A few thoughts about Blockchain technology and Steem.
Blockchain technology is a highly disruptive one. This is because it has shown the capacity to change the way a lot of things work. From the finance systems around the world to how products and services are obtained and consumed. It cuts across a lot of industries including Health, Education, Logistics etc. In effect, it is a way of freedom.
However, I think we are our own problems. The early adopters. We might have overhyped blockchain technology far above the extent we have found it useful yet. Which can be frustrating when people come in only to discover it doesn't offer that smooth transition from what they're used to and it's not as effective yet. Sure, it has a lot of potentials, but what's the use of a new piece of techmology to me if it cannot do what i've always done before in a better way.
Cryptocurrencies are powerful. But a lot of people seem to only think about how much value they can attract and then immediately extract from the space. How much their stakes or coins are worth as opposed to how useful the technology is growing to become.
Exchanges? DPOS? POW? Private keys? TX hashes and code scripts? We do realize not everyone gets to be a geek right? And we do realize that the internet is made up of more people who just want to mind their businesses, make simple transactions or post pictures of their cats easily without having to worry about excessive liquidity or some blockchain mumbo-jumbo, right?
There's still a lot to work on, a lot to learn. We need Dapps and front-ends, products and services that can effectively copy or imitate some of these centralized ones in workability and use. Think Amazon and eBay, think social medias and community groups, think emails and other sharing services. What if we could just recreate the whole of Google on a platform such as Steem?
We don't have to always innovate things from scratch completely. If it works without problems, it sure as hell will work again. I think it's best to start off innovation by getting everyone on the same page first, then work our way to the real vision with time. So, more Dapps with human-readable features that can offer that smooth transition to the new technology, ease of use and effectiveness. And until these things fall in place, mainstream adoption will continue to stall.
We also might have to deal with the ICO mentality. Today, every project wants to develop a coin and sell those for money without trying to build a working MVP or a community around that product first. The result? Some of them cannot live up to the faith and expectations of investors and soon exit scam with the money. It hampers the growth of the technology and leads to so much distrust. What if new projects spend more time developing on their products first and getting a functional user database before asking for funds?
A few thoughts about Steem.
On Steem, we're extremely lucky to have a blockchain that's well beyond its time. We've been here for over 2 years and without major fixes or upgrades for a while (apart from HF20), even with that, Steem beats over 90% of the "new generation" shitty blockchains out there. It's now up to us to make it what we want it to be. To build an economy out of it.
I see a lot of potential and I'm happy to be a part of it. I might not have started with ninjamined coins, but I've worked fairly hard on here to earn a few stakes. But i am learning a lot so i can contribute meaningful things to the ecosystem and I'm willing to use a part of my stakes to support whatever brings "sustainable value" to Steem.
I like to think there are a lot of people who are willing to build as well.
Until then, can we all stop screaming When moon?
This was written off the top of my head.
Cheers, Pan.
To me I think the dapps have not attained a certain level of perfectness I mean that will really bring that much needed adoption I mean look at reddit, I don't see any DAPP with that much level of interest, although I still think the dapps will do something bigger.
Maybe that's the thing. They don't have to be perfect from the get go. They only need to be good enough to allow people use them for normal stuff without having to deal with a steep learning curve. So far, not only are a lot of dapps not good enough to replace or exist alongside some old tech, they're harder to use.
Personally I think if we can lift some of the Barriers to entry it will be a major boost for steem. Take for example, the issue of keys--private/ posting keys. That on its own is a hurdle which many people would won't want to pass. An average internet wants to create a password they can remember not one created for them, which they have to save somewhere safe, and if misplaced have no other alternative of retrieving it. I think this issue is being looking into currently. I think once we make it easy for people to use this technology it will go a long way in improving its patronage. However, blockchain/steem needs more exposure. Many people are not aware of what's going here; many don't even care. But I think someday it will matter and it is a gradual process.
As for imitating existing products/services and platform, I think we should not be looking at competing with existing systems but find out own niche. Steem may never be as big as Facebook or eBay or other established systems but it can be big enough to cater for the needs of some people.
I believe blockchain technology is the future. And if you ask me, it has not even been hyped enough. Like I said earlier. Alot is going on here that most people do not know about. When people think blockchain or cryptocurrency bitcoin is the first thing that comes to mind. But you and I know it is bigger than that. And it is our responsibility, as early adopters to let them know.
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Thank you for taking the time to give this input. I'm honoured.
I agree. I might have referred to the entire crypto space using Steem as an analogy. But still, someday, I hope we can find at least some of these features. Not necessarily to compete because I believe these things could work alongside each other. Like I've always pointed out, there's only a few things wrong with centralized systems. They work perfectly. But they could be better. And It'll make for a complete Steem ecosystem if we can have them and actually use them.
Maybe, maybe not. Emerging tech takes time to develop. I think with the recent scams, all the hype might have done is make people lose money in such an early stage, which is kinda okay, if we consider that the exact thing happened during the .com bubble.
However, the hype has worn off with the market trend and the time has now come for actual work to be done rather than speculation. Our responsibility on educating people would yield better results if we have more stuff going for us than there is right now.
To the future!
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Blockchain has a great future, if steem has a great future I don't know, plausible. The competition is huge!
HI, are you still awake? I need to ask you a huge favour, can you give a vote to the competition post on my blog...it's the steemitbloggers one, we are in neck and neck and we need maybe just one more vote to win...
Thanks for reaching out, Wales... I already voted... :-)
Thanks, we just need a couple votes to get there and with only 2 hours left we are in need of just a few people to vote for us, steemitbloggers...wish i knew more people to ask
I have an alt account i can use. I'll also contact a few friends.
Wow, thanks, that would really help. We are one in the lead now, but it keeps going head to head and then they get in front and then we do, so no one knows yet who will win...
Post is a winner! Nice job.
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