Yesterday I published a report on @BlockRush highlighting the projects I have been working on. In this post I will unveil Peer Query - the Steem query interface.

Peer Query

Purpose and mission

Peer Query is a Steem client which display only query content from the Steem Blockchain.

Current state

The client is in its Proof of Concept mode. There are lots of work to be done on its UI, management and monetization.

Originally, Peer Query was to display content from the tags:  pq-question, pq-proposal, pq-contest, pq-quiz and pq-gig. However due to a lack of content on these original tags, it has been set to display content based tagged as: question, proposal, contest, quiz and gig.

View Peer Query in action > www.peerquery.com.

Technologies

The front end is built on:

• Bootstrap 4
• Font Awesome,
• Steem JS(site is rendered client-side - not server-side),
• ES6 JS and JQuery(mainly due to Bootstrap): no Angular, React.js or Vue.js.

The back end is built on:

• Node.js(latest),
• Express.

The site is hosted on Amazon's EC2.

The story

Ambition

It all started... sorry, I don't remember exactly where it all started.

All I remember is that I bought www.peerquery.com October last year so I could build a site like Quora or StackOverFlow which would be powered by Steem.

Compromise

Due a to a few challenges encountered along the way, the initial plan to build a full Condenser-like platform with  its own DB did not materialize.

As a result a compromise had to be achieved and the result was a Steem tag browser(Peer Query v2) instead of the intended platform(Peer Query v1).

Innovation

As part of the compromise comes both good and bad news.The bad news is that Peer Query is now a "tag-specific" content browser instead of a full blown platform.

The good news is that it is now what we could call as "Condenser v2". Condenser as we know it is an general browser for the Steem content interface.

However with the engine of Peer Query, we have a special purpose Condenser interface which browses only content of specific categories.

With such a scheme, we can have more Steem clients which feature only content tagged as "news", "poem",  "literature", "art", "forum", "nsfw" and more.

This would be be a mini-version of Condenser that it has the potential to start a trend of special purpose content system - just like "niche" sites/blogs for Steem!

This system will soon be packaged and presented as a click to install app on Github through Steem Institute's Steem CMS. That way anyone can do a one-click deploy of a Steem special tags browser blog interface.

Literally it means anyone could do a one click install for a @PeerQuery-like interface to access content on only a particular category: "news", "poem",  "literature", "art", "forum", "nsfw" and more.

What's next for Peer Query

Build a team

Up to this point the project has been developed as a one-man venture, however to make it scale up to demand there is the need for a team. Positions open include:

• one or two front end developers,
• a UI designer,
• two or more moderators,
• any investors willing to invest into the project or delegate to the bot

If you are interested in any of the positions above, please join the Peer Query Discord channel and let us discuss the details of our engagement.

Peer Query beta

After assembling the team our first mission will be to create a beta out of the current Proof of Concept interface. The beta will include a working mobile app, a manual curation bot, a themed interface for each type of query and more.

Add bot with manual moderation

Inspired by the Utopian bot, Peer Query would implement a bot with manual curation sometime soon. Such a system would allow moderators to upvote great content on the interface while rewarding users who produce quality content.

Add daily contest

After fully implementing a manually moderated curation bot, we would host daily contests and quizzes for users with winning either an upvote, Steem/SBD or some other form of rewards.

Outsource the code

Peer Query is run with un-minified code with literal naming convention. This means you can view the source of each page simply through the browser dev tools. Alternatively you can also use the browser "view source" mode to view the source of its source code.

Starting this week, I will begin to publish the code to Github and on @Utopian-io, so anyone can fork it or contribute to it.

Improve interface

Peer Query is built on Bootstrap which has a lofty and bloated feel. I am considering changing the CSS framework to perhaps Burma.CSS, for its neater and sleek feel.

Monetization

There are the possible three monetization models under considerations, however they are subject to change:

1. Upvote bot to sell upvotes just like the current upvote system.
2. Post promotion like the promoted system on Steemit, yet we will not send fees to @null.
3. Content reward splitting which will not go beyond 5% of the total payouts.

Future plans

New UI design

Part of the work of the yet to be UI designers and front end developers include re-designing specific theming for each type of query.

In the Proof of Concept version, all types of queries are displayed using the same theme for posts. However a poll would need to be displayed differently than a question. Likewise a gig and proposal should have different layouts.

Mobile app

Mobile app development is another milestone which would greatly increase the accessibility of Peer Query and is one of the development milestones of the year.

React/Vue/Angular it?

The frond end UI of Peer Query is built on plain Java Script which gives it some limitations. To accommodate a better range of browser compatibility, the front end might be re-written into React/Vue/Angular once a team is in place.

Fund raising

The current version of Peer Query is only to serve as a Proof of Concept. Once the team is in place and we do have a beta with improved UI and features, an ICO will be underway.

Fund raised will be used to institutionalize Peer Query through incorporation. As an incorporated entity, we will have a more robust team, investors and resources to lift Peer Query to higher heights.

Investors and holders of the tokens of the ICO will be paid all rewards which are made from Peer Query through the three proposed methods above as well as any of its subsequent endeavors.

Incorporation

Peer Query will be run as a community project until the funding raising event. After the ICO, it will be incorporated locally in Ghana as a Limited Liability Company.

At this point, if running the token based ownership is no longer feasible, we will then do a buy back of our tokens at their current evaluation price or 4**% of the ICO price.

Call for support!

This year Steemit Inc has called for community input and @PeerQuery is my little way of responding. I hope the Steem community will support this initiative which could become our own Steem powered version of Fiverr, Quora or StackOverFlow.

Everyone's contribution is welcome. The success of @PeerQuery will only increase the accessibility and value of Steem - which would be good for us all.

If you are an enthusiast, test out the Proof Of Concept site and then write a post to highlight, review or spread the news.

If you are a developer, entrepreneur or investor, reach out to the Peer Query community on Discord and let us team up to work on the beta.

Credits:

Above everything else, a billion thanks to @Dan, @Ned and their team for their creativity and boldness in creating the Steem blockchain which has now the become the Gold mine of the Internet.

Another million thanks to @fabien for his Steem JS which reduced the power of the Steem Blockchain to simple Javascript APIs. Another million thanks to @elear and his team on creating @Utopian-io which will inspire the early management model of Peer Query.

Acknowledgement

When I was introduced to programming, I was assured that no computers would get hurt by my code; in practice I found something else.

During my attempt to build Peer Query, I did manage to break a few things in Condenser(@makafuigdzivenu - my dev account for testing Steem JS). With the help of devs, I was able to identify the cause and rectify the issue from Peer Query.

To that end I would want to thank @Drakos for his support and guidance in creating a Github issue in the Condensor instead of SC2. @pFunk was concerned, forwarded the concerns to the slack team of the Steemit devs and wished me well. A million thanks for that.

The biggest of all thank you of the day goes to @Netuoso who not only spent his time to reproduce the issue but also created a fix commit.

These people may not have realized how much their efforts were worth. Peer Query was ready since January 1st 2018, yet I wanted to wait till the cause of the issue was identified and resolved.

Without their efforts Peer Query would still not have been launched, and perhaps would never have been launched.

Aside from the Steem Backed Friendships, it is such little acts of kindness that make the Steem community worth it - having people who care about your work and effort, and not how much they can milk out of you.

My sponsors

My post would be incomplete if I do not mention the faithful supporters of my blog. As a blogger on @BlockRush, my typical day would be like:

1. Spend hours researching on important issues in the Bitcoin and Blockchain industry.
2. Spend hours preparing and producing a comprehensive article of with an average of 2,000 words.
3. Spend even more hours finding readers to read the content - its too long, too detailed, too ...
4. After a few upvotes and much praise comments, call @MinnowSupport yet not even close to $0.5.
5. Repeat all the above steps the next day - the part I love the most.

There were moments I wanted to leave Steem, yet a few upvotes and comments of appreciation were what kept me on Steem. I do not have a trail on SteemVoter, have I have is a small community of loyal readers who read and upvote my content when they appreciate it.

For that I also appreciate their effort, without it I might have left Steem and never come this far. A special thank you to the sponsors of my @BlockRush blog who include:

• @Transisto
• @Dan
• @NewsFlash
• @Chitty
• @KingsCrown
• @AusbitBank
• @Gringalicious
• @Idealist
• @VirtualGrowth
• @TimCliff
• @Gryphon
• and how could I forget the nosy but inspiring @SteemitBoard!
• Countless others and all of my readers and supporters! I love you all!

About me

My name is Makafui George Dzivenu, I am a Bitcoin and Blockchain author and developer living in Ghana.

You might have already known me through my Blockchain Rush blog: @BlockRush. I am also the founder of the upcoming Steem Institute project.

Connect with me on Steemit chat at @Blockrush or on my BlockRush discord server.