My take on the recent EOS announcement, what it means for cryptocurrency industry and likely implication for Steem
EOS June 1st 2019 event was a world class event in the 'global' power capital of America and by extension the world, Washington DC. If you been following American politics and developments, Washington DC is the place to go if you looking to get things done, its even argued that its the place where big decisions affecting not just American politics but the entire world is made. While I was expecting President Trump to be at the event, I was a little disappointed he wasn't there; nonetheless, there were a few senators and important government official attending the event. The event location showed that BlockOne was probably alluding to some symbolism but lets not get to carried away with conspiracy. While several announcement was made we would be focusing on Facebook competitor they referred to as VOICE. Lets take a deep dive...
If you been looking at the EOS charts whether it be BTC or USD, the initial reaction was the typical crypto pattern of "buy the rumor, sell the news". EOS saw a drop of 7 to 10% as traders/ speculators digest the news. It has since manage to recover 2 to 4% of the losses and is currently trading at USD 7.74 or 0.000901 BTC. From a chart point of view, those who followed the "buy the rumor, sell the news" have book their profits if they entered their position leading up to the event. Whether these folks re-enter into a position is anyone guess as much of the EOS announcements are being digested by crypto enthusiast. Lets discuss VOICE is more details...
VOICE is being geared as a Facebook competitor, it will be powered by a smart contract running on the EOS blockchain. As widely reported, the BlockOne team made a 3.3 million EOS token purchase that was used to buy RAM to support this application. This 3.3 million EOS is worth an estimated 25 million USD which shows just how much skin they have in the game and their overall belief that its an application that's worth the bet. This purchase gives users the advantage of not having to worry about RAM or CPU usage, if you been using the EOS blockchain, you can appreciate how valuable this can be especially when RAM prices rises or not having enough to perform basic function. The addition of EOS on major exchanges like Coinbase was icing on the cake for this kind of application as it potential opens the flood gates of fiat on-ramp to cryptocurrency. Lets break this point down further for greater appreciation....
Quite a few people haven't digested or appreciated the significance of VOICE on EOS and a major on-ramp fiat exchange like Coinbase. Let me try to paint a fair picture, you basically have Facebook pursuing a decentralized blockchain future with possibility of launching its own coin and you have a 4 billion USD crypto company pursuing social media platform. Let that sink in for minute, read it over and try to see outward where this could possible lead. Keep in mind Facebook is a multi-billion dollar company with a yearly revenue generation mainly from advertising in the billions as well. So you have a major fiat on-ramp exchange like Coinbase already providing a gateway and you have a BlockOne team that already has social media platform experiences ( Steemit) making another go. Add to the mix of issues such as censorship vs censorship-resistant, demonetization of content creator, profit sharing of customer data, etc. We already know that the blockchain model is the only real censorship-resistant model and potential of sharing profits can be easily achieved makes it much more attractive to users.
The implication for Steem is huge, what this does is validate Steem use case. Steem has evolve more than just a social platform, in fact, the Steemit platform is just one application on the Steem blockchain. VOICE would bring greater scrutiny to the Steem model and its weakness and strengths. Whether it would kill Steem is anyone guess but that is likely come down to Steem token performance. If Steem token continues to slide downward it would cease to exist with time. What Steem has fail to do is get its token on major exchange like Coinbase or Bitfinex or Kraken. It has also seen relentless selling pressure that has hit users of the platform that never realize the value of the content. The overall trading volume of the token has been a disappointment, in fact, the only real buzz is a random pumps of Steem and SBD that is greeted with large volume sellers. The team has made some intended changes for an upcoming hardfork but this would not change anything, it would likely result in a further slide of the token. What VOICE brings to the table is huge, a competitor to Facebook. Its time for Steem team to get their house in order, take care of their users, or they would cease to exist with time. Users would remain loyal but for how long? Time would tell how things play out and where VOICE head in the future.
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fully disagree. from what I've seen in the chat - everyone's angry. no fresh ideas but kyc and overhype
You have to "Think Beyond", and this is how you look at it, Facebook is getting into crypto and BlockOne is getting into social media. The value proposition is how much users they can on-board, and with that the advertising revenue. Currently Zack knows that his Facebook model isn't quite working that's why he is looking at a decentralized model, he is currently being eaten away daily by regulatory burden and his is increasing losing out on customer data monetization because of regulatory burden. What he is trying to do is give users control of that data while providing a platform that encompass by social and by providing Facebook coin "commerce". If VOICE can pull it off, it would potential mean, billion users coming into cryptocurrency without worrying about on-ramp and technical hurdles that currently exist. It speaks volume for the entire cryptocurrency space as this would aid in adoption. People would then branch out to other things, and it would further help even Bitcoin adoption, as more people would now see it as the reserve currency in a sense.
You have to think far ahead, its a bit visionary, and to point out, KYC and other things are here to stay, there is ways around it but increasingly government wants to know. Probably privacy coins would see adoption as KYC becomes more mandatory but right now you can't hide from it if you are looking to be regulatory friendly and build a global brand.
U have to remember that BTC was designed as an anti-bank alternative
It encompass choice, if you own your private keys, you own your crypto, and can do whatever you like, but once you trying to interact within fiat, KYC is necessary now but I understand where you are coming from
Earning a token which can not be bought or sold makes you wonder what the heck the point of this social platform would even be. That presentation was boring and disappointing as all heck.
Quite a few like you who hold that belief, I kind of see it differently, I guess I am thinking ahead but it overall was a great for a crypto event