Steemit Services for Business
Hi fellow Steemians. In light of the current state of affairs at Steemit Inc., I have been mulling over some ideas about how Steemit could develop a new revenue stream using the Steem blockchain technology. As you may be aware, Steemit has undertaken a reorganization of its leadership team with 
What follows in this post are a number of opportunities I believe that Steemit could take advantage of in order to pull it out of its current position and set it on a path of long-term solid growth.
Infrastructure As a Service
The Steem blockchain has been cited as one of the most robust and reliable within the crypto space. Furthermore, it offers industrial strength scalability and presents users with minimal transaction costs based on a resource credit system -- Hard Fork 20.0 was the official rollout of the new transaction credit system. What this means is that a user's ability to conduct transactions on the blockchain is directly proportional to the amount of resource credits at his or her disposal.
The point at which the Steem blockchain is able to offer a "it just works" level of service, Steemit would command a very compelling value proposition and have a much greater chance of attractive key clients to its products portfolio. In keeping with that idea, the basic structure of the service model would follow that found within IaaS industry with the addition of Steemit providing custom APIs to meet individual client needs.
Turn-key Solutions and APIs for DAPS for B2B and B2C
Steemit could, for example, provide a ready made web service applications similar to that found with IBM's distributed applications model.
The advantage is that Steemit could use open standards to build a baseline suite of software and support services and then mix and match their offerings to best meet each customer's needs.
Developing APIs for decentralized applications for B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) on the Steem blockchain would allow Steemit to establish a presence in a new and potentially highly lucrative market before the likes of ORACLE (BaaS), Amazon (AWS), or Microsoft (Azure) begin to take notice and position themselves to dominate the market.
Authenticity, Transparency and Accessibility
There are a number of concerns that many within the private and public sectors face on a daily basis, namely, authenticity of sources, traceability, transparency, accessibility and immutability.
Authenticity
Winning patrons can be a very challenging and expensive endeavor, and maintaining loyalty to one's brand can often be an even greater challenge. Put a good idea into the market and the copy cats will follow and this is often in spite of patent and copywrite protections. Well established brands have long struggled against cheap knock-offs of their IP from producers in unregulated or under regulated markets. Manufactures and service providers are in a race to find ways of protecting their investments and strengthening their positions within the market. Blockchain technology can greatly mitigate the affects of counterfeiters by insuring customers that are fully aware that they are obtaining genuine items. And according to Supply Chain digital, emerging blockchain technologies are providing buyers with a one stop shop in verifying the authenticity of their purchases.
Besides the manufacturing and services industries, the blockchain can serve as an effective means of recording the authenticity of such things as deeds, titles of ownership, certifications, and the like. The site GovTech Biz has a protocol example of a public record of ownership. Indeed one could argue that it is often the case, that the public sector often adopts proven technology and methods pioneered by private industry. The bottom line is cost effectiveness.
This type of technology can be especially beneficial in emerging markets where there often exists a lack of effective governance and widespread corruption that seriously hampers efforts to establish legitimate ownership.
Traceability and Transparency
Traceability and transparency are two of the greatest concerns surrounding international trade. The diamond industry in particular has been plagued by scandals in which producers have been accused of driving armed conflicts, especially within Africa, where warlords and criminal gangs terrorize local populations. Diamonds produced in these various countries have come to be known as "Blood Diamonds".
Mine owners have been accused of subjecting workers to appaling and dangerous conditions that have cost workers life and limb. And is often the case, governmental officials have also been accused of corruption and either being complicit in the abuse or turning a blind eye to it. The film Blood Diamond was Hollywood's attempt to dramatize this problem.
Traceability and transparency are of particular high importance where authorities overseeing international commerce seek to eliminate, among other things:
- trade in illicit ivory
- the trade of endangered species
- imitation pharmaceuticals
- counterfeit works of art
- stolen national and historic treasures.
Being a ledger open to public inspection, the Steemit blockchain could aid in the fight against the sell and distribution of these goods because it can allow the recording and tracking of items from origin to final destination and the parties involved in the ensuing transactions. As a side note, the blockchain can also serve as a means to insure that items such as textiles and electronics, for example, are not being obtained from sweat shops.
Accessibility and Immutability
Accessibility and immutability are two of the Steem blockchain's greatest strengths. Other advantages are its robustness and ability to scale while keeping transaction costs to a minimum. The Steem blockchain is publicly viewable which ties back into the theme of transparent transactions. Critical business decisions depend heavily on timely, accurate, and accessible information. Which leads me to the next point. Informational integrity is another critical consideration businesses must take into account in conducting their operations and remaining competitive. Decisions based on information that has been tampered with can lead to disastrous results.
One of the core features of the blockchain is the immutable nature of recorded transactions. Once appended, a record cannot be modified or removed and there are no gate keepers or central figures who can manipulate recorded results. These, among other things, are the foundation upon which trust is built.
Redhat Software and Services Model
The Redhat business model is based upon the company offering largely open source software coupled with subscription support and consultation. Redhat has been in business since 1993 and has grown to become a multi-billion dollar international company. Incidently, IBM has recently acquired Redhat for about $34 billion. Redhat's market was peged around $20 billion at the time.
Now, I'm not advocating that Steemit should follow a similar path, one that ultimately results in being merged into a NASDAQ listed giant or anything of that sort. The point I wish to make is that Redhat was a pioneering company that helped to convince the business community that open source solutions could more than adequately meet their business needs and simultaneously be very cost effective. Redhat has arguably become a top tier player within the business software and services industry.
Steemit could do well to emulate the Redhat business ethos and build out a brand that garners trust. This again depends greatly on Steemit's ability to iron out its technical problems and attract the talent necessary to build and maintain a compelling range of services.
Conclusion
Steemit has before it tremendous opportunities to build out a range of services that have the potential to propel it well beyond being a crypto blogging platform. It has the basic technology infrastructure, scaling potential and open standards that could allow it to cut out the middle men and make expensive transaction fees a thing of the past. But, as illustrated above, the traditional industry Titans have have already begun to sense the winds of change upon the online services landscape and are beginning to rev up investments in the new services models. This trend will no doubt spread and accelerate; and that means that for Steemit, time is of the essence.