"Restarting" Steemit?
Most of the community already knows about the recent news around Steemit inc. I don't want to repeat something most of you already know. But for the sake of people who missed it, I'll just point to @ned's post where he explains that he cut down 70% of its staff in order to save the network's maintenance cost. For me, this is not something completely unexpected, as I'm following the development of the Steem blockchain and Steemit almost from their launch back in 2016. It's one rocky ride!
Steemit inc. is a private company providing a free service on their website Steemit.com. Anyone can login on Steemit.com and interact with the Steem blockchain for free. The private company Steemit inc. is doing a service that costs them money to maintain. There are many other ways to interact with the Steem blockchain. (Check out https://steemprojects.com) While Steemit inc. is a private company the Steem Blockchain is public and no one owns it. But the way the Steem blockchain is managed by its witnesses who run the nodes (servers) is somewhat private on an economical level. Anyone can run his own Steem node, but the way the token distribution is managed right now will probably lead him to bankruptcy, as the top witnesses rule the block creation. This leads to a network that is decentralized only in technical terms, making Steem not so attractive asset for miners and big fish. It seems very few individuals are responsible for the well being of the network. Their actions will impact profoundly the future of Steem. But are they doing a good job? I really can't say. It's hard to compare it to any other social media or blockchain out there. In the past similar platforms tried to create reward based networks but all of them failed. By far Steem is probably the most successful user-rewarding platform, despite all of its flaws and massive rewards pool drainage. I still would count it as a success. Giving access to crypto in the hands of the masses is probably the main reason why Steem exists. @ned said it countless times in his posts. The more people use Steem, the more valuable Steem gets. I'm sure Steem can be much more than that, but in these hard times dreaming about true decentralization, censorship free media and fair rewards is waaay too early. Maybe we will never get there.
Maybe going survival mode for Steemit is probably not the best solution. One can argue that a number of factors are responsible for the current situation: bear market, bad management, lack of public relations etc. Pointing fingers will not get us very far. There may be an easy solution to this problem and it is to use Steem even more. With all its applications that are emerging on top of the Steem blockchain now more ever there are so many ways to get involved in Steem with your favorite dapps. We already have alternatives to most media platforms like: Youtube - DTube Instagram - Steepshot, Soundcloud - DSound, 9Gag - DMania just to name a few. Invite your friends, post as much as you can, but don't spam, share your posts on other social media, be part of the community! The more people use Steem the better! This is supposed to be a social media platform after all. Forget about rewards, whales, the falling price of Steem, the bad management and how desperate it all looks right now. Keep on steeming. It's not about them, it's about us and all the communities that are emerging from Steem. The time is now!
I want to hear what is your personal perspective on this situation. Is this move really a bad decision or a blessing in disguise? What are the main factors that led to a Steemit "restart"? What the future holds for Steem?
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