HardFork 20 is closer than we may think, according to the latest update from @steemitblog. There is a lot of technical noise surrounding this hardfork, so I will try to outline the 3 most important things for every day users.

Please don't take this as a rejection of tech news - as a matter of fact I'm a big fan of what's going on under the hood of one of the most active blockchains in the world - but I somehow feel there's a need for some "translation" from Tech to English.

Without further ado, let's go:

1. Resource Credits

Starting with HF20, the bandwidth mechanism will be replaced with a "resource credits" mechanism. Very simply put, we will no longer have to rely on bandwidth (and bump into the infamous "no bandwidth remaining" message) to interact on the Steem blockchain; instead, we will have to use a new "resource credits" mechanism. Will write a more detailed post later, if there's enough people willing to read one, so leave a comment if you're interested.

Improvement: new users will be able to interact faster with the blockchain, without clogging the pipes.

2. Reversed Auction Vote In The First 30 Minutes Modified

As of now, if you upvote a post during the first 30 minutes, only a part of the rewards will go to the curation part, and the rest will go to the author. Specifically, if you vote in the first second, 99% of your curation rewards will go to the author. HF20 changes this so that part, while still being taken away from you, as an early voter, will be redirected to the rewards pool (so the reverse auction vote is still in action, discouraging people to game the system by upvoting content early on).

Improvement: bigger rewards pool while maintaining the checks and balances for early upvoting.

3. Easier Creation Of Accounts

There's a new proposal for creation of the accounts using a separate process, called discount token. Again, it's a more complicated, tech issue, and I will write a detailed article if there is a need for it, but all in all, this will allow the creation of new accounts without requiring delegation or depletion of the STEEM balances.

Improvement: streamlining the usage of the network by new people.

There are a few other changes so feel free to read the update on @steemitblog.

My overall opinion is that this hardfork is geared towards increasing user base and scaling, which, politically speaking, are the two biggest hurdles of Steemit, as a business. Let's hope these changes will address these hurdles.

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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