This is the third part of a series to critically asses the EOS project. Here are the other articles:
Part 1 - Yet another ico?
Part 2 - How is the EOS blockchain established?
Part 3 - Is the EOS dev infrastructure solid?

I feel a bit odd, writing this, since i am a basically still a noob in the Steem ecosystem, and despite its short terms of existence, there has been going on a lot already! Maneuvering through all the content here, i realise, there are so many well structured, deep digging, funny, philosophical articles from high profile steemers available already, what do i have to add to this?
If it's not for expertise, i might have to offer the view of the (benevolent) outsider, who is still a bit overwhelmed by all that has been out of my scope until very recently. And also, this is not about Steem alone, but what i could learn from it for EOS.

So to get back into the flow of this series, we've checked out several aspects of EOS, that could be weak points. I my view, everything that would have been, turned out to be specific strength, and at this point i would say, EOS could become a game changer (no financial advice!). But still, EOS is in ICO phase, there isn't a blockchain yet, so maybe all expectations are just a big pipe-dream?
So what could be more ideal than to have a predecessor platform to take a look at...

Steem... lessons learned?

So what about Steem?

As said, there are so much excellent articles out there in all varieties, i wont cover any basics here and rather address topics relevant for EOS. The most striking features of Steem are for one the applied DPOS consensus and then the idea to use the blockchain for something completely different than handling coins, tokens, and functionality around those (so what Ethereum currently is all about). Building a social media platform on the blockchain is something revolutionary.

In fact the DPOS consensus with 20 witnesses and a number of runner-up & backup witnesses works excellently, the performance is robust.
Remember Cryptocitties, that clogged Ethereum? In contrast, steem handles over 50% of all blockchain-transactions, so more then all other blockchains combined. And still it is far from being overburdend. Take a look at the stats yourself (chart taken from http://blocktivity.info/):

In addition, here are a two current reports summarizing the state of the chain:
https://busy.org/@specialaffairs/more-than-879-000-steemit-accounts-number-of-new-registrations-growth-during-the-last-weeks
https://steemit.com/steemit/@penguinpablo/weekly-steem-stats-report-monday-march-26-2018

So we have a sufficient decentralisation and incredible performance, but it goes beyond that. With witnesses candidates competing to be among the top 20, there is not only a stable performance but also open communication transparency and community efforts done, by those witnesses, which is really impressive.
This also seems to help with governance and the improvement of the tech. Although there is quite some controversy about the direction, hardforks are made by consensus between the 20 witnesses together with Steemit, the company (not sure if i got this right, if you know details please share!).
All the crazy stuff the rest of the crypto world associates with hardforks doesn't exist on Steem, there is no Steem Cash, Steem Gold etc. (or are there?)
So everything perfect with steem, right?

How does Steem perform as a social network platform?

Please don't get this into the wrong throat now, but the first few times i stumbled over steemit (without knowing anything about it), i wondererd, what clunky reddit rippoff is that? How has this become popular with crypto aficionados? Well now i know ;-)
Of course it's on the blockchain!, decentralised!, immutable! etc. that sets it apart from the rest of the current social networks. Of course it's a young platform, but still, there is room to improvement.

So what about the content, the community?
There is the slogan, Steem works by Proof of brain, meaning that the best content will get the most upvotes, visibility and thus monetary rewards. In my view that is only half the truth. Well like in many social media networks it takes time and effort to be recognized and receive valuable feedback, by building a community and engaging with it, and although i have been here a few weeks only, i'd say those things can be found and enjoyed on here, and the more i am getting into it, the more exciting content i do discover!

Yet there is much more noise, than on other platforms, and in addition to that, the noise very seldomly offers anything inspiring. And i feel this is where the monetary incentive comes in as second (not secondary!) factor. A very addictive one, that is still quite different from community and content incentives. This way interaction on steem quickly turns to be operational, like which strings need to be pulled for gains being important, and content and interaction might fade to the background.

Some built in factors even encourage this, e.g. you are allowed to upvote yourself (which makes no sense at all from a community point of view, e.g. you can on FB but no one ever does it, because its just odd), or by using bots to upvote and resteem yourself, even automatic services. Sometimes it seems to be more about passive income, than human interaction. You buy in, then collect interest, the content doesn't really matter. If you compare it to commercial networks like Facebook etc.this isn't really surprising, as you can always simply buy reach there as well. Reddit in comparison delivers much more content and discussion based focus though (it's a much larger platform i know, but still!), so its definitely superior as regards the mentioned brain power.

In the end it's all about the balance between entertainment and promotion. That hasn't changed from the Print & TV era. And this is totally fine in its own right, but might become a problem, e.g. if the Steem price (along with the crypto market) keeps declining further, and not everyone participating is a winner here.

(inspired by @alpacho78)

Development of the Steem platform

As mentioned above, the development process on steem is organised quite smoothly for blockchain standards. So let's have a quick look
So let's take a look what's up to come!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@simonjay/hardfork-20-some-changes-5-1-2018

Communities! This sounds excellent, because on the current steem platform it's really hard to get a filter for ones interest.
Even more important seem to be smart media tokens though, which calls an analogy with ethereum, which is supposed to be the world-computer, but currently succeeds only as platform for icos. So how is that relevant to a social media platform, but one that needs improvement of it's user experience?

Anyhow, the upcoming hardfork also intends to rebalance the monetary incentives built int the platform:
https://busy.org/@penguinpablo/psa-changes-to-the-curation-rewards-in-hardfork-20

This looks like a small, but necessary step, to rebalance monetary and community incentives, especially now that new onchain competitors are about to arise, and the old platform no longer guarantees payouts, if the crowd moves on or disperses. To survive it requires an attractive offer. It might not be enough, but with working governance it's not impossible.
Competition can be motivating!

We have learned something today... did we?

How is all this relevant for the comparison to EOS?
First of all, the DPOS consensus really performs well, it solves a lot of issues, most other blockchain techs simply fail too solve.
As regards the offered service, i see a significant need to improve the service, this includes as well the user experience from the front-end-side but also the fun and dynamics of a social media platform, which in steem is currently too heavily biased towards the monetary end and without a crypto-bullmarket might struggle to be sustainable, in particular with an uppicking competition.

So looking at EOS, many might imagine incredible gains ahead, not only in token price, but ideally in stake we rent out at a profit. It will be critical for EOS as a platform that it offers services that are attractive for users, developers and business, and high gains for investors are contrary to that.

Of course no one knows what the right balances is, and therefore a governance, that allows for a constant and smooth process of adaption will be the key for long-term success in rapidly changing markets, and onchain competitors building their projects.
Quite likely this is what the EOS constitution addresses, the final and maybe most bold and far reaching feature, that EOS promises.
I guess this is topic enough for yet another article...

The information provided here sums up the results of my own - finite - research. If you've found this piece interesting or useful, please up-vote and resteem and help spread the word. If you have spotted any addition, or if you see things differently, please throw in your thoughts and comments! I am always happy to discuss and learn!

EOS - Peeking under the hood - Series:
Part 1 - Yet another ico?
Part 2 - How is the EOS blockchain established?
Part 3 - Is the EOS infrastructure solid?
Part 4 - Steem... lessons learned? <-- YOU ARE HERE
Part 5 - The platform that comes with a constitution? - OUT NOW