In today's video I discuss EOS being activated, the fact that I believe EOS will spawn a load of "mini- Steemits" and what this might mean for STEEM and users of STEEM.

Lift off

First off, congratulations to EOS. After four days of Block Producer voting the 15% threshold has been reached and the chain is now active.

Unstake

By default everyone's tokens are staked. Users should now be able to unstake their token. It will take 72 hours from issuing the unstake command to having liquid EOS that you can transfer etc.

"Mini-Steemits"

With EOS now active I've been doing a bit of future glazing. Beyond people trying to launch ICOs and airdrops on EOS, one of the initial applications I think we'll see from EOS is a load of Steemit clones. In many ways it is the low-hanging fruit. STEEM has been very successful in terms of delivering a blockchain-based social media platform that runs pretty much as you'd expect a social media site of it's size to run. Whenever people in Block.One talk about the kind of apps that can be made on EOS, STEEM is often sited.

Over the last couple, I've heard people mention 'Karma' (a social media site that rewards people for good deeds they've done and recorded to the blockchain) and Trybe (which will be some kind fo knowledge sharing network on EOS). As well as Ono and potential a social media site launched by Dan.

Best Laid plans

While I think this is great and have long advocated for competitors to Steem, it is important to note that STEEM 'alternatives' will likely face the same challenges STEEM did.

From initial distribution, I know that airdrops are all the rage however they are no silver bullet and can result in Whales have the majority of the tokens thus undue influence over rewards.

Even if as a founder you have the intension of, say, a social network that rewards good deeds, if rewards are allocated in a decentralised manner there is always the risk that 'your community' will not necessarily play ball. When STEEM started no-one could have foresaw the prevalence of bid bots etc. Other platforms will likely face their own challenges the popular they get.

Network effect

Speaking of popular, trying to overcome the network effects of STEEM will be difficult too. The strongest aspect of STEEM is the community and whilst it cannot be taken for granted, first place is STEEM's to lose as oppose to a position that is readily up for grabs.

Token-omics

I'll be interested to see the economic models of some of these tokens in particular; who will be buying them? Giving them out is the easy part; do an airdrop, distribute new tokens to content creators. However cracking the nut of 'why is anyone buying this thing? will get harder an harder the more tokens emerge.

Up the ante

Ultimately I think the emergence of "mini-Steemits" is a good thing for everyone that posts on STEEM. It's more choice and more opportunities to carve your niche/ audience. It will also force the Steemit Team to up their game and I'm sure they'll welcome the competition.

Not Only But Also

I don't see it being a binary choice for content creators. I believe content creators will be able to 'cross-post' and open up the pool of rewards and tokens available to them. I believe their will be 'aggregation sites' that enable this; it will be the norm to post on these aggregators and for token holders in those communities to decide if/ how to reward posters.

Anyway, enough fortune telling from me, let's see what the future holds. However I won't be breaking open the popcorn to watch, I'll definitely be looking to participate in the exciting times ahead!

My video is at DLive