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.