The Changing Paradigm Of STEEM

Steemit was started to reward content creators through posting, commenting, and upvoting. It is a social media site that is based upon the idea of those who contribute to the success of the platform are the ones who profit.

Now, after a little more than two years, we see the STEEM blockchain evolving into something completely different. Steemit is still a blogging site along with a few other interfaces. However, the application roster expanded to include D.tube, dlive, zappl, and a variety of other applications that compliment the blogging platform.

With expansion has come a lot of changes to this blockchain. While the basic premise still holds, the delivery is much different than before.

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To start, Steem Power is treated much differently.

Since the introduction of @steemhunt, we are seeing the paradigm shift from individuals using their SP to reward content creators to it being delegated to applications. @steemhunt was the first to offer this and it is since duplicated by @actifit, @steemgg, and @air-clinic. These profiles that represent the applications utilize the SP to upvote. In return, the SP owners get paid the tokens that will be created using the SMT protocol (steemgg is not doing that presently).

This is creating a scenario where these applications are amassing a great deal of SP (Orca size and bigger) from a number of different Steemians. They are using the voting power on a daily basis to reward those who are utilizing their applications.

The incentive provided is actually healthy for the blockchain. Those individuals who choose to use the applications receive double benefit. To start, they will earn some of the new tokens that could have value in the future. Secondly, it is an opportunity for one to receive an upvote from an Orca, something that most smaller accounts never would be able to receive. As I wrote in a post the other day about @actifit, over 100 people a day are receiving upvotes a day worth around $.49.

Another advantage to this approach is that one not only receives the application upvote but also the ones from the curation trail. While the monetary amount will not make anyone rich, it does all go to help the reputation. This is something that had little value up to this point. However, with the most recent change in @steemhunt's reward approach, reputation is something that is considered and comes into play when earning on that site. I will surmise that we can expect more applications utilizing this for their payout system.

Another shift is the added benefit of curating for these applications. When upvoting posts using the application, not only does one get the typical payout in SP but also the SMT. Both @actifit and @steemhunt pay additional tokens on top of what one earns in STEEM.

@flauwy's recent announcement of the 1UP SMT is only going to add another layer of payment. I will presume that it will have something similar in terms of delegation, bounty payouts, and SMT rewards for activity on the STEEM blockchain. One of the differences is that this is not based around content creation but, rather, curating. This is a token that is going to provide incentive for people to join together in groups or communities and to upvote quality content. The 1UP upvote is going to take place after others had a chance to get in ahead of it, hence rewarding them to a greater degree.

Obviously, earning STEEM and powering up is still a very desirable goal. However, we are already starting to see it getting harder to amass. This will only continue as more SP finds itself in the hands of the applications. The benefit to the blockchain is they are using the VP to reward those who use the applications themselves. It also means that people are going to have to start doing things differently to fill the ole wallet.

One way, in my opinion, is to go after the SMTs. This is where a smaller account can start to garner more influence. It appears each application does put together some type of early adopter advantage. By engaging in these applications, one is able to build up an amount that I can only presume will be more difficult to achieve down the road.

It is important to note that SMTs are really a creation of a mini-STEEM. Hence, what happens with STEEM most likely will be following suit with the SMTs. In this regard, the early adopters face a huge advantage.

One final thought. STEEM is rapidly becoming the token that is going to be the "money" on this blockchain. It will be what drives the blockchain. STEEM not only will be used to pay for bandwidth, we are already seeing how it is the token that is used for funding of projects. This will continue to evolve.

For this reason, I think we can expect another token to be created to, once again, reward bloggers. @ned made reference to this a few months back. Do not be surprised if it is an account based system which is also laid over the top of what is already present. This might actually tie into the communities/hivemind developments.

Whatever the future holds, we can see the paradigm on the STEEM blockchain shifting. Being an evolving organsim, as the creativity on this blockchain grows, we will see more developments that further push things away from the original intent. This is what often happens with technology.

Either way, I still feel the future extremely bright. All that I wrote here leads me to reaffirm that SP will be in great demand down the road. It is going to be a very valuable commodity.

Remember, change is good.

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