It Is Time To Stop Using Steemit.com
A lot has changed in the course of a week since @ned's announcement about laying off 70% of the Steemit, Inc team.
It is very uplifting to see different members of the community stepping up. This should give everyone confidence going forward about this blockchain. The people who are on here are top notch.
During Ned's livestream last week, he spelled out what his vision is and how Steemit strayed from that. Basically, the idea of handling development while also doing social media is too much. It becomes too broad to operate successfully.
Since that time, Steemit has looked at cutting other costs including how the data interacts with nodes. The conclusion is that switching to RocksDB is the best option both in the short and long term. This will help reduce costs while keeping them down.
There was a post put out about the progress along with some other updates.
https://busy.org/@ned/steemit-inc-blockchain-roadmap-and-cost-reductions
One interesting proposal that arose came from @blocktrades. The team there proposed the idea of handling the conversion to RocksDB for the Steemit team, thus allowing them to focus upon the development of SMTs. This is something that I felt was needed, getting others involved in the blockchain coding to help decentralize things.
It was presented to Ned who wanted it passed on to the community.
Here is the post that they put up about the proposal. Please give this a read and comment.
https://busy.org/@blocktrades/blocktrades-rocksdb-proposal-to-steemit
There is one thing missing from this entire equation: Steemit.com.
On the livestream last week, Ned made it clear that he is not going to be focusing upon the social media end of things. That means that Steemit.com is not going to get any updates and the Destiny project is shelved.
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There was a time when Steemit.com served a purpose. As the flagship application, this was the one that allowed the blogging platform to come into being. That time has passed. We now see a variety of other applications that not only serve the same function, but do it better with more features. Two that are garnering users are Busy.org and @steempeak. Both of these are better interfaces with a lot more features. In short, they provide a much better user experience.
Essentially, Steemit.com is competition for these applications. To survive, they charge a percentage of the payout for development. That is only fair and a good business model. Steemit.com does not meaning one gets all of the rewards. The challenge with this is, as we saw, at some point money is required.
Many proposed, including myself, of doing things to Steemit.com like charging a percentage or placing ads as a means to raise money. This is a failed idea since Steemit Inc is not going to be in the social media game. They need to figure out a business model that provides revenue without Steemit.com. It is time to put that to bed.
Thus, since Steemit.com is not going to be supported in the future, it is time for the community to move on. I suggest everyone reading this to give the two applications I mentioned a try. While the change can be a bit daunting at first because of a different layout, I think people will find a better experience on these applications.
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For mobile users, which admittedly I am not, there is @partiko and @esteem. Esteem does offer an interesting option since they are already running their own full node meaning they are decentralizing the ecosystem a bit more than everyone else.
The future lies on Steemit Inc working on the blockchain, hopefully with the input/assistance of other community members, while the applications provide the social media aspect of things. Our growth going forward will be due to the features of these applications and the creativity of the development teams.
I thank Steemit Inc for all they did including having Steemit.com. Without that interface, this blockchain would have died long ago. Nevertheless, in the course of progress, it is time to move on. There are much better options along with more important reasons.
Basically, I feel the community needs to focus upon moving away from Steemit Inc as much as it can. Certainly there is a major role for that organization to play yet we now realize how exposed we are when we give it too much power. Mass migration to other interfaces will assist in the transformation that is taking place.
Many non-technical people have asked how they can help out since the news broke last week. Here is a simple way to do it: support other interfaces.
They are the future of social media on the Steem blockchain.
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If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and resteem.
Like children growing up, users moving onto other interfaces is a sign of real maturity of the Steem ecosystem.
Posted using Partiko iOS
agree... just learnt more about this Steem blocjkchain, knowing other applications are built in it and I can login using the ID I used for Sttemit, coz its given me access to Steem ecosystem. Anyway.
I'm sorry, but I see these types of comments everywhere... I get that a lot of people have invested some decent amounts of cash into the platform, and in a sense that can be blinding.
This isn't like children of productive parents going out and making a mark in the world.
This is more like the children of dysfunctional parents are now in competition for the same resources as the parents, while claiming that the shared resources is their strength...
The interfaces might be maturing, but the core is rotting.
I think you are misunderstanding what decentralisation is about.There is nothing wrong with the core steem blockchain. Its running perfectly fine and you and I are using it right now. The API layer, above the blockchain, is currently too centralised and dependent on Steemit Inc. But this changing. SteemMonsters just moved into @anyx's full node. eSteem is running its own full node.
If Steemit Inc had disappeared last week it would have been a crisis. But it hasn't and is now focussed on bringing down costs of full nodes and core blockchain development. This is as it should be.
It is simply untrue that the children are in competition for the same resources as the parents. Steemit Inc is refocussing on core blockchain development and getting out of the way at the application layer (letting Steemit.com die) and doing improvements that allow greater decentralisation at the API layer.
I do understand what decentralization is about... and the issue is nothing to do with it.
The circumstance is that a strong foundation was built, then because everyone was benefiting, nobody did anything while the termites started coming in. Some people did try to point this out, and it was always an excuse to not consider it a problem.
Now, the structure of the house is rotting and the solution is to add more attachments to the house so that the load gets spread out.... there's still termites at the core, and since all extensions to that structure are connected. It becomes like trying to pretend there are no termites by just giving them more wood so the infestation doesn't appear as bad.
It is something of a shame really, there really was a great opportunity to build something great. Unfortunately, greed got in the way. Now, we get to witness this downward spiral.
5-10 articles a minute of mostly rubbish, often bot generated, now fewer, higher quality posts from real people.
But Steem is not just about posts. More importantly, it is about apps.
Have a look at Steem Monsters figures here https://beempy.com/steemmonsters
1 million games played in only 8 weeks with 3500 player and rising fast.
When the issues bottom line to not enough revenue to sustain the nodes, that's really irrelevant.
You know what you call it when you offset losses (or generate revenue) by putting the cost to newcomers?
PONZI SCHEME!!!!
That is the answer to the problems of the platform that I've seen repeated by many. Interestingly, ponzi schemes RARELY begin with the intent of becoming a scheme.
Ultimately, it's poor planning, poor decision making and poor implementation. So, NOW the solution is to cast a wider net... except that's not going to increase revenues, that will increase strain on the nodes... So then it becomes a push for a wider net and again and again until some of the decision makers are being given their perp walk.
Actually I am a legal expert on the difference between a Ponzi or Pyramid scheme and a legitimate business and Steem is most definitely the later. I was the General Counsel and main intellectual driver on this landmark case on the issue.
The solution when revenue drops because of outside forces is to cut costs, which is exactly what Steemit Inc is doing. It is cutting costs for EVERYONE who runs a witness or full node by moving to RocksDB etc.
Legal experts are fun, they always manage to interpret whatever they want to be true, even while telling you what they want to be true is false.
Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes are similar but different. Pyramid schemes directly rely on new investors to supply the return to earlier investors. The ponzi scheme is more about using esoteric "investments" (like investing in steam power, investing in building a witness node as an "independent representative", investing via software development to draw in new investors).
So, the "offsetting costs" is to get new "investors" to absorb those costs under the promise that there are rewards under the success of the platform.
Anyway, this attempt is just going to start the death spiral of the platform, since the measures to offset costs are really only a stop gap measure when the solution requires increasing the value of steem coins, but that can't happen in that current environment and the things that would are going to wind up increasing the costs making the platform even less viable.
Funny, eh ? Poor planning got steemit in a situation where the cure is the poison.
Hi @apshamilton, bmanmcfly
I completly agree with you. It has been one week only since one bad news ha been announced and many are already coming to crazy fast conclusions. Many things may change within next months if not weeks.
We're facing some real challenge and the fact that development of Steemit is being pushed and focus is on cutting cost doesnt mean that Steemit is done.
Why can guarantee that similar issues with high costs will not be a common problem of other apps?
Yours
Piotr
Great article. steemit.com really is like an albatross around steem's neck. the quicker we make this transition the better. Steemit.com just started without announcement using 640px photos for all their posts (see https://steempeak.com/steemit/@jpphotography/did-steemit-inc-just-destroy-all-our-images) . This has to be the straw that breaks the camels back. It is like going back to 1990s. Even Instagram uses 1080px as a minimum for phone screens let alone desktop. For the moment steemitimages have not deleted the original images ; so it seems the other interfaces like steempeak can still reference them at higher resolutions .
I rarely use SteemIt.com.
Busy.org is my favourite but I also use eSteem for Linux.
I have also been accompanying the developments of Steeve.app
SteemIt has the worst interface of them all, in my opinion.
As I said in my post "A Letter To Ned" it isn't inspiring that the demo that was to prove what is possible is sinking. On top of this, there is a trust level having the creator of Steem in charge of login security. I have mentioned it before elsewhere, but I can't bring myself to use an app where they don't even say who they are or where they can be reached legally if they are careless with our keys, or worse, do something criminal. It does not inspire trust in me to hand those keys over to someone who demands they remain anonymous.
I might be willing to use another interface at some point if they conduct themselves with transparency and run their own node. As it is, there is nothing on the Busy site explaining who they are and can be found, nor if they run a node.
I've been testing a number of these platforms and like Steempeak the most. However, that site doesn't have a power down option, only a delegate option. I've since checked several other sites and only steemit.com has a power down option afaict. I find this alarming because if Steemit.com goes down, your funds are locked for as long as it takes to learn how to submit a manual blockchain transaction using the equivalent of DOS prompt. :(
I asked around and someone said steemworld allows for powering down. I did not check it out myself but there appears the option is out there.
Busy also allows it too.
At least we are protected on that end.
This brings up a very valid point that I have not heard mentioned.
The fact that Steemit is the only way to power down means that other applications need to find another way around it.
This is something else that needs to be on the to do list for outside development.
I've found busy.org has a power down option. Crisis averted... :)
I love Partiko and Busy apps. Maybe I should also try out Steempeak.
Posted using Partiko Android
I use esteem on my laptop and like it a lot. And do not forget about the ulog app and dtube. Hopefully they are here to stay.
These are trying times. I have not made very many posts on steemit in the last month or so, but I still use it for replying and wallet transactions etc. I guess that will have to change.
We need to do a lot of education if this is the path forward. I'm shocked how many people think 'Steemit' is all there is and they have no clue other apps show the same content only with a different layout/functionality. Will write a post about it myself the coming days - see what my readers are using :-)
I suggest steemit to use the steem rewards as their revenue source going forward.
Posted using Partiko Android
Well said.
I have mentioned that in my posts before.
Learn how to use # busy.org
#partiko
#esteem has tea ways mobile and a pc user interface.
Posted using Partiko iOS