From the creation of the Internet, users are constantly migrating between different platforms: from BBS (who remembers it) to a Living Log, then on Facebook and Reddit. First, we move the best, most advanced, them pulled the bulk, inevitably lowering the standards of discussion and behavior.
This phenomenon is called "Eternal September" (Eternal September).
Facebook is one of the largest players in the global market, but no one thinks its cool, even your mom is sitting in it. But Reddit itself is a product of people from Digg, brought to the fore a serious problem: censorship of statements in private communication.
The Duo consisting of Daniel Larmer (Daniel Larimer) and ned Scott (Ned Scott), the first technician, the second financier, believes that the future of Steemit. The platform is based on its own blockchain and is a hybrid of a Medium and Reddit, where users get paid for their posts and voting on others. Payment is made in a private cryptocurrency Steem, at the time of writing the exchange rate was $1,23 per coin. A few days ago, users Steemit received the first payment, only $ 1.3 million. How viable such model – question.
The reasons for the creation Steemit
Lately, there have been active discussions about money as the motivation underlying behavior in areas such as education, charity, health. One of the works describes the effectiveness of material incentives underlying motivated behavior:
A significant and increasing volume of the results shows that the effectiveness of incentives depends on their composition, form feed (especially monetary or nonmonetary), how they interact with the underlying social motivations, and what happens after they are deleted. Incentives have an effect, but completely different, sometimes unexpected ways.
Principles of Steemit presented by Larmero in conversation with Cointelegraph. These 8 points:
1 No commissions.
2Mandatory expenses.
3 Rewards liquidity to ensure bootstrapping when trading tokens
4 Each participant brings value gets share.
5 Don't ask for money, ask for time and energy.
6 Creating value for the people not using the platform and not investing (readers).
7 Natural marketing and SEO through content production.
8 It's just fun!
Most of the items contain descriptions in the title, but we asked Larmero: "What is mandatory spending"? Answer:
Within the system no matter they vote or not, the funds will still be sent to someone on payments. It causes people to focus on various investment options, instead of asking "do I really want to invest"?The purpose of the mandatory spending is a gradual transition of the platform into the hands of those who invest and those dropouts who do nothing
The distribution of funds
The material side of the platform has a fairly complex structure. First: it is based on the blockchain, therefore, there is the miners. Second: mining uses a combination of POW (proof of work) and POS (the Distributed share) and DPOS (distributed delegationa share). Another intriguing point: in the system of simultaneous circulation of three currencies have.
The main currency is called Steem, it has high inflation, the number of coins doubles every year. For this reason, many convert it into coins Steem Power (SP), which are used for voting and equity interest, but cannot be withdrawn from the system within two years. Third currency: Steem Dollar, its value is pegged to the U.S. dollar. The method of distribution currency with high inflation is quite complex. 90% of the funds transferred to the holders of SP, the remaining 10% divided between the parties:
The calculation is complex, but fundamentally it is no different from the fee calculation in the Bitcoin network, where 10% of capitalization is contributed annually for mining. Steem donates 10% of the market capitalization of the curators (lush is the name for voting), the posting, computation of new blocks and liquidity.
These 4 groups in detail: 1% manufacturers units, 1% liquidity 6% content authors and 2% to the curators.
Boasting statistics (700 active users for July 7th and 20000 page views a day), Larmer added:
The system gathered momentum. New users are registered every day and the number of active users is constantly growing.
Strict censorship on Reddit and resistance to censorship Steemit
Resistance to censorship is another attractive feature Steemit, especially in contrast with the censorship admins and moderators of Reddit. Since all the information is written into the blockchain, its contents cannot be deleted or overwritten, unless, of course, it will not be the consent of 51% of the operators nodes, miners and holders of shares in SP. This feature has two sides.
After the terrorist act in Orlando, the moderators of Reddit have introduced strict censorship, especially on the branch r/news, they have reached the point that deleted the post with information about blood donation. These actions provoked raging in the community and attracted public attention to the issue of censorship, however, just one day, however, no action had been taken.
The administration's position Reddit: the moderators have unlimited power at their subreddit. The problem is that domain names have a tangible value, and r/news maintains a structural advantage over r/news2 because most newbies to write in the latest thread (Again Eternal September).
It makes our defenseless public space in front of explicit and hidden manipulations that can hold the structure with significant political and financial resources. Their win – potential damage to society.
Therefore, it is believed that Reddit goes into a stage of destruction, and replace it with a new space that could more equitable way to organize public discussions.
So Steemit – a breakthrough?
It is unclear what will come of this. Today, the system is mainly limited by placing its posts, it is not adapted to direct preposto links. Moreover, site administrators can, if they wish to remove content or commentary, but the deleted information remains on the blockchain, anyone can create a website and display it on the blockchain, using Internet Explorer blocks.
We see another approach to freedom of discussion. Content that violates all or nearly all values can be contained in the system can be recorded on the blockchain, but it will not show up in the first place.
Ned Scott, President and co-founder Steemit, described his ambition as follows:
Our goal is to bring [social media] people, making them a public resource, and a tool owned by the people. Ultimately, people who have something to say on Steem, become holders of tokens, and this is the engine that determines the direction of movement in the long term.
The voting algorithm, the allocation of funds, the market price of token financial incentives finally, the use of the blockchain – all these levers are in complex interactions. They combine current response of the market through prices, financial carrots and sticks, voting, rewards for the products with the digital currency.
We have yet to see if it works this mechanism in its current incarnation, or is it just another attempt to create a social media. Without a doubt, the results of this unique experiment, whether success or failure followed by many.