Akasha is a decentralized, blockchain-based social network to be launched on top of Ethereum in Q3/Q4 2016. Sounds like a big deal, considering the existing traction and enormous capitalization of the Ethereum platform.
Will it be able to effectively compete with Steem? Let's find out.
It seems that Akasha is going to offer a similar user experience to Steemit. This is what they say regarding things you'll be able to do:
You can publish, share and vote for entries, similar to Medium and other modern publishing platforms, with the difference that your content is actually published over a decentralized network rather than on our servers.
The concept of Blogging is the new mining also looks familiar:
The votes are bundled with ETH micro transactions so if your content is good you’ll make ETH from it – in a way, mining with your mind.
So far it appears alarmingly close to Steem, doesn't it?
But let's take a look at this statement:
In the first phase ETH will be the native token used inside the AKASHA ecosystem. We chose to focus first on building a working decentralized application and learning from the actual use what sorts of problems we should be solving with a custom token.
What does it mean? For me, it means that at this stage they have no clue about the most important part of their project: the underlying economic model. Launching without their own token imposes some serious limitations. Without access to the printing press, how will the finance content creation and curation? How will they hedge their users from volatility in Ethereum's price?
And even if they decide to switch to a native token later on, how do the expect to achieve mass adoption while having to cope with transaction fees? Do they really expect that a new user will make the effort to buy their token before they even sign up? Do they expect people actively curating new content when each upvote costs you money?
IMO, no serious competition at this moment. Definitely not from Akasha.
Ita normal in this type of bussines when they see other success they want to follow the idea but they dont have an idea about all the how-to operating the bussines . this type of competition always happening around us .
Akasha take more from user but not steem they give more i believe this steem owner believe in what we called The more you give the more you get :)
Btw feel free to drop by in my blog
Thanks !
my problem with steem its more of a blogging platform than alternative to reddit. i would love to see someone build a reddit like UI on top of steemit
Akasha transaction is not free, to write a post will have to pay
Transaction in Steem free
I think this is enough
Gas guzzler vs steem engine... one is DOA, the other is "choo-choo"ing...
Sorry, couldn't withhold my cryptonerdiness :P
Take a look at this guy. He want to make 1001 comments in one day. How much it would cost him on Akasha and how long it takes to confirm?
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@eeks/my-name-is-eeks-and-i-am-going-to-write-1-001-comments-today-to-meet-as-many-steemians-as-possible
I expect to see other social platforms trying to play this market. But steem has already exploded onto the seen and they are going full steem ahead. Though there are lots of critics out there I think the way they have addressed their coin platform with steem power steem and steem dollars was brilliant
No.
I have been following Akasha for a while now. They are just not moving fast enough, and now with all the funding Steemit has, I doubt they'll ever be able to catch up. I do hope they do - competition is vital!
They don't have near the frenzied bonanza that is STEEMIT.
Who knows? Maybe it will do well. But I've pinned my colours to the mast. I think Steemit is the next big thing.
Thanks for sharing but with all due respect, your speculation is wrong. Businesses flock towards stronger less volatile currency. That's why whole world trade in USD. Only thing wrong in their project would be to launch another coin. ETH has good traction. Large companies are hiring people to work on BTC/ETH blockchains. Increasing value of ETH will only means more people flocking to it. This is exactly what STEEM desire as well i.e. your vests STEEM Power will be worth more. But while Steem is counting on community growth, ETH will be more stable because of other projects using it. Getting it?
OK, so if they stick with ETH, please explain how they will be able to fund posting and curation rewards? Who will offer ETH to pay for it?
They will have to make investments. Like any other platform that come before them and Steemit. Steemit is novel and is a great platform. I am simply arguing on the economics of it. Would you work for Zimbabwean dollars inflating at 1000% a day or USD, inflating at 1% or deflating? Even if ETH keeps on going down in magnitude but it's value as compared to money is increasing, people will flock to it. I hope this is making sense? Ask more questions otherwise.
I dont think there needs to be competition in this area, similar to how a persons instagram pics can be set to appear on facebook and twitter, it wont take long for these platforms to allow for cross publishing. Akasha is not nearly complete and will almost certainly be delayed, Synereo is also quite a way from Beta, I think Alpha is not even ready. Steem is wayyyy ahead of the game. All 3 are slightly different and you'll probably find that anyone with one of them with have accounts on all 3. choosing 1 to invest in mostly, depending on which suits them. Great blog post by the way!
I have been waiting akasha,so i hope Friendly competition with steem & synereo.
steemit still the pioner on blockchain social media
Thanks for the info! I'll take a look.
Haha, remind me again once its ready, and if theres a Ethereum blockchain at all then
Wow. I haven't realized about akasha. Thank you for sharing this. is there any others like akasha?
The only other blockchain-based project I'm aware of is Synereo. And contrary to Akasha, in my opinion, Synereo is a very carefully designed (and quite complex) attempt at a decentralized social network. Those guys are really meticulous and thoughtful about every aspect so it will be interesting to see Synereo in action.
I think that the incentives in Steem are genius and creates user interaction.
what incentives Akasha are planning ?
That's the thing: so far they've come up with no idea for incentives.
If they declared creating their own token on top of Ethereum, one could be expect they have something interesting up their sleeves and they just don't want to reveal it at this stage. But when they declare using ETH as their token, for me it means they are completely empty-handed as far as economic ideas are concerned.
They even explicitly admit this:
So they don't even know what problems to expect, let alone solving them.
They should just fork steemit :)
In crypto you cannot go without transaction fee. No fees means that system is vulnerable to DoS attack which may slow down or stop transactions. In the Steem all transactions are inside, in the system. Transaction fee is hidden inside inflation.
I think the project seems stalled but I think there are many devs examining what Steemit is doing right and what is doing wrong. The whole thing is still a huge experiment and there are endless possibilities.
Any successful platform that is built on top of the Ethereum network will only increase the price of ether and further stabilize it.
At least they have a pretty nice logo :)
Akasha as social net future?
I think the fact that a new user will be required to acquire ETH before executing a transaction (making a post, upvoting a comment, etc) on Akasha, is a huge barrier to entry. It could serve as the default news and discussion board for the Ethereum community itself, where everyone already has ETH, but the likelihood of it growing nearly as fast as Steem, where users can jump in right away and participate, is unlikely.
Don't you just aquire ETH by just running the application (mining)? Also, you make ETH by someone replying to you, which validates your existence.
I'm just getting involved in this and it's all a bit overwhelming. It's interesting to see that there are similar platforms in the making. I'm glad that I went ahead and jumped into steem. I'm learning so much everyday!
I think that the "pay to post" issue won't be a problem. The Akasha coin will be more valuable than the Steem Dollar, because a lot a people will invest in it. There's a very good team behind this project and in the last weeks Vitalik himself started promoting this project.
I think that you can make a lot more money on Akasha than here, so ... because of this money purpose, a lot of Steemers will become Akashers :D