Imagine If Facebook Acquired Steemit...
Knee-jerk reaction may be fear and/or anger, but hear me out. Mark Z of Facebook has taken to Social Media to inform the public that Cryptocurrency is on his mind. Some believe this is just a move to make people see Facebook as a Technologically Progressive company; that said, I think that the financial gain that can come with a company of that size getting into Cryptocurrency is enough to push Facebook to begin adoption in some format. It may be that they'll create their own Crypto/Blockchain; that would be very interesting and I know it would scare many. That said, Amazon is in the same boat. Those two giants will either create their own or adopt a known one, because the Blockchain Movement shows no signs of slowing down and I know that two of the world's richest men, Bezos and Mark, won't be left behind. They've already established themselves as technical powerhouses, so it is an obvious next step.
What if Facebook joins forces with/adopts the Steem Blockchain into their existing infrastructure?
It is not a stretch to say that this would literally move the price of Steem in a way that has never even been considered; I would straight-faced tell someone that I expect the price of Steem to hit $500-1000 USD the year that happened, per Steem. It would be an unprecedented movement too; the market would flood like the days of Noah if this were to happen. Some people's knee-jerk reaction would be to shutter, scream, or raise their fist to this thought, because a lot of them hate a lot of what Facebook represents, and with good reason. They've monopolized the Social Media Market (Steemit is a rising alternative), they handle user data in a way that many consider unfair from a privacy and an ownership standpoint, and they are centralized, something that many in the Crypto-world really hate.
That said, if a transition to move Facebook onto/adopt the Steem Blockchain into their system in some way were to occur, we'd begin to see some of the benefits offered by that, which include:
- Making Facebook more transparent and their record keeping more permanent
- Making Facebook less centralized, in general
- Providing Users compensation for the data that is harvested from their accounts constantly by Facebook, which is the data that comes from interacting with peers on Social Media. This is the power of the Steem Blockchain.
I don't think it's that farfetched, as they would be assimilating/joining with a rising competitor, one that has the favor of the main crypto-populous and one that will always have the favor of Crypto experts and personalities. If they were to come out with their own blockchain, yeah, it would be successful, but it could split the market and alienate the faithful of this platform, which has risen to the 1000th most visited site in the entire world (roughly: https://steemit.com/steemit/@biddle/steemit-is-approaching-the-1-000th-most-visited-site-in-the-world-and-is-in-the-top-500-most-visited-in-the-u-s-according-to ). I don't think Facebook necessarily wants to start a war, so it wouldn't surprise me. It could go either way, but it would be a hell of a price increase, is my main point, and it would benefit users of Facebook as well for the reasons I mention above.
Very interesting thought . I’m sure everyone has thought of this . We will see what the future holds. The question to ask ourselves is are we ready if there was an explosion in price or would we be sitting on the fence saying I wish I would have powered up and posted more often?
this is not easy for fb
I thought about it too. but less centrolized facebook sounds lilbit fantastic for me)
that's pretty much sacrilege. selling out. monopolizing and making it "trendy and hip* we'd have every thoughtless moron on the platform in minutes and no way to control them because we don't have any real paid staff and once the azzhats of the world got the steem power they would start changing shit around to suit their capitalist interests. don't consider it. dont even mention it. i would rather be a poor penniless noob with no steem power and a clear conscience than be involved in that mindset.
haha Well, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that there aren't thoughtless people all over steemit already. The amount of spam comments and half-hearted articles/posts on here are astounding. Also, keep in mind that there are HUGEEEEE amounts of people on here who are purely opportunistic and see it as an investment opportunity, ESPECIALLY whales.
It's an imagined scenario and honestly, the alternative is they create their own and Steemit loses a HUGE potential user base. I love Steemit and I pray that doesn't happen. Don't think for a second that Facebook will not be part of the cryptocurrency world. If the cryptocurrency market doesn't fold in on itself, we will see Facebook, Amazon, and many other tech giants adopting Cryptocurrency or creating their own Blockchain (likely the latter, since they'll multiply their money hugely by doing so).
Cryptocurrency is capitalist too, don't forget. It's about a free market and an unrigged financial system. Not that there aren't already problems with that, those being that people who were first/people who have influence are creating/promoting coins and making fortunes at the expense of other projects, purely because of their influence (sometimes because the technology is great and has merit). Creators of Ripple, The Creator Of Steem (and now EOS), Ethereum, etc.; they all have a huge power now and they are and will wield it in different ways that some disagree with.
agreed to an extent, but I would want firm guidelines on how this platform is to work and implement before allowing that. such as no advertisement, no monopolies, no user tracking and paid for content... otherwise we all might as well go back to FB meming.
Prior to the bitconnect collapse, @craig-grant was getting 100s of dollars per post and they were mostly about his day... to say that many azzhats aren't already getting paid ridiculous amounts for ridiculous posts, is not looking at the current picture. There are some awesome whales/dolphins with awesome content, but some are crap, and that probably won't change much.
yeah, a set of guidelines would be important. There are definitely GLARING problems with Facebook (all of those you mention above!). :)
and i really think ned needs to bite it and implement some guidelines for abuse. im all for libertarianism but he's letting the azzhats ruin the platform.
Yeah, Steemit does has some problems too, far less than Facebook of course. But it's still so new and we're growing so rapidly, so I'm very excited about Steemit's changes to come in general. :)
@biddle this is all we have in our minds... crypto lovers we all
Steemit is just an APP on Steem, they would implement Steem and not Steemit. Facebook on Steem and Steemit can coexist, the mainstream people would just add value to steem and indirect to steemit. But in this case Facebook needs to be a decentralised Applikation. Zuckerberg had already tried to implement a virtual currency back in 2011 (Facebook Credits) and 2013 they removed it from Facebook. I think it is more realistic that they are interconnecting their markets with a blockchain like based network like steem, rather than becomming a DAPP
Yeah, I know that (I don't think I said they would implement Steemit.). :) I think you're right that it wouldn't be a full integration if it did happen. It also may not be the steem blockchain but could be their own (that wouldn't surprise me a bit). and yeah, that was the wrong timing for sure, with facebook credits, but with the Altcoin booms of last year and this year and bitcoins meteoric rise, it could absolutely be achieved now for them. I don't see them ever becoming fully decentralized, but I could see a blockchain being integrated that monetizes likes, etc. :)
yes sure you knew it. It was just an answer to the post below. I completly agree with your post. They are in great need for a micropayment channel (all the games, items and stuff). It will come just for the sake of good PR. But dont you think a private or consortium Chain will be much more efficent for a network like Facebook (because of the scaleability trillema of public chains)? Like J.P. Morgan, they are using the know-how of Zcash for implementing ZK-Snarks into their private-public Blockchain (Quorum), i could imagine that there will be a cooperation with the steem developers. We wil see, i guess its good to hold steem anyway. Resteem
Ah, my confusion, I thought it was reply to me! And very good points about scalability! Another reason they might implement their own blockchain (not to mention the financial gain they would get from that). It would be VERY interesting if the Steem Developers collaborated with them!
Really interesting points to consider!
Interesting thoughts, I don't think they would do that because they can't censor Steemit, and Fakebook clearly wants to censor the content that they facilitate access to.
I think that censorship ability should be a setting for users, personally. For example, a nsfw button (as steemit has), but at the site level, so content that people aren't interested in seeing, like shootings, pornography, etc. can be monitored and kept out of there feed.
It would definitely be a huge statement if they did decide to adopt steemit because, as you're saying and exactly as I'm saying above, it would create more transparency, permanency, and a lack of central authority deciding what should be censored/if anything should be censored.
So your talking like, if they built an app right? Not them actually owning Steemit?
I mean, anything is possible, but, yeah, I imagine that it would much more likely be the integration of the Steem Blockchain into the existing Facebook Platform to monetize content in a similar way to Steemit/potentially use it as a tool for buying/selling on their site. :) I think it would be a little weird if they tried to actually Buy Steemit, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Facebook has a much better/healthier/faster system from a technical perspective. :)
It would be sweet if Steemit just overtook Facebook! ..but as a realist, I can't imagine Facebook would let that happen. :)
This is very interesting to think about, and I've often wondered the same thing. I'm not sure whether it would be based on Steem but either way I would find it hard to believe that Facebook, or even Twitter for that matter, aren't considering something blockchain based. They both have the resources to do something big!
Yeah, for sure; if the blockchain movement thrives, I can't imagine that any company is just going to lay down and die; I foresee some big names joining the blockchain ecosystem, however it happens. :)
I strongly believe Steemit will surpass facebook in the future. The platform is growing geometrically. I so much believe in the future of this platform. Infact, I made a post on why I feel people should invest in their Steem Power on this platform
I'm with you on investing in Steem Power. Power up as much as you can! :) I'd love it if Steemit overtook Facebook and you're right that it is growing so fast, but that is a hell of an opponent to fully overtake. Huge strides in usability and flexibility would be necessary for it to happen. :)