Steemit Inc. 2017 Roadmap Review
About 350 days ago, Steemit Inc. published a roadmap for 2017. With the dust now settled on 2017, it's time to appraise how well they did with the roadmap.
Steemit.com Features
•Migrating all services to auto-scaling, self-healing infrastructure.
Target: Q1 2017
Done on schedule.
•Useful blockchain data microservices for both internal and external developers to accelerate application development.
Partially (?) done.
•“Batteries Included”: Highly available public service endpoints for third-party developer quickstart.
Done.
•An Ethos of Deliberate, Reasoned Design
Ongoing, but good progress.
•Steem Login and signing service for safe and easy third-party app integrations.
Target: Q3
SteemConnect 2.0, announced in partnership with the Busy team in Q3. I don't think it's feature complete yet, but definitely under development.
•Rebranding: new logo, colors, logotype to distinguish the social app from the blockchain.
Target: Q3
Done, reasonably on schedule.
•UI: Design language overhaul for all user-facing application UIs.
Target: Q4
Arguable. Some enhancements, but no sweeping overhaul. Might be delayed.
•Apps: We’re developing iOS and Android native mobile applications.
Target: Q4
Announced availability December at SteemFest. Not released on schedule, though I do believe they are done and waiting for a co-ordinated wave of releases.
•Feature: Free image hosting.
Target: Q2
Done, on schedule.
•Feature: Comment moderation for post authors.
•Feature: Community Namespaces and Moderation.
•Feature: Achievements and User Insignia.
Target: Q3/Q4
I'm going to assume these are part of Hivemind. The last update at SteemFest was an alpha version scheduled for "end of the year". It hasn't happened. After Hivemind alpha is released, it'd realistically be a further quarter or so till final implementation on Steemit.com. This one's looking like significantly delayed.
•Feature: New user tutorial.
Status: Q4
No updates, however, the FAQ and Welcome pages are passable now.
•Feature: Easy-to-understand status bar.
No updates, but the UI groundwork has been laid.
Distractions: Scalability issues, all of which have been fixed.
Verdict: Good progress on the Steemit.com front. Save for Hivemind, most of the stated goals were achieved, mostly on schedule.
Steem blockchain
steem.io: A Platform Dashboard / developer.steem.io: World-Class Developer Documentation
Target: Q2
Done, though slightly delayed.
Officially Supported Client Libraries
I'm not a developer, so I can't review this accurately. That said, I do see support for more libraries than at the same time last year. Not there fully yet, but I assume good progress.
Post Reward Sharing
Target: Q2
Done, on schedule.
Reducing Blockchain Account Creation Cost
Target: Q3
Pushed back, AppBase (next entry) takes first priority. Could have been done by Q3 otherwise.
Steem Blockchain Feature: Multi-Chain Parallelism
Target: Q4
Pretty much done, but not released. I assume AppBase has been combined with 0.20.x (blockchain account creation cost, previous entry).
Last update: 0.20.x preview was scheduled for "end of 2017", but is yet to be released. However, much of the development is complete, and this should ship in Q1.
Distractions: The Steem blockchain saw many more advances than promised in the roadmap. Scalability issues were fixed, a fairer reward distribution as introduced, and SMT became a top riority. I believe there's a parallel team working on SMT, so that hasn't affected the schedule too much, but there must have been an overhead impact.
Verdict: Although some features weren't released on time, other features not planned were shipped. Pretty much everything on the list has nearly completed development. Overall, good progress on the Steem front.
Steemit Inc.
Physically Decentralized, Global Talent Pool
Plenty of new developers on GitHub, though I don't have insight on how global the talent pool really is. I would like to see more talented developers come on board, and a faster pace of development.
I hope to see Steemit Inc hire a brilliant Human Resources executive (if they haven't already), who can poach the best talent from outside the blockchain industry.
Asynchronous Communication and Coordination
I'm not privy to any such information, so I can't comment.
Scaling Up
On the development team, this was definitely achieved. On the community outreach and marketing front - mostly a failure. I can understand that they would delay a significant marketing effort till SMT and 0.20.x is ready, but these goals were not achieved. There was some excitement in the middle of the year with Mitchell on board, but none of that was seen through in the timeline specified.
Decentralizing Stake
This is, without doubt, the biggest failure in what has otherwise been a decent year for Steemit Inc. There was little to no effort at decentralizing Steemit Inc's stake. Some delegations went out to select individuals or projects, but this was done in an absolutely non-transparent, non-inclusive and yes, centralized, manner. Of course, I'm sure this could be justified, like many other misses on the list, by "we're not ready yet", but nevertheless, it has missed the roadmap target. A complete disappointment, and I would hope to see major strides made on this front in 2018.
Free Software
Absolutely done.
Final verdict Steemit Inc's 2017
Overall, Steemit Inc. performed satisfactorily in the year 2017. They achieved most goals specified, lagged behind in some, while delivered in other areas not specified. Neither a triumph, nor a disappointment, but that's probably a great achievement for a blockchain-related company. Sets up for an exciting 2018. With mobile apps, SMT, Hivemind and Account creation (all deep into development) finally due in the first half of 2018, I hope to finally see a massive marketing push.
The biggest wins this year were plugging much of the scalability issues on both Steemit.com and Steem, a very popular reward distribution reform, and much improved communication. Steem is peerless - this is the most scalable blockchain in the world. Bonus - a well received fast-track of SMT. The biggest failures were the lack of stake decentralization efforts, lack of marketing and the much delayed Hivemind.
Finally, based on what I have seen this year, I have full confidence in Steemit Inc's ability to deliver high-quality software. Questions remain about the public relations and marketing departments.
I can totally understand why they would want to delay some releases into 2018 seeing how Communities and SMTs may feed into each other, and also how fixing the Account creation process is vital before attempting to go viral.
Great review as well. I think all there's left to do now is continue building the most fruitful communities on the platform whilst also buckling up for high velocities coming soon :)
Yes, it makes a lot of sense. The point, though, is that Communities and account creation should have happened in 2017.
Thanks for sharing this! One thing I'd love to see is double verification to login. I love this feature when I use exchanges, and wouldn't mind using an authenticator just to verify that it's me physically logging in.
That's not possible with blockchains. Exchanges can do it because they are centralized. With Steem, all data is stored on the decentralised Steem blockchain, so the only way to interact is through private keys.
Actually, it is possible with multisignature (multisig) wallets. This is based on smart contract functionality where you can have whatever logic you want in the smart contract. Most common scenario is to have three keys for the wallet, and require two of them to verify outgoing transactions. Then you keep two of the keys, while a company you trust keeps the third. When you want to send money, you verify with one of your keys, while the company sends you a code on your smartphone and verifies the transaction with its key after you correctly enter the code. If you want to stop using the company's services, you use your two keys to move to another wallet.
Even bitcoin has this functionality.
Thank you for that, I had no idea. Appreciate the info!
Thank you for this review, interesting to read especially from the perspective of a user who has been here for quite a while. SMT development looks very promising and I think most of us are exited about it's release and how it will shape the digital landscape. I agree that decentralization of stake is very poor here and to be honest, instead of complaining @ned could just delegate his SP to quality curators and cleaners and it would achieve a significant impact.
To be fair, Ned did delegate to curators for a while. But yes, this should be done at a massive scale. Delegate to hundreds of the best curators and projects on Steem. I hope they do it in 2018.
I think there are wiser choices available than delegating 100K to sweetsssj. Like splitting the SP and delegating to hundreds of curators, as you mention it or projects like Curie.
Steemit inc delegating their SP won't improve decentralization. They would still own a massive amount of steem that they can use to influence the platform/ vote witness in/out,etc.. If they are serious about decentralization they should either burn, sharedrop or sell their stake..
Can you explain what "sharedrop" refers to?
Massive redistribution of STEEM to other SP holders. For example, they could power down 1 million SP and then power up other SP holders pro rata according to their existing SP holdings. Somebody with 1% of total SP outstanding would receive 100k SP, somebody with 0.05% would receive 5k SP, etc.
Interesting. Thanks for the explanation.
Sure, and that's what I'd like to see. A transparent and meritocratic distribution of SP delegation far and wide.
My 6 months here have been awesome - but objectively speaking, I agree Re:stake decentralization and marketing.
As to the former, of course I understand asking a bunch of folks to divest from a valuable asset is both not entirely fair and not likely to happen.
But one of the first articles I read about steemit from 2016 mentioned the large holdings of the currency in a select few founders/early users/miners as one of the reasons it set off "pyramid scheme" alarms.
Fact is, those optics have not really changed - and they remain a big obstacle for any kind of mass adoption.
As far as marketing is concerned - I don't entirely get it. Seems like the one problem - over centralized holdings of the currency - could be ameliorated by divesting large amounts of that currency and spending money on a larger marketing plan, which would then increase the value of the currency overall and make stake decentralization's bite a bit less fierce to boot.
But I don't claim to have the answers to these issues - and my steemit experience has been unbelievable in almost every respect. From where I'm standing I have very little to complain about.
Good review / synopsis. Public Relations and Marketing are big. The best tech doesn't always win. It's all about the end user experience. I believe Steemit is on the right track. I would like to see Steemit.com look more attractive. They improved it but it could be better. Busy.org is far better than steemit.com right now in terms of the overall Steemit experience and I think we'd be better off if steemit.com just co-opted busy.org. A lot will ride on the SMT's in 2018. I agree, Ned needs to market the hell out of SMT's.
I think what was in 2017 roadmap is reflected in the results that are reached.
the end of 2017 was great for steemit..
2018 will be very different and we will see lots of new millionaires in here, besides the Platform will be very much known and will rank up for sure.
Soon Facebook, Twitter and all other social media platforms will fear Steemit revolution and this is only the beginning. I am sure of that
I do believe in STEEM, Steemit community, Steemit Inc.. A lot to be done and I can see its long term potential if not forever. Steem will rise more and more. Just keep hodling steem long enough and HODL it FIRM!!!
This is an indept review of the past and future of the steem community. It gives newbies like myself the believe in the posibilities awaiting everyone here. I hope for a brighter future with all STEEMIANS
Long artical
I was just contemplating the question of how Steemit did this past year and then I saw this post. Good timing.