The unknown quantities and qualities of Hardfork21

How long is a piece of string?

In three short days from now, depending on where you stand and understand, the most anticipated and dreaded hardfork will descend onto this community. And unless there is some kind of act of the blockchain gods pivots the course, it will be approved by a unanimous super-majority of the consensus witnesses as all 20 have upgraded to Version 0.21.0 of the Steem blockchain.

Ready?

When it comes to Steem hardforks there are always discussions surrounding, however they tend to spend most of their time in the economics of it, the numbers of it and the earnings of it. This is quite natural because regardless of what people say, the other near unanimous consensus is that at some point, people want to extract or hold value from or on Steem.

The 2 core components of Steem are:

Economic improvement proposal

• 50/50 payout for curation/content earnings split
• A convergent curve
• 25% downvote pool (2.5 free downvotes a day)

The SteemDAO

• an investor-directed venture capital fund (fund is 10% of the inflation pool)

Now, the 50/50 payout is easy to get your head around. If a post makes 10 dollars, 5 goes to the curator, 5 goes to the creator. The Convergent curve is equally "easy" to understand as it is a math formula that no one really can get their head around but, it is going to be applied to the entire ecosystem, so it is what it is and we shall see what it does.

Let's move on.

However, there are two aspects that are actually harder to predict because they have variables that factor humn behavior into the equation.

Downvotes.

I have talked about these quite extensively but I would like to reiterate that despite everyone's concerns for abuse (which is likely), there is far more relatively good stake on the platform than bad, and if the entire community pulls their proverbial (and literal in some cases I am sure) fingers out, this brings in a factor that has been missing in Steem for a long time. Randomization and penalty for poor behavior. What is poor behavior?

That is for YOU to decide with the stake YOU have.

This randomization brings in more of a lottery as it redirects inflation pool Steem to and away from posts at the blessing of the community. What some people have failed to recognize is that once this happens and combined with the convergent curve, curation projects become more important once again as they have more ability to push posts past the curve penalties. Yes, bidbot purchases can do this too, but a curation project looking for quality content is less likely to curate what will get downvoted.

Randomization is good for Steem and while there will be plenty of drama created, that is good too because, it brings in a dynamic experience. For far too long Steem has been left to stagnate in the status quo and this hardfork will hopefully shake off the cobwebs and get the Steem juices going to where they are best deserved. And while all content creators will take a cut, those who actually have skills, hustle and will are likely to have additional opportunities open up to them. Hopefully there will be less Steem spread to content creators, but more Steem spread to those the community agree deserve it. You think you are deserving?

Prove it. Not to me.... to the community.

But, while I am hoping that the likes of @trafalgar are going to stand up and support what they have so heavily requested, it is quite an unknown whether the millions of stake held by the minnows, dolphins and orcas is going to step up and clean up. While many will predict that people will either not use or abuse the power, that is something that is up to the community - an unknown as of yet. I know that there are a couple large accounts and community leaders looking to get their hands dirty, @aggroed, @theycallmedan and @acidyo among others.

But that is enough on Downvotes. Moving right along.

The SteemDAO.

So, 10% of the entire inflation pool is going to go to fund a development pool where people can essentially suggest and vote on what they want to have developed. If you haven't noticed, most people including myself have focused on the EIP side of the equation and stayed away from this and there is a good reason for it.

No one can predict what it will bring.

This is massively exciting as it is not only about innovation and development of solutions, the DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization and investor-directed venture capital fund. Yes, from Tuesday the 27th, all of you who have Steem stake are venture capitalists of Steem development and the capital you will be using is the 10% fund directed to the projects that the community decides (based on stake) what is important. What are people going to suggest and support?

No one knows!

Brilliant - Just what Steem needs - actual funded and community-driven innovation potential. And while there is likely going to be a great deal of tweaks and average thrown into the mix, the next killer global app could very well be born through this DAO. You might scoff, but you have no damn idea either. This is why most people either have avoided talking about it or, see it as a waste as there is no clear framework that can predict what is going to be built through it and, the impact that development will make on Steem.

This is the Steem dark horse in the Hardfork and has largely flown under the radar because of everyone's uncertainty, but it could very well birth the most critical developments for the future of Steem. The other reason that this has bypassed most attention is because no one knows precisely how it is going to work and what are the capabilities.

This has been developed by the @blocktrades team who have created similar solutions in the past and I am looking forward to what ideas this community actually has as, it really is going to be interesting. As far as crypto communities go, we likely have the largest low-technical pool of users, but those users are littered with creatives from all kinds of backgrounds and fields.

Creativity + Knowledge = Innovation

This is a massive opportunity for all members of the community to be part of the developments that will have value for Steem. Through the DAO, we might actually see what kinds of interactions and solutions will develop direct support for the Steem community and the economy and perhaps, even see it reflected in the onboarding, uptake, distribution and price of Steem itself, as well as the owned communities and SMTs and tokens that ride the infrastructure.

Wrap up

I feel that while there are going to be many points of conflict after Hardfork 21, as the dust settles and the community start playing around with the new possibilities and tools it brings, more possibilities and tools will be created. In time, this could bring a huge amount of value into the ecosystem and build a large range of experiences that empower and reward participants on Steem. I wonder how many are going to look at the conflicts and complain, and how many are going to go out and use the tools to create.

This is another unknown quantity

It is comforting for people to spend their time with the numbers and concepts they can get their mind around, but nearly everyone feels discomfort in uncertainty. If you are so certain about what the future will be, I suggest you create that killer app on Steem as there is a community here looking for your type of thinking and skills.

And they will soon have some funds at their disposal.

Three days.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]