The other day I wrote a post about how viewing Steem through the spectrum of the user and number of posts is a bit misleading. In it, I detailed how while we are down from the all time highs, the activity which was present, at that time, was due to spamming and flag wars. Certainly, this was not the totality and we did lose some very good bloggers. However, the overall numbers tell a worse story than what actually took place.
https://steemleo.com/steem/@taskmaster4450/why-the-user-and-posting-stats-are-somewhat-misleading
Almost simultaneously, 
In his post, he took a look at the blockchain activity. From this data he charted the different types of transactions we saw on Steem over the past 10 months.
There is a golden nugget in here that tells exactly what is taking place. Based upon this data, Steem is changing before our eyes. What started out as a blogging platform has transformed into something completely different. The posting activity is down yet it has been replaced, to a large degree by something else.
Notice the blue section of the chart. That cover the JSON transactions over the period of time. That has doubled from 200K transactions per day to 400K. It is a very telling statistic.
So What Is JSON?
I will use his definition that was taken from Wikipedia:
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an open-standard file format or data interchange format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and array data types (or any other serializable value). It is a very common data format, with a diverse range of applications, such as serving as replacement for XML in AJAX systems.
JSON is a language-independent data format. It was derived from JavaScript, but many modern programming languages include code to generate and parse JSON-format data. The official Internet media type for JSON is application/json. JSON filenames use the extension .json.
Basically, if I understand the process correctly, JSON commands can be transmitted to the blockchain. However, they are not coded for Steem, thus the blockchain essentially ignores them. They do have pertinent information that is now part of the ledger and cannot be changed.
Who Uses JSON?
On Steem, according to the article:
- Steem-Engine
- Splinterlands
- Tribes
- Next Colony
- Other new games such as Holybread
This is very interesting. The layer 2 solutions are the ones receiving all the activity. Naturally, this should come as no surprise as the popularity of the tribes and a couple of the games are really taking off. This has made up for some of the decline in other activities.
A bit part of the reduction is in the number of votes being cast. This, too, makes a great deal of sense as the blockchain was cleaned up. There were a lot of "spammy" posts that were getting some upvotes. Those are now removed from the equation.
Is This A Good Thing?
That depends upon one's perspective.
Steem is getting away from, to some degree, the concept of being a blogging platform. I think this was something that most foresaw. There are still a handful of people who are trying to maintain that original concept yet, I feel, that Steemit.com was meant only to be the first of many applications. The idea of the blockchain was to allow anyone to build upon it.
I think one positive we can take away is the JSON arena is a much bigger market than blogging. The types of projects that are using it tend to be in sectors that are enormous. For example, gaming is a gigantic industry. In the United States alone it is more than $20 billion a year in revenues. That surpasses the NFL. Steem-engine shows the value of exchanges which, as we know, can have huge volumes.
Where Do We Go From Here?
That is the beauty of open and decentralized. We honestly do not know. It is up to the community to decide what is developed and what the users prefer. If we see a big advancement in gaming, that could end up being the majority of the activity on Steem. Of course, if something like 3speak becomes a viable alternative to YouTube (a goal of 
No matter the path the platform takes, I can say that we will have more users in the future and the developers will keep bringing out new projects. Over the past two years, in spite of the bear, we witnessed the release of a lot of new applications while also seeing the existing ones expanding. This is what I consider the compounding factor of Steem. Over time, it all just keeps building upon itself.
These are the variables that I utilize when I am judging what is taking place. A lot of the other factors only tell part of the story unless researched deeper.
Time will tell how it all will turn out yet I am confident in the direction of things.
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Posted via Steemleo