The mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency applications seems to be delayed. I think “if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”, we must make applications that everyone, the masses can use without really noticing it was a blockchain or crypto application. (Source of quote.)

Make an hybrid?

Different app types can be used for this like games, gambling or the sort of blogging, video sites which ones have most topics outside of the blockchain and crypto branch. Now I have some ideas about how the improve and make public dPoll or other public blockchain polling app. How to make it global. Because some polling sites on the internet have dozens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of voters, like Slashdot.

So we don’t know when, and if ever, the mass adoption of the Steem blockchain apps will happen. That’s why I think in the first line we need a new type of polls, some sort of mixture between the blockchain world and “conventional” internet solutions.

Let’s see in steps:

1. Make a new type of polls on dPoll, with the name like “global poll” or “off-chain poll” or “public poll” or similar.
2. This polls could only be made by users registered on dPoll but answered by anybody on the internet, without any registration.
3. This type of polls could function seemingly like any other polls on the internet. It can use data like IP-address, browser ID or other identification methods to prevent multiple answers from the same person, like other common public polls on the internet.
4. Like other polls, the identification data of the persons should be kept in private.
5. To realize this, the system can assign an identification hash (generated from the identification data) to every voter and store only these encrypted, irreversible (no-decodable) data on the blockchain.
6. The advantage of this is: voters can be identified, the system can be audited, the blockchain can be a reliable ledger and storage of the data. But privacy is also maintained.
7. A possibility to embed the polls in every blog post, article on the internet, should be created very soon, in my humble opinion. (More detailed explanation above.)
8. The point of the solution: In this type of poll, ads could be placed to make possible income generation. These ads could be paid ads, but also non-profit ads to make publicity to the Steem system. Or, to dApps in general, or, especially to dPoll.
9. I suggest not to show answers statistics until the user hasn’t voted. In this case, many will vote for curiosity, only to see the results. That can generate more answers.
10. I think global polls should be very easy, ”one-click” solutions to reach real mass usage.
11. With the mentioned hashed ID-data, the user could be also able to comment on the poll. (Or, another identification method: Users are registering with their email addresses, which are stored only hashed on the blockchain.)

Examples of general polling sites:

• One-click solution, mostly many answers: https://slashdot.org
• Embedding: https://www.surveymonkey.com
• Google Forms: https://www.google.com/forms/about/
• https://www.easypolls.net

Why embedding?

In my opinion, the possibility of embedding polls in posts is important for bloggers, journalists, and other authors. And much better than linking.

1. Linking leaves the reader away from the original post or page, that’s nothing positive for bloggers counting readers or clicks. Some of them are counting also minutes readers spend on the page. Most authors are trying to maintain readers on their page as long as possible.
2. By linking, the reader has to make more efforts (=make more than one click) to respond to the poll question. Many won’t click the links, want to finish the reading of the article. One-click solutions are also preferred by users.
3. Seeing the embedded questions right inside the post can be luring. Maybe one of the answers looks inspiring or intriguing.
4. If the reader can see that a certain (higher) number of persons have voted already, he/she can be interested in the results. And can vote only for this reason, to know the other answers. (Assuming the poll result is hidden until voting is done.)

Why hide poll answers until voting?

• Hide answers because they can influence the new users if they look at it first. (Common habit, in my opinion.)
• Hide answers because some people will want to know the answers and will vote only for this reason. So you will have more responses.

Other suggestions

• More flexible poll expiring dates – freely adjustable date is preferred.
• A good-looking final report if the poll ends, which can be published easily in a new post. Some authors are making feedback if they know the opinion of their readers.

Unknown limits

As a journalist and blogger, I am trying to take account of the needs of writers and readers, maybe also developers and future advertisers. But I’m not a developer, programmer and don’t know if these ideas can be realized with a reasonable programming effort, or not. (It seems that developer of dPoll has no free capacities for this at the moment.)

I have no information either how much server and bandwidth maintaining costs can be applied.

I made a poll about this type of polls, please, answer it here

(Photos: Own work)