Image for the sake of having an image
The next proposed Hard Fork of the Steem blockchain has two parts - the Steem Proposal System (SPS) and the Economic Improvement Proposal (EIP). @timcliff did a great job of explaining what those two parts consist of in this post so I am not going to go over that here and instead recommend that you read his post to learn more about the issues and the proposed changes.
The Big Picture
When deciding what changes to implement, or not to implement, I think it's important to start looking at things from a high level perspective. What are the grand goals and vision for Steem? How do we get there? What is currently holding us back?
Steem is an application-specific blockchain. We are not and should not try to directly compete with general purpose smart contract platforms like Ethereum, EOS, and Tron. Instead we should strive to be the de-facto place people go to if they want to build a user-friendly website or app that rewards users for contributions utilizing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. This is the vision for Steem. This is what Smart Media Tokens are all about.
I look at Steem as being something like WordPress whereas platforms like Ethereum and EOS are more like Amazon Web Services. Sure, you can build a blog site hosted on Amazon Web Services, but it usually makes much more sense to build it on a platform like WordPress which is specifically tailored to what you're trying to do.
There's been a lot of noise around here about the recently announced "Voice" project (for obvious reasons) but while that may be a competitor for steemit.com, it doesn't seem to me to be a competitor to Steem. Voice may be very successful and attract a lot of people, but it does nothing for the brands, businesses, or communities who want to have their own experience tailored to their specific use case and reward their userbase for their contributions in a decentralized manner. That's where Steem comes in.
The best part is that we've already gotten a decent amount of market validation for this concept. There are a significant number of organizations that have either forked the Steem blockchain since SMTs aren't yet available or that are still waiting around for them. That tells me that we're onto something and that it's worth it to continue down this path.
How do we get there?
Obviously, we need to actually build and release SMTs. Steemit, Inc is supposedly back to working on them, which is great, and as stakeholders and witnesses, @aggroed and myself have been working on Steem Engine and SCOT to try to allow the organizations that are waiting for SMTs to get started and stay on Steem until the real SMTs are ready.
But achieving that vision requires more than just building it. Ever since I have been involved with Steem it seems that it has had an "if you build it, they will come" attitude. But I've found that things rarely work that way. I've seen many great products fail because people never even know about them, and many poor products ultimately succeed simply because they are good at marketing.
When I look at Steem, I see a platform that is on par or better in nearly every applicable metric than almost every other cryptocurrency platform in existence - except for the token price.
I believe that's because people just frankly don't know about Steem...even within the relatively small cryptocurrency community. I go to a large number of blockchain and cryptocurrency events and it is extremely rare to find anyone there who knows much of anything about Steem. You're lucky to get an "oh yea, I've heard of that", and even then half of the time they're thinking of the game platform.
If we want to achieve our vision, we need to make sure that everyone knows about Steem, understands the vision, and believes that Steem has what it takes to make it happen.
What Is Holding Us Back?
Up until recently, everyone has pretty much been looking to SteemIt, Inc to do everything that Steem needs from core development to app developpment to marketing. This makes sense since they have by far the most resources of anyone on the platform and the most stake in it, but, regardless, it hasn't happened.
In 2019 they have been doing much better from a development perspective, but as I said earlier, it will take much more than that to achieve our vision. The Steem community is doing its best to take on the other pieces necessary to get us to where we want to be, but without adequate funding the chances for success are very low.
This is why I believe that Steem desperately needs an adequately funded worker proposal system. If you think that there's a lot of great development happening on the Steem platform now, imagine how much more there could be if there was funding available for it.
We need to compete with all of the other blockchains who are actively going out and offering funding for app developers to come to their platforms. We need to fund partnerships, integrations, and initiatives that get the word out and make sure everyone knows about what's going on here and share in the vision for what Steem can become.
The Economic Improvement Proposal
I was one of only two top witnesses who voted "NO" for the EIP in this unofficial poll. It's not because I necessarily believe that the changes are bad (I do believe that a separate downvote pool would be good, for example) but because I just don't think it's what we should be focusing our time and effort on right now.
While we're spending time messing around with parameters that a very small number of people actually understand or care about, Steem will continue its steady decline as the rest of the world flocks to the platforms that understand user experience and marketing.
In a grand vision of Steem where millions of people are playing Splinterlands, sharing pictures on Appics, posting reviews on SteemHunt, logging their workout on Actifit, and so much more - all of which are using their own tokens with their own individual economies powered by Steem - does the curation split or reward curve of the STEEM token really matter? Does it help us achieve that goal or does it distract from it?
That being said, it seems clear that the vast majority of the top witnesses are in favor of releasing the EIP as part of the next hard fork. If that is the case, I will fully support it and do my part to ensure it's tested thoroughly and rolled out smoothly.
In Conclusion
I've talked to a few large crypto hedge funds and investors in the past and their general criteria for investment is pretty simple and fairly consistent - what is the vision / potential for the project and, more importantly, do they believe there's a good chance it will be realized.
Steem has years of history behind it showing a lack of clear vision and a lack of execution that we have to overcome, but if we focus on the vision and put our resources and funding where it is most needed, I firmly believe we can do it.
If we can show the world that we have the potential to become the leading platform for websites and apps that want to take advantage of blockchain and crypto, I believe that the valuation of the STEEM token will quickly rise up to where it should be in comparison with other blockchain platforms with similar metrics.
With that in mind, I will continue to push for an HF21 that includes the SPS and not the EIP; however, if a super-majority of the top witnesses chooses to implement both then I will support their decision, work towards a smooth rollout, and then continue working towards achieving our vision.
Fully agree!
We don't need downvotes or optimize them.
We do need vision and execution thereof as well as better communication.
But without vision, the communication/marketing is also not effective and worthwhile.
Thank you for your leadership.
Thank you for speaking up as the current #1 witness and probably as one of the best ones we got. The above doesn't matter at all in the bigger picture and it's distracting from current goals Steemit inc. explicit said have more priority.
One other point on the EIP is that it might make content discovery better. But considering this is an app-specific blockchain I fail to see what that has to do with apps.
Also, nobody knows 'for sure' what will happen and the 'hope' is that people will change their behavior. But none of this matters long term because apps will have their own token and economics.
But what if instead of making the current economics better it turns out to make it worse. Is this thought even considered in the decision-making process? Wouldn't that be something? What kind of message would that send and how much time will be spent fixing that.
Predicting human behavior by changing rules is extremely difficult. Just because we can control computer code doesn't mean we can control irrational/emotional human behavior.
With Splinterlands you guys are sure showing that. Thanks for that and thanks for being a witness for Steem.
I didnt understand how that is going to happen? Will people upvote better content more? Will the bigger accounts stop upvoting friends and upvote other people? I have only ever seen a few curators do that and it is not easy being a curator. And ofc the curation teams like Dtube, Curie, OCD.
Why will normal people start curating good content now instead of just voting friends that will vote them back?
I was a curie curator for a couple months and even though it was fun at first that job is very hard and can get very boring.
It will give extra incentives to properly evaluate content. Don't really want to get into details here, but it's not really throwing darts at a board as many people are claiming. The steem system needs tweaks to motivate better behaviors, and a functional system will actually get us very far. Everyone is so anchored to their ways and resist change. To be fair, many believe the changes may be too much, but I think that they are in the right direction and well motivated. Equilibrium will shift, and will attack the behavior it is designed to attack (you can read some thoughts about the specifics in my blog if you want).
To reply to a specific comment in the main blog,
It does matter. Proponents of EIP are saying exactly that better economics will get us a better platform. Yes, we are building good bridges into other types of systems and that can happen in parallel, but the biggest one of all: Steem, could use some TLC. We can push for changes that improve both the main system and encourage SMTs.
Keep in mind, it's not actually that much more time to incorporate these changes, compared to other goals. So I say tweak them. The whole mechanism is a game, and like any other game, it needs balance changes over time to correct the meta.
So in essence, please don't bring new people to the platform, because only thing they will be able to do is leave. big acc, that we want to change their behavior, will not vote for them because, well why vote them when they know it could be that only few minnows will also vote for them. minnows should find 10 acc that have a decent content with a bit of organic votes, and some whales votes and just autovote for them. minnows voting for small acc will just be impossible, with a lot of 0 if they do.
in short term, punishing thousents because of hundred.
Even after reading all bunch about this, and reading your posts that are really well written, i could be wrong, and i would really want to know why am i wrong. because i only got 1 answer on this, and it was everyone will benefit with more curation, how do you not see that, you are just blind.
So because of how curation works, auto voting 10 popular posts is not a good strategy in general. If you are not first, the share of curation you are getting is not going to be that great. And you can auto vote earlier and earlier to sacrifice curation to find a sweet spot. But if everyone is doing it, you may really find that you're not left with much. You'll get something, but actually you get more if you discover a new post, and share it with others and get them to vote too.
The problem with thinking about 50/50 and lower end cuts is that even though on paper it just sounds like a pay cut for the little posts, it may not work that way once people actually start seeking out content due to the increased incentives (the curation curve is key here, because "just auto vote" is really not that great of a strategy), as well as penalties for keeping lazy behavior (which is what I've focused my posts about).
I'm not sure if I've fully addressed your concerns, because it's not going to be perfect by any means. But essentially, penalizing "lazy behavior" forces alternative considerations, and that will have cascading effects. Is it enough? Will it work? I can't guarantee it.
It's not obvious at all, and even worse is that it's not guaranteed, so you do have a point to be concerned.
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so the premise is that people who now just upvote themselves will now look for new undiscovered content and also share it with other people to convince them to vote. not really seeing this, but hope i am wrong.
i suck at this nevertheless and vote for things that i like when ever so i will probably just get less, but who cares... need to stop reading about this.
Thanks for the effort.
You do not suck at this, except if 'this' is ignoring common sense and believe BS.
Common sense reveals that almost all the rewards pool now goes to profiteers, and not content creators, and this easily explains why Steem has such a dismal retention rate. Since extracting the rewards from the business of Steem, which is creating content that attracts a market for Steem, that in turn creates capital gains, instead extracts the value that would create capital gains, all the proposals in the EIP will make that profiteering more profitable more rapidly, by creating a modified rewards curve that increases the rewards for bigger votes, and doubling curation rewards, which only matter to whales.
Common sense, which you have, tells you exactly what is going to happen under EIP. Only folks bemused by code instead of actual business, or rabidly intent on profiteering, can miss this common sense.
Trust your gut.
I dont know. Im just not convinced by this change. I would love if bots would stop and people would curate more but it feels like it will cost too much. I heard there will also be something called the SPS that will reduce author rewards even more.
I would love for curators to earn more but losing 30-40% of my rewards plus the 10% dtube already takes is scary to me. I dont want to lose motivation now that i started posting consistently.
You say to Bil.prag:
If that is true, and to earn as much as now i would have to have 30$ posts instead of 15$, how can i expect that it will increase that much if curators wont want to upvote me because the curation share will be bad?
Well that's the balance. They have to predict what will be popular, that isn't popular already. If they see it should be worth more then it makes sense for them to vote on it. So if you are already popular I don't really see that as a worry.
Also, big picture: if the reward pool is being used more efficiently, then it is producing value and everything will be worth more. So it really is hard to say.
This is how i feel after reading everything. :D
But honestly, i really dont want to lose what i have now. I dont use bots and i work hard on my content. I see someone say i will have my rewards reduced by 40% and i cant feel happy with that.
Even you write about what is popular what is not, what is efficient and what is not but i only know for sure that i will have reduced earnings. :(
I can't say that that's true "for sure". But I also can't deny that it's possible. But the efforts to adjusts incentives is an honest one, and it's just not accurate when people paint it as "stealing from the poor" or "stealing from the authors".
Trust your gut and don't be baffled by BS. The principles of business and investment are simple. Profiteers today receive almost all the rewards, leaving creators such as you and I less than 10% of it. EIP will increase the profits of profiteers by 40%.
What does you gut tell you will happen?
Even more of the value of Steem will be extracted before it increases the value of the underlying investment vehicle, Steem, and the price of Steem will crash. Millions of Steem are now being powered down to sell before the crash.
You know what will happen, because you have common sense. EIP is designed to extract as quickly as possible all the value from Steem so that it can be sold as quickly as possible. @steem is powering down.
Trust your gut. Don't be baffled by BS.
The value of the time of whales is better spent on their business than fine-tuning their rewards. All they have to do under this - or any tweak to rewards along these lines - is delegate to a bot and exert 0 effort to fine tune their profiteering to extract almost all of the rewards from the pool.
The bidbot owners take care of everything for them. All they have to do is sell their profits on the market, and continue to crash the price of Steem.
That's what will continue to happen, only it will happen faster with a modified exponential rewards curve, and doubling curation rewards. EIP is the last rush to extract the value left in Steem which there is presently a race to sell before the price crashes. Then the profiteers will move on to the next target.
That's what profiteers do.
They can, but they still lose compared to now with the new rules. There's a lot of shifting that will happen especially with 50/50 and dealing with the leakage to external curation votes, and incentives to move away from bid bots, and the potential downvotes is even more motivation. Yes, they'll do their best, but they are actually being penalized compared to now.
{Keep in mind, it's not actually that much more time to incorporate these changes} cool i like your answer,
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
Great to see a witness agrees with most smaller and mid-sized accounts and NOT support the EIP! You got my witness vote, and unvoted everyone who supports that. I really believe the reward curve change and the 50/50 split has a high risk of messing up a lot of the dynamics everyone built upon the last few years. The linear reward curve even though it has it's flaws, gives a high sense of control and predictability. This idea that it all needs to be about quality content discovery in my view won't work. None of the bigger social media platforms are abou that. What it looks like is that this EIP will make it even harder for new accounts to get something going. I hope some witnesses still change their mind on it.
Hi @yabapmatt
I just went to the poll to see if I could see who the other witness was who voted against EIP and it looks like there were actually 17 who did so and 22 who said "yes" to it.
However, you said "top" witnesses so maybe the people who voted were not the top witnesses.
If the are though, I'm wondering, how does the decision actually get made. Is it simply by majority. Would this small a margin be enough to carry it through?
Also, is there any easy way to see who is pro the changes or will there be a way to see who is going to vote which way closer to the time? Or are we reliant on individual witnesses making posts about it?
17 out of the top 20 witnesses have to run the updated code for a hard fork to "activate". You can see who the top 20 witnesses are currently at this link: https://steemd.com/witnesses
When it comes close to the time of the hard fork, you can see which witnesses are running the updated code by looking at the "version" column in the witnesses page linked above, but by that time the decision will already have been made and even witnesses who may not have supported the change will likely be running the new code too, otherwise they will no longer be part of the main chain once the HF happens.
So long story short, the community relies on the witnesses talking or posting about their positions on these matters, which is why it's important for witnesses to communicate.
You got my witness vote.
Thanks for the info @yabapmatt. I'll check out the top 20 from that link and see what they are saying if they've posted. 😊
The hardfork will be accepted if at least 17 witnesses vote yes. You can't see the choice of each witness but most of them will write and share their opinion.
Thanks for the info @marki99.
Steem needs to be that magic star that other blockchains want to be. Lately its been feeling like at any moment its going to take off like a rocket, but stalls out.
You my friend from what I've seen have been busy programming your way to greatness and I appreciate what you do. I know whatever HF21 has instore you will make sure its A Okay for us!
On a side note
I have a open spot for a Best Friend if you want it! Just let me know! Its very rare!
Great write-up on all this Yabapmatt!
I think a lot of people around here would agree w/ this:
I like to think we all can walk and chew gum at the same time. It will great once we can double our walking and an double our chewing gum and produce many times great things on this blockchain. I think we'll get there. Thanks , for all your hard work on everything!
It's clear we can barely do either... Are you serious?
lol
I was trying to draw you out and it worked! :P
I guess I was hoping this would be the case , but you are right lol
Well put @yabapmatt
This 100%
While I really believe we need to make changes as our system is not working, it won't matter if we keep hemorrhaging the good users.
Who are the good users? Your preferred content creators? Those not 100% delegated out to bots? Those not spanking over half their VP over themselves each day?
Those are my good users, and yeah, we do not have many.
Users who produce quality original content and are not milking the system with garbage.
Who is more milky in your eyes:
A user who produces 6 pieces of original content each day, or a user who produces one run of the mill post a day?
There are different degrees and no way to fix all of them but there are plenty of extreme cases. Some are symptoms of the system itself and those around them.
It's clearly not the latter, even if the post is total garbage.
The ones milking are the blatant haejin types and those running an array of alts 'cause everyone else is'.
I know for a fact the latter is true as I have heard that as justification many times.
My point is there is a clear line between those who are trying to offer value and those who are just trying to extract whatever they can out of the system for the least amount of effort. We are losing a lot of the first and gaining a lot of the second.
Don't forget the bidbots. ~90% or more of the value of Steem is extracted by profiteers delegating to bidbots,or otherwise manipulating rewards. All of that profiteering discourages capital gains. EIP increases by another 40% of the remaining ~10% of the value of Steem currently shared by content creators that will be extracted by profiteers and bidbots.
Common sense is all that is necessary to predict what will happen to the price of Steem. @steem is powering down tens of millions of Steem right now, so that it can be sold before the price crashes.
Listen to your guts. They aren't lying to you.
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
Well said. If two years ago, someone described where the STEEM blockchain would be in 2019, I wouldn't have envisioned this. Perhaps I'm just optimistic, but envisioning the STEEM blockchain in 2021 is a beautiful thing to behold.
It's basically the future of the internet.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, Matt! First off - I want to mention how refreshing it was to read an update from a top witness that was succinct, convicting, and not overly technical.
There is one point I want to offer a different perspective on though. I used to think that a lot of the crypto community just didn't know about Steem - and if they did, things would be different. Basically, I just thought we needed to get the word out.
I've been getting out into the greater crypto community a lot more lately at different events, meetups, and online and have found most people I meet (including investors) are well aware of Steem. I know they aren't mistaking it for Steam because we usually have a conversation about it and they'll mention Dtube or blogging. The general consensus I've found from people is that they looked into Steem once and were super unimpressed... so they moved on. A quote I've heard from a few people is...
As you point out in this post - we need to show the greater crypto community that we do have direction and develop a differentiating factor from other blockchains that can "seemingly" do similar things.
So I've changed my perception that we "just' need to get the word out. That is obviously still important, but I think we also need a major PR overhaul with the crypto community to show what we are really capable of. I have my own ideas of how we could do this - but that's a conversation for another day!
Well in either case I doubt the reason that they're not using or investing in STEEM is because of the posting reward / curation algorithms and I don't think any amount of messing with those algorithms will get them to start. If we get a whole bunch of cool, well funded apps on the platform and show serious growth and potential and make sure everyone knows about it, the price will start to follow, and that will get more attention and attract more people and development and it will continue from there.
We can't just tell people that Steem will be great, because they've heard that before and it hasn't panned out, so now we have to actually make it happen.
Maybe “Show not Tell” should me our motto right now. lol
I think you are spot on that just talking more about Steem’s capabilities won’t do much - but showing actual development and traction of cool dapps will do a lot of the talking for us.
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
I flag trash (and morons). You have received a flag.
What a fantastic write-up! This is what I've been waiting to hear from the top-20 witnesses, and you are also obviously very in touch with what the Steem blockchain actually needs. Real, palatable, marketable features and additions! Not small mathematical equations that honestly reflect poorly when said out loud...
You, good sir, have (re)earned my vote for you as Witness! :)
@yabapmatt we need more people like you as witnesses.
The problem is that when @ned was trying to push for SMTs and overlooked everything else, people started whining about basic stuff not being done for the steemit website, about the bidbots, about communications, etc etc.
Even witnesses did that. Mostly because they were panicking about the token price. Not all witnesses have a clear head and a goal oriented strategy like you.
Without @ned this blockchain will never be good looking marketing-wise. @dan already left, we can't afford another founder leaving.
Please try to get @ned to come back, to lay out his vision for SMTs, and work towards it. Last time he wanted to talk about his vision @aggroed kept interrupting him and telling him he was doing a shit job with communication (which was true). Now that Steemit, Inc is out of survive mode, we need him.
Upvoted for visibility.
I really love your train of thought here and in various interviews I’ve heard you speak in. I think most people are far too causal about the elephant room... token price. I totally agree that if continue to get trolled by this low token price it will be difficult to attract investment here whether that by time or capital.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were some sort of gamification for STEEM like DEC or some sort of buyback or burn program on a material level?
Yes...I didn't explicitly come out and say it in the post, but token price is everything. High and increasing prices brings more users, more developers, more apps, and even free marketing and promotion.
The huge and disproportionate price drop STEEM went through over the past year did serve as a much needed wake up call to both Steemit, Inc and the Steem community, but now it's time to do whatever we can to get that price going up and start the virtuous cycle it creates.
I want to tell you this because you are focused so much on the price.
I am a technical analyst and I have analyzed hundreds of stocks, indices and crypto projects simply based on their chart patterns. In Stocks and in Cryptos you will often find that when they launch, a corrective pattern (small or big) is formed FIRST to shake out the non-believers before the first rally starts.
What I am trying to tell you here is that 8$ Steem was not part of an impulse wave, but still part of this corrective pattern (in hindsight we can be very sure about that).
This corrective pattern seems to come to an end soon. What this means is, that we have no idea where the first impulse wave will lead us. It could easily blow up to 10$ in a straight line, then after corrections 20,30,50$...
All I am asking for is for a little hype for Steem, once this wave up starts. Until then, we have still time to prepare. If there is no hype involved, the first impulse may end up at 3-5$, which would still be decent but way below the potential for Steem.
TA doesn't even consider underlying business. Capital gains is the traditional incentive for investing, but Steem allows ~90% of the value of the business to be extracted by profiteers through rewards. This business is content creation, and that is what markets Steem as well, by attracting a market via that content and enabling new investors to buy Steem, creating capital gains.
Consider that @steem is currently powering down, and that EIP will increase the profit extracted by profiteers by another 40% of the remaining ~10% shared by the actual producers of the product of Steem. Wiggles on charts won't reveal what that will do.
Common sense does.
I think some of the price drop is because the conversion of SBD printed when the prices where high. This has exceeded by far the inflation that steem is supposed to have.
At some point we should consider if we really need SBD with all the bad effects that could happen when the price drops.
You've already earned my witness vote, but this would have earned it again.
Thanks, and bonus points for the haiku! That's one of my favorite little bots on the platform.
haha, I like it when I've said something nice. :) there have been a few times I would have rather it didn't highlight what I said! :)
Thanks Yabapmatt
You've already earned
My witness vote, but this would
Have earned it again.
- whatsup
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
Hey @yabapmatt, thank you so much for what you have said.
I totally agree with this:
We need to make these apps with optimum UX & UI and market them aggressively. The apps are what people will be attracted to, not so much Steem as a blogging platform.
P.S. Resteemed! (:
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@yabapmatt,
Thank you for this explanation! Until I read your post I thought SMT is the only option to drag us out of current chaos, but now I understood it's is not! A valuable explanation and it's great to see you type of people are at top of witness tree as well!
Here I am giving you a drama token as a reward! This is my 1st drama token distribution and I hope you might keep it in your secret wallet, one day it might be more worthy than a BTC!
!dramatoken
Cheers~
It is very good to see these types of conversations taking place and especially amongst the witnesses. I personally believe Steem and by extension Steemit need leadership that is visionary and competent. That leadership in turn needs to attract the types of people who can effectively the vision into action. And finally, unless and until the everyday Joe and Janes of the world can realize an attractive return on their investments of time and effort, making a compelling argument for Steem and Steemit will be a truly hard sell. Just my opinion. Nonetheless, I do remain hopeful.
Profiteers currently extract ~90% of the rewards, and EIP will increase that by another 40% of the remaining ~10% of rewards currently shared by all the content creators on the platform.
EIP is the opposite of what we should do to increase the value of Steem.
We need to stop fighting and start making
I still believe
One of the things that keeps me believing in Steem so far is that no other cryptocurrency has managed to penetrate as much as this one has. So, we run with a lot of advantage, but if we sleep on our laurels we will remain in history as one of the first social-cryptos.
Why I Would Support Inflation Funding the SPS (Steem Proposal System)
As @whatsup said in this post. We have to accelerate the speed in the development of projects with a lot of potential (one billion dollar dapp, as said at MIT) so that the adoption rates resemble the large existing social networks.
To achieve that, we have to decentralize even more the way in which the projects are selected and sponsored.
Because Steem Inc is not making it on its own
I really like your thought process, explanations and vision for Steem. However, I disagree with your conclusions.
I don't think SPS is necessary especially if it takes away from author/curation reward pool. If SPS is funded with removal of interests on SP that would make more sense to me. I do think EIP is a positive change.
My reason is making Steem an attractive asset to invest. Simple economics suggest more people buy and power up than sell prices go up. I think EIP will make Steem more attractive. Primarily, because most social media users are content consumer and not content creators. Giving content consumers a fair chance to be rewarded by investing will create a better economics. I think institutional investors would follow the suit, if retail is happy to invest.
Even yourself mention in one of the comments the importance of the token price. That will be the biggest marketing needed.
Bottomline, if average users are not interested to invest their hard earned money into Steem why should large investors bother? For these reasons EIP makes sense to me, and SPS seems to undermine that. I like EIP, but with combination of SPS that potential could take away from authors/curators probably brings us back to where we are right now.
Actually, I like to think about the SPS as being able to separate direct funding from voting based funding. Imagine that you transitioned all of Utopian to fund its activities based on SPS. It's more stable and you have better control of how much goes out to whom with better accountability. So whatever % utopian is allocating from the rewards pool now can be shifted to this instead, and it doesn't have to be a loss relative to today. Of course with a fixed ratio going to SPS, it's not flexible enough to do things like "send remaining funds back into the reward pool" but that would be neat too, wouldn't it? (Can be one of the first things funded if it's desired)
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The basic difference between SPS drawing from inflation (rewards pool) directly and @utopian using their earned rewards to do so is that the former is a tax over which individuals have zero say over how much they pay for what, and @utopian has complete and total control over how they spend their personal funds.
Taxation is theft. Goons always take charge of any taxation, because thieves steal. If voluntary contributions aren't forthcoming for development, there's a good reason for that.
Irrelevant. How the inflation is allocated is what matters. You are assuming that the stakeholders already own their share of inflation, and that is not a stance I agree with. It's a subtle difference between having a say in how things should be allocated and assuming it's yours to begin with and you are doing charity. Downvotes make it clear that this is not how it works, or should be interpreted.
If it doesn't work, then inflation doesn't make any sense. Get rid of it altogether.
No, I assume that stakeholders prefer to direct where rewards go, and not have less say. I don't think that's irrelevant at all, but indeed, the heart of the matter. You're starting to play semantics, putting words in my mouth, and other logical fallacies, which aren't going to advance the debate.
Taxing inflation for SPS removes skin in the game, and I'm agin' it. If proposals can't generate voluntary support via the rewards mechanism, they shouldn't be undertaken involuntarily. I'm not particularly happy witnesses are supported via taxation. SPS being proposed to be funded via the same mechanism only proves the slippery slope exists regarding taxation and democracy. If SPS is funded that way, it won't be the last thing that is, and eventually Steem will be controlled by deals in smoky backrooms by corrupt politicians.
Save your grandstanding about inflation for folks that will be swayed by it. Inflation isn't the problem, it's involuntary expenditures of it. We're here voluntarily. Let's keep rewards voluntary too, or let's just get rid of Steem altogether.
It's just as silly when I use the tactic, isn't it?
You realize that stakeholders do have a say in how the inflation that was redirected to the SPS is allocated, so I don't see how this helps your argument.
And my point about inflation is simple. If the way inflation is being allocated is not providing value to the platform as a whole (e.g. allocated efficiently), then it's just dumb dilution and is downward pressure on the price. Simple as that.
The code creates incentive to act for users. Presently the users are encouraged to extract rewards through financial manipulation that is dropping the marketcap of Steem steadily, and keeps the price from rising. SPS isn't doing that since it hasn't been introduced yet.
Your point about inflation is well taken, but code, whether to effect a tax that further decreases rewards flowing to the Marketing Dept. (content creators, dapps, etc.) and instead encourage financial manipulation to extract those rewards using the power of subtantial stake, or to create a tax that decreases rewards flowing to the Marketing Dept. and divert those rewards to the Development Dept., is the basis for why the inflation is allocated the way it is.
I agree that allocation of the inflation is putting downwards pressure on the price, and if we allow SPS to take 10% of the inflation, the decrease in rewards received by creators will be more than 40% from the current situation. I predict an exodus of creators, and an absence of new users, as well as immense powerdowns from every substantial stakeholder so that they can sell Steem as soon as possible, because the price will crash as the market disappears.
Steem is nothing without it's market. It's no more a currency than the first videogame ever, Pong, without buyers. Without creators there will be no one interested in buying any Steem, because it is their posts and comments that draw eyeballs, as well as the games and other attractions that are also content.
This is probably our last chance to avoid that terrible circumstance. Let's hope we avoid it, and our Steem retains it's present (dismal) value.
Did you change the steemconnect log in stuff? It makes me nervous now that it wants even more passwords.
"and even then half of the time they're thinking of the game platform."
You are so right about that one. Every time I talk to someone new about Steem, I always need to say "Steem is not Steam the gaming platform, Steem is a cryptocurrency, but you can also play games on Steem" People get confused, which always brings me to curse the names of dan and ned for naming Steem STEEM! WHY name a coin like the most popular gaming platform?!??!
Speaking of gaming, DEC up for grabs (on top of the regular Steem prizes) in the next Path of Exile race, kicking off in just over 3 days.
Hope to see your name on the list again mate :)
I'll be there for sure :)
Steem is many different things to many different people. While I appreciate your perspective that steem is the go to place for those looking to build a website or app and reward users for their contributions what I've seen thus far is pure shit.
Appics, actifit, steemhunt, dlike are more dull than the first day of school, look at my lunch posts that dominate normie social media..
Personally I'm not interested in games or especially games of chance like magic dice.
Nowhere do you mention content creators or social media monetized which is what brought most people here.
Again these are just my perspectives but it seems most witnesses are way out of touch with the typical steem user and completely on a different planet from the billions of users of the internet outside of steem.
Steem has no vision or identity because of this revolving door of forks and witnesses that can't get on the same page or comprehend that a place that is built for devs is very niche and destined to fail. The world isn't ready for that like they weren't ready for Marty McFly guitar solos.
Basically, my take away from your post is as a fun loving creator of steem satire, a maker of atypical content that offers variety to an absurdly humdrum boring failed content discovery platform that lacks any of the features everyday people use online I should leave.
I'm not developing shit accept some steem friends and a sense of community beyond the fucked economics that transcends all that's broken here. Which is mostly everything!
I am the quintessential potential future user that is here to learn about crypto and enjoy a censorship resistant platform. That's entirely missed by all the emotionally and financially motivated movers and shakers here.
Partiko is fledgling and in "transition" do you people even know that? Esteem is buggy and annoying, without a mobile UI that appeals to normal people steem is doomed. Witnesses can't see the forest for the trees. Bernie was right !
Enjoy going in circles and accomplishing little to nothing with these limited stake driven motivations...
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I view Steem as more of a data storage solution than a social media blockchain. I envision many businesses building to solve data problems. Steem has many advantages over systems like AWS, I believe it can excel in a number of different use cases. Things that are very boring to most people like supply chain mgnt or ecommerce auctions can potentially give virtual superpowers to future Steem users. Or say p2p Uber killers. I don't think we should throw Steem into a box . By continuing experimentation we increase our chances for mass adoption.
Thanks for voting against the EIP. You got my witness vote.
I don't see how it's going to improve curation. Just went down a rabbit hole of a few authors making 100s of steem a day on regurgitated content off a single whale's vote.
EIP isn't going to change this.
Thank you for keeping us informed about all the updates that come for the platform, or rather the expectations that the people who really work to support this wonderful social network have ... I am a simple musician who makes and creates music to keep me happy and I live in Venezuela with all the problems that we live here every day if I did not have this place to live and dream, I think I would have left the music aside. I thank in the soul that this place exists.
Greetings, yabapmatt
Excelent text, man!!! I agree. I think developers of steem could have their focus on SMT and marketing. It will bring a grande value to steem.
I dont know the costs about it, but, a marketing department can be created to show steem to all people and programmers.
@nathanmars give his contribuition to steem with seven push- ups challenge on twitter....
Maybe, a little talk to him to create its departament can be done.
thank you and have a good night!
Back to Building
Thanks for keeping us posted! I a
have exact thoughts with what you say here! Yes to SPS and no to EIP as I feel it hurt the future of vamue creation here, future users and the middle class that has grown by earning and buying. However, I will support whatever happens as we need to foster an environment of collaboration. I hope it is more straightforward than HF 20!
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I must be in the minority, i cant see why SPS and EIP cant be achieved, then continue on. Guess will see what the majority votes and trust their decision.
I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but it seems likely that both the SPS and EIP will end up being included and released with HF21. Adding in the EIP changes will take additional work from the core development team to build, it will take additional time and effort to test, and the more changes you include the more chances there are for issues to happen.
I don't think all of that is worth it for something that I don't think will contribute in any meaningful way to achieving the vision of Steem that I outlined in the post. That is why I would prefer not to do it and instead focus that time and effort on things that will get us closer to our goals.
Exactly! Even in Steemit Inc’s original post about the EIP they told people they were not going to prioritize it and instead focus on SMTs, etc. But here we are all these weeks later and I feel Ike SMTs have taken a backseat ... again.
I hope you are correct that they are still moving forward with it in the background. I really hope that is the case. It seemed like we were only a few months away from a testnet in December before certain stuff hit the fan if you will. I know a lot of developers were let go but I hope we are not too far off. A new roadmap/sprint schedule would go a long way to ease my mind. Anyway, I am rambling now ...
Thanks for sharing the update about HF21 and I am pretty sure that these changes are for the betterment of STEEM. Steem has come a long way and it's the future of internet.
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Well said sir. The EIP bothers with metrics people dont really understand anyway... But the SPS is just the breath of fresh air steem needs.
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
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Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @steemflow.
I fully agree with you. I would like to thank you for the work you are doing for Steem daily.
You deserve to be on the witness spot you are in.
Supporting the SPS without the EIP is what excatly makes sense to me.
I completely agree with you when it comes to EIP - would like to see some changes though, but not at the moment. We should shift our focus toward more relevant things and at this point EIP is pretty much trivial, at least in my eyes.
We need to make an effort to change the way people look at steem(in case they heard of it, lol) and actively work to bring people on here...
Can't wait to see SPS to go viral, hopefully it'll make the whole process much more "aggressive".
You're upping the drama to new levels! Have a DRAMA.
To view or trade
DRAMAgo to steem-engine.com.Great to see some people see bigger picture from witnesses. I think big problem is that all the problems are considered here to be caused by some algorithm, that supposedly a vote-seller will stop selling votes if you change algorithm. Human is here reduced to some cog that spins according to algorithm and if something does not happen as is wanted, it is a technical problem.
Hi @yabapmatt!
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Your rank has improved 1 places in the last three days (old rank 105).
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EIP will removed part of rewards from content creators. This is our target? I think no.
Steem needs decentralized moderators. I like idea delegation right of flag to other account.
Steem should be everything, where they come to drop an Dapp and our community in the social media aspect supports them. The bigger they both get the wins will come, if one gets left off, this will fail....... Also if you are the #1 Witness and you vote NO, then the other witnesses should not push EIP thru for now......
Do you think Steemit, Inc. providing a larger donation (several million STEEM) to the worker proposal fund will be a good approach?
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glad to see your stance on this @yapapmatt .. I'm expecting this will be part of the discussions at the next Witness Chat in the Ramble on June 12th at 1pm EDT .. hope to see you take part.
I can't agree with you more. Moreover, that EIP (which consists of three different agendas) was surveyed as a package, which was another problem that made people difficult to say no.
"While we're spending time messing around with parameters that a very small number of people actually understand or care about"
Thats true. We need to be a good sandbox other people can build in ( there business)
I love this post because it is the same as I think. What Steem needs most is marketing to ordinary people who still do not know about crypto, explained in a simple way.
Now I ask you @yabapmatt, do you think that marketing should be focused on dapps specifically or Steem as an ecosystem?
Users or communities that want to promote should look for a dapp to promote it or should they do it with Steem? Which do you think is more effective?
You have my vote witness, thanks for this post
Steem is marketed by the content creators produce, and that is as simple as it gets. However, profiteers extract ~90% of the rewards and EIP proposes increasing this by another 40% of the remaining rewards available to creators. All that value is extracted from the marketing of Steem, and does not enable capital gains (increasing the value of Steem).
Social media has proved to be the most profitable business in the world today. The FAANGs rise to power is entirely from social media. It is profiteering extracting the rewards before they are able to increase the price of Steem that prevents Steem from producing capital gains it's blockchain excellence and use case make possible.
Congratulations @yabapmatt!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
Thank you @yabapmatt for expressing your views on HF21. I agree with what you have said, especially when it comes to EIP. I think it is going to hinder those starting out. HF20 did damage in that area, we don't need to make it any harder for someone starting out especially since we want new people and growth.
You don't know my life. Maybe I love helping new people.
awww poor baby. LOL
All you love is bidbots. Revert!
@yabapmatt, VOICE is not competitor of Steem if still anyone have doubts regarding it. The most important thing is, no matter what we think or don't think change should be arrive or change will arrive itself.
I am not good in Marketing or never pursued those skills but no matter which business, to reach masses we need Marketing. We are lacking Users on Steem Blockchain due to lack of Marketing, whatever Steemians are doing that's appreciable too because we all know that we see effective numbers on this platform but it's not enough for Huge Marketing (Collectively with proposed channel of marketing can be thinkable point) because we don't have any Institutional Investors or Giant Promotion Companies, so with this Decentralised Ecosystem we will see slow progress but in my opinion ground work will give strong foundation for the future.
Good to know that you are ready to cooperate with other Witnesses to carryon with both models smoothy if possible. And at this point of time we need Togetherness more than ever because we are already watching the Breakdown System of Centralised Platforms and many are losing their expression and voice on these platforms. This is the practical time to show the true light of Steem and to let the world know that there is a platform where every voice is heard.
At last i really agree with you on one point and that is Steem Blockchain is Factory Of Applications and Businesses and Communities can Monetise their user interfaces with the help of Smart Media Token Protocol.
Your development efforts and view points are really appreciable. Stay blessed.
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Dear @yabapmatt
Yep. And yet majority of companies seem not to understand power of marketing and their marketing budgets are very limited.
Hard not to agree. Is Steemit Inc actually dunfing any app developments at the moment? Any idea? Just curious.
Seriously great read. Upvote on the way.
Yours,
Piotr