Steemit proposes an innovative incentive model in the field of content output, which is a kind of incentive mode that has never been used before and cannot be used by traditional platforms. It is of great significance. In other words, Steemit proposes a model of "shareholder evaluation -- system reward", which is the core of innovation. The adoption of blockchain technology and the coding ability of ByteMaster in its technology guarantee the realization of this innovation.

However, based on six months of user experience, I am not optimistic about Steemit's prospects. Though Steemit's innovation lies in a new model, it has many unreasonable settings:

a. Steem only has the value of speculation. If it is to be converted into Steem Power, it will take up to two years of lock-in, and the lack of liquidity causes investors to stay away.

b. Buy Steem and turn it into Steem Power to get more Steem.

c. BM initially held 80%+ Steem, which was converted into Steem Power, with a 90%+ Steem Power. Steem Power has the rights of thumb up, which determines the author's income. In other words, the taste of BM determines the author's income.

d. The right of thumb up is proportional to the holdings of Steem Power, for example, the ability to hold 10 Steem Power is 10 times that of one Steem Power.

Thus Steemit's current problems can be inferred: large families, small households. They don’t dependent on the quality of the article, but dependent on the relationship.

Therefore, let’s go back to the topic. Will Steemit overturn traditional media? What are the advantages of the blockchain and information flow convergence in Steemit? There are three advantages that blockchain has:

a. Directly reward the creator without a credit intermediary.

b. The platform gains revenue through dividends, so there is no need to advertise.

c. Strong cheating defense means at the account level.

Reward System
When it comes to the reward system, individuals believe that the application of Echo and Decent can play a more decentralized role in the blockchain, compared with Steemit's social media platform. On the other hand, if not for the monetary reward, how many people would use Steemit? How many people will stay once the subsidy stops or the rewards are reduced? Can it still maintain such high user motivation? Steemit is a content-oriented social platform, but the value of its content is worth investigating. Many articles are biased towards the life record, but they are short and lack of substance. Also, there is the phenomenon of hitchhiking, while the praise is still very high. What's more, many of the other articles have a clear purpose, and their contents are open to discussion in order to get praise.

Commercial Logic
The commercial logic of the information flow distribution platform of traditional Internet: The platform creates profit expectations with the advertising fee, obtains the favor of the investor, and improves the user's stickiness through the high-quality content, which will help to raise the advertising price. Of course, quality contents depend on creators. So, the platform drives the whole chain with self-interest, which is a typical centralization scenario.

The commercial logic of Steemit shows that the core of its operation lies in digital currency, rather than real commercial interests. The platform is merely the issuer of the cryptocurrency, and lacks a strong incentive to drive the growth of users and creators. Once the bubble in the digital currency has receded, the business logic will face a huge collapse.

Anti-cheating rules:
The blockchain, as an anti-cheating line, is easily breached by online water armies. We can see the Steemit's anti-cheating rule as below:

a. Every user has the right to down vote and thumb up, thus worthless articles will not be appreciated.

b. Avoiding maliciously down vote, each user has a credit value with the user behavior accumulation. People with low credibility vote against those with high credit.

c. Using voting power to limit voting speed, such as voting power per vote for each vote, will be reduced by 2%, and automatic recovery of 20% per day.

Though it seems that the anti-cheating system is powerful enough to protect the equality, as we mentioned before, users will cooperate as large families or small households. They don’t dependent on the quality of the article, but dependent on the relationship, not to mention those online water armies.

I'd like to say that investment needs to be cautious and Steemit needs to be improved.

100% of the SBD rewards from this #explore1918 post will support the Philadelphia History Initiative @phillyhistory. This crypto-experiment conducted by graduate courses at Temple University's Center for Public History and MLA Program, is exploring history and empowering education. Click here to learn more.