Steemit is just an access gate to the blockchain. Everyone treats steemit.com as if it were the blockchain itself. Steemit was built because noone else was developing gates.
We may now have busy.org, steempeaks and whatnot, but the only real difference is their design interface. We have nothing that is content-specific or that engages with steemians in any different way. Well, we've got stuff like steemhunt, but does anyone really read it? I don't think any non-steemians do.
Actually, we do have something. @ongame's http://www.ongame.io/ is a brand new way everyone can interact with content in the blockchain. I think their website is kind of restrictive in what we can post, but that only has to be further developed.
What I'm saying is... People think too much of steemit.com. It was only meant of an example use case.
Let's say ongame.io provided a website more fleshed out, with guest commenting and ad revenue, providing free steem accounts (created from RC) to anyone who signed up through them, while at the same time, being able to provide steem power delegations and upvotes thanks to ad revenue.
There are lots of unexplored business models that only the steem blockchain can support currently. People just haven't though about it. I can't do anything myself since I don't have the money or sponsorship, so I'm left with my only option: rant.
And you rant so well! I think you are on the right track as well.
Do you know how many RC you need to create just 1 account? As a new dolphin, I'm about one-tenth of the way to being able to create an extra account. Who has that much RC that they could create thousands of accounts for others? It would likely be more efficient just to pay for new accounts with Steem.
Who said anything about thousands of accounts? That has nothing to do with anything I said - or the post itself. Oh, and It takes around 7k sp to create an account. You're clearly way above one-tenth.
This is where I understood the thousands of accounts from.
Super! I'm closer to being able to make an account than I thought!
Something like what @engrave does is also a very good example. I wish it had easy ad implementation options, though.
We are going to introduce it soon. Stay tuned.
It doesn't have to be thousands. I.e. A project can offer "free content hosting" using ad revenue to sustain it. I.e. dtube if it used ads.
Still, I agree that account creation should be cheap, dead cheap. In fact, if we made account creation super cheap but made it so every account created required 1 SP powered up to function and that 1 SP can never be powered down, we'd be getting nice deflation and defense against random bot accounts.
IMO that sounds even more expensive. Projects can offer trial accounts with 15 SP delegated for a month or so, which costs a lot less than 1 steem. What happens with that account's SP/ownership/etc depends on the terms between project and end user.
The problem with that is that 15 SP will not be enough for the person to earn. The only way is through generosity from a whale, so unless that delegation remains permanent until all 15 SP is replaced with rewards, you'll just end up with lots of abandoned accounts.
I'm not convinced that Steem is designed to suit the vast majority of the global community, I believe it is much more suited to professional content producers, artists and niche communities. I explain this viewpoint thoroughly in this post:
Do you understand Steem?
No point if there are no content consumers. We're basically authors writing to other authors. 15-30 SP is more than enough to get readers started. If a project is well suited for authors, the terms between project and end users need to change. You know, adapt to each project's circumstances. You're not being flexible enough, while the steem blockchain is incredibly flexible. Not to mention you can integrate elements outside of the blockchain to a project.
Actually that is my point, people are looking at the reward pool wrong, and what Steem offers to content producers. The rewards are not for content producers, they are for content producers to gift to their readers by upvoting comments, thus encouraging people to keep visiting their blog and engaging.
If you think about Steem objectively, and really break down what Steem effectively does well, you realize its all about empowering (but not necessarily monetizing) content producers.
In a direct way, it seems like the obvious design is for content consumers to upvote quality content. The problem with that is inadequate incentives to buy a ton of STEEM, power it up and upvote people.
However, when you take a look at everything Steem offers to professional content producers, you realize that there are big incentives for these content producers to power up their SP a lot. Improved SEO, a reward system for their audiences and delegation-based subscriptions for VIP audiences.
A community of moms will never see a reason to take powering up their SP seriously. On the other hand, Wordpress-based bloggers that spend money monthly on maintaining hosting plans and domains are much more likely to take powering up SP seriously.
A lot of us like the idea of a meritocracy where we can just work and earn, but when we really look at it, Steem was designed for people willing to put some money in to power up. All the blockchain projects are doing this, they are dividing the internet between the internet off-chain, that is free, and the internet on-chain that is not.
You're probably not going to like hearing this, but we're watching a revolution, and its not an exciting one but a scary one. The internet is turning into a true two cities system, where blockchain web will be the place of the affluent and the old web will be for the poor. It will likely spread into real life as well, that is why it is important to keep aware of what is happening and make sure you're on the right side of the fence.
Greetings friend @felipejoy.
I greatly appreciate the acceptance that my publication has received.
I am extremely surprised by so much support. Thanks from my heart.
I take this opportunity to ask you a favor.
Knowing these difficult times that Venezuela is going through certain communities have decided to show it´s support by delivering food throughout the territory. Also giving it´s vote of healing to Venezuelan publications in steemit.
For this I am pleased to address you on behalf of my friendly communities @VOTOVZLA AND @STEEMCHURCH. Do you know them?
They are currently opting for a 20k SP delegation sponsored by @theycallmedan. This delegation would allow us to help more people and in a better way.
Maybe you can participate and VOTE for @STEEMCHURCH. Here I leave the link:
https://dpoll.xyz/detail/@theycallmedan/which-steem-project-should-i-delegate-20k-steempower-to-for-1-year/
Have a blessed day.
Yours, Juan.
Church? No, thanks. If you have anyone else you want me to nominate, tell me and I'll consider it.
thanks.