Vlog #72: Being able to scale the Steem blockchain is more important than having a fancy website.
A couple of days ago Steem Inc. released a blog post where they talk about scaling of the Steem blockchain. (here)
I couldn't be happier that they released this post. It tells me they got their priorities right.
Being able to scale with the increasing amount of users is crucial to the success of the STEEM blockchain.
For me, way more important than a more fancy looking steemit website.
You can have the most amazing website in the world but if it can't handle the number of users that want to use it, it's doomed.
Just imagine Facebook with half a million users maximum before the thing doesn't function.
It wouldn't be very popular.
Truth be told I didn't know the Steem blockchain had scaling issues. It's the best and fastest blockchain I know and for me, it has been working fine since I joined in July 2016.
But working on a problem before it becomes a problem is way better than the other way around.
The fact they made a post about scaling tells me that it will, at some point in the future, become an issue.
The fact they recognize this now is fantastic.
The Bitcoin blockchain, for instance, had to become slow as hell first and very expensive before the scaling issue was addressed.
I really wouldn't want that for the Steem blockchain.
Best of luck to the team.
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Great post and thank you for bringing this very important topic up. Scalability is the most important thing in having a successful, thriving business. Knowing that the Steem leadership is looking to address this issue now before opening up the floodgates to new users gives me more optimism for the long term growth of Steemit. First impressions are everything in business and most people are concerned more with functionality vs look/design. It doesn't matter how nice the house is, if there's foundation issues, eventually it will crumble and collapse.
Running Steemit like a business has been a concern of mine. I've seen a lot of time and energy being focused on ideological topics and not a lot of discussion on some primary topics which will increase the overall "value" of Steem and Steemit. Topics that's immediately come to mind are availability in regards to the exchanges and monetary usefulness on an every day basis, as in a Steem credit card or debit card that would allow SBDs or Steem it's self to be used in every day transactions the world over. Increasing awareness of these 2 issues and implementing solutions to ensure both become reality will bring incredible excitement to the community and the crypto world in general and show Steemit is at the forefront of solving real world problems and making Steemit a viable currency option that people can use. As I learn more and more about crypto and the individual coins, utility and especially leadership is becoming more and more important for me in determining my long term investing strategy. For example, the Dash leadership I believe really "get it" and run their coin like a business. I feel they know where they're going and how they're going to get there. I also feel very confident in EOS with Dan, so hearing the Steemit leadership are focusing on scalability vs acquiring new members makes me feel better.
Speed is the key in this space as the competition is fierce and is only going to get more so with all the money to be made. I love Steemit and hope our leadership will fix these issues as quickly as possible and push to make Steemit and Steem the world leader in not only social media, but in implementing Steem or SBDs as a viable day to day currency. Whichever coins can solve these problems and be first to market to bypass the BTC gatewaty to fiat will explode.
Here's a great video by @fyrstikken Thought you might like it. Have a great day brother!
Awesome reply man, once again! I have faith in the Steemit leadership too. And that video made me chuckle :)
I agree, these things make me feel positive that potential problems are being addressed before they ever rear their head. Steemit has voted amazingly well and admirably considering the problems that are inherent in scaling such a large number of users. My work is in the area of performance testing and I know the issues that can arise with poor memory management. So far from my experience steemit has been built very well.
The other important thing to note is that almost always these things can be addressed through code or hardware changes.
Viva la steemit!!
Viva la Steemit!
Yay! :0D
I'm glad that their priority at the moment is to make the steem blockchain more scalable. It is one of the most fundamental element that you need since what is the point having millions of users if they struggle to access the site or the site begins to slow down.
It blows my mind how platforms like facebook and other social media platforms can handle so much concurrent traffic and the sheer power and a number of servers you need for that is absolutely insane.
A really good analogy with the cars to explain the necessity of scaling. I guess steemit is going to turn into a 6 lane autobahn with a lightning fast and efficient blockchain haha
The blockchain has still been pretty fast but I have experienced some jitters and jerks which will hopefully be remedied in the end in the near future and I'd rather have a scalable steemit blockchain rather than an aesthetically good looking steem GUI.
Well I hope you have a great time in London @exyle as well as I'm wishing you a safe journey haha.
I can't wait for the post about it :)
Thank you, I'm looking forward to the trip a lot!
Very easy to imagine, it had a name too. MySpace.
LOL :)
i have a feeling the reason the blockchain got so big recently was not from scaling issues but more from it being filled with spam, the fact that they posted about it within 24hrs is awesome. a multithreaded steemd will be great as for the fancy website, truth is i'd only like a few visual changes and some filtering. i'm quite ok with the layout and style of it at the moment really, i've gotten quite fond of it ;) - maybe they should build a theme api so we can make custom looks! (eventually of course) but yes, i agree. make it rock solid stable and scalable for the next batch of users.
I don't have the technical knowledge to understand exactly what they're doing but for sure Steemit needs to be able to scale well to be successful. So far one of the main strengths of Steem/Steemit is it's speed and ease of use so that needs to continue.
I definitely agree that scaling is more important than have a great looking website. Speed and scalability problems that BTC has shouldn't bother Steem for quite some time. From watching a Dan Larimer video about EOS, an important concept that I learned about a blockchain is that it's much harder to fix or change something while it's running. The analogy used in that video was trying to replace an engine of a car while it's moving. It's just good to know that Steem was already designed well from the start and won't need massive changes to perform well.
Solid points. I still wish for some sort of Reddit-like organization option, though it's probably less important.
I have noticed over the last several months, with the increase in user accounts and page views, that interactions do seem to be getting slower. Perhaps this issue is partially on my end, however.
Yes, It is always better to look ahead and prepare in advance, than to look back and regret. With the huge amount of new users joining steemit, it was very possible that it may get affected in future, it is really wonderful to see that they have taken thoughtful progress in scaling the Steem blockchain. Thanks @exyle for sharing about the great initiative by Steem Inc.
Thank you!
We have seen that scaling can be an issue that's why it's good to see that steemit is not waiting till the Problem becomes big and they decided to work today to solve or at least make a solid plan for next months (and years.)