What the heck is custom JSON anyway?

For the non techie Steemians out there. Here is what Wikipedia is saying:

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an open-standard file format or data interchange format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and array data types (or any other serializable value). It is a very common data format, with a diverse range of applications, such as serving as replacement for XML in AJAX systems.

JSON is a language-independent data format. It was derived from JavaScript, but many modern programming languages include code to generate and parse JSON-format data. The official Internet media type for JSON is application/json. JSON filenames use the extension .json.

Basically, it is a standardized data format that can be used by a different application, providing interoperability between different programming language. It is a very simple format as well. It goes something like this:

"account":"dalz",
"reputation":"66",
"posts":"268"

You get the idea. It can than become a bit more complex with nesting more data in, but that’s not the point here.

If you want, you can broadcast a custom json transaction and just store text. Maybe you have some important text to store. You will just need to remember the block and look at it in the blockexplorer.

The Steem blockchain has this ability to store json data. It has been a secondary thing for the blockchain, as the main purpose is posting, commenting and upvotes. The json data is not fully displayed by the steemit.com and the tribes frontends as posts. They may use some of it, but usually it just sit in the background, and one of its first usage was followers. Nowadays it is a totally different thing.

Share of Top 5 Avtivities on the Steem Blockchain

Here is a chart I complied from the @arcange stats.

It is based on daily data on a given day.
The above are the top five activities on the blockchain that happens each day. They consist more than 95% of the overall daily activities.

The json data is the blue color. In the last 11 months the share of the json activities on the Steem blockchain has grown from around 20% to 50%. In absolute numbers it has more than doubled from 200k custom json per day to more than 400k per day.

In this same period the number of posts and comment per day has went down form around 60k to 30k. A totally opposite pattern.

Distribution on the top 5 transactions March 28, 2019

Distribution on the top 5 transactions January 28, 2020

The voting was a top transaction before, but the json transaction have overtaken the lead.

Who is making the custom json transactions?

Users basically. But from which dapps. Here are few:

• Steem-Engine
• Tribes
• Steemmonsters
• Nextcolony
• New games

Yes, Steem-Engine, Tribes and Steemmonsters has been driving the increase in the custom json transactions.

The number of applications taking advantage of the custom json transactions and data stored on the Steem blockchain is growing. More and more apps are doing it. They just use the blockchain for it essential function to store data on an open public database that is immutable and protected.

JSON Transaction are now dominating the Steem blockchain

Looking at this numbers and the development activities it really opens up the discussion in which direction should be Steem heading. The social media blockchain? The upvote of the internet? I guess there will always be a space for that and to power up web application trough an upvote mechanism, but this other option has appeared and grow larger than the original intends.

I don’t know what exactly to think about this for the moment. How about you? Any comments?

All the best
@dalz

Posted via Steemleo