Steem And The "Siloed" Internet: The Battle Lines Are Drawn

I recently read that 85% of all Internet traffic is due to Google and Facebook. That is a figure that should astound people if accurate. Logic tells me there is no reason to dispute those findings since we know how big both those entities are in terms of the time people spend on their sites.

The present Internet has become a "siloed" system. For those who are unaware of this term, it means that basically the Internet is divided up into different groups that basically control the entire arena. Another term that is commonly used is ecosystem. These "systems" are controlled by commercial entities such as Amazon, Apple, FB, Google, Microsoft, and a few others. All information is separate among each entity with all looking to control the data provided to them. Nothing is shared among them and, in fact, people need to log out of one ecosystem to enter another one. These companies are adept at psychological control meaning they do a fantastic job keeping people's attention. For this, they reap billions of dollars in advertising and data mining.

While all these institutions are not involved in this, social media is one of the largest sectors on the Internet. When you consider the size of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit, the numbers get overwhelming. There are roughly 3.5 Billion accounts on the major social media sites, more than the number of people who are online. Naturally, many of these are duplicate or, outright, fake. Nevertheless, it is safe to say the scale of this sector is huge.

In my view, the steem blockchain is a direct threat to the entire social media spectrum. @ned and the development team put together a system that really gives people an alternative to the traditional model that they operated under for the last 10 years. Before going any further, please keep in mind the difference between the blockchain that is called steem and the steemit site. They are two different entities.

For those who might be new here, the steem platform operates very similar to Facebook or Reddit in that the users provide the content which, in turn, generates revenue (money). The major difference is that the steem algorithms are designed to share the proceeds with the content creators, something that Facebook and the others fail to do. Hence, we have a system which rewards Wall Street versus one that rewards the people doing the work.

Let me state that again:

We have a system which rewards Wall Street versus one that rewards the people doing the work.

This is the battle we will see fought over the next few years. Steem developed Smart Media Tokens which are the major cannon in this conflict. This was designed with the prospects of giving any site that has content creation and voting the ability to monetize itself. I am going to forecast this is going to be of great appeal to many content providers. In short, this could revolutionize the publishing industry.

Another aspect of this battle is the fact that steem erases the "silo" system. The steem blockchain provides the protocol which developers build apps. This is no different than Facebook (which is an app) built upon the existing protocols of the Internet. The major difference is that all data read is on the blockchain, not within the app. Hence, one is able to access both steemit and dtube using the same log in. This is akin to not only using the same information to enter both Youtube and Facebook but all your Facebook followers automatically following you on Youtube.

The final aspect of this is the idea of Facebook or Google creating their own token, hence implementing their own reward system. This could take place although I surmise it won't happen anytime soon since they are making too much money under the present system. Until their profits are hit, it is business as usual. However, the answer to that is, once again, smart media tokens. According to the white paper, any site that creates its token using SMTs will provide the power that comes from having steem power. This means that the SP you have on steemit will also apply to any site that ends up tokenized on this blockchain.

Do you realize how huge that is? Granted, the curation reward system might vary from site to site just like it does from Steemit to busy.org. However, if you have a vote with 1000 SP on steemit, you will have the same voting power on any other site. Going back to the siloed world, even if Facebook and Google develop their own tokens, your coin accumulation on one will have no bearing on the other. They are still separate ecosystems, not interacting at all.

People talk about censorship, decentralization, and data control. While these are important issues, I feel this entire subject comes down to who is getting paid. As people become more accustomed to being compensated for how they spend their time and what they add to an "ecosystem", they are going to want to share in the proceeds. Steem is already established to do this. For the past decade, when it comes to social media, the proceeds went to Wall Street. Today, because of steem, the ability for people to direct a large portion of the proceeds to themselves is available to anyone.

In the end, the silos that presently rule the Internet are going to fall. We are moving to the next stage of evolution of this technology. The established entities are going to fight hard to keep their eggs yet it will be a fruitless proposition. My view is that the steem blockchain will be one of the more powerful ones around.

And just to add some excitement, I believe you will see $100 steem in under 5 years.

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