Hi team!
I love that you've accepted the role of being a shiny example of a business on the Steem blockchain, I really do think you could be an incredible case-study for other organisations looking to utilize the content creation skills, development skills and raw enthusiasm of the Steemians on the blockchain.
I've got a couple of suggestions for you;
Since you're technologically savy, and potentially have the infrastructure already in place, would you consider setting up as a Witness? If the bear market continues for 18 months (which we should plan for, even if we hope otherwise) other Witnesses may need to drop away, but it might just be a small percentage of your overall infrastructure meaning you could potentially outlast bear market activities.
Would you consider developing a Coingecko front end for the Steem blockchain? You've got your APIs developed already, and you've already got a voice in the industry and probably a lot more open to advertising. If Steemit Inc did go under, I think there's enough enthusiasm and expertise to keep us going, but a Coingecko front end might be awesome! Bring the crypto crowd to one spot, and I don't imagine it'd be massively difficult since a few of the existing front ends are open-source already (but again, might not have your infrastructure and/or alternate revenue streams.
Lastly, I'm sure it's really a consideration, but stay with us. You've invested a lot, and that's amazing... but there's still a lot we can do for you too. I imagine if Steem did become a sinking ship (which at this point I do think is unlikely, but plan for the worst right) then the most skilled Steemians are also the most invested... and therefore probably the last to leave.
Thanks for this post! I've been excited about you since you arrived and you continue to be great.
Hi aussieninja, thank you for the comprehensive write up, suggestion, and supportive comment!
We are actually considering running as a Witness, though we are still evaluating our capacity to deliver given the intricacies of setting up a Witness node. Hopefully, the answer is yes and if so you can expect to run some time early next year.
As for running an API front end, that is definitely a solid suggestion and much needed for the network.
However, we want to also ensure that we can deliver this, as we are quite new in this space; we want to ensure that we understand Steem inside/out before we can setup an infrastructure to serve this well. That being said, we are always evaluating what we can do best to serve the community if we were to run for witness.
We've got some ideas in mind that we brainstormed along the way and can't wait to share with the community once we are ready!
A reply to this regarding a CoinGecko front-end for Steem would be great.
To get started they can just start using this plugin to STEEMize their posts..
https://wordpress.org/plugins/steempress/