Steem Is Still A Baby

There is a folly that is taking place within the crypto world that follows most major technologies. It is a part of human nature yet we keep repeating it. We see great debates and arguments about what we need to do to move forward.

Ultimately, our need to put everything in a "box" that we understand ends up causing great turmoil.

We try to hammer technology into the world we know. This is something that was repeated throughout history. Every major breakthrough saw the exact same mindset applied. Even today, with all the advancement, most are trying to do the same thing.

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One of the main challenges with technology is looking at it over the proper time frame. The path of development is a slow one. Certainly, there are many overnight sensations yet that usually happens after decades of development that serve as the foundation. This takes place outside the view of the general public, hence presenting the "overnight" view.

People often compare what is taking place within cryptocurrency and blockchain to the Internet. It is a valid analogy. However, it is vital to remember that the Internet was developed by the United States Military as a communication device. It took years of development and billions of dollars to create nothing more than an email system. By the early 1990s, this is what it essentially was.

It was not until 1993 when the World Wide Web was introduced that we saw a shift. This was decades after the first iteration took place.

At that time, the brightest minds in the computing world were working on it. What is fascinating is most of them could not envision social media let alone Uber, Netflix, or Airbnb. Yet 20 years later, these were all a part of society's reality.

Today, the epitome of this is Bitcoin.

Here we have a technology that people are trying to mold into what they now. Bitcoin Maximalists are the epitome of this, proving with each post how they are missing what is taking place. To start, it is a mistake to view Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) as a financial instrument. Even though it serves that purpose, it is still a technology. No matter how you break it down, FinTech is still technology.

So what are people trying to do with Bitcoin? They are trying to make it into something that is known. To many, Bitcoin is a fancy payment system.

People thought the personal computer was a word processing device meant to replace the typewriter. Some envisioned the Internet as a glorified telephone.

Speaking of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell thought that would be a supplemental device to the telegraph.

The truth is we have no idea what Bitcoin or any other decentralized blockchain system will evolve into. It is beyond our comprehension at this point.

There are some who like to say that Steem is a failure and dead. Of course, the mainstream blasted that accusation out about Bitcoin a couple hundred times also. The reality is that people do not understand technological trends thus dismissing something when it does not fit into their box.

Steem is far from dead. It is just over three years old. It is a baby in the world of technology. In fact, the entire crypto space, being a decade old falls in this category. Think about the smartphone, which had one of the fast penetration rates of any technology in history. Blackberry pre-dated the IPhone by almost a decade which laid a lot of the foundation for what was to come. While nothing more than a two-way paging system to start, this "advanced" communication device provides a clear lineage leading up to the smartphone technology that took over the world.

We as humans like out little "boxes". The thought of not understanding drives us nuts. So we create categories to departmentalize things to enhance our comprehension.

This is what causes us to call Steem a "blogging" blockchain. Doing that is akin to calling the computer a "word processing machine". The same is true for the social media tag.

The truth is Steem is a technology that allows people to build on. That is all it is. What is built upon it will evolve over time and determine the path it takes.

In the early stages, a blogging application was built. After that, other developments were unveiled that fit into the social media realm. We are now starting to see some projects that can be considered financial. Commerce is certainly to follow here soon.

With each new idea, the entire platform evolves. Judging the outcomes of what is on here after three years misses how things work technologically. Remember, the IPod is really put Apple into the mainstream. That was released in 2001, 25 years after the company started. Many credit this single device for changing the way music was consumed.

Gartner put out a forecast in 2017 about different technologies. This is recognized by many as one of the leading companies in the field of technological analysis.

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Notice the time period it puts on blockchain. The forecast is this will not reach mainstream for 2-5 years. Here we sit, two years later, and the early edge of the prediction was not met. However, we can see it getting closer.

The evolution of this entire industry is just getting started. This applies to Steem as well. Our reality is that we have no idea what will be created upon this platform over the next 5-10 years. Most of what people are focused upon today will not even be an issue in a few years. Whatever is the topic of conversation, someone is working on something that will make it a moot point.

It is easy to see the folly in hindsight. We look back and laugh at the ignorance that existed at that time. Decades later showed technologies evolving into something the people on the front lines, at the time, never envisioned.

The only problem with that is it is we think we are not doing the same thing now. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are very new. Yet we approach it like it is an older technology and we know how the use cases are going to unfold.

What we do know is that Steem is very young and, if history is any guide, development will take us places we cannot even envision.

Here is the inventor of the phone and what he thought of it.

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