Decentralization on Steemit - Big Changes to Come...? - This deserves a post!
The centralization of power in the hands of a few on Steemit has been a very big issue for many in the community since I joined.
I was reading an excellent post this morning from @kevinwong on 4 Words to Avoid Using When Explaining Steem, and one of the words he said to avoid using was "decentralized" (it explains why in his post).
In the comments, someone thought it would be funny to make a snarky comment about how Steemit wasn't decentralized anyway, so it didn't really matter. @dantheman replied. Check this out!
I have already been very excited since we found out Steemit would be releasing their roadmap on or before 1/1/2017 - but now I am really excited!
This sounds huge :)
People sometimes have a weird criteria for criticizing things as "not really decentralized" (like in general, not just with Steemit).
There's a difference between something that's fundamentally centralized (the US dollar for example is necessarily controlled by a few people and doesn't have any way of functioning otherwise) vs. something that's decentralized but where some people currently have more influence than others.
It's always possible that the imperfect arrangement is just the best thing that the world can handle right now and a natural progression towards something better. Often the naysayers conflate "decentralization" with "an equal outcome, immediately" and ironically actually would WANT centralization to make it happen.
I'm excited for whatever changes Ned is talking about and certainly happy for whatever would make Steem more useful for more people, but to criticize it as "not really decentralized" right now (like the comment you showed) isn't right imo.
To say something isn't decentralized, you need to offer a solution to compare it to. To just look at imperfect aspects like that SP is concentrated into a few hands isn't meaningful, because we don't know if there's any way to avoid that right now (like, if any other solution wouldn't have the same issue), so you don't want to be guilty of holding it to an impossible standard. If something is the most decentralized that we could possibly make, then it's decentralized. (even if you have to wait some time before it works better .. things being clunky when they're new is inherent to anything)
I agree 100% :)
I haven't read @kevinwong's post yet, but from what you've shared about it...
Haha, cute!
I saw this too. I'll take a guess on what it is about. There was some talk about new corporate organization of steem or steemit. Something about a non-profit corporation. Ned spoke about it in a video when he was in Oslo recently. I'm just guessing and going from memory, but this might have something to do with Dan's comment. If I find the video I'll post a link here. ( found it: https://steemit.com/steemit/@bujar/ned-scott-s-keynote-at-the-oslo-steemit-hackathon GREAT video to watch in any case!) Anyone else have any ideas?
Yeah, I saw that too. Just a guess, but maybe curation guilds has something to do with it? IDK.. the mystery is exciting, lol :)
Maybe here, where Ned talks about advertisers coming and the money they spend being distributed to the users...
Thanks for the link!
I was searching for answers on this topic today and found this post. I try to read all your stuff Tim and I missed this.
I am personally pretty dejected about the handful of people and authors seeming to operate in a cliquish manner at times, (not all of them but the numbers here don't lie, I watch everything daily)
and it has really bummed me out the last week. Some of this is due to Christmas break sure but really? Nearly all my posts now are earning about 15¢ each.
It goes along with a lot of other posts here, saying the same thing by lots of people.
people are just voting for the trending posts or steemsports, it is the only way to earn anything
and for me, views and votes and comments matter in the platform where it is branded as "get paid to upvote, post and comment"
Everything has been in the hands of the few, like everything this is supposed to be the opposite of here --- for a long time now.
TY for this post, I am sorry but I am pretty dejected.
I hear ya. It is an issue for a lot of people. It is ironic, but voting on "trending" posts that are already earning a lot actually doesn't give people much curation rewards. It actually pays a ton better to upvote a good post that hasn't done well yet which ends up getting upvoted later. Sadly most people don't know this and they vote for the stuff that is already earning a lot of rewards - thinking they are earning good curation rewards as well.
I am excited to see what they have planned for this issue when they release their roadmap.
I have done both. For my first couple of months or maybe more, all I did was try to find good content in the NEW section several times a day to support it and then you get crapped on by people for re-steeming others' work
TY for understanding and always helping. I appreciate your work a whole lot, just know that.
Some of us are not techy or bloggers just trying hard and getting nowhere here. Lots of people saying that as you know.
Yep.
but the reality is: "powered by a few people with the bandwagon effect".
Initially, "decentralized" was used for the blockchain.
It's a centralized product on a decentralized database - pretty much like every crypto ever.
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Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
I get that you are talking about "The centralization of power" on steemit. I was confused by all this talk about decentrialzation because it did seem contradictory, until what I learned it was in reference to, the network not the power structure.
Source
But I agree that good things may be possible with more open communication from the roadmap.
Thanks
Sounds very interesting ;-)
I'm excited too !
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