The philosophy behind reward structure of Steemit and how effective it is at aligning the interests of all users could likely change the way individuals use the internet over the following years.
While the Steemit platform and network likely still have some time to go before seeing adoption, the platform has proven that the concept can be effectively implemented. The Steemit platform has been fully operational for over a year, and has since grown into one of the largest and strongest communities within the cryptocurrency space. By combining a next generation Graphene blockchain technology with an application built for a wide range end users, Steemit has given a greater number of people the ability to have direct interaction with a blockchain than ever before. The reward structure of Steemit is the initial draw for many users, but there are many other aspects of the platform that are built to protect users and enhance their power. The reward structure is something that Steemit has proven to be successful, but it alone may not be enough to ensure that Steemit remains a dominant platform into the future.
I think that there are numerous other aspects exclusive to Steemit that will give it extreme advantages over new imitation platforms as they arise, including the aspects of the underlying Graphene blockchain technology and what it makes possible. The aspects of being able to transfer native tokens quickly and reliably without any form of network fees is something that was introduced by Steemit,m and it has been proven to be reliable and efficient throughout the duration of the network's history. As more use cases find their way to the Steemit platform, the advantages of the Steemit platform and its underlying blockchain will become even more clear. While there will be other Graphene projects and networks that will be released in the future that will also expand on these advantages, Steem would likely benefit greatly from the increased exposure and attention the other projects bring to the Steemit platform.
Steemit has proven the concept that the content and quality produced by users of a platform have a method of receiving compensation based upon the value that they generate, which could be applied to a much wider range of platforms other than just social media and blogging. While Steemit was originally meant to serve as the end user visualization of events and transactions on the Steem network, there is a high probability that the use cases of the Steemit platform will grow significantly over the following months. Due to the fact that the underlying source code is available and accessible to everyone, third party developers are able to build services and applications that interact with the Steemit network in different ways. All users and stakeholders have incentive to promote and support third party application development in any way that they can, because third party applications provide additional use cases which promote the chances of Steemit's long term success and adoption.
One of the most interesting things Steemit proves is that innovators and creators can have a practical method of monetizing without maintaining formal ownership over the platform.
While this is a feature that is present in a variety of different cryptocurrency projects and networks, the Steemit platform enables a practical use case for end users which very few projects have been able to achieve. By building and deploying an application specific blockchain for a social media site, the Steemit platform has been able to attract a wide and diverse range of users and investors. Everyone from social media investors to traditional cryptocurrency investors have shown serious interest in Steem, and the community and user base only appears to be getting larger and stronger as time goes on. The fact that every single stakeholder 'owns' a portion of the Steemit platform is a very powerful aspect of the platform that many new users don't realize, and the stake all users hold grants them influence and power over the decisions made on the platform. While much of this stake and influence is relatively condensed among the top 10% of holders, all users have the same ability to earn stake on the platform.
While employees of Steem Inc. do hold a large stake in the platform, a realistic and reliable return on time and investment is required in order to fund future development and receive return on investment. As the adoption of the Steemit platform increases so does the value of the Steem token, which offers all stakeholders incentive to try their best to act in accordance with the long term adoption of the platform. Whether an individual is an author who attempts to build stake through posting or a major investor, both should strive and support the adoption and long term success of the platform. Individuals have the chance to earn stake in a different method than ever presented before, by sharing their thoughts and content rather than 'donating' a specific amount of computational resources. The mining on the Steemit network is actually conducted by those who post to the network, which gives a wider range of individuals the chance to participate in the distribution of the network's tokens than ever before.
The ability for a wide range of different types of end user participation is something else than very few blockchain projects have been able to effectively achieve, because an individual doesn't need to invest any capital or have prior technical knowledge in order to interact with the platform. The fact that users aren't charged for their actions or for interacting with the network is also something that Steemit accomplishes very effectively, because charging end users for network interaction would make long term adoption so much harder. Applications on networks like Ethereum would require the user to pay a small fee for every action they wished to take on the application, which would deter individuals from interacting with the network.
The fact that interaction with the network is free is necessary for effectively running a platform such as Steemit, but it also could prove to open Steemit up to a wide range of external applications as well. The use cases for the Steemit platform are increasing and there are serious potential use cases that could be improved by utilizing the technology of the Steem network that we will be seeing in the near future, and there will likely be many more practical use cases for end users of the Steemit platform other than reading and posting content. By leveraging a DPOS system, the network is able to ensure that network producers conduct themselves in the method in which is most beneficial to the network, or the stakeholders have the ability to seamlessly and easily remove their support of the specific producer. The DPOS system allows for a more transparent and democratic form of governance than any other system within the blockchain space, and has likely been very important in the development of the strong community that Steemit has today. Steemit has proven that all content has value, and that value belongs to the individuals who provide that value rather than the platforms themselves, and that concept is likely to become commonplace in the future.
I really hope that you enjoyed this post, and I urge you to leave any comments, questions, input, ect. in the comments below. Thanks for reading!