Does Steemit Really Need a Blockchain?

Earlier today I encountered this piece on a Medium publication called Hackernoon about the unnecessary usage of blockchains across the cryptocurrency space penned by Alistair Roche.

Before today, I was totally unfamiliar with the author and the publication. However, there are some really interesting points he raises. I too tire of the "slapping a blockchain on everything" strategy I see around the crytpocurrency space just for the sake of generating a buzz. But, a few of his constructive criticisms do hit home hard about Steemit and I'm curious what others out there think.

The Product

First, the author offers some thoughts of the product as a whole.

But Steemit sucks as a product, and has barely improved since their launch over a year ago. They will never take people away from Reddit at the rate they’re going, even though they raised millions with their ICO. I tried to use it, I really did. Now, if Steem were one of the coins available for margin trading on Poloniex I’d be shorting them.

Now, being here since last year, and being away due to other commitments for over a half of a year, I actually do see the improvements made to the product. I feel I can now find things easier than I did before, can actually track views, and the newer nested commenting structure has made it much easier to interact with a thread. There are so many other improvements, technical or otherwise, I am sure I am missing that have been making this place even greater.

The UX, however, has generally been about the same for me though since I joined, with no "flashy" improvements, splash pages, or fancy dynamic scrolling art. I don't think it necessarily needs to be like that for me, but maybe others out there do.

Comparisons to Reddit

As far as Reddit is concerned, It is hard for me still to compare Steemit with Reddit because to me they accomplish two different goals.

Reddit is where I will always default for breaking news in almost every topic I am interested. If I need to interact about what is current, I go there. Steemit for me has always been about community. I find I dive deeper into posts here than I would elsewhere for the genuine community interactions. I may not always comment, but I do generally read them all on a thread on which I am invested. I cannot say that for every site I browse.

The Tech

Alistair goes on to offer some opinions on the Steemit tech as a whole that are ones I have not seen out there yet. Particularly with the structure of the Steem blockchain:

Their product is built on top of a brittle, slow (compared to, you know, a normal database), potentially unsafe, potentially irrelevant-in-the-future blockchain platform, for no good reason. Solving the “rewarding-creators-and-discoverers“ problem doesn’t require decentralization.

Well, here is just one good reason, of many, I have seen browsing pieces on this platform. This one comes courtesy of @dantheman:

If you believe @dantheman's opinion, then yes, a blockchain would totally democratize the value added by users and ensure value is returned in a manner that is both viable and fair.

However, if you have more faith in Alistair Roche, you see the Steem blockchain as not being necessary, because the value could still be distributed fairly to the system from a centralized authority. In that system, a legacy database structure could be used that is faster and more efficient.

Alistair goes on to add:

No one is going to shut down a version of Reddit that rewards people with money for being the first to discover good stuff. Steemit doesn’t need a blockchain, it needs better branding, design, copywriting, and most importantly the ability to iterate their product quickly.

He is making his opinion on being "shut down" to support his point that any blockchain that disrupts a space should only exist in an environment that needs to be protected from the government. However, his point about the necessity of a blockchain I think has several interesting counterpoints.

Here is an opinion from @cryptogee just last year on the comparisons between Steemit and a blockchain-less system like Facebook:

I think @cryptogee hits the nail on the head again about fairness and increased difficulty in gaming the system on this platform. Reddit and Facebook work as centralized systems in my opinion because no money is involved in the creation and curation of content. Once that value is introduced, I think a blockchain is exactly necessary to make this process more democratic.

What are your thoughts Steemit?

I cannot counter Alistair's opinion about the nature of the necessity of blockchains as I also agree that water always finds its level:

If you have an idea for a new business that doesn’t need to be protected from the prying eyes or arbitrary gavel of a government, then don’t involve a blockchain. Your lunch will get eaten by the team using technology more appropriate for solving the customer’s actual problem...

If there is a more appropriate technology for the pain points Steemit solves, namely rewarding the creation and curation of content, then users will flock to it. For now though, I am enjoying this platform and what it provides and cannot think of a better alternative. At least, a better alternative not involving a blockchain.

What do you say Steemit? Is this a fair take on the current status of Steemit? I would love to hear!