I’ve been writing a lot lately about the future of Steem and where I see this blockchain headed. Ever since I joined the blockchain, this was a primary focus for me.
It has been overwhelmingly interesting to follow all of the developments happening on this chain. There are simply so many things to do, read, watch, use, invest in, etc.
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With all of this development comes a lot of problems as well. A lot of shortcomings, a lot of false promises and false hopes.
I believe that dark and light go hand and hand - yin and yang, if you will.
With all the good that happens on Steem, there must be some sort of bad happening as well. We can see this good happening with initiatives such as Steem-Engine, Steemhunt, Splinterlands, Actifit, etc.
We can see the bad happening in the form of false promises from Steemit, Inc., a lack of communication, a lack of marketing, a lack of development, etc. There are issues beyond just Steemit, Inc. as well — economic issues, social bickering, misguidance, etc.
What can we do about all of this? Can we tip the scales in favor of the good?
Enter The Tribal Future of Steem
The Tribal Future of Steem is a fancy way of saying that Steem is headed toward a platform for niche communities to build separately but together.
The idea of communities is not new.
The idea of SMTs is not new.
These ideas have been said many times on Steem. People have speculated over the past few years that Steem would have these things, but only when Steemit, Inc. finally put the pieces in place for businesses to then take advantage of the infrastructure.
The wait is over. The tribal future is here and it wasn’t delivered by Steemit, Inc.
In the end, who cares who delivered on what… To me, all that matters is that this future can prevail and Steem can succeed in the long run.
The Value of Tribes
Most people are overlooking the value of “nichifying” Steem via the Tribe (communities) idea that Aggroed has not only explained (as many do) but has actually created a working framework for (as many don’t do).
Many on Steem are leaned in on the idea of changing the economics of how Steem is distributed. They are, in fact, so deeply leaned into this idea that they fail to see the end result.
They’re applying a short-term strategy to a long-term problem.
Palnet is a perfect example of where Steem is headed and why the value lies in tribes.
If they want to change Steem to 50/50, then so be it. I think most users are going to care less about the Steem they’re earning and more about the in-house Tribe coin that they’re earning. Steem will be a bonus that just happens in the background but the focus will be on growing your stake in a niche ecosystem.
Here, in this niche ecosystem (known as your Tribe), you have an actual voice.
You have the ability to grow and build something meaningful.
Steem serves as a fantastic base layer, but I don’t believe that content discovery will ever be fixed on this base layer. I believe that content discovery will be fixed by building on the secondary layers... the layers being built by Steem-Engine... the layers that are akin to Palnet.io.
STEEM and the Steem blockchain are, of course, still valuable in this scenario.. but valuable for a different reason and use case than content curation/creation. Valuable to business owners and dapp developers rather than to individual users.
I agree with this as well. I (semi) left Steem a while back, as you know. It just became less interesting. I kept some Steem in an exchange wallet bc I like the platform, but it's just annoying to see the blockchain headed in a weird direction. The latest developments with Pal have brought me back a little. I am curious to learn more and this future for interfaces and communities seems very interesting to me.
I think you’re absolutely right. I think if you’re a frontend developer the best thing you can do is prepare for this inevitability. I’ve suggested that Steempeak also show the payout of all your Scot tokens as well as STEEM, because the old models days are numbered and as more tribes are born people will invest directly in those instead of the base layer.
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Yes, I hope that we see the front ends find a great way to show SCOTs alongside our STEEM earnings. The old rewards system is becoming null in my opinion. Yes, you'll still earn some STEEM, but your focus is going to be on your tribal SCOT very soon. I'm already there with PAL.. I look at how much PAL I earn, not how much STEEM I earn for my blog posts.
I saw your post about the front ends as well. Seems like Steempeak is pretty interested in doing something. I hope they integrate a cool solution to the rewards!
Imo the real challenges that communities will face will be providing use case for their community token. Creating a complex economy will also make more complicated to have a balanced economy. But I see this as an interesting challenge for us all, this even might boost the creativity of the communities' members to add value for their token.
I agree completely. The challenge is in separating yourself from the majority and creating a real world use-case for your niche community.
I'm building out my own tribe and it's interesting to explore these ideas in depth. I of course want the community to be successful, but it's also just fun to adventure out into the unknown and create economies that work. The subscription model and having something like "verified authors" is what I wrote about in my latest post. It's an interesting approach and I think I may implement it for my own niche community.
Besides verified authors and subscriptions (which are good ideas but fall on the category of fees and requirements) any community need bonuses-like incentives for their tokens, access to vip services and features, stake-weighted decision models, and the most important is to provide the opportunity for some product or service that is already available with FIAT to be available thanks to that community token... when this is accomplished you just create a FIAT income gateway for your community that will justify trading FIAT for your community token hence attaching value and trust to your token economy.
Looking forward for communities that are successful on this one.
Best regards.
I have always believed in life being about balance. There is always good and bad things we must go through and deal with or enjoy.
I have for a long time said Steem is about communities and dapps. Great to see I’m not the only person that thinks this way.
Can’t wait to see what the future has planned for Steem.
Thanks for sharing,
Have an awesome day!
Sorry I missed this for so long!
Absolutely. Steem has always been about the apps and the communities here for me. Earning Steem rewards is great and all, but you'll never make a full-time living from that unless you invest in a massive amount of Steem.
Instead, users ought to join these niche communities and build themselves from there. They can earn outsized returns by doing so and it's an amazing thing to be a part of a like-minded community like Palnet or any other communities that spring up.
Yes I am starting to agree. I'll give Palnet a try.
Palnet is an amazing thing. I got a little lucky when I jumped on the opportunity I saw after everyone dumped their claimdrop. I am so happy to have carved out a little piece of real estate for myself here on Palnet :)
Tribal Future of Steem is indeed a new awakening for many users like me who had stayed quiet leaving the auto-upvote without manual curation. Palnet has brought new hope for many of us that has caused many of us to start being active again. With Palnet, the whole steem platform may also be built up considering the use of steem as the main exchange currency on steem-engine. The whole idea is really innovate with high potential.
I agree, there's a lot of potential here to do something incredible. New tokens and tribes will bring completely new methods to earning and engaging here on Steem. It'll be interesting to watch it all unfold!
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Reddit is pretty much built off tribalism, and it is a very successful platform, so I don't see why the same won't be true for Steemit or any other decentralized social media platform for that matter. Human beings are very tribal!
We are so tribal. The more niche the tribe, oddly enough, the more successful I believe it will be.
Steem has grown really diverse as a blockchain.. some are gamers, some are bloggers, some are investors... tribes seem to be the logical move instead of throwing everyone into one melting pot!
We are working on one stop solution to build tribes using Steem engine tokens and the sweet Scot. We need more communities to turn their Steem tag into a custom UI and more external businesses to come build on Steem.