Over the last few days, as my long awaited Steem Application is nearing finalization, I have been talking to some people about development of Applications for the Steem Blockchain. It hasn’t surprised me that some long term advocates are exploring alternative platforms.
Pastures Green...
Competition is healthy but let's not dismiss even one advocate or creator getting disillusioned and looking at alternatives! The spark that has driven Steem since the beginning will fizzle out if we only attract 9-5s and lose the real heart of the platform. The people I don’t want to lose are the passionate ones, the ones that eat and sleep Steem. This passion is what drives innovation and inspiring visions of the future.
A Gamble on The Future of Steem
The daily reward pool is distributed to content creators via votes and voting power. A significant portion of this voting power is delegated, but delegated to just a few projects. These projects have become the flag bearers for the platform, and concentration of delegation and voting on such a small few could be a huge gamble on the future of the platform.
Is there an alternative less risky approach to delegation?
Money
The big sell at the moment for Steem and the flag bearer apps is just the money. I have tried out one of these popular applications and I was disappointed with the outcome.
I got a huge upvote but that is not what I was looking for. I was hoping to get help with my project and make connections. The money would be a bonus. Maybe it is naive but I am passionate about building a bright new future here for users of the platform.
Money is important and I have no problem with that being a selling point but there are many other places (outside the Steem platform) to get funding for a project or application and I would propose a less than certain upvote is not the most attractive form of funding.
For completeness I will mention this post by 
but when I look at projects like 
Pipeline Funding
Projects like Ethereum, Eos don't have delegation (yet) but they do have plans to use capital to fund investment in applications for the platform. This directed mechanism has the potential to drive a huge network effect. I am not close to the detail of the funding projects, there may be other issues but the point is there is a dedicated, directed funding mechanism available.
People in general and businesses in particular do not like uncertainty. If you plan on devoting significant resources and investment at something (out of your own pocket and time) you need some degree of certainty, at the very least some milestones.
Diversification
There are a few big projects which have become the flag bearer for Steem, mentioned by 
- Is this justified?
- Would this delegation be better spread across many projects?
I mean these projects may be immense and game changing but there are already significant competitors for some of them on other platforms.
Delegation is a form of investment. In fact it is one of the selling points of Steem. You can invest your Steem in a project without counterparty risk! This is new but that is not to say we cannot learn something from traditional investments. The mantra that is difficult to argue with is simple
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.“
Concentration of Power
The following graph shows the votes that contribute to the payout for a post by a random author using one of these flag bearer applications. Each dot represents a vote.
This particular post application may be worth it but the point is that one vote has decided the majority of the funding for it. Sure the crowd has spoken with many small votes but if your developing an application small votes don’t pay the bills. Maybe you could say the big vote is a reflection of the many small votes, but as I said at the beginning this is a huge gamble.
Do we need a more reliable less centralized funding mechanism for Steem Applications and Content?
Let me know what you think...
Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Travel.
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