Yes and no, I think...

My understanding if that blockchain isn't about crypto calculations, but it is simply a means to record that something was done, and the record can't be corrupted. The first application of blockchain was Bitcoin and the work done was the passing of coins from one person to another.

What initially bothered me about Steem was that I didn't understand why they didn't need miners and all that overhead found in bitcoin. The answer is that they simply make new coins every day without work and they record them in the blockchain.

I could be completely wrong about this... but as I said, this is the understanding that I've come to the past several weeks.

So... one thing we could do is have blockchain record peoples contribution to high performance computing. This is something that Gridcoin is doing. https://www.gridcoin.us/

Another thing that we could do is simply use blockchain to record data. For example, after the presidential election I heard about climate scientist backing up data to blockchain. (I have no evidence that they actually did this, but such is the nature of rumor.)

I'm not thinking about blockchain in these fashions, but more in terms of using the social aspect. I imagine it as a means to create multilevel, hierarchical social structure that rewards human work. For example, I'm interested in a particular metal alloy that has been studied for just short of 100 years. There is lots of data, that is stored in print. It is being digitized, but just pdf scans are being made. Can we pay using Steem, or something similar, to have people strip out data, say microscopy images, and record for each the details, such as magnification, contrast, composition, etc. Then can we pay curators to verify the work. Then pay a second level of curators to organize the data in a meaningful fashion? Then pay a third level of curators to.... etc.

I just submitted a proposal to create a database and as part of this we had to design a means to encourage people to contribute their data. (You may not believe it, but scientists talk about data sharing, but actually don't do so.) The whole writing period I was reimagining it built on steem.

We'll see what comes from this. Before I get ahead of myself I need to get some science content up here to build my credibility with the community. I also would like to figure out how to make a buck on this system. From what I can tell, my style and time for posting (early mornings and on weekends) make it likely my payouts will be low.