Who owns the internet?
No government can lay claim to owning the Internet, nor can any company. The Internet is like the telephone system -- no one owns the whole thing. From another point of view, thousands of people and organizations own the Internet. The Internet consists of lots of different bits and pieces, each of which has an owner. source
So, who did all the marketing, who did all the onboarding, who set up all the infrastructure necessary for you to be able to read this post now from your PC, tablet, phone or TV?
Who can shut the internet down? It is possible. If it happens, we have bigger problems to face than where you are going to get your porn and cat videos.
The internet is a network of computers that follow a standardized protocol that allows for digital transfer of data. That is it. It has no team working behind it yet it keeps evolving and growing, it keeps changing. It is global and while there are border restrictions in some places, the organic nature of the protocol means that innovation is continually finding holes, creating more and introducing different kinds of opportunities.
As I see it, blockchain is one of these opportunities and it has found a loophole that is unclosable by leveraging the internet in a way that distributes ownership and responsibility far and wide while maintaining consistency at any one point. Blockchain has tied itself to the protocols of the internet and is rapidly distributing and replicating to attach itself to every node, killing it means to kill the host and no government or organization wants to lose the capabilities of the internet and, they see the potential of the blockchain layer on top.
Steem is one of the blockchains and is nothing more than a protocol. It doesn't need to be marketed, it doesn't need to be sold, it just needs to work. What needs to happen and what I believe is happening is that the ecosystem that is built upon the Steem blockchain infrastructure is the market face and onboarding points. Because Steem allows for ownership of the infrastructure as a facilitator, it is important that the base layers are secured so the businesses, the applications, can grow and develop and take their own position in the Steem city.
Like the internet, no one point owns the whole thing, which is the point of a distributed network as it makes it resilient from destruction and more stable over time as with more points, there is less chance all quit simultaneously. Someone mentioned Google+ being shut down, what happens to all of those people encouraged to build their business model upon it? Centralization is a single point of failure and when the profits aren't there for the owners, they leave. And much like a discontinued TV series that leaves the fans high and dry, many of the business models fail alongside it, as do all of the contributors who chose to participate.
Steem doesn't have that issue unless every witness chooses to no longer operate a node of some kind. People want Steemit Inc to market more but, that is not their job. People complain about them advertising Steemit.com. That is their job. For most here though, if they do their job well and build their book of business, everyone benefits. Everyone. Does that mean that no one else should be developing their book of business?
As said, the Steem blockchain is a protocol that no one owns. What people do own is the Steem in their wallet or on the exchanges that they will soon sell when there is a pump or, they ride on the coattails of other's successes. Each application is a separate entity on the blockchain and while you might have different ideas, they can do as they please. It is their responsibility as an application to create a compelling experience and to onboard users, not the protocol. However, it is the investors who hold Steem who support their use cases, underpin their transactions and make sure that the blockchain keeps running.
SMTs become the currencies of the applications, the tokens that contributors vie for in numerous ways and under a host of variant economic models and incentives but, the protocol is standardized and supported by those who own it, the thousands who own it. Steem Power is the electricity that drives all other interaction on Steem and unifies all points so that all layers above the infrastructure can build, grow, adapt. Steem is the fuel, a precious and finite resource.
Some people see the value.
99% will not.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Nice analogy. Yes there are common threads.
There is one group Steem should be marketed to and that’s developers. There will be no development without developers and they won’t come unless they are aware of what can be done here.
We should all work together to promote steem to developers directly ...
I think this is happening as applications and businesses are hiring them. The network effect takes time to develop.
There is so much ignorance of and FUD about Steem in the crypto space that I think our cause could be helped by some well-targeted advertising to blockchain developers.
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Yeah, I agree. It isn't a bad plan. I am guessing EOS just buy theirs :D
Marketing a brand only provides valuable if it works well and is sustainable which is why it is probably a good thing Steem has not been front and center. However, building a word of mouth type marketing could also lead to longer term sustainability as community is build no matter the level of marketing dollars.
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This is what I am hoping will happen through the various apps and games. Once there are enough, it will slowly drive use and prices up sustainably.
No. Blockchains are all easily closable via nothing more difficult than censorship. This fact makes crypto an impossible store of value, unlike PMs or any other physical mechanism. BTW it wasn't just Google+ that went down, but all Goolag, including Pokemon Go, for example. If Goolag can go down, you can be confident that any given blockchain can too.
I'm not saying they will be, or that the problem can't be rectified, but unless the internet becomes decentralized it will always be a problem. I can't access the Steem blockchain without internet access to it. It's just a censor away from being obsolete. Mesh networks or something like it is necessary, and not just to secure our cryptoassets, but our communications. Runet is undertaking measures to maintain communications in the event of censorship or other catastrophic disconnection from the wider internet, and this is just the beginning of the evolution of the internet to something that can't be censored, and is secure for individual use. Centralization ensures that this will begin with institutions, like Russia, but it is a beginning of decentralization, and physics indicates that decentralization is the future of society, and not merely given communication protocols.
Decentralization is freedom. Physics is the law. Code will follow.
Thanks!
Google shut down the consumer side of google+
And as said, the only way to shut it down is to shut down the internet, including email. Whatever causes that would be a problem that is likely larger than the shutdown of crypto to deal with.
Ah, I was confusing the death of Google+ with the global crash of Goolag that occurred yesterday.
Shutting down the internet is not necessary to censor particular sites or protocols. New Zealand has directed all ISPs serving the nation to censor free speech sites like the chans. That did not shutdown the wider internet, but the same mechanism could shut down BTC, or any crypto, while leaving other protocols and sites intact. It's possible that some users could adapt, in fact it's certain they would, via using email or other cryptic means, just as some Kiwis have found ways around the censorship to reach the chans.
The vast majority would not, and posts from New Zealand are almost nonexistent today on the chans.