Dlike Is Going After Reddit

Reddit promotes itself as the "Front Page of the Internet". It is now a very valuable resource for tens of millions of daily users.

A site that enables people to post links and topics of conversation, this entity is now worth an estimated $2B. It really is a remarkable story considering that it is a simple concept.

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Blockchain applications are trying to unseat many ones that are centralized. Thus far, it has been a challenge. While there will come a point where the innovation on blockchain creates things we cannot even comprehend at the moment, the first order of business is transitioning what we know to a decentralized format.

Steemit initially was modeled after Reddit based upon what I read. Over the last year or so, I heard @ned refer to it on a number of occasions. The name would seem to indicate where the thinking was at the time Steemit was set up. Also, the white paper contains a number of references to Reddit. Nevertheless, this is an idea that Steemit moves away from. Ultimately, it became more like Wordpress or Blogspot by focusing upon blogging.

The idea of posting links if valuable for a simple reason: it is information. When it is categorized, it makes it simple for people to find what interests them. At the same time, it brings people together with similar likes and expertise. It is exactly what happened with Reddit.

@dlike is now moving in that same direction. The idea is to become a decentralized resource for the internet. By posting links on there, the goal is to get users to start to turn to Dlike instead of Reddit. Of course, the main advantage, in addition to decentralization, is the ability to monetize activity. Using Steem's content reward system, upvotes have value. This is something that Reddit cannot offer at this moment.

In monitoring the Dlike Discord group, it was posted on there how the Dlike account is altering what it gives upvotes to. In the past, all posts were upvoted Now, the moderators are selecting those only that link to information. So, while people are still free to post links to songs or cat videos, it is only those that are information based which will be eligible for support from the main Dlike account. Individuals are still free to vote on whatever they want, of course, so other posts could be of benefit to those interested.

Another aspect that is unique, and I am excited to see how it does unfold, is the "ownership" of the "sub-Dlikes" will be turned over to the community. I do not have details of how this will happen but it is something that was in the works for a long time. If memory serves me, it was announced earlier last year. A team of 3 people will be able to take over a category. The Dlike team has no interest in "owning" the entire project.

To me, this is a step into the future. There is a lot of expertise on this blockchain yet ownership is still in the hands of a few. Those creating DApps are the ones who "own" them. It makes sense since this is how the world worked.

Crypto-economics is changing this. Once something is tokenized, the value is on the open market. Retaining ownership in the traditional sense is no longer necessary. Creating something that is a DAO, for example, and runs automatically could become a community asset. Anyone holding the token would profit.

What is interesting about this is a group who creates a Dlike community in, say, Kenya, could get ownership of that and utilize the activity on there to create their own token. This could be something that was passed around throughout the country with its own ecosystem forming.

If you think about it, the possibilities with this model really do grow quickly.

Either way, I hope that everyone starts to support the Dlike application. It is still in a transition period since they redid a great deal with the application itself. A lot of functionality still need to be added to the site along with the reworking of the Android app.

Nevertheless, we often talk about attracting the masses to Steem and here, in my view, is a simple application that can go head-to-head with what people are already using. It has a very low learning curve meaning someone can use it in a few minutes.

Sometimes the best starting place is with the simple. Going after the Reddit crowd looks to be a no-brainer. While their community is strong, I envision it would be rather easy to get a large amount to convert.

This could be a nice pathway into something much bigger for Steem.

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