Steem Use Cases: If the Blockchain is so PERMANENT, Why Isn't Someone Creating a Genealogy App?
It seems to me there has long been some complaining, murmuring, moaning, groaning and gnashing of teeth over the fact that the price of Steem has been lagging for a long time. In fact, we are now a couple of years past the token's all-time high, and the price is... well... not very much.
Of course, some of the financial folks will make the argument that we need some functional (and functioning) use cases in order for the currency to start rising in price again. Just having a number of "social front ends" is simply not enough to carry this place.
Where is the good ship Steem heading?
So What Can We Do?
Seems to me that a very appropriate application for the Steem blockchain might be a good Genealogy server and front end. How so?
Genealogy is one of those things that require reliable "permanent" storage, because its users and contributors depend on being able to access and add data over long periods of time.
Back when I lived in Texas, my friend Ron ran one of the earliest genealogy servers on the web, and one of his primary concerns was maintaining 100% uptime, accuracy and reliability. Which was tricky with 1990's servers.
Eucalyptus blossom
Why Not Blockchain Genealogy?
From where I am sitting, genealogy and blockchain technology seems like a perfect match! Everything must be recorded, and there's a sense of long term permanence.
Sure, genealogy is hardly "glamorous" or "flashy tech" but it's a rock solid interest that pretty much never wavers in popularity. Like bread at the grocery story, it's always there. Maybe it's time for Steem to consider a little more basic utility and a little less bleeding edge innovation. Or maybe combine these...
The Steem blockchain is not only fast but it could also easily handle the volume of inquiries required by an active genealogy site.
At the same time, most genealogy "records" are fairly brief, so block sizes and such would not be a major issue.
Path through the forest
And the PRICE of Steem?
One of the challenges we currently face is that there are a lot of "sellers" of the Steem token because the social front ends are all pitched — and subsequently used — as "income opportunities," rather than "investment opportunities."
Most genealogy sites are "pay to play" and that's pretty much the industry standard.
In the case of Steem, members of the genealogy site could be required to buy and hold some fixed amount of Steem in order to have access to all the features. That would effectively make a bunch of Steem less liquid and remove it from circulation for long periods of time.
People don't join genealogy sites to get rewarded, they join for information and to be part of a community.
Tiny weed in the sun
Get Paid to Build a Family Tree...
Not so much.
Not a needed incentive.
People who are into genealogy are attracted to the promise of permanence and reliability, and the idea that the site they have poured hundreds of hours of effort into isn't going to go away, because the operators got tired or ran out of money.
What's nice about Genealogy is that "get paid to..." is not a relevant pitch, but the very essence of what a blockchain provides IS the pitch.
Whether contributors would be "rewarded" for adding exceptional personal essays about family members past... that would be open to discussion, and a consideration for the app developers.
My inclination would be more along the lines of a "tipping system" where members could leave tips — based on their stake — for information they found particularly valuable.
Fuchsias in bloom
Creative Ultilization...
I am just running this "out there" as a suggestion because I feel like we need some more potentially creative use cases for Steem.
Not denying there are some good ideas out there, but the audiences everyone is trying to reach is eternally centered on REWARDS rather than on truly utilizing the features of the blockchain... and matching those features up with a set of users who value those features.
And something else to consider about this: It's very hard to SPAM a genealogy venue. What would "genealogy spam" even look like? Fictitious family members?
Anyway, thanks for reading... and I hope someone who cares actually reads this!
(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)
What do YOU think? What are some good use cases for Steem that haven't really been discussed much? Do you think it would work? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 191230 13:38 PST
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Hello @cuddlekitten, always nice to see your presence around the community!
So cuddly
I look at the tireless efforts of @len.george in posting/documenting NZ military history stats, then Maori folklore. He hasn't posted in a while, maybe he's done what he came to do, but all of that information is now preserved the best way we know how; and it is a massive amount of information.
Ah yes, I remember seeing his posts @mattclarke. And that's a really good example of using the Steem blockchain for "archival preservation." I could well imagine people interested in genealogy doing that for their families and family histories. One of the "weaknesses" of many conventional genealogy sites is that the amount of information you can record about a person/image is is often quite limited (500 characters, 1000 characters) so a genealogy app here could allow for the expansion of that.
Hard luck, he's back.
the computer went on a "no go" so I have been waiting for my son to set up its replacement, and as you can see, it is running.
next thing is NZ shipwrecks. and there is lots of them
Great news, and an excellent topic.
The history books claim about 3,000 wrecks around the NZ coast, so far I have only found about 18-1900,
Something for someone else to pick up and finish sometime.
Well I for one think it is an Excellent Idea! My family, both paternal and maternal are very much into genealogy and tracing our histories.
My Mothers Father didn't tell his children much of anything about his past, so we are at a dead end there.
Post upvoted and resteemed @denmarkguy
Thank you @jerrytsuseer! I think it's one of those uses for blockchain technology that makes a lot of sense: reliability; a network built on user-generated content; accurate data storage; immutable (or at least accurate recording of all changes)... somebody just needs to build/code a front end that allows for the building of family trees... "posts" can easily be records of a person's life and include old photos that were scanned in.
Of course, it's more complicated than that... but at the same time, with genealogy, the "base layout" is ALWAYS the same.
Great idea, I know I'd love to access my family tree and make some additions to it when I impregnate somebody's daughter soon.
Steem is still stuck on the social media aspect because that's the selling point. I think we haven't exploited the social part of it enough to even start switching. Great concept, once gain.
Genealogy sites are also quite "social," or at least they can be because it's all about people sharing helpful and useful information with each other in an effort to build a more complete whole picture. It just seems like it would be a really good fit here... and it would also bring in a different demographic from "20-something gamers, developers and blockchainiacs."
Yup. Same thing I've been saying. Community feature on Steemit and SMT could be used to fscilitate the idea
I like the idea. I have several of them too but zero ability to implement them.
Yeah, I hear you... I have pretty much zero to offer on the technical end of the equation; I just know about it from a community and marketing angle.
That said, I think the only way to life the Steem ecosystem out of its current state of stagnation is to go after some radically different applications... but whether these appeals will fall on deaf ears remains to be seen.
Happy New Year, Old Dog!
PS I'm following you now @denmarkguy Happy New Year
Thank you, and Happy New Year back to you!
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A wonderful idea!
Thank you!