Steem has become more than a "proof of concept" and at the same time it has become quite frustrating to rely on Steemit Inc. (furtheron called STINC) to get something/anything done (at least noone really knows about it)
Sic tacuisses, philosophus mansisses...
I really hope this is not true for the STINC philosophy
Imho it was a good move to separate the STEEM blockchain from the private and NOT decentralized part STINC. Still and probably for a very long time STINC will be seen by "the masses" as the "same thing" as the blockchain and/or the currency. Personally I remain a STEEMIAN and not a STINCIAN. So let's clear up some things, and please correct me in the comments if I am wrong...
Some history
(skip that if you have been here long enough)
Steem is the blockchain whereon everything happens. This blockchain was created and developed as a consequence of Bitshares. As I understand it, was the brain and
was the face. Not telling that Dan has no face nor that Ned has no brain. But Neds selfclaimed knowledge lies in economics and in psychology, while Dan is the programmer and code wizard. Across came several others from the Bitshares guys and several good people from outside. STINC became (or has been from the start) the PRIVATE enterprise that put much effort into the development of the Steem blockchain and at the same time its biggest shareholder. As we know
was one of the biggest supporters from the beginning, investing, advising and even giving a room to the fresh founded STINC in his basement.
All in all it sounds like a success story similar to Microsofts way from the garage to the Top of the World. At least we find so much brainpower involved here as we see rarely elsewhere.
Let’s have a look at some facts:
The Steem Blockchain is probably the fastest and most reliable one out there at the moment. While the big players like Bitcoin and Ethereum are struggeling to keep up with the transactions (ETH at almost 70% of its capacity and BTC way beyond the 100%) the Steem blockchain easily masters 8 times more daily transactions while only using 0.12% of its capacity.
Today the STEEM marketcap is placed above a billion dollars, which is simply amazing.
If we have a further look at all the great projects out there we get a glimpse of what will be possible in future. At steemtools.com you can get an impression how much is really going on. Still there is much more going on. With Steempunks we have the first blockchain based MMORPG, with we have one of the first markets where you don’t need to change your SBD into Fiat Money to get real goods (sorry for the self advertisement). There is an ever growing musician, photographer and art scene and I never… NEVER have seen such a diverse and interesting community. This is one of the reasons we now can look at THIS (which is simply GREAT):
Between all these projects, the steemit.com frontend becomes more and more insignificant. Some frontends are much better suited for a daily use than steemit.com, which is really a pitty. A single guy ( ) fixed a lot of the issues I had, with his browser extension. I can fully recommend his Steemit More Extension for Chrome and Firefox. Also the steemify app by the
(
and his bro) is a great tool, that I use on a daily basis. Well… utopian sndbox, dsound, dtube dmania and more. There would be a lot more to mention, but there is not a lot of stuff by STINC. Well… SMT can still be a thing AND STINC is supporting some of the above mentioned projects with large delegations.
BUT
(this is the important part)
STINC still is by far the biggest shareholder on STEEM with more than 70 million Steem. With the blink of an eye (or the push of a button) STINC can put the whole thing into desaster or bring it to never imagined heights. But somehow STINC and the "more exposed people" around it went silent…
As we know since the spiderman movies:
for those who don't know, the little funny guy on the right is Voltaire, even if it is not sure that he ever said it...
If you look at s profile… well not even a Xmas wish, or a “Happy New Year” to “his” community. Only a discussion with dan, that does not help much and clarifies nothing.
At s profile the last thing you can read is his suggestion to a user to “DIAF” and to make clear that he is in fact NOT the “CTO” of STINC, I will not repeat that drama.
Installed for “communication” (probably) is the … but SILENCE since more than 2 weeks now and before that only some minor communication (HF20 ... a minor thing imho)
No recap of the 2017 Roadmap, no reframing of it, no new deadlines, no reports about the plans / efforts / achievements , no word about the actual power down, no communication about issues such as selfvoting, rewardpoolrape, flagwars, hygiene, quality, user retention, subscribing delays.
I still hope there are good reasons and I understand that a lot of the "behind the scenes" stuff will only lead into useless debates with people not having a clue what they are talking about.
My wishes for 2018:
I would wish for a New Years resolution by STINC to communicate more. If I were , I’d do it myself. As an alternative I’d pay a person to give a weekly update on the efforts made, the timelines shifted, the reasons things are done or not done. I strongly believe this would enormously strengthen the trust of actual and future buyers of Steem / SBD and it would diminish a lot of suspicion and conspiracy theories. Even from the psychological point of view this is a very desirable effect. And as
retweeted on Twitter:
THEN this statement could become true:
TL & DR
Communication is key to almost anything, please STINC, act accordingly! Silence may be golden, but in crypto and especially in Social Media, this is just not true!