Welcome to the Cosmic Crypto Explorer. For the past few episodes I’ve pointed out some criticisms of the Steem coin and the way the Steem network works, so in this episode I thought I’d point out some things that are good about it instead.
First and foremost, transferring Steem is free. It can’t be overstated how important this is. Many cryptocurrencies, especially the big ones, have transfer fees, and they’re often way more expensive than they should be. The fact that so many games are coming out built with tokens on top of the Ethereum network means whenever you save your game items on the network, and sometimes even just to get started with the game, you have to pay fees. That can really hinder the adoption of these blockchain-based games both by crypto enthusiasts and regular gamers alike.
This is where cryptocurrencies like Banano and Steem come into play, where there are no transfer fees. That makes the barrier of entry for games and other dapps much easier. Far more games should be built on Steem and similar technology so that they don’t have any transfer fees, and people can just start to play them.
Another good thing about Steem is the speed of the network. When you do anything on the Steem network, whether it’s transfer funds or post some other sort of data to the blockchain, most transactions take about three seconds to complete, which is much faster than most blockchain networks, even including those that are generally considered to be pretty fast.
And third is the creativity and flexibility of Steem. The Steem currencies themselves are pretty standard and work much like any other cryptocurrency, but now there are also tokens on the Steem network that go through the Steem Engine interface and sidechain. These tokens and the communities that are connected to them work in interesting ways and can do all sorts of interesting things, depending on how the community is configured. Some tokens have so-called mining tokens, where staking them gives you the chance to earn more of the regular token they’re based on, somewhat similar to how a traditional proof-of-stake network works, except you don’t actually have to process any transactions. You simply buy the mining tokens and stake them.
Other tokens can generate revenue and interest simply by staking the regular token itself. And with other tokens you can get other rewards based on how many of them you have staked, giving you even more chances to earn.
While Steem does have some issues that could be improved like I’ve talked about in some of the other episodes of the podcast, it’s also a unique network with a unique community built around it. It uses some of the fastest and most advanced technology in the blockchain market and within its network it has a variety of uses and interesting features. Steem is already a decent cryptocurrency and if its various issues and concerns can be addressed and if it can be further improved, it has potential to become a much bigger player in the cryptocurrency market.