How to sell Steem: Scalability

I worked in the higher education publishing industry for about 10 years. One of the big innovations at one point in time was single sign on. It was the ability to log into blackboard which all the professors were using to keep track of course scores and use that to also allow your students to log into your homework system. The homework score was stored in the homework system and often could be ported over to the semester grade with the click of a button. It kept the students from having to log into two separate applications that weren't attached to each other. It reduced user confusion and made it more convenient for the teachers.

In the example above it's like how your steem password unlocks the ability to blog on steemit, palnet and steempeak, play splinterlands, and view stuff on 3speak.

Anyway, the first company to do that was McGraw Hill. They had this feature and consulted with one of the best sales guys the industry ever produced. They created a campaign just around this one feature.

"How could you use a program that doesn't even offer single sign on?" was the question all their sales reps started asking the professors. It worked... I can't tell you how many times I had to answer the question "Do you offer single sign on?" It was the most asked question that year. And we didn't offer it. So, I would tap dance... "That's not a feature we currently offer, but let me show you X that we do."

It was a fucking exhausting semester waiting for the devs to play catchup. The one company had thoroughly convinced the ENTIRE-INDUSTRY that you NEED-TO-HAVE-SINGLE-SIGN-ON!!!

What's Steem's version of that?

Scalability. If I could get everyone talking about just one thing for the next 3 months about Steem it would be about Scalability.

Why?

Why does it matter? Web 3.0 isn't a handful of defi apps with low user count and billions of dollars. That will likely exist, but that's not going to be the bulk of transactions. It'll be commerce and communication. So, you need a chain that can support lots of transactions and make it frictionless for users. There's also going to be a SHIT-TON-OF-TRANSACTIONS!!! So if your blockchain is going to be used for anything other than replacing accounting of shiny lumps of metal then you better be able to handle a lot of transactions. You also better design your system to not have a trillion "useless" transactions.

Who can handle a lot of transactions? check out https://blocktivity.info. They have a simple chart that you can see at a glance of who can handle a lot of transactions and how they're currently doing. If you look you'll notice that a lot of the top coins are already 50%-100% full. So, if the bull run adds more users the chain is going to experience some major pains. Dare I say some will stop functioning.

Back in the day

Back when I was your age I remember trying to get transactions through on ETH when kitties and the market was booming. It was a giant ball of failsauce. you'll tell your kids!

Waste not or scale not

On the other side of things you have to ask yourself what transactions do the whole blockchain have to process. Because if the answer is EVERYTHING-THAT-EVERYONE-WANTS-TO-DO then I'd urge you to GTFO. That's not scalable either.

What's the right approach?

You guessed it. Steem. Steem allows some but not all the smart transactions. Just the ones that are essential to the chain operating. You can interact with the chain, but the chain isn't going to process every random app action for you. The chain will however check for things like ownership and validity. Yes, she created that nude nft, and yes you bought it, and yes you put it on the market and yes you sold it to this other collector. All of that can be trustlessly verified on the blockchain, but NOT every little step along the way has to be processed by the blockchain. The apps can do that!

DPoS

Steem has solid tech. You don't need to use 20% of the world's electricity to mine this little guy. You just need a computer, a brain, and something insightful to say. You also need patience because the network doesn't just give you free lambos. Like other social media sites you have to build an audience (or a tool/business) before anyone gives a shit what you have to say. But along with rewarding you it makes the chain really lean and efficient. Yes, it puts people in charge through witnesses, and I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but people are always in control. This just makes it transparent who they are and they can be held responsible if they don't act in the favor of the chain.

Haters gonna say that the witnesses never change, but they're freaking nutz. This is a constant battle and a grind to stay on top, provide more value, communicate the value you provide, and chime in on decisions that always piss someone off. I've watched 50% turnover of the top 20 since I've been here. We've got Democrazy's ass kicked on that front.

With governance that allows for change you can make improvements to the system that keep up with the needs of the people on it. Not only can our lean tech scale, but just as importantly the Steem Blockchain can be improved! Thanks DPoS!!!

What was this all about again?

Bitcoin halves between now and mid may. People are going to get interested again. When that happens all these chains are going to get loaded up. Some will make it. Others will not.

So, the key question of the last two years was "is your project lean enough to survive the crypto winter" this next question is going to be "is your project strong enough to scale?"

You're reading this. The chain made it. We're still here, and there's more development on it than there was at the high of 2018. I think we passed the lean test.

Now we're going to drink from the firehose and see who we can outscale, which is just about everyone. Should be fun.

So, when you're talking about Steem or Blockchain I'm asking you to to make the focus scalability

We are collectively the sales arm of this chain. We're all stakeholders in it's success. We all go to the same moon and we all earn more if the token is worth more. If there's a single distinguishing point that's going to separate chains in the next bull cycle I think it will be scalability. As it happens we're aces there and set to grow.

It's time to focus on this. When you're writing, when you're tweeting, when you're talking, when you're investing; I want you to think, talk about, and challenge others on scalability.

That's where we win!