 220+ SP per day. Top 21 to 50 make around 40 to 20 SP per day.
Regardless of the price, that's still much more in terms of pure currency. But since EOS has a 10x higher price to FIAT - the difference is actually much bigger than that.
EOS has 4x higher total supply so that is isn't a direct comparison. In fact accounting for that there isn't much difference (IIRC 1% annual inflation in EOS goes to BPs; in Steem it is 10% of total inflation so around 0.85%).
Still in terms of fiat value its a huge disparity, something like 35-1 which explains the difference in willingness and ability to fund development via that route.
change the market cap of steem to match eos.
then compare the witness vs bp earnings. thats the best way to compare them.
Do you see it as something that can be resolved or is steem fatally flawed?
I'm not sure what to make of that animated gif.
"I'm shocked you said something like that."
you say they dont market... we have a massive community... we won a listing on netcoins... which was fun for a week but hasn't really done much on the demand side of the market.. and we have hundreds of thousands to millions of steem power that is voting and dumping everything they make... there is a lot of selling pressure... we need the price in satoshis to go up up up... around 7000 satoshi is very close to the lifetime low... plus steem was one of the few cryptos that did not go up when the other coins were up over 11%
One week out of almost three years. That demonstrates my point nicely I believe.
That's not ideal certainly but it has always been and will be for some time to come far smaller than the ninja-mined stake getting dumped.
We need Ned & Steemit Inc to go get outside funding and stop selling Steem to fund shit.
That would send the message that they actually care about stakeholders value. Pretty sure the investors are tired of paying for guitars and plane tickets and fake raffles.
And burning Steemit Inc's stake. That would send the right message. But I doubt that would happen.
I guess a hardfork where we force burn it and cut them out of the loop is also an option worth considering.
Speaking of which, where is ned?
No-show-ned? Who know's it's like a where is waldo book at this point.
Him doing the disappearing act he did last Tuesday was complete disrespect.
I will never forget that.
It's not just him disappearing. He may have had some personal issue that kept him away. But someone else from Steemit could have let the community know. They are all responsible for the unprofessional and disrespectful no-show. Or "irresponsible" might be a better way to put it.
It was about respect and also integrity, plus just being an adult and doing what you say you are going to do.
I'll never forget it either.
Burn it or airdrop it to the right people
Let's pretend for a minute we were going to entertain that idea... How does that work? Isn't it theft?
The problem I have with the relationship with SteemIt Inc is there is no accountability. No way to hold a vote of No Confidence. We don't have a board or any influence at all on what they do with their stake.
So, No confidence by fork... How does that work?
In effect, you create a new coin with some balances copied over, some not.
People are free to choose which to support. If there is indeed No Confidence, then very few would want anything to do with the old coin and the new would have a lot more value.
It's a lot like an airdrop. So IMO no it isn't 'theft' (original coins still exist, just not copied over) but it also isn't something to be done lightly. If a community is willing to do it once, then it might be willing to do it again, and that could undermine confidence of future investors. On the other hand, Ethereum hard forked to erase the DAO hacker's stake (or more precisely create a new fork without the DAO hacker's stake; s/he kept it on ETC), and it doesn't seem to have hurt them in practice (setting aside philosophical views on whether it was 'the right thing to do').
I personally wouldn't have any issues with doing it considering how Steemit Inc & Ned have splurged the stakeholder money by not developing RocksDB sooner and paying for high server costs for years.
They didn't pay for their coins so they are basically using the investors as a piggy bank to do whatever the fuck they want. And they have demonstrated their lack of caring by overspending.
it's hard to market a platform that takes 3-4 weeks just to create an account. :P
Except for the crows, almost everyone is quiet. :)
I appreciate your comment, @smooth!
Wouldn't it be a way to increase the output for witnesses, including witness-decay votes? Or is there a big argument against it? Usually, witnesses are a great group of people competing for a top spot, and in thus trying to provide as much value for Steem as possible.
I agree. That's something I've noticed as well. As much as I hope there is still coming something out of it, looking at the transfer history is not a way to increase the mood.
And by the way: https://medium.com/ethglobal/ethglobal-2018-wrap-up-and-looking-ahead-to-2019-d9676e141eca
It could be very difficult to catch up.
Ethereum example is interesting because unlike EOS it didn't launch with billions of dollars of funding and didn't start out with a huge valuation. In fact they went through some rough times and almost ended up needing to largely disband the core organization (though I'm sure people would have continued to work on it) before it really started to take off. What has Ethereum done better than Steem? Obviously the times are different, situations are different, but I still think we can learn some lessons.
I don't know what difference you think witness decay would make in the short term. What share of the witness votes, stake-weighted, are stale in the sense that voter is inactive or doesn't care? Because if the voter is active and does care they will just refresh their votes (almost certainly the case of the larger ones, with a bot, meaning no more human attention will apply than now). IMO it is very low and won't change things much if at all (the largest stake-weighted voters are all active as far as I know).
I do support vote expiration (I don't see a feasible way to implement decay in the consensus logic) but it is more of a longer-term theoretical concern to me (dead voters, etc.) and not something that is going to make a real difference now. In that sense I'd suggest we focus our efforts and resources (limited though they are, relative to other projects, as per other discussion in this thread) on things that matter.
EOS sounds great, where do I sign up?
I will provide a little bit of different perspective here. Price drives most of the activity in Steem blockchain. Steemit hit the highest Alexa ranking (below 1000) during last all time high price.
It was mostly pumped during the bull market by Korean whales at Upbit exchange. Other exchanges just followed upbit. That means speculators (mostly Korean traders) drived the price during December and January.
Now, the speculators left in droves for other hyped coins in pursuit of profit.
If you look into DOGE or Bitcoin Diamond, which offer nothing but some PnD opportunity to speculators, have relatively higher marketcap. Holding higher marketcap does not suggest technical superiority or innovation at all. What innovation BCH, BSV, BTG provides, nothing but little tweaks in mining algos, but they are always in the news which attract speculators or investors. Even when Justin Son founder of TRON with 650K twitter followers ask ETH and EOS developers switch to TRON or troll Vitalik, TRON gets publicity. By the way, @ned has less than 10K twitter followers. Outside of Steemit very few people know about Steem, most crypto enthusiasts have negative or misinformation about Steem such as 100% inflation or, whales controlling rewards, 70% firing etc.
Steem is lacking speculators big time. Moreover, pessimism from the community and mis-steps from STINC drove away a large number of speculators and investors.
Another issue is the supply side of Steem as you mentioned that 20M Steem were produced in last 6 months. It put lots of stress on the Market. Steem has relatively high inflation (9% a year) vs those ICOs which has 0% inflation. ICO holders (e.g. EOS) will not sell heavily during bear market since they have bought them at first hand. On the other hand, 9% newly minted Steem can always be dumped in open market without losing the initial holding.
My proposal is to further decrease Steem inflation to 2-3%. For example, 1% for the witnesses, 1% for PoS, 1% for upvoting. Or, Upvoting can be totally replaced by a new SMT. Say, Steemit SMT for Steemit. It will drastically reduce Steem supply and when Steem will be traded against SMTs, Steem is destined to rise.
It is similar to ETH. ERC20 ICOs raised the demand for ETH.
Another way to think if Steem had 0% inflation, it may not have lost its market position from 25 to 54 too. There are lots of literally worthless ICO's holding their position due to 0% new supply, for example, nano or IOTA.
Finally, aggressive marketing. Steem already has superior technology to be in top ten. It lacks branding. If an ICO without a viable product can easily rank above in CMC, then it is all about marketing. Marketing is also essential when a product has limited exposure such most crypto-enthusiast misunderstand Steemit for Steem, Steem has 100% inflation etc. Another big issue is that nobody is pushing Steem to BitFinex or OKex. It could be due to expensive node issue, however, ICO owners aggressively push their coins to exchanges, sometimes offer renomuration.
Even if you set the inflation at 1%, you still have
The Steemit Inc selling is like having an additional +10%+ baked in inflation.
Also with an inflation at 1%, it's going to incentivize the content creators and witnesses to do even less things, since their paychecks will be almost 90% lower than at an inflation of 9%.
Idea was to keep witness's inflation to same level as of now. And moving reward pool to multiple SMTs. The advantage of SMT will be that it can be experimented with different reward distribution algorithms.
Unless SBD falls below $1, having large amount of liquid SBD is not an issue. However, currently SBD is a mess and trading 60 cents and ratio of SBD/STEEM is not incentivized to convert SBD to Steem.
Steemit INC can Sell an ICO for for Steemit SMT to fund Steemit condenser. Or, they can look for different funding sources. Selling insta-mining Steem in bear market is not helping Steem cause. I had another idea whose time has passed but may be a thought for future:
No disrespect bud, but if you think the inflation in Steem needs to go away, you just don't understand the concept of Steem. Its whole value is wrapped around its inflation. On Steem, the concept of what makes this blockchain valuable is its variety of methods one profits on Steem, and this depends upon the inflation-based incentive model.
It is steadily reducing the inflation rate yearly by 0.5%, which is a satisfactory number. This gradual deflation rate allows for a sense of scarcity over time which benefits early adopters while allowing newcomers to enter without an immediate sense of unfairness. What was unfair is when the inflation rate suddenly went from 100% to 9.5%. This is why there is such a wealth disparity and why the meritocracy of the most promising opportunity for a meritocracy economy went to crap. Dropping from 8.5% to 3% would only be a repeat of this tragedy.
All the coins are technically inflationary, unless they are just automatically not mine-able coins.
I like a bit of real talk now and then.
Also to put a little shining light on the pace we are moving...
We first started talking about SMTs after Dan left. In that time, he fund raised, engineered and built EOS. We haven't accomplished much in that time.
I'm still here, but also getting worried about the community continuing to look towards SteemIt, Inc regarding development.
Keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you are getting.
I think he was already working on it before he left, certainly design if nothing else but possibly code too. He made a number of posts about building smart contracts on Steem, and that included reporting on having implemented some code to the proof-of-concept stage at least. Also, there was a reason for that whole dust-up over making the Steem code open source without management approval that happened right before he left (days, IIRC). My guess is that he already had large parts of the EOS design built on top of the Steem code mapped out, if not already implemented and needed the license change so he could use that work on a new chain.
Anyway your point on relative rate of progress is valid. It applies equally to other blockchain projects with well-functioning development not just EOS.
Yeah, I agree he might have been engineering it, but seriously a year-long ICO and building and it has already been out for 6 months.
Meanwhile, we are getting ready to accept SMTs Lite from SteemIt, Inc. Yeah the market took a rough road the last 2 months, but what about all the months leading up to that.
If they are our only plan,... I don't feel good about the future.
Yup we need drastic change. Keeping the same leadership will only continue to get the past results.
We must start from what and where we are now, not what and where we have been in the past or what and where we will be in the future.
What we are in the future is what and where we are now.
Change is now, the future is now, not yesterday or tomorrow.
When you want to change and make a plan to change tomorrow, you are still the same today... because tomorrow = today ...
I think you bring up valid points. This is something at @fknmayhem touched upon a number of times. We need to attract developers; they are the most important thing to the blockchain right now, even more so than users.
We have a great foundation here in terms of the people but it needs to be built upon. People who are dedicated to Steem need to express that.
I think it a major positive that we have shows like S.o.S. to talk about these topics. I agree that it is not the same as action but it does put the topic on the table. And as yourself and @soyrosa showed, in a week a lot can be done just by seeing something amiss.
We need a lot more to go forward and we need the circle of serious people to keep growing. Not all on here are going to dedicate blood sweat and tears like some of us are. But if we can keep finding them, there is a chance of growing and expanding.
It all starts with the developers because they are what will attract the masses in the future.
Thanks for the mention, @taskmaster4450. Obviously, I agree with all and also with Wolf’s post.
Steem is the base. A base which has mechanics not many blockchains can offer. We truly need to get out there, and possible also with hackathons. But those may have become too expensive, not just to organise but also to send core dev members over to the event. Because more than anything that personal connection with potential founding crews is the single best pitch.
More than a year ago I started a site to highlight the good on Steem, by which I mean the great products. Sadly enough it just ain’t happening (yet). There’s some great apps already and I love seeing that evolution but not enough are already showworthy enough to attract investor attention. Or to truly push a platform organically to the next level.
I have been happy to see the effort put in recently though and I believe that the listing on State of the Dapps is a great evolution already. These are platforms which are checked by developers.
Not only by developers but also by crypto news authors.
A new internet is being built. The Steem blockchain is not a match for every project and for some EOS may indeed be a better platform. For others, Steem undoubtedly offers the best mechanics and also most active userbase. Maybe even the most passionate userbase.
We may not have the money Blockpass and EOS have to organize worldtours but we have other assets. That needs to get out.
First and most important task to improve that: write OFF STEEM. Almost all work (also highlighting of great) is done ON Steem. That’s like being in the kitchen and telling the chef and sous-chefs how great the meat and sauce are.
Personally, I have been happy noticing how the tone recently has changed. That’s a great thing and possibly the best thing which could have happened to Steem. I respect Steemit Inc but this is a decentralized platform. It is up to the community to make it happen and I look forward to see active (dev) players being interviewed in podcasts and answer real questions, and also share struggles, about life on the Steem blockchain.
100% agreed with writing off Steem. Will post about it soon. It must be done more systematically.
Small note: I did not say “WRITE OFF Steem”, I said “write OFF STEEM”. Meaning effort need to be made to start publishing’s about Steem without it being published only on Steem.
There’s thousands of cryptonews sites which never get to hear of what happens here. THe attitude has to shift from “must come here” to true outreach work.
No it's not.
Steem is lacking in community building and consensus.
Code will never catch up to human behavior. The moment you try to build code, to match human behavior, you will soon realize it is a race that cannot be won.
We're experiencing it now.
"There is faults in the code, the hardforks, the RAM requirements"
... really?
It's more faults in building community spirit, engagement, and understanding by the users at large...
Not code catching up to human behaviors.. Code can never catch up to human behavior.
It is also lacking in development. In (most of) the time it took EOS to be designed, implemented, tested, deployed (along with a year-long ICO) we've gotten a few tweaks in HF20 and SMTs which aren't finished yet and may never be.
That's only one example. There are countless others in the blockchain space which have accomplished far more in the same time, often with less resources.
getting big time social media players involved with steem apps will be a good way to market.... we got HodgeTwins for a while before we lost them cause DTube flopped on them and the market went down, I think they got burned by the market but anyways im exhausted and rambling on... ... point is, get people with millions of followers to start talking about steem, also get the steem community to spread the word, get developers involved... post job postings that lead people to steem... get creative people we are free on here
Not 100% sure about mass recruitment at this point. The entire cryptoverse seems to be waiting for a fast and low transaction fee chain to skim Proof of Work Coins across due to their, yet to be solved, scalability issues.
The corporate patented Lighting Network would bring on the bulls if and when it gets off of testnet and into production. That has been almost as ellusive as SMTs. My gut is saying it will not be a user friendly experience should they make it to production without the need of mass centralization; which may have been the plan at Bitcoin Core to begin with.
In my wet dreams steem is the open sourced Lighrning Network and no one trusts the over governance of EOS (witnesses able to agree to suspend transactions like a credit card company) to entrust it with their serious transactions. Still good for buying Amazon Gift Cards, however.
The orphaned POCKET Project has allowed me a peak into how SMTs may be and more confidence in the Steem Network as a viable paynent method to be, somehow, employed by POW crowd.
Two things seem required for the longlivity of the steem blockchain, in my opinion.
That steemit, busy, et all, be seen as wonderful dApps on the steem blockchain and not the full and only potential of the steem blockchain. This would go a long way to reducing FUD and other sky/price is falling posts.
STINC delivering on the rocksDB module. Let's not wait like we have for SMTs. If no test releases are out there by Febuary then let's get some delegating/donating/witness voting campaign going so that @blockbrothers can do the job.
STEEM On! ✌💛
I don't usually drop links, but this post is a direct response.
https://steemit.com/busy/@whatsup/re-therealwolf-real-talk
We have that already but it lacks decisive support. Have you ever considered delegating to @steemflagrewards? Every little bit helps.
We've worked with you to deal with the abusers on your service but we could really use support in terms of Steem Power to flag them in encouraging these more productive course for the blockchain.
What say you, @therealwolf?
I'm glad you wrote this because I think about it a lot. While it doesn't answer most of the issues, I think it is really important for the community to embrace @share2steem to grow our user base which will in turn make the blockchain more attractive to developers because the user base will be there.
Going to instagram influencers and showing them how easy it is to monetize is a no brainer. I've done it. I make more on my crappy instagram than most people with 100k followers lol. There are 10s of thousands of instagram influencers who need @share2steem and they don't know it. I talked to a guy with 1.2million followers last night and he's interested. Bringing in those people will put strain on the rewards pool because they won't be that active on other steem apps unless they really get interested but it can bring in tons of users and active accounts.
I appreciate your comment. I like the concept of share2steem and agree that it will reach a lot of users, but are these users really going to be happy on Steem? I mean somebody with 1.2 million followers, will feel completely under appreciated on Steem. And the current interface is simply lacking of the modern style.
I believe we need to fix the UI and economic model of Steem first, before we bring people here from other platforms. Especially since the reward pool shouldn't be used for people simply coming to Steem to get some rewards, but for those wanting to participate in the system - who are powering up Steem and play the game.
I agree on the "to get some rewards part" but using the reward pool to get people to come to Steem who also bring a lot of followers (who stay and contribute) is worthy IMO. That's real added value in return for the rewards.
I agree with your point 100% but I would say that yes those people will feel appreciated because will be compensated. it's also a fertile recruiting ground because they can have their followers follow them on Steam where they both get paid. It's the best way to grow membership but like you suspect it's very one-sided. my thought is if we have an active user base because they're sharing on Instagram anyway then we can attract more development because the users are here. we will never be able to compete with social media like Instagram so recruiting their members and offering them something it's a good plan. I don't see much growth in quality membership here and it worries me
Posted using Partiko Android
Passionate statement and I like your enthusiasm, about the whole Steem project/ecosystem.
I think no one has all the answer to safe this blockchain, but I think and what you were also trying to say is, that everyone can be part of the solution, do his little part, for the greater good.
The problem I see, is a lack of coordiantion and management. As we asked yesterday for some1 to step up and take over the projectmanaging role, some said they want, but are not capable or confident doing it.
And I think it is true, because most of the ppl here are not entrepreneurs, they are motivated and would do a shit load of work, but dont know how.
This brings me to the lack of (crypto)education, this starts with the differnce beteen Steem and Steemit Inc and goes to what is a blockchain and beyond.
Also the understanding of different cultures, methodologies, ways of working/learing/thinking and so on.
When ppl want to work together there must be an understand of the other and when ppl only meet online, with no real commitment, it is hard to make a project running that is sustainable.
I like the idea that yesterday came up of work packages and (work) proposals. I also think there is a need of role/task definition for example for the projectmanager by the ppl who have exp in this field including the com.
Then there should be something like a process development and I dont mean that this work should not be done by programmers.
I will stop here, because I am not sure if any1 will read this, but whoever is intrested... :P
You make a good point by distinguishing between users and developers.
Each requires a different “onboard” experience. One group values resources and support. The other group values convenience and usability.
And each requires what the other offers.
The good news is...As much as we complain about many of Steem’s UX issues, Steem does have a leg up compared to most. Getting and understanding an EOS account is a pain for the average user. The username has to be 12 characters exactly and the staking methods are oddly technical. Last I checked, they’re still working out the kinks on getting it so a normal user can perform basic actions or transactions because the blockchain keeps getting clogged.
But you’re right. Time is running out fast. Any head start we have is quickly diminishing.
EOS will work things out. Other social media options will pop up.
It’s no time to dilly-dally. Our biggest asset right now is our community. I like how a segment of the forum was devoted to the idea of getting organized and identifying objectives.
Posted using Partiko iOS
The biggest advantage of Steem in my opinion is the user experience. For example having your name as address instead of gibberish is just plain awesome.
But there is still a lot we can do to make it easier to onboard people.
Hi @therealwolf
I am an older person (55 years old) and not into any coding or technical stuff. I am not really using to many of the apps, all I want to do is post the occasional video and write some articles, and I must admit lately I am quite lazy and don't do to much. For me things are just to complicated (not user friendly), why can't I just write an article in a normal way like for instance in windows office, straight into Steem? I must write in something difficult like stack editor, which just does not come naturally, the same with photos, cannot just drag and drop. For normal people these things must be easy, I know of people who just gave up, because it is to mush of a schlep to post.
Then there is the bidbots, that just go against everything Steem supposedly stands for, reward for good contents and a reputation that grows together with this, now people buy votes and reputation.
If the basics cannot be made easy for the man on the street, Steem will never reach Facebook type of acceptance.
I realize there is a bigger picture of the block chain and the technology, but if we can have a big user-base like facebook, there will be more cash / resources to develop the fancy stuff later. If the user-base increase it should also help with the Steem price, which is now sinking faster than other crypto's
Merry Christmas, enjoy the vote!
Nice image. Merry Christmas to you too.
Thanks @smooth, hope you're well. Merry Christmas.
Steemit has a very bright future ahead, and so does the Crypto currencies.
Yes, I am committed to the future of steem. This is why I created https://homesteaderscoop.com (@homesteaderscoop) a FREE marketplace enabling steem individuals to sell their handmade sustainable goods for STEEM and SBD!
I really appreciated your recap of the SOS because I missed this one. I agree with your synopsis. The passion is there, and yes we can use new value. If steemit inc is not the leader of the pack, who is the leader? Where will the unified decisions come from? I like your synopsis, but who is taking action based on whose decision? Do we need to vote for a leader of steem to take the place of steemit, someone that all the top witnesses trust to be their voice? Yes we are strong together, but we need a leader(s) to unify us. Do we have that already?
its tough to say. but steem is dwindling, and being left behind. hell even Cheeky took Dlive away to another blockchain because of the reasons you mentioned. unless mass improvements are made to the Steem platform. it is only a matter of time before others follow Cheeky away to another BC.
This post received a 50% UpVote from @TechMojo.
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your observations are too honest but definitely sincere to address issues that are slowing down the possibilities for Steem. looking at the figures mentioned in some of the comments here, there has to be a review on how incentives/earnings should be distributed.
constructively done. there is a need for change and someone has to speak up.
Awesome post, fantastic, thank you for your commitment and your honesty, some fine things are happening, but it is getting to be now or never, time waits for no blockchain. Great / Resteemed -- Keep up the awesome sauce !! peace
Thank you! I agree - time is waiting for nobody, especially not blockchains. I'm sure the technology will be far more advanced in a 1 or 2 years.
First of All I know Nothing about Tech and how things Work. I am all about STEEM and I have only been Positive since I have been Here. I did purchase a few ICO's Last Year and to be honest I own very little of Their tokens now. Yes STEEM has a Long Way to Go but If We Look At the Bigger Picture We will be OK in my thinking. Keep in Mind that so many Things are Changing in Our World Right now. I am not going to go OFF on a Political JAG but YOUR WORLD is GOING to CHANGE DRAMATICALLY in the Next Month. Bad Actors are Going to Be Taken Out and some of Those Bad Actors have been Very Much Involved in CRYPTO. I have been waiting for 60 Years to SEE the Changes that are Going to Happen. The OLD System will Go Away and the FREEDOM that HUMANITY Needs Will be Here. I know I am OLD and CRAZY, Think of Me What you Will and That's OK. @stokjockey will be Here and a NEW Day is Dawning........
Appreciate the comment, we might be ok in the long run, but we will def. not be part of the big-players without changing some things up. Similar how the brightest talents are usually going to Google, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, SpaceX etc, the same way the best developers & entrepreneurs will use the best blockchains.
Steem is still part of the "great blockchains" in some areas (even though the market cap dropped dramatically over the recent months), but this is nothing to rest on.
maybe its a sign that steem is heavily undervalued, or maybe it is because the way new steem is distributed it creates extra pressure on the selling side of the market
I Agree and I think that there is a BIGGER PLAN that will Help Steem very much going Forward. I am Grateful for you @therealwolf and I Love Your Positive Outlook. Merry Christmas and get some Popcorn and Enjoy the Show...........
I'm currently learning JavaScript, React and Node to try and develop my own ideas on the blockchain, it's slow going but I don't think there's really any other way to get things happening unless I get my hands dirty.
I totally agree with the point you made, especially with the UI... but I will say that some of the dApps look pretty sweet. I do think Appics is quite a bit underrated by people on this platform. I don't know them so well, but their app looks really slick and it seems like they're doing a lot of work to get celebrities and influencers involved in their platform. Of course, they're probably not too happy with another delay in the SMT.
If anyone's interested, the JavaScript courses on Treehouse are pretty great. Definitely a good starting point and I personally think it's good value.
The daily and monthly active users here only amount to a drop in the bucket that is cryptocurrency space. Keep our blinders on and keep believing that quality content, voting, and SMTs will save us and we will continue slipping down the market cap ranking. I think we will get around the 200 mark in ranking before this community will realize that the currency must be priority over everything else.
Have you seen our business adoption project to accept steem and sbd as a means of payment? I left it in another post
How is that going to get Steem on exchanges?
We do not talk about exchanges in our projects. We focus on the stores
Actually that's not really true. Other complex dapps like Steem's social layer all have relatively few users. The bulk of the 'user' base of most coins is just people flipping coins between exchanges.
I respect your opinion, but until we do what all the other coins do, we will continue to lose ranking no matter how fancy the dapps are.
I didn't disagree with that part, I actually agree with it.
👍
@swiftbot tip 10
@swiftbot tip 10
⚡$$$ Tipped @therealwolf
⚡10.00000000 SWIFT! Comment@swiftbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SwiftCash in the market is$0.0032 USDperSWIFT. Current value of the tip is$0.0320 USD. To find out more about SwiftCash, please read our whitepaper!I am here almost a year, and i got here with the story of blog and earn money. Steem was my first contact with crypto world and more or less my only crypto till this day. The good thing and maybe bad was that i was lucky and got in to really great community of photographers in my early days. And i have no need nor i seen all the drama about whales, bitbots... (i knew that trending is shit and i knew why and that is it).
only few months ago i started to follow what is going on with the blockchain, what are the problems... but still i feel that all i can do is just follow. no skill of mine (and lack of any real influence) could help the development of steem.
Only thing that i did good (and that is almost nothing) is that i powered up 100% of steem i got. And well that i am still here :D
I feel that you have really good points here, and will follow and try to support as much as i can.
This is positive talk going on in the comment section.
Lack of decision is the gangrene to push #steem forward.
Decision to change things around
Decision to allow developers to come in.
Decision to onboard more steemians.
Someone has to step and make it happen.
Decision, Decision. Teamwork
Status quo will get is no where.
As you can see I am not a developer,
I can post and support you guys.
May the bright minds conquer.
Keep on postin
Posted using Partiko iOS
Great post . I hope you can get some traction with this logic ; it seems we have a long climb ahead of us.
Thank you very much for sharing!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Sir as a community we all support steem to grow more in future.
From my individual side I started a competition to make readers of blog give some rewards.
Sir I would like to invite you in this competition so that more people can join and make the community strong.
Take a look sir https://steemit.com/steemit/@sumit1998/win-1-steem-in-my-every-posts-just-follow-resteem-upvote-and-comment-and-win
Hope you like it sir
You might be interested to know that the Golos dev team is currently working on that. All the blogs and the Golos "brand" will remain, but under the hood it's going to be an updated EOS fork. All the preparations are supposed to be finished by the end of February 2019.
Hoping for the best and helping each other to keep steem/ steemit alive.
Posted using Partiko Android
Realism wins in this case, what I understand from this is that our ability to market Steem in front of everyone else is absolutely pathetic. We don’t need to an advertising in Times Square however what we do need to do is market the fuck out of this.
I’m kinda suggesting that we reward Steem for like day referrals for everyone that joins. It’s an incentive to already existing users and those who join later.
Posted using Partiko iOS
This is what I love about Steem, that things are resolved in plain sight and that anyone is invited to comment and generate ideas. I have not seen it in other cryptos communities.
This post is wonderful for what it says but above all because it shows the sense of community we have, where we participate with passion to improve the platform we want.
We from our humble position and with very little visualization, we have worked a lot for the community of Steem and now we are starting an ambitious project to adopt shops that accept Steem and SBD as means of payment. We would love the support of the community to make it bigger and bigger ... you can see it here https://fundition.io/#!/@rutablockchain/em0738jx2
We do not abandon. We will always be here for Steem. We do not have resources, but we have a big heart that will do everything for Steem ...
Your creation of SteemApps.com and it's listing on StateoftheDapps.com was a big help and I believe it will go a long way towards attracting developers. @therealwolf
@blockbrothers review of the Top 20 witnesses is also a big help, and it's good that they are offering Steemians the chance to let @blockbrothers handle their witness votes.
Please make sure to include that fact in your posts.
P.S. I think you manage your own bid-bot and that's fine, especially since you Power Up 99% of the Steem you earn, but it is time to acknowledge the unproductive use of Bid-bots and the harm they cause the Steem ecosystem. @therealwolf
Posted using Steeve, an AI-powered Steem interface
I agree, but this is a problem with the system. It's a free economy and many people desire bought votes. If Steem would be changed in a way that would make bid-bots unattractive and fix the visibility problem, I'd be in favour. But I don't think the correct approach is to hate the player.
Especially, when doing the right thing, isn't changing much from the individual. Just take a look at the image below, maybe you'll see the irony.
It's good that you blacklisted Ammar0034 but why didn't you mention bid-bots as a problem in this post? @therealwolf
It's kind of like a major drug dealer saying he wants to reduce illegal drug use.
Theoretically, it's possible to be involved in the drug trade while using the profits to ultimately reduce the drug trade but the fact that you didn't mention bid-bots as a problem in this post might be evidence that your affiliation with bid-bot earnings is preventing you from speaking out against bid-bots as aggressively as you would if it wasn't one of your businesses.
In otherwards, you are biased in a way that harms the blockchain while professing that your posts and activities are all in the interest of the Steem community.
I respect you @therealwolf as you have done far more to help the blockchain than I have but that is #RealTalk.
Posted using Steeve, an AI-powered Steem interface
No. I've always spoken out against it, but I'm not a lunatic, thinking that the world runs around me. If you want to stop bid-bots, then fix the system. Creating a bad stigma around will do nothing, and I'm honestly sick and tired of talking about the same shit over and over again. sorry for the strong words
The simple solution would be to move posts that were upvoted by bidbots from the Trending page and place them on the Promoted page.
I think that is the best solution and it would make @smartsteem a legit business that helps the Steem community instead of harming it.
TAG: @ned @steemit @andararchy @blockbrothers @hr1 @void
Thank you for replying to my comment @therealwolf I do appreciate your great work and hope that there is a solution for the Trending page.
Posted using Steeve, an AI-powered Steem interface
I am sure that there is a simple profit generating activity that the community can do that can be funded by delegation that earns more rewards that bid bots. who ever does it will earn a fortune
Steem got listed on StateoftheDapps.com, now we need to get listed on CoinBase @soyrosa @therealwolf!
Posted using Steeve, an AI-powered Steem interface
People who have a lot of SP are often supporting people that are either powering down or exchanging stewm for fiat.
It is demotivating to people who see themselves in a long term here and also, it doesn't make sense to support them that much if we need steem to be in our ecosystem, not sold asap.
I am agreeing with a lot of things you said here but as details are changing the direction of our journey then we should think about them.
Steem on!
I am glad discussion within the platform is very strong.
For as long as many steemians are here to protect/save/improve the blockchain, we might be slow, but we are coming stronger compared to many blockchain platform outthere.
Keep the comments and suggestion coming.
We are listening and willing to support.
The answer is YES. We are up to build a truly SOCIAL network for social impact on Steem. Steems mechanisms allow the alignment of funding and social impact - something the impact world is working on hard and still hasn't found good solutions for. I do hope your post isn't ment as a warning to rely on Steem's blockchain technology.
Our business model focusses short term on FIAT-revenues, so that we will not be forced to dump Steem in the market. ImpactN will rather bring value and demand into the system - through a marketplace and crowd-based social impact assessment, based on powering up Steem/SMTs.
We are looking forward to collaborate with this great community which I have met first time at Steemfest3 at Krakòw.
Now I hope this social impact stuff wasn't as difficult to understand for you as RocksDB is for me. Here's a read on what we are up to.
https://steemit.com/sdg/@impactn/join-us-on-a-challenging-journey-towards-a-better-world
I'm preparing a small campaign in Leicester (about 300k population) leading to an event in Spring to promote steem. Working with @oracle-d, I have a way to help people quickly get new accounts. What I'm not sure about is the situation regarding Resource Credits, whether they are still an issue for new users and, if they are, what we can do about it?
To attract devs we need to be sure we can support their projects financially, I noticed there's open sourced postpromoter but no open sourced reward sharing through delegation, that would enable anyone to open their project for investment.
First we need to make people aware of Steem, then offer them all the tools they could want to make their business here easy as possible to setup. But as you said, project like Ethereum has and will continue to have gravity like pulling force for new devs entering crypto.
Action is more important than hype and dreams. Action and incentive good people to come here will make this blockchain shine to the moon!
Posted using Steeve, an AI-powered Steem interface
Hi @therealwolf, really nice article you made there. I like your opinion and the comments you made. You are absolutley right! I will resteem your post so maybe you get a tiny bit more attention.
Have a good chrsitmas time
Cheers M
Remember brother, I agree with your way of thinking, it is always necessary to talk less and do more, Steem has represented a form of freedom and personal advancement in my life, specifically in @Steemchurch, I believe that the support for true entrepreneurs and developers Comrpometidos with Steem Blockchain is vital, but there must be an incentive for those little talents who do not find a sponsor or investor to help them promote their idea. In a few words, the above should sometimes look down and maybe find valuable people there. community.
I'm the same with Steem and committed to improving. Blessings.
Great "Real-Talk" update on the future of Steem. I've been on the fence about investing more in Steem and reading several of the positive/passionate posts is encouraging. Thank You
My thinking, like some of us, is that we should pay less attention to Steemit. Inc. and focus more on the DApps (e.g. Partiko, Dtube, Steemhunt etc.) that are helping steem gain traction. Secondly, no matter how many people (developers inclusive) you introduce and onboard to steem, they would fail to be active after sometime due to lack of 'good incentives'. The value of steem is now about the same as when I started investing my 'fiat'/and precious time in 2016. Investors always think about return on their investments. Let's make investing in steem or any of it's DApps worthwhile.
@maryfavour.
Posted using Partiko Android
I think that we have to have commercial on steemit and to let 3rd part, like steempeak or busy, to be the official site for steemit.
Great post thanks for the interesting points. 👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾
Posted using Partiko iOS
You have said it all, all that I feel.
Thank you 🙏.
I am
Just afraid EOS already won. It has the money, the techno, the dev and the management team to be the one.
It is not decentralized enough but that will do
Posted using Partiko iOS
And I say, If everything is about the money, and not fun, like all social media projects that had any successful,almost no one will come to steemit because it makes the time to throw.
make the platform more attractive and fun! because it can be.
Well said and very informative. I had no idea about all that stuff, it makes sense though without fresh talent developing the platform and keeping the technology and overall site appealing then steem will forever remain a beta that never made alpha status! Unfortunately a lot of people have invested in Steem and they will lose out unless the tide turns. What can the normals(non-coding-tech-types) do to help?