The Blockchain Paradigm Shift - a Discussion Proposal
The Blockchain Paradigm Shift - a Discussion Proposal
Earlier this week, I - just a Newbie Steemian - published an article called A Conceptual Guide to Make it Big on Steemit. As of now, it received 277 upvotes totaling $131.69 on rewards, was viewed 714 times and received 91 comments. Remarkable as that may be for an utter Steemit N00b like myself, what's even more remarkable is that among those comments were a number of Whales even commenting on whether the article did or did not deserve so much attention or rewards. I am truly humbled by that attention and I hereby thank you ALL for your thoughts and expressions. I've learned a lot from that.
Brainpower == The Blockchain Paradigm Shift
In my previous article I mentioned the ownership model of Steemit to explain (to Newbies) where the Author Rewards on Steemit come from. Yet from the Whale and Dolphin comments later on, I suddenly realized the importance and relevance of that exact ownership model. It represents a completely new and very fast emerging type of economy. One where raw brainpower is valued as the highest form of human capital and convertible into universal exchangeable property, at the speed of thought.
That also means - I argue - that ideas, in a community as Steemit, are to be perceived as transferable Open Source Capital just like open source software code is. Unlike traditional social media, on Steemit anybody - new or established, wealthy or poor, is able and free to express themselves and be rewarded a piece of ownership by the platform's shareholders.
That is indeed a remarkable Paradigm Shift!
Technological Innovations >> Social Adoption
Expanding on that let me hereby quote two extremely relevant and opposing thoughts, which are from their own perception both correct:
@ats-david said:
What about this is “open source?” It’s yet another “Steemit guide” and is actually written by a new user who knows about success on Steemit...how, exactly?
and later on...
@elear said:
Steemit !== Utopian
On top of that I explicitly told @scipio to bring this in Utopian because I thought this post is of a good value for the Utopian feed. Maybe not for steemit, but we are not Steemit.
The Blockchain World moves extremely fast. What I think is happening here is that both @ats-david and @elear are correct, but what's new is that regarding my post Steemit.com and Utopian.io are using the same blockchain data but its content is viewed from a different presentation / interface layer by different people. The post indeed was not new to Steemit's language, but it was as seen from the Utopian perspective. The blockchain is functioning here as a new Lingua Franca.
Technological innovations are simply moving so fast, that social adoption cannot keep up. As is the case with new promising technologies (such as Ethereum vs EOS), combatting eachother for capital and attention via ever-expanding ICOs. ICOs are simply valuations of possible future market capitalization in an Open Source World of Thought. An new idea is equally powerful as a century-old company in the world which is The Blockchain.
Crypto Assets meets Online Communities meets Freedom: SecondLife++
On Steemit great minds become united and new rules are applied. Be it technological brainpower, financial power or communicational power: the ones combining all those skills are the ones that will prevail. I've read a lot of discussions on Steemit where new members disagree with a disproportional distribution of ownership / capital on the platform. A world where Whales dominate the rest of the users on what is to be rewarded and what is not, is perceived by many as unethical. I disagree. I think the current "centralization of Steemit capital" is indeed logical because the Whales were the first thought leaders in this new Paradigm. I think we are merely experiencing the beginning of the re-ordering of that exact ownership distribution amongst this community. Because at the platform's Genesis Stage, the Steemit Vests were worth not more than "Game Credits" as in any online platform / society. But what is truly remarkable and utterly new is that those Steem Vests, unlike regular "Game Credits" or "Baseball Cards" are now valued equal - and transferable and exchangeable - as fiat. This is SecondLife++.
Because of the Author Rewards I was given on my articles, I can now both own a piece of this community, and I can freely choose to exchange that property - via exchanges of course - to buying a Cola, or a new MacBook Pro, or a new coat. Just by Open Sourcing my thoughts and being recognized for just that. That is utter freedom. That is "Utopian".
keep on providing the great content my mate.. plenty of people grateful that @scipio is here to impart information as typed with his fingers straight from his brain core.. great stuff!
Thank you very much for your kind word @cnts ! I will keep on trying to produce and share as much added-value to the platform as I can!
I agree with you. Through Steemit or maybe blockchain people now not only get rewarded with "likes" or "compliments" but also with money for the value they create for others. It doesn't have to be real "work" for what you get paid for. Like you said you get rewards only giving your "thoughts".
For me this is truly a thing of the future.
On the Steem ecosystem, the "rewards" are given in the form of "platform shares". You get rewarded with a small amount of ownership shares.
To me an innovative blockchain application like Steem is part of living in exciting times. Freedom of expression that is Open Source connected.
The value added to every block comming from that free and open sourced expression. Where everyone can, eventually, pluck their own Fruit Of Work {FOW}. Where getting a possible payout is only a small part of that.
On the distribution part I do disagree with you. It was done mostly in an exponential way before it got changed to linear. This way half of the Steem ever to be released was handed out extremely unequaly. It was changed, but then the inflation rate was cut down too.
Also I do not believe in leaders, especially not based on owning money. But that is also because I do not support hierarchy, or chain of command ideas.
There have been manuals written about Steem before. Like there have been ideas written before. We humans can share sortlike ideas, thoughts and plans. Even with the wheel being invented it can inspire us to create innovations.
Also I have written manuals, but they are way in the past and partly outdated. Also they were written from my point of view.
Now I would find it weird if some so called legend levels would go as far as flag some post because they think it was over payed. It only would confirm to me that holding a lot of believed value is better to be disconnected from being wise.
Being money smart is way overvalued. Now I do see a use in a reputation value. But as it goes for your posts, your work is being valued. And from what I understand you do take the time to create and put effort into it.
Therefore part of your Steem FOW is being valued in $, upvotes, reads and comments.
The blockchain technology made it possible for us to do so. Without some third party taking advantage of our production or to try and rule over us.
It is one big paradigm shift and it is very exciting to be in the middle of it. :-)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts @oaldamster ! Much appreciated!
Regarding your "3rd parties" remark, I think it's in every Steemian's best interest to let the platform truly succeed, which is - mostly - achieved by improving "the Steem utility vector", both internally and externally.
I like the Utopian-IO collective a lot for example: that's a perfect catalyzer to attract way more tech-savvy users to Steemit, collectively create new and enhance current Steem interfaces / sub-platforms, increase market attention, and intrinsically pump the steem market capitalization. That's in everybody's best interest IMO, and will probably change the current ownership distribution as well.
You're welcome @scipio!
Utilizing the Steem blockchain, that is indeed key for its succes. And apps like Utopian dot IO fit in there perfectly.
It does! Ooh, and please consider becoming a Utopian yourself! I am now! :-)
Will consider. ;-)
Upvoted! I got delegated 2000 SP via @cnts !
Ref. https://steemit.com/thx/@scipio/friends-will-be-friends
Awesome!
Excellent post. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks buddy :-)
I really think the proof-of-brain node of technical and social interaction is, oh idk, basically the beginnings of nothing short of applied information theory for the masses. Your point on how antiquated the standard, shareholder-models of social media are becoming (in light of blockchain and new notions of value) is important for another reason, I think: people are so alienated by the outside worlds of networking that are now leering at them from inside their pockets, even in the intimate space of home once set apart from the office (and worse), that I can’t imagine folks roughing it out much longer on FB and the like, as if it’s some obligation. Also a newbie with thoughts on blockchain, but I haven’t scored like you (so far!)
I left your page open in a tab to later follow you; of course, I'm already following! Looking forward to more of your post-Euclidean—a useful term, I think, for pointing at nebulous formations in the body politic—takes on the latest changes hitting the post-WWII Atlantic world order, particularly the increasing obviousness that binaries won't do for our post-left–right moment in domestic politics (but this isn't the same as "post-historical" schemas for modelling political identity [this isn't 1989 again, when history supposedly ended ;) ]), and who knows what transnationally.
@spectrums thank you for your in-depth comments, much appreciated! (I couldn't reply earlier but I read your comments last saturday already). What will happen regarding Steemit-adoption from the "outside world" (classic social media) I cannot predict. It could be very well possible the Steem Community is on the verge of truly succeeding. Things could go south as well. It's still early days. What will happen will be largely dependent of how well "the community" is managed and which sub-communities will gain the most influence. I'm betting the Utopian-IO collective will prevail and therefore I'm proud to be actively involved in that community myself. I encourage every person who's willing to really get involved to join @utopian-io.
I just started looking at utopian, and I think your hunch is correct. no worries about the delayed response—just happy to interact with a person on here. the bot situation has me really worried.
What do you mean exactly with your remark regarding "the bot situation has you worried"?
It’s super loaded, that statement, haha. I think bots can be useful and good for many things, but I worry about the amount of times you post something a bot comments something like #life, just b/c the post was under that tag. If building value on the blockchain is a process of evolution that requires diversification among the “species” of accounts, all supporting different kinds of ecologies on here, then—at least at this ß stage for Steemit, not the other apps being developed atop it—we’ll need an environment people will want to get into and evolve with. But, to put it shortly, bots aren’t the problem—I was conflating bad and good ones—categorically, but there’s a problem IMO w/ who’s making the bots. I love the spam cleaning ones, for instance; what’s the incentive for making a bot? That’s the question that seems important re: good and bad bots. If it’s narrowly focused on short-term gains, I fear a lot of folks who aren’t inclined to experiment in a space like this simply won’t join based upon first impressions. Keep in mind I’m brand new here, so maybe I’m misunderstanding something.
Brand new? You've been here 11 days longer than me! ;-)
BTW, congrats on that! One month Steemit anniversary for you!!!
Thank you :) and I hate to be a spammer, but our convo in part inspired a post last night. I mention the bot issue in the context of value growth of the block chain. Here it is, if you’re interested. And I thought from your followers you’re def more experienced than I! I guess I should look at the join date ;)
Hi, I only now had the time to properly read your own article. My dear, quite a hefty post! But I'm just in time to upvote it!
PS: I was really busy with writing / commenting on my latest article (which seems to be causing a thunderstorm, in a glass): How-to solve SPAM and Democratize Steem: Introducing UserAuthority
Hence, I couldn't read up / reply sooner. Cheers!
Don't consider this spamming: because in your article, you address roughly the same topic as I do in this post.
Although it might be an idea - to make sure nobody thinks of you spamming here - if you'd edit your own blog post, and mention me / this post of mine, which got you inspired on writing your own follow-up. Like you referenced @stellabelle for example
I agree with: I can now both own a piece of this community, and I can freely choose to exchange that property. @scipio
Up vote for you
Thank you!
Done follow, upvote and comment. Back same to you.
Hasta la Pasta Amigo!