Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S5W2 - Get to know the Steem Blockchain
Hello everybody.
Welcome to this post. I hope that all of you will be good and happy and enjoying your precious health with the grace and blessings of Almighty Allah. Today, I am going to take part in the Week 2 contest of the SteemitCryptoAcademy and the topic of discussion for today is The Steem Blockchain. So, let's start the discussion without any wastage of time.
Discuss the consensus protocol used in Steem, Proof of Delegated Participation. What are the differences between DPoS and PoW?
The blockchain technology is not new, however, after the implementation of the blockchain technology in the cryptocurrencies, it made a great progress. There is a set of rules or regulations that exist in a blockchain to ensure the security of the Blockchain and the performance of others activities on the blockchain. This set of rules and regulations is actually known as Consensus Algorithm.
In the Bitcoin blockchain, the PoW consensus algorithm was used in which the governance and maintenance of the blockchain is in the hands of the miners who are actually those that verify the transactions by solving the complex mathematical calculations. For making improvement in the blockchain's working, more blockchains were developed with different consensus protocols and Steem blockchain is also one of them that uses the Delegated Proof of Stake consensus protocol.
The Steem blockchain was developed in 2016 by Sir Ned Scott and Daniel Larimer. The developers of the Steem blockchain adopted the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) mechanism which was already used by some of the other blockchains as well. In the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), the validators of the blockchains who verify the transactions are actually known as witnesses.
These witnesses are 21 in number and one of them is actually the backup witness. These witnesses are selected by the users by the voting process. Actually, the vested Steem tokens (Steem Power) plays a very important role in this process. The value of the vote of a stakeholder actually depends on the amount of the SP he owns. There is no restriction for users to take part in the governance voting, every user on the platform can vote for 30 different witnesses at a time.
Once a witness comes up in the top 21 witnesses of the chain, it is able to validate the transactions, secure the network and make different rules for the betterment of the blockchain after discussion with the team. The Delegated Proof of Stake consensus protocol provide a chance to every individual on the platform to take part in the governance voting. The more the Steem Power of a user, the more will be the worth of his vote for a witness.
- Selection of Validator Nodes:
First and the most important difference between PoW and DPoS is the difference in the selection of validators/nodes. In PoW, the validators are selected on the bases of the hardware devices or mining machines to solve the complex mathematical calculations. While on the other hand, in DPoS, the validators/witnesses are selected on the basis of the trust of the stakeholders on a particular witness. The stakeholders nominate the witnesses by voting for them and the vested amount of Steem plays a vital role in this voting.
- Level of Decentralization:
The blockchains using the PoW consensus protocol are somehow more decentralized than that which are using DPoS. The reason is that, in the DPoS, the stakeholders decide the witnesses who validate the transactions and make governance rules. So, it is something like a bit centralized as compared to PoW.
- Scalability:
The blockchains using the Delegated Proof of Stake mechanism are much more scalable than that which are using the Proof of Work. Also, the PoW is still more secure consensus than the DPoS.
- Economical Preference:
The PoW is less economical as compared to the DPoS. The resaons is that there is more consumption of energy in setting up the hardware miners and computational devices in PoW, whereas, in DPoS there is no need of the high quality hardware devices.
How often does a block occur in Steem and how many tokens does it use? Discuss this topic.
The block time of a blockchain actually describes the scalability of a blockchain. If we talk about the block time of the Steem blockchain, it is 3 seconds. It means that every three seconds, a new block is produced on the chain that is added to the previously produced block, hence forming the Blockchain.
The block time of the Steem blockchain is much less than that of the Bitcoin blockchain which is 10 minutes. So, the Steem blockchain more scalable as compared to the Bitcoin blockchain. As we have already discussed that there are 21 witnesses on the blockchain that validate the transactions. So, at the rate of 1 block per 3 seconds, a total of 20 blocks are produced in a minute. Moreover, further calculations shows that more than 10.5 Million blocks are annually produced in the blockchain.
The block time of the Steem blockchain is about 3 seconds and a new block is produced after this time. About 3.1 Steem tokens are minted after each new block is produced in the blockchain. So, we can also roughly say that one Steem token is minted or produced in a second.
According to the white paper of the Steem blockchain, the inflation rate is decreasing at a rate of 0.5% decrease annually. Initially in 2016, the inflation rate was 9.5% and this rate increases by 0.05% after the production of about 250K blocks until it reaches 0.95%. When the inflation rate will reach 0.95%, the process of earning Steem tokens will be very difficult.
Talking about the distribution of these Steem tokens, the 10% of the Steem tokens are distributed among the witness nodes of the blockchain that validate the transactions in the blockchain. And, 15% of these Steem tokens goes to the stakeholders of the platform due to their contribution towards the blockchain. And the remaining 75% goes to the reward pool that is equally distributed among the authors of the posts and the curators, hence following the Proof of Brain.
Do you know what was the first application to run on the Steem Blockchain? Discuss this application.
The first ever Decentralized Application (DApp) that was built on the Steem blockchain is Steemit. Steemit is actually a decentralized blogging blockchain platform that was developed in March 2016 and since then, it has been rewarding its users for creating quality and unique content on the platform.
Actually, it is a decentralized social media platform that rewards its users for creating unique and quality content in the form of blogs and posts on the blockchain. It also provides opportunities for the investors to stake their assets in the blockchain in the form of Steem Power (SP) and earn the curation rewards in return.
The posts that are created on the Steemit platform are curated or voted by the stakeholders and hence these votes add worth to those posts. The value of the votes depends directly on the staked amount of a curator. The curators and authors of the posts receive 75% of the mined tokens on the blockchain.
The users can publish their posts on the blockchain by utilizing the Resource Credits (RCs) that are also dependent on the Steem Power (SP). Also, the voting power of the curators decides the value of a vote. Voting power ranges from 0-100% and it decreased by 2% by every complete vote. These things can be observed by approaching various tools linked to the blockchain like Steem World, Steem Now, Steemyy, Steemdb, etc.
Steem is actually the native and governance token of the Steem blockchain. The rewards are given to the authors, curators, stakeholders, and witnesses in the form of Steem tokens. Also, there are two other rewarding tokens that are TRX and SBD. SBD is actually the stable token of the Steem blockchain and its function is to maintain the inflation rate. The TRX are also given to the authors and curators with the equivalent amount of Steem Power (SP).
Talking about the storage of these rewarded tokens, there is an on-chain wallet of the Steem blockchain that is the Steemit Wallet. This wallet be used for the transferring of funds, withdrawal of funds, staking the tokens (SP), and voting for witnesses by utilizing the SP. Also, Steemit Wallet offers the internal market of STEEM/SBD where these tokens can exchanged with each other.
What is Proof of Brain (PoB)?
Proof of Brain (PoB) is actually a mechanism that is used by the Steemit platform and other social media blogging platforms. It is a mechanism in which the capability and the skills of the users are determined by considering various factors. One of them is the originality and creativity of the posts that are shared on the blockchain.
The Steem blockchain wants its users to share only those posts that are their own creation, not copied from any other author or creator. To ensure the Proof of Brain mechanism among the authors, the Steemit team have taken various steps and allow the curators to downvote the posts that are against the PoB mechanism.
The PoB also applied for the curators on the blockchain. The judgement and assessment skills of the curators are determined by the quality of the posts on which that have curated by utilizing their voting power which itself comes from the staked Steem (Steem Power).
Hence, the proportional rewards are extracted from the mined tokens of the blockchain and these rewards are given to the authors and curators in an equal proportion. We can conclude the PoB as the process of posting the creative and orignal posts, curating/voting these posts, utilizing the vested tokens (SP) and getting rewards from the minted tokens.
Conclusions
Steem blockchain is a decentralized blockchain that is based on the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) mechanism. In DPoS, the block validators are nominated by the stakeholders through the voting process. The worth of a witness vote depends on the SP of the stakeholder. The block time of the Steem Blockchain is 3 seconds.
Steemit is a decentralized social media blogging platform that rewards its users for creating quality content on the blockchain. The rewards distribution comparised of 75% of the mined tokens for the authors and curators, 10% for the Witnesses and 15% for the stakeholders. Steemit platform strictly prohibited the plagiarized content, hence following the Proof of Brain (PoB) mechanism.
I would like to invite my friends @malikusman1, @sachin08, and @pollito22 to take part in this beautiful contest.
Greetings.
PoW requires a large amount of energy from miners to participate in the validation of its transactions as they employ the use of supercomputers to solve cryptographical puzzles to earn the right of validating a transaction. Whereas DPoS as a delegate system requires a very much less as it is a consensus that allows witnesses and delegates voted for to carry out the validation process. More like a Democratic system.
Best of Luck my friend.
Thanks a lot dear for your precious comment here.
Excellent post from you regarding Steem Blockchain.
Well said. That's why Steem Blockchain comes with unique features. Those we don't see on any other platform.
Nice entry from you. Thanks for sharing with us. Best of luck to my friend.
Thank you dear. I wish the same for you.
Hey bro,
You are right man the steem Blockchain is so so decentralized that it gives even the newest newbie so much freedom to do whatever the want , this feature has made them the best among the rest.
Yea, in this consensus mechanism witness need support and votes from users most especially big whales to keep the at the top of the witness list
Thank you very much for sharing, please you can check my own entry here
wishing you success
Thank you for your precious comment brother.
Congratulations, your post has been upvoted by @scilwa, which is a curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community. We can also be found on our hive community & peakd as well as on my Discord Server
Felicitaciones, su publication ha sido votado por @scilwa. También puedo ser encontrado en nuestra comunidad de colmena y Peakd así como en mi servidor de discordia
Thank you for your support.
Yes I strongly agree with your words. It's the set of rules that other social media blockchain are adopting.
PoB is the best for me because everyone must show originality of his or her work. In the absent of PoB a lot of coping and paste contents would be seen on the platform.
You have discussed well about the topic. Best of luck to you sir.
Thank you dear for your precious comment.
Yes, that's why it is called Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) as it allows everyone that stake on the blockchain to vote for delegates or witnesses who are responsible for data validation and security of the network.
I wrote about this in my post after I carried out my calculation, I don't know if you also do the same or you assume the amount of Steem tokens minted when new blocks are added on Steem or got it from any online post about Steem.
Thanks a lot friend for your precious comment here. Yes, I have already read about it in a post a few months ago. But, it is easy to calculate it.
(Supply of Steem*Current inflation rate)/annually produced blocks
Thanks a lot for stopping by. Greetings.
It's actually Virtual supply not supply in general.
Thanks friend 🤗
Running the steem blockchain using the proof of brain feature really helps get a lot of quality content out there although It's quite stressful to manage, such a fact has been established.
ps: I really love the gif thingy you have at the bottom of your post. May I ask what app you used to create such :)
Thanks a lot for appreciations. Yes sure, I use Canva for editing this one.