My Background and Vision for Steem
Hello Steemians, I’m Justin and I’m the Head of Engineering for Steemit, Inc. and in the following video I explain to @andrarchy (Head of Communications at Steemit) a little about my background, what I’ve been doing at Steemit for the last 3 years, and where I see Steem going in the future. I hope you enjoy it. To learn more about who else is on the Steemit Team and what they do, you can visit the “About” page on steem.com.
Finding Steem
What drew me to Steem was the fact that it used the same technology pioneered by Bitcoin to give people full ownership over their words, so that their voice couldn’t be easily taken away. I believe that everyone needs a platform. Everyone needs a voice and Steem is the protocol best able to deliver that to people, just like Bitcoin was able to deliver a currency to everyone. Of course, the beauty of Steem is that it does that too. It gives you ownership over your voice, it gives you a fast-and-fee-less token, it gives you a fast-and-fee-less stablecoin, and pretty soon it will give you the ability to launch your very own currency as well, once we release the Smart Media Tokens protocol.
My Vision for Steem
My vision for Steem is that it one day becomes a household name - that it’s something that everyone will see on whatever application they happen to be using. I see it being commonplace to see the words “Powered by Steem" because it will just become how you do social media and cryptocurrency in the future.
Delays
We definitely wish we were much closer to achieving this vision. Several important projects have experienced delays, but that’s because we’ve been tackling problems that no one had even thought of before, because no one’s ever done this (a large scale social media network on a blockchain) before. Those problems had to be solved with software like Hivemind and MIRA before we could scale this to the masses.
Positioned to Thrive
But since we have solved those problems, we now find ourselves in a really good position today with Steem being one of, if not the most, advanced blockchain in many different and powerful ways.
Feedback
I hope to do more videos and posts like this in the future, so please use the comment section below to ask me any questions you’d like me to answer in the future.
Hello,
I absolutely love the communication. I do have a question about smart media tokens. I have a small understanding abou them and i would like to know why it is important to be able to have your own currency? Doesn't that take away from steem?
I really do appreciate all the info you gave! Thanks Beth
That's a great question and one we plan on exploring in posts in the very near future through @steemitblog, so be sure to give that account a follow if you haven't already. In short, SMTs won't take away from Steem because they will actually create more demand for Steem. The reasons why are technical, but I don't think that's the important part. The important thing is that every community has their own values and their own social norms. Different people value different things in different ways. That's why they need their own currency. We've spoken to countless developers and community leaders over the years and they all say the same thing, "We want our own Steem-like token." In order for Steem to be adopted by the masses it has to offer them features that they find valuable. One thing we know for sure: people like creating their own cryptocurrencies. As the team behind the blockchain, it's our job to make sure that everything ties back into Steem making the whole thing economically sustainable and scalable, so that when features are added that do add value, all stakeholders share in the upside. If you would like to learn more technical details you can read the whitepaper at steem.com.
Thanks. Nice explanations
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
Thank you. This information really explains a lot. I appreciate you taking the time.
I was today years old when I learned what SMT was.
https://smt.steem.com/ 🙂
Thanks. This information really help me a lot.
谢谢你提供的信息，希望你也能关注我！
I am an Arborist by trade and lately spend most of my time helping organizations in the Phoenix, AZ area to build intensive gardens that have food available year round. Due to the way we plan these sites out using companion perennial plants and lots of trees that all work together to provide specific nutrients to each other, they become established within 3 years at which time they no longer require any fertilizer or organic matter inputs and little to zero water besides the rain. At this point the only required maintenance is to gather the ripe food when it is available so it doesn't attract pests plus to prune everything so they don't overgrow each other while competing for sunlight. Each time we prune we can take the cuttings and make a new tree, plant, vine or root vegetable which we will buy from the client and sell to the next client who is starting their forest. We started a cryptocurrency on Ethereum so that we could use it to keep track of value that we could disperse to clients so they can use it to hire our services as well as purchase new trees and plants. Ether is way too expensive to send small amounts of tokens through their platform. Do you know if Steem would be at a lesser costs for micro-transactions? If so who could I talk to about development? I am not a developer and barely know how to code. I actually learned Solidity so we could develop a simple token to use and am willing to try other platforms. Just wish I knew that the transactions wouldn't have worked as I spent 6 months working 20 hours a week to figure how to code the little bit that I know....
Yes, absolutely Steem can be used to easily solve your problem. Not only would the cost of your transactions be lower ... they'd be FREE. That's because all transactions on Steem are free. Not only that, but you won't need to learn any blockchain specific code at all. Right now you can take advantage of Steem-Engine tokens to solve that problem. We are also far along with our own development of our Smart Media Tokens protocol which will enable you to launch a token directly on the Steem blockchain. But we still haven't announced a release date for that, and Steem-Engine tokens should allow you to solve that problem. If you'd like to speak to some amazing Steem developers, stop by this discord channel here: https://discord.gg/PjmRDd
You know I post my videos on youtube about how bad you are, censoring me here so, I just post everywhere else about it - don't you know! lol
#blamebeth
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
I have a suggestion @justinw ...
Can we please limit the witness votes to 5-10 per account? It makes no sense for everyone to have 30 votes when basically the top 20 witnesses decide things. That means that if someone gets enough stake they can vote in all the top 20 witnesses themselves, which is basically what we have happening right now with just a couple of the largest whales determining who the top witnesses are...
That is anything but decentralized and a risk to the long term survival of this place.
That's an interesting idea, you should talk to the witnesses about it. In general, I think we are in favor of at least getting this discussion started as something to maybe be implemented in a future hardfork. If someone makes a great post about this, we'd be happy to feature it.
The problem is that some of the current witnesses may be against it as it may directly impact their 'earnings' and a seat at the Top 20 table...
That is part of the problem with this system, the foxes are watching the hen house.
But this is something we absolutely need to change for this place to be even remotely decentralized. As it stands right now we have 2 stake holders basically deciding 19 of top 20 witnesses... that has to change.
I think the best way to address this problem is to bring it out into the open - if they are against this change, get them to say it (and why they are against it) on a public featured post.
Ok, I will do that. Does it require a HF to make this change?
Yes, it would - and the solution might not be quite as simple as one would think. It would require some discussion as to what the best way to implement it would be. The issue that would need a creative, safe, and fair solution would be how to remove existing votes, and which ones to remove.
We would have to reset all votes and then people would have to go back and re-vote for those they want. That would actually be a good thing as there are some dormant votes on there that likely don't need to be. The more I think about this, the more I think something in the 5 vote range would be ideal.
But yes, we would need to make sure the chain continues running while the unvote/re-voting process takes place... for that perhaps we just keep the same top 20 in there for the first 24-48 hours until there has been some time for votes to be recast and a new top 20 set?
I just read that steem couldn't handle something the size of Instagram built on it currently, is that true?
@jondoe see my response to @oldtimer asking a similar question on this post but in another thread.
Ok thanks. Did you see my suggestion about limiting witness votes per account as well?
Yes - answered on that thread 👍 🙂
I can’t get the link to work. May I have the URL please.
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
Good to see that you finally have an "about" page, so that Steemit, Inc. doesn't look like a secret organisation anymore but like a software/blockchain company. :)
A little suggestion would be to add the STEEM user name of every team member to his real name.
For example, as far as I know @roadscape is a developper of the Steemit team but I cannot assign this user name to any face on the "about" page.
We've talked a little about adding steem account names to that page and I believe we will probably be doing that. Thanks for your suggestion @jaki01!
Great, I think that would also emphazise that the Steemit, Inc. staff is really using their own site ...
Even in case you should finally decide against my suggestion I appreciate that you are replying (communicating with the community). :)
By the way (I mentioned it before already) I really wonder why steemit.com isn't already registered at Brave as a BAT recipient (like for example CoinMarketCap), which would create quite some additonal earnings?
steemit.com isn't among the sites earning BAT:
Thanks - we actually have been looking into this and I believe the hold up is with uphold (pun intended). If you're not familiar, uphold is a centralized exchange/wallet service and our account has not been approved yet (requirements and KYC for businesses is much different than invividuals). Unfortunately, BAT rewards can only be claimed with one of these uphold.com centralized exchange accounts.
Thanks for this enlightening reply!
He's a con artist! lol
Flag @themarkymark!
What are main engineering obstackles for steem right now? What problems consume most of your time?
And how do you evaluate current speed of development on steem?
Great video, I've always appreciated your communication style.
Also loved that you talked about your vision for Steem.
I really encourage the SteemIt, Inc team to make posts like this from time to time.
Benefits: Humanizes us to each other. Keeps the community up to date, when people know what is happening they don't fill in the blanks.
From your side it gives you a feel for tools the end users are dealing with and helps when trying to envision changes like the wallet.
If you are used to using the site... You can have a better grasp of it.
Thank you for the video.
@whatsup
Thanks @whatsup - I agree 100%, and #newsteem is paving the way to the future!
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
I absolutely agree with you, up until now i don't think i have felt as connected as i have seeing this particular blog post by the engineer. It made me feel like i knew who was accountable for what, and not just knowing the CEO alone. Big thumbs... More of this development please.
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
So here's where u all have been hiding!
Great to hear from you and i love the idea of people knowing that every app and blog is powered by STEEM. I think that it's a powerful message and one worth broadcasting to the world. Obviously there has been issues over the past few years and it will take time to get things right.
It seems that the group has really turned things around in the past 6 months which is great and there is a new drive and more transparency to the people watching. While the back end is vital to the future of the platform I do feel that the front end has been left behind from the start.
What I would love to hear about soon are the plans to onboard people instantly. Have a smooth and simple interface for people to use the different aspects of the chain and have a great users experience from start to finish. In my opinion we have lost a lot of traction from these issues which are vital to growth, price and investment. Unfortunately we will never have the next Instagram until people can create an account instantly and find the right app for them.
I would love to see steem.com as a gateway to all of the apps and games on the chain with live feeds and interesting posts from the different tribes. As a technology company driving cutting edge blockchain tech it does seem a bit of a contradiction that the two main sites for the company are a long way behind the use cases.
Hopefully after the hardfork we can see some information about getting ready for mass adoption and creating a simple and enticing place to join the apps or create your own. Things are looking up and i'm glad to be here as they do. I just wan't to see the basics right for that to happen.
Thanks - this is a great and well thought out comment. Smoother onboarding is certainly something on our minds and will get the attention it deserves in time. One step at a time, right now our focus is on a smooth rollout of HF21, Communities, and Smart Media Tokens - but don’t worry, onboarding will certainly not be forgotten.
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
I believe the future is bright for steem
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of
@justinw is a cool guy. Despite his busy schedule, he's always helpful and answers questions in a friendly respectful manner. Keep it up. Respect to the beard of Steem.
I like the beard part lol.
Yeah right, this guy doesn’t answer jack!
glad to hear from you. While it's important that you guys talk the show, it's much important that you walk the show. Keep up the good work. Good luck
https://steemit.com/justin-welch/@coininstant/breaking-news-this-is-why-i-have-such-a-hard-time-typing-and-spelling-on-steemit-com-interface-attn-justinw-head-engineer-of