Over the past month or so, a Twitter tease campaign has been ongoing leading up to an announcement from Typerium about a partnership with Steemit. With all the Hard Fork stuff going on, it may have been missed by some.
Let me start by saying you didn't miss much. With all the hype they were trying to build, the announcement was basically just "we are going to work together on some stuff". Pretty general and wishy washy stuff really. Anyway, here is the link to the full announcement for your information.
What is Typerium anyway:
At the moment, just a team, a whitepaper you can find at this link here a token and some plans really. They are working on an App, and have partnered with Steemit to collaborate.
That is selling it short really, as the idea is actually a very valuable and interesting use case for Blockchain. The key selling point in my opinion, and certainly the most interesting aspect for us Steemians can be seen in the following quote from the Whitepaper:
The Typerium application will also bring a host of improvements to the lives of creators.
It will include intuitive design software that makes it much easier to create visually
stunning work, as well as its own marketplace where users can buy and sell content.
It will even allow creators to register their intellectual property on the Ethereum
blockchain to help prevent IP theft.
The ability to control IP ownership would be a significant step for Creators on STEEM. Their native platform is obviously Ethereum, no doubt smart contracts and reputation would have guided this choice. Combining those safeguards, with social media and fast transactions available on STEEM would make sense. The synergy between the two projects looks solid, as can be highlighted with this quote from the reveal post:
It means that Steemit users will be able to use Typerium’s slick and intuitive creative design software. Typerium supporters also have a lot to gain, because they will be able to publish content straight from the Typerium application to Steemit.
Another quote:
Typerium is still working toward establishing its own social media that makes it easy for creators to interact with each other and their audiences. The platform will allow them to like and comment on content, post updates to their feeds, subscribe to the feeds of other users, add friends, follow the work of other creators that they like, and send direct messages.
My thoughts are that this sounds a lot like an SMT. It would make so much sense for Typerium to build the Social media part of their offer as an SMT, once they are finally launched. STEEM has had a few years of battle testing, and is just about ready to scale up. Integrating their own SMT, built on STEEM, into their (yet to be developed App) with safeguards for IP ownership on the Etherium Chain would actually be a very smart use case. (This is just my speculation, there is no mention of SMT's in any announcement.)
The token:
TYPE is an ERC20 token.
So, was it worth the hype?
Time will tell, certainly means very little right now. Working together over the next 6 months to roll out the App, and allow for the cross flow of benefits between the two platforms will tell the tale. The concept of IP protections for Creators is sound, and could be utilised by Steemians to great effect, and be a solid selling point to bring more creators onboard.
All in all, I really like the collaborative approach being taken. This partnership is just beginning, with Typerium still little more than a plan at the moment. Much can happen in crypto, and it's way too early to judge this partnership as anything more than a good idea at the moment. Once we see the Alpha release of Typerium's App, it will be easier to assess if they are a good fit for STEEM.
“The team at Steemit is very excited to be working with Typerium. This strategic partnership will help to strengthen Steem, and our long term vision for steemit.com”
Time will tell, but the collaboration looks promising for the long term for both platforms.
Thanks for reading,
John.