Hello Steemians, I’m Andrarchy and in this post (along with the companion video below) I’m going to talk about what I think is one of the most exciting developments since the launch of the Steem blockchain and it’s called OpenSeed. If you haven't already, please consider reviewing and voting on our proposal.

If you don’t know who I am, my day job is the Head of Communications and Advocacy for Steemit, but today I’m not here representing Steemit. These are just my personal views and none of the statements in this video or article should be interpreted as representing the views of my employer Steemit, Inc.

Why Steem?

When I first learned about Steem, what excited me so much was my belief that it could be used to power an infinite variety of applications that turn users into stakeholders while putting them back in control of their information.

In the 3 plus years since Steem launched it has demonstrated that it’s the most advanced blockchain protocol for web applications, which is why it has the most used blockchain powered applications in the world. And it’s been the greatest honor of my life to get to work with the team who’s responsible for advancing that blockchain.

What few realize is that the launch of the protocol is just the beginning. The real work comes later, and it never stops. Every engineer on the Steemit team, and so many community developers as well, have worked their butts off to make the Steem platform the easiest, and lowest cost blockchain for powering a web applications.

Lessons Learned

But what I’ve learned during my tenure at Steemit is that even though Steem is by far the easiest blockchain protocol to integrate into web applications, that doesn’t mean it’s anywhere close to being “easy enough.” For Steem to really shine, developers need to be able to integrate Steem without knowing anything about the Steem blockchain. It’s simple, developers don’t want blockchains, they want features.

Steem can be used to offer incredibly compelling features, but I’ve learned firsthand that developers don’t want to be told about Steem’s potential, they want to focus on their product and pipe into tools that make it better. OpenSeed is about taking Steem from a niche blockchain platform, to one that’s being used by thousands of exponentially growing applications all rewarding their users in stake.

Why OpenSeed?

That’s why I think the work we’re doing on OpenSeed is important, and why I hope you’ll consider voting on our proposal. But this is also just my personal view. One of the things that I find most exciting about OpenSeed is the process of collaborating with the other amazing people already working on the project.

That collaborative spirit is what drew me into Steem, that’s what I hope draws you into OpenSeed, and I really think that that feeling of becoming part of something exciting, will be the real killer feature of OpenSeed. It will enable developers to tap into Steem’s unique ability to foster genuine online communities without having to make the sacrifices inherent to blockchain integration.

Join the Conversation

But again, OpenSeed will not be about what I think it should be, but what we all want it to be, and what developers actually need. And that includes you. As you can see in the proposal, we have already involved some important Steemians in the project as advisors, and we plan to integrate far more as time goes on. We hope you’ll give OpenSeed a look and consider contributing in any way you can.

If you’d like to stay informed about OpenSeed developments, be sure to follow the @openseed account and if you’d like to join the conversation, be sure to stop by our discord server. Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to vote on the proposal.