Yesterday, Ned held his streaming video. During it, he answered a lot of questions and spelled out some of his views on the direction of Steemit, Inc.
The basic premise is he broke down Steemit's present focus into two categories. One is the development of blockchain with the second being social media.
I must say, to nobody's surprise, I agree with the conclusions that Ned came to. A lot of what he said I wrote about over the last few months.
One of the big things he mentioned was the original vision for Steemit. This company was set up to build a blockchain that provided the tools for developers to establish businesses and create great projects. While Steemit still did that, they got a bit expanded in their focus. This caused them problems.
For a number of months I have contested the idea of the importance of Steemit.com. One of the biggest issues is the confusion between Steem and Steemit. Obviously, the names being so close is the cause. This is only enhanced by the fact that Steemit.com is the most popular app in terms of usage and the landing page. It also was the only way people could sign up until recently.
Naturally, Steemit.com is part of the social media and perhaps it was needed in the early days. Now, however, there are better options out there. Both busy.org and @steempeak provide a much better user experience. Their development teams have a greater vision with those applications while also adding new features and updates. Steemit.com simply does not compete and, hence, is not worthy of any resources.
I was happy to see that Ned feels this way also.
On the development side, one of the main moves is to switch to rockdb. I am not a techie so I cannot explain this fully but it is a move that will save Steemit a great deal of money in how the blockchain is stored. It will take a while to get implemented yet will keep costs down on an ongoing basis versus the present system.
It was good to see they did take the long term view on that instead of a quick fix.
Personally, I am content to have Steemit focusing upon the development only. I do not want them involved in social media. They need to stay away from marketing. Their sole reason, for a while, only needs to be the blockchain and the associated support mechanisms.
That said, since Steemit.com is still widely used, I believe that a percentage of the posts should be used for development. I think people are now realizing there are no free rides with sites and networks. Applications take a portion of the payouts to fund their operations. Steemit.com should do the same. I believe 5%-10% is acceptable and in line with some of the other applications.
This is not a long term solution but can assist in raising some of the $2M that is spent annually. By the way, some of the moves Ned mentioned that are being made will cut that number to $1.25M in the medium term.
Ned's overriding attitude was "all options are on the table". This is good to see. I am hoping the other developers in this ecosystem are brought in to assist with some of the challenges going forward. As I stated yesterday, we need responsibilities decentralized. Depending upon one organization for everything is a mistake while exposing us all to 3rd party counter risk.
Unfortunately, it does appear that SMTs are on the back burner at this moment. One suggestion that seems like it will garner some discussion is the idea of creating a scaled down SMT which allows DApps to create a token without all the features of SMT. This is something they could explore as a way to get a MVP out there. More functionality can be added later.
It is no surprise that Steemit, Inc is in "survive, not thrive" mode at the moment. Mistakes were made and it was put in a hole. Now it is time to start digging out.
I will say that the communication the last few days was encouraging. It appears the community is brought up to speed and Ned is intent on keeping the lines of communication open. This is positive.. Over the next couple months, I am sure we will see a lot of posts with ideas offered up as the best way to proceed forward. I only hope that Ned and the rest of the development team takes them to heart and seriously considers them.
There are a lot of smart people on here who understand what needs to be done. Steemit, Inc needs to tap into that ability.
It will be better served for it.
Less is more.
It is time for Steemit, Inc to concentrate it's focus and do what it does well.
And the community needs to hold them to this.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and resteem.
Like I've pointed out in both my previous articles, we need to hear things in layman words. The "expert-language" being used doesn't work. At all.
This recent live stream... Having a special guest who says 10 words in total before he leaves ~55 minutes later... Looks like Ned was in need of a wingman during these harsh times. Nothing special about that guest at all.
The majority of the users on Steemit are non-experts and will never become experts. They use Steemit the same way they use Facebook and Twitter. They share things with one major difference. On Steemit, they have the chance to earn money. That's the only reason for these people to be here. To constantly being fed with all this "expert-talk" doesn't do any good. It gives experts and "advanced" users a better understanding of things, but the majority of the people end up being even more miserable and anxious.
To hear that Steemit.com is about to die doesn't make things better for these people. I received several messages on Discord within minutes after the live stream was over.
I got questions like:
People doesn't understand the difference between Steem and Steemit, and that's a huge issue. An issue one should've been focusing on from the get-go. You can't rely on the average users to get a better understanding. You need to trim down the "tech-talk" and put things into layman words so a kid can understand. That's the only way you'll be able to spread the word and get people to jump on board.
Even though I personally enjoyed and liked many of the in-depth explanations and answers Ned gave us, the average user doesn't understand a single thing better. It worries them even more, and that's a big problem.
Are we looking for mass adoption or are STINC searching for a different audience? When will Steemit.com die? To hear that the CEO has fired 70% of the people doesn't make things better... It gives those who already understand certain things an even better explanation, but it brings anxiety to the average users.
I still love the opportunity Steem and Steemit have given and still gives me, but things are going downhill, and has been going downhill for a very long time. - None of these things comes as a surprise to me.
I don't blame Ned personally or anything like that, but the lack of leadership and understanding of the audience is and has been terrible since the start. It seems that STINC never knew their audience, and that's the biggest problem.
Real comment
Yes it is. Yours is more doubtfull though. But, by saying this, i am obviously doing not better.
So...Let me send you much love to make this bandwidth usage more valuable.
Posted using Partiko Android
Completely agree with you mate.
Posted using Partiko Android
8 weeks were supposedly missing in order to finish smt development and launch the testnet. I find it really shitty to cancel SMTs so close to finishing it. Finishing it could have multiplied the value of Steem 20x....
Now after announcing the stop of smt development and also announcing that steemit Inc will have to keep dumping steems without innovations coming anytime soon, they will be forced to dump everything BELOW 10 cents ... Perhaps 1 cent. But I keep my conservative target of 10 cents for now.
The decisions being made by @ned regarding liquidity management were horrible in the last 8 months as it seems.... But the decisions now taken could end steemit Inc or Steem. I for now who was a fierce supporter and recommended Steem to friends will have to warn everybody of this possibility and not take Steem prices below 10 cents as a gift, but as a high risk investment which most likely will fail.
You think you can make more informed decisions than the CEO of Steemit Inc? The tunnel-vision focus on SMTs has been a mistake from the start, as I have said time and time again.
Multiply that 8 weeks by 2, because ETAs that far out are always underestimated. Now multiply it by two again to fix the bugs that you weren't expecting. Now multiply that by four because you just lost the majority of your staff.
SMTs are over a year away.
You forget that SMTs are already a year delayed. The Steemit team said that this time they were so confident Steem could be launched at that date that they even gave the exact day. Jan 24th. I said to myself, ok, a year later... at least now they commit to delivering it...
Now, I wonder if we will ever see them... I lately read that they have over 60 million Steems still around... Could they not have finished SMTs first?? 2 months of pay surely will not be more than 2-3 million... After that, theire stake could be worth 500 million again. Now the price will keep dropping and no one will want to buy in... as Steemit Inc will have to keep dumping until the bitter end.... and everyone knows that.
I did same with my friends ('steem can fail' that's absurd to me), but now I tell them, invest at your own risk lol
Posted using Partiko Android
I don't agree on the SMTs. They are nothing special at all and used already on many other big chains (like Tron, EOS etc). It's time for people to realize, that SMTs are just a fancy name for tokens on a blockchain and these won't save Steem nor Steemit.
The only thing that may help now, is if a big player like Tron buys Steemit and let it run on their blockchain. This is what's going to happen when Ned realizes, that the battle is lost and to win the war, he has to join forces.
https://www.stateofthedapps.com/rankings
The majority of dapps in the top 10 is held by Steem at the moment... I think as soon as Steem has SMT's Steem will have what EOS and Tron already have and what holds back the valuation... Without SMTs forget it... I agree...
Well, this list is deceiving and doesn't feature most dapps that are heavily used. Take Tronbet - it has about 400k transactions alone (had days with 1M+) and more users than Steemit. This list only looks good for Steemit, when you remove the top dapps from other chains. Yes, most of them are gambling, but wait for some weeks and you'll see social media dapps shooting to the top there too.
It's unfortunate to say the least it's a rather huge hit as so many where waiting on smt this company to me is looking shady the longer I have been here to be honest they need to put up or shut up. There seems to be a lot of complaining and reduction instead of getting butts in gear. Ask the community to help out. I mean I'd boot up a server myself if I knew how but it's not like I'd ever get voted lol. Part of the reason I dislike dpos and rather be pos
Posted using Partiko Android
WTF does stinc do well again lol? Y'all r delusional at best! But, I'd be grasping at straws too if I'd invested all the time and energy you guys did into a pseudo decentralized mlm scheme that closely resembles the real world of bankster pranksters that own all of us. There is no hope in @ned ramblings that could only ever be understood by those infected with steem dreams. Wake the fuck up! It's a cool place to talk shit and flag people for getting in your way or making u butt hurt. Steem ain't shit and won't be shit with all u circle jerk too much time on your hand nerds applauding pure failure.
Yea I'm new and I got no friends here, but at least I'm not so disillusioned in another fake ass revolution to believe some cocksucker that basically built a bubble and y'all bought it hook line n sinker. Mass adoption LMFAO! Social media hardly! It's a shitshow in here and it's painfully obvious to anyone that hasn't lost their marbles..the concept is cool the practicality is crack head fiend nonsense
Posted using Partiko Android
Yep https://steempeak.com is in it for the long run with some cool stuff coming up.
When it comes the time we'll handle a switch to a paid node. And i'll personally feel better for less centralization. And even still our operating costs will be low and our potential high.
Next up we'll fix onboarding and stop relying on a focus of marketing to ONLY steem users. 60k users just isn't enough for a a whole ecosystem that isn't even selling a product. Steempeak itself should break away from being reliant on waiting on others to bring in the masses... a good company markets and solidifies it's own users and not just takes away from lesser competition. And while i understand your concern about steemit's front end experience and the effect it has on new users if an APP is doing their job there should be thousands or hundreds of thousands of users who when they hear the word steemit they ask... "what's steemit? Is that like steempeak?" And i hope @busy.org and @partiko and the others are also doing the same. There should be thousands of people joining apps like @steemmonsters and @appics and i would count it as a mark of success if they have never even heard of steemit.com or steemit inc
So move password changing to steem.com or is there some sort of completly trustless and decentralized way to change passwords?
Wait, you have solution to the painfully slow onboarding Steem Inc offers? That would be the best news in ages. :)
Yep should be good. I know some others have solutions in the works... but it'll be good to have a front end like steempeak to have it. We just need to dig out some time to get it programmed and up and running. We get things done efficiently but we are a small team
That is awesome. I know @steemmonsters solved it by selling a product, but having a social media front end figuring it out would make things perfect. That's it, I'm super bullish on Steem again. :)
I just bought a bunch of steem... so i expect to see you make those prices rise again ;)
Or wait for me to buy a bit more in a few days. haha
I bought 1k SBD I'm converting to Steem. Gonna do it again next month if SBD continues to remain under $1, if not then I'll go straight to Steem. Either way it will end with me powering it all up. :)
Do you think this could towards greater decentralization?
Them not focusing upon the social media aspect of things allows the DApps to take over in that area. That is one form of decentralizing and getting out from under Steemit.
In terms of the development, I do not know. I cant tell if they will allow more outside developers to see what is going on. We will have to watch the interaction with steemit and the witnesses.
Amen brother, it's time to cut the pie in the sky and focus on core blockchain. Time to grow the STEEM tree with steemit as just a branch. I'm utilizing esteem surfer 2.0 now mostly myself.
Hopefully they will do what Ned was talking about yesterday. By the way, do you know if with the wallet of Busy one can transfer, power up and trade Steem? Do you still use Steemit when buying Steem from Blocktrades or are there any other DApps that do this?
Posted using Partiko Android
On busy, you can buy and transfer. The only thing I use steemit for is to swap my sbd for steem. Yes I do use blocktrades.
There might be a way to convert sbd to steem on Busy, I never really dug into it.
Thank you!
Posted using Partiko Android
You can transfer, power up/down, convert and use the internal market on steemworld.org for example. If steemit.com went away, all of the functions would be covered by one dapp or another.
The problem with this sentiment is that whilst other apps take commission, dTube to name but one. None of them have the ability to create the reward pool. Steemit literally prints its own currency.
So perhaps it should be paying itself from that, maybe it would amount to the same thing, however it does at least sound better.
I'm very disappointed to hear that SMTs have been all but scrapped. We've been waiting almost two years for them, however as you said, we are in survive not thrive mode.
Here's hoping other devs can create apps that will make the Steem blockchain irresistible.
Cg
This post got an extra 5 power for following us
Follow @elsurtidor to get biggest votes in your next posts
Ah crumbs! The video's not working for me. Will have to search it out elsewhere. I didn't take time to watch it yet. I was waiting to see follow-ups like yours to get a feel for where things are at. It's super unfortunate that SMT's are off the back burner and shelved at the moment. Part of me feels like there's pressure from 'big brother' to 'stay in line' or something of that nature towards the Steem Team. Maybe I am out to lunch. We will see what happens. Did it seem to you that the Steemit team seems kean on leaning into the resources of the community to get through this? I didn't get that feeling from your review. That's really where the change will come it seems. Like a 'soft fork' and as you say a better aimed decentralized space. What is 'MVP'? I didn't quite understand that term either. I am also wondering what will happen when we see a market reversal. Will that also change things when price of Steem can get back over $1 or more. The low prices will stay a while but they could turn on a dime too. Then what!?? Great article! Thank-you for sharing your outlook and perspective! Have a wonderful day 🙏🎶😊
MVP = minimum viable product.
I havent seen enough of Ned to know his demeanor or tonality but he seemed a bit humbled and contrite.
I cant answer whether he is now more willing to lean on the community or not. The development team is still in place so that is a positive.
The big thing is the masters nodes...they are costly from what I could gather. There will have to be changes made there going forward.
Ah, yes. Thank-you for your in depth reply @taskmaster4450. What a huge stepping stone for the blockchain. Prayers the community can take this sleeping bull by the horns. So we can have the reliable decentalised mechanism that is so needed. Or, this becomes a huge lesson and we start again. Time will tell. It makes me realize how fond i have become of such a group if relative strangers in such a short time. God bless us all!
I think that the best approach is to work together to make the blockchain itself sustainable for everyone to build on. I would discount and even write off Steemit Inc’s ability to develop and focus on decentralizing that as well. It will come with tradeoffs like becoming an even more freemium model but will be well worth given that the value created by developing will be shares among more of the stakeholders instead of the powerful few.
Posted using Partiko iOS
I agree with your proposal. If we pay other dapps for beneficiary rewards why steemit cannot envisage this possibility... as well as the advertising option. ..lack of management IMO
Posted using Partiko iOS
I think Steemit lost its chance to make a plesant user experience long time ago. After almlost three years in operation the site looks and behaves in a really basic mode and is still a little confusing to the new user. On the other hand the recent decentraliszed apps who are being build ontop of Steem are gaining momentum. The developpers behind these projects, in my opinion, are doing a far better jobs in developing and promoting the Steem ecosystem.
I'm not so sure anymore if the private company Steemit inc. is really interested in building the next generation social media or are hoping that some other project like dtube or busy will bring the masses to the network.
These problems have nothing to do with the falling price of btc.
Change my mind!
Congratulations @taskmaster4450! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Hi @taskmaster4450!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 6.154 which ranks you at #256 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 189 contributions, your post is ranked at #7.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server