I began writing this post with another idea in mind...
I will save that topic for later because it is a very important topic that has been on my mind since I joined Steemit. I remember when I first found the rabbit hole that is Bitcoin. I spent months of sleepless nights reading, watching videos and documentaries, chatting and commenting on message boards. After a few years in the space, and massive amounts of research, I feel comfortable knowing a good thing when I see it, and...
I wasn't quite sure what to think of Steemit when I first used it.
Is Steemit really social media? OR is it more of a blogging platform? Down the rabbit hole I go. I have spent the last few weeks really trying to read and learn about Steemit, the difference between STEEM, SP and SBD, and how the platform works.
The one thing I noticed was, the more I learn about Steemit, the more I realize the potential it has other than being a social media or blogging platform.
Bitcoin and blockchain were destined to change many things. Micropayments alone change the way we interact with content and will continue to do so as this ecosystem continues to grow. I have read much about how Steemit will change the way that marketing and advertising currently operates, and I believe that is true. But, can it change the way we interact at work? Can it change pay structures? Can it provide incentive-based jobs, where little to zero money is fronted to an employee, and all pay is based on easily provable work? Can the delivery method of the blockchain, micropayments and curation actually cut costs while providing quick, easy and instant payments?
Imagine for a moment...
The new workplace is here. Businesses run entirely on blockchains. Your management, co-workers, and/or customers can act as curators for the work you provide. Payments for work can actually be based on your production rate. This is not only possible, but probably will happen in some form.
Maybe not all work in all professions will be a great fit, but in most office environments, we already work based on stats and interactions with software that somewhat prove our worth.
At my current IT job, everything is tracked, even down to if you open and only view a ticket, but do not actually work it. When we interact with software that tracks our every move, and provides the ability to see what we actually do throughout the work day, we produce valuable, trackable data. It's not always perfect, and with much of today's data, it can be changed, unlike on blockchain, where even if you have the ability to edit or change data, it still at the very least will time-stamp changes that are made.
How well would management, co-workers or even customers do, acting as curators for actual performed work? I'm not quite sure, but it would be an interesting experiment. Steemit already has shaped certain ideas on the platform based simply on what users are willing to vote as value. Is the workplace really ready for interaction on the level of paying employees for a job well done?
I knew when I first learned about Bitcoin and blockchain, that this was the new internet, this will change the world.
One of the first platforms that caught my attention was letstalkbitcoin.com. This platform had it's own currency, much like Steemit. It was called LTBCoin, and it was built on Counterparty. You earned LTBCoin whenever you posted new content such as podcasts, blogs, and forum posts. You also earned by interacting with this content. The structure is much, much different than what we see with Steemit today, because, Counterparty is only a data layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It did allow them to create their token, and send/receive through actual Bitcoin transactions. It was pretty innovative for it's time, and they have done much in the Bitcoin landscape to solve the problems with distribution, and how to judge interacting with content.
Steemit is a totally different beast, and I think it will be interesting to see how well it works on a much larger scale. But what really interests me, are the possibilities of Steemit like platforms for the workplace. I think once blockchain is just as common as email, internet and social media, we will no longer recognize the workplace we see today.
The idea that interacting with groups over blockchain is valuable is nothing new in the Bitcoin space. The realization that platforms such as Steemit are going to change the world are just beginning. There is a long road ahead that will determine how these systems grow and interact in our personal lives and the workspace. Right now, we are just getting started, and it's an exciting time to be alive to see changes actively happening. One day people may not know what life without blockchain is like, much like kids today cannot imagine a world without tablets, smartphones and internet.
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