Steemit Crypto Academy Contest/s1w1 - My favorite blockchain network by @paulyoung

Greetings to everyone, and a special thanks to professors of this educative community.

It’s been a while, and I’m glad that we have been give an opportunity to learn and share our experience.

However, let me proceed to the questions, of which every discussion will be base on my personal experience.

QUESTION ONE: Tell us about your favorite Blockchain network, it’s history, and why it’s your favorite.

The best way to approach this question is by making a little review of the blockchain in general because apparently, many don’t know it.

Blockchain is a system of data management in which every retrieved data (e.g. finance details) is distributed among several computers which are regard as nodes using the decentralized network principles of which many are largely open for view by random user.

The different types of blockchain are; public blockchain, private blockchain, hybrid blockchain and consortium blockchain.

Today, the most dominating blockchain are the Private blockchain and Public blockchain and currently, there are over 1,000 blockchains spread around the world to different nodes.
Blockchain awareness went viral than ever because of the launching of Bitcoin. The first cryptocurrency that utilizes a P2P data transaction using a public blockchain network for data management.

The basic fact is that every blockchain network have it uniqueness and disadvantage. Example: Private blockchain network which operates using a decentralized method promotes anonymity but exposes users to risk of loosing assets without a trace, while Private blockchain uses the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification principles to solve this security risk.

Every network has its pros and cons. The choice of usage depends on the individual, depending on the intention at that particular time.

Since we have acquired the fundamental knowledge about blockchain. I proceed to making a selection of my best blockchain among the thousands that exists.

STEEM BLOCKCHAIN

Source 🔗

When we talk about a blockchain that have lift hardworking people from zero to a financially stable personality and even a millionaires without inputting any fiat currency as capital, the steem blockchain dominates, that’s why it will remain my favorite blockchain forever.

Historical background of the blockchain

The steem blockchain is a public decentralized blockchain that was founded by two American by name Ned Scot and Dan Larimer, a blockchain programmer on January 2016 who later stepped down from the executive board in 2017.

This blockchain network operates through the use of a decentralized application (DApp) known as steemit a social media, and native tokens known as steem and steem block dollar, but few years ago, Tron (TRX) was added to users of the blockchain dApp as a reward.

Any programmer can build a decentralized application on steem blockchain. Currently, there are a lot of DApps build on the blockchain, including D.tube, a video sharing platform. This dApps can easily be seen on dappradar.com.

Hard fork competency is not an exception on steem blockchain. In fact, it has occur before which lead to the birth of another dApp known as Hive.

Operating principles of steem blockchain

A blockchain comprises of blocks, with the first block known as genesis block. Each of this block is verified and add to the previous block using consensus protocol.

Unlike Bitcoin that uses proof of work consensus mechanisms and mining pool, the steem blockchain utilizes the Proof-Of-Stake otherwise called Distributed Proof of Stake (DPOS) and witness for block validation.

Witnesses are assigned to the task by members of the steem community through a selection process known as voting. A Steem blockchain user is eligible to vote about 25 to 30 witnesses. A total number of 21 witnesses are assigned to carry out the validation, which is done every 3 seconds. 20 witnesses carry out the validations, while 1 witness remains a backup witness.

Hence, a total of 21 blocks are produced within 1.3 minutes (63 seconds). These witnesses earn their rewards in steem power, which can be converted to steem through a process known as power down.

Transaction done on the steem blockchain are free, unlike Ethereum blockchain that charge user some Ethereum known as gas fee.

Why steem blockchain is my favorite blockchain

• The steem blockchain is free of charge. This mead that no transaction fee is demanded. The registration of steemit account is also free as well. This gives anybody that is interested an opportunity to join it and grow his/her personality, both financially and in the blockchain.

• Steem blockchain is highly secured. Users account are secured with a lengthy alphanumeric password known as keys

• Been a decentralized application, steem blockchain supports anonymity. User can create an account, power up a high number of steems thereby increases his/her influence without a verification.

• Steem blockchain is educative and entertaining for active users of steemit, it major dApp. User can learn different things, share their knowledge and get rewards from the blockchain.

QUESTION TWO: Does the network have some earliest shortcomings? How have the network team taken care of the problem?

Like any other blockchain that hackers never resist efforts in attempting to break a boundary of security just to get access to funds, steem blockchain experience it on 14 July 2016. In a statement made by CEO Ned Scott on steemit blog, he confirmed that not up to $85,000 worth of Steems and Steem Block Dollars (SBD) are stolen and transferred to Bittrex. In order to investigate this occurrence, there was ban on transactions of steems and Steem Block Dollar on the exchanges in order to fish out the perpetrators.

On the second announcement made Ned Scott, users were instructed to reset their password.

Since then, the network team been committed to securing it by updating servers and building more security on wallets. Till date, there have been no record of such occurrence and this have boost the confidence of steem and steem dollar holders on the blockchain, thereby giving the blockchain, and it coins (steem and steem dollar) a nice personality in crypto world.

QUESTION THREE: What is the change that you think would make the network better

Although the steem blockchain have promoters which have enabled people to be aware of it existence, hence register and invest on it. I think many efforts should be taken into consideration in such angle.

The steemit blockchain should have a verified Twitter and Facebook account, which ensure that every user follows. Posts/tweets made will be engaged, and a reward will be send for every engagement on the tweet/post through up vote of steemit post made by the person.

If any tweet/post made have a thousand engagement, it will automatically become a trending post and thought attracts awareness of great investors.

Let’s take a look at the effort of CEO of Tron, Justin Sun. He maintains a nice efforts on social media (Tweeter) by tweeting about every projects and innovations in the blockchain, thus creating awareness of it before launching.
I got to know about it through his tweet and even made a post about it.

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Justin Sun’s Tron official page


In a recent tweet, he created an awareness of a new stable coin (USDD) that will be add to the blockchain next month (May).

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Justin Sun’s media efforts have give Tron a nice number of watchlist and ranking on coinmarkcap as seen below.

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Ned Scott is just silent on media. I guess that he is the right personality that should be contact to create a verified page for steemit on Twitter and Facebook. As shown below, he does not have a tweeter account for steemit.

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Ned Scott’s silence have put steemit reputation on a very slow growth even on coinmarkcap as shown below even though steem and Steem Block Dollar (sbd) value is higher than Tron (TRX).

Source A screenshot of steem details on coinmarketcap



source A screenshot of Steem Block Dollar (sbd) details on coinmarketcap

Tabulation of steem and Tron influence on coinmarketcap

Steem	Steem Block Dollar (sbd)	Tron (TRX)
Rank: 261	Rank: 544	Rank: 22
Watchlist: 39, 818	Watchlist: 3,988	watchlist: 768,083

Honestly, the gap is much poor and i believe that it is as a result of Ned Scott’s silence on media.

Binance, is a top exchange. It will be nice if administrators partner with it by allowing a direct trading of steem in our wallet just like biterex and there should be ad on top exchanges that promotes steemit.

Steem blockchain partners with Tron blockchain network by rewarding users with Trons (TRX) but it is unfortunate that neither steem nor steem block dollar (SBD) can be swapped on Tron link wallet. I believe that adding this feature on Tron link will create more value to Trons received. This will also helps users of Tronlink that are not aware of steemit dApps to be aware of it.

On the steemit dApp, there should be an ad option in which users can advertise their business with a charge of some tokens. This token will be sent to the curator's wallet.

I believe that the above suggestion will increase the value of steem and steem dollars more than it current state and Steem will likely reach a dollar value again.

QUESTION FOUR: what is your favorite project built on the blockchain?

There are a lot of dApps built in the steem blockchain. Each have it own unique users experience. As for me, I prefer the Steemit dApp. Steemit is the first dApp built in the blockchain on 24 March 2016 (6 years ago). It was programmed by the blockchain founders, I.e. Ned Scott and Dan Larimer.

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When it was introduced, steemit dApps had less number of users but today, the number increased to a million with hundreds of users staking thousands of steem powers in their wallets.

Steemit dApp is educative, informative, entertaining and incentive without any age limit. Every day, hundreds of post are made and 50% rewards voted on the post are distributed to the wallet after a 7 days timeframe.

Post made on steemit blockchain are strictly base on proof of brain. This implies that there’s is not iota of tolerance for plagiarism. Each post is review with a plagiarism checker by moderators of the community before curation, and the use of bot is not encouraged. Posts are made in communities and can be sort out using tags. There is no tolerance for offensive words as well. Users can learn a lot of skill, including writing and crypto skills as well as win steems by participating in contests.

Steemit is not limited to one language. Currently, there are several languages in use on the steemit dApps which includes Chinese and Spanish etc. There is a community for each major country and a representative is chosen to monitor the affairs of their country users respectively.

In terms of charity, the steemit dApp is not left out. There are a lot of ongoing charity works done by the users with payouts that they receive, and this charity have been done in countries such as Philippine, India, Indonesia and Pakistan etc.

Promotion of steemit is another means of making profits, as promoters are rewarded through up votes on their post reports. The encouragement of promoters through up votes have lead to many efforts and increased in the number of users which is about 1,234,717 as recorded on Wikipedia.

Lastly, three rewards are earned by user on every posts that they made.
They are;

• Steem power: A Steem staked for a long term using a process called power-up. An increase in steem power leads to increase in influence of the user on the dApp. Aforesaid, steem power can later be converted to steem through power down.

• Steem Blockchain Dollar (SBD): it is the native token of the blockchain that can be swapped to Steem on steemit market. Right now, its value is more than a USD.

• Tron(TRX): This is another token reward given to users on steemit dApp. The relation of Steem and Tron blockchain have grown to an extent that it now have a community that is strictly for discussion of Tron related topics.
  All these tokens are distributed to deserving users and every day, thousands of steem are being distribute.

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These unique features are the main reason why steemit dApp remains my most preferred dApp on the steem blockchain.

Conclusion

The choice of blockchain depends on the user. While I prefer steemit blockchain, it may be another person’s turn off.

Personally, this blockchain has helped me a lot through financial supports in my education and learning about cryptocurrencies transactions and trading as well without any fee charges and I believe that others are not an exception. Apparently, the first of it kind.

The introduction of a mandatory power up is another feature that helps to build the influence of every user and the entire blockchain.

I believe that the launching of more dApps on the blockchain will be done and users will continue to benefit from it.

Special thanks to the admins of this unique blockchain and the founders, as their efforts have touch the life of thousands of people around the world positively.

Thanks for reading my entry


Dear professors,
Please, I can’t see the link to attach to some of the tweeter screenshot till now because I’m using tweeter app, but I guess that they are very important in my suggestion that’s why I used them.

I wanted to removed them because of plagiarism rules, but later thought that they are very important.
Please, kindly consider it, Thank you.