On chainBB, eSteem, Busy.org, Ethereum and the Plethora of ICOs
One year ago, Ethereum was $11.90. Now it's $175.
One year ago, Bitcoin was $236. Now it's $2172.
In exactly one year, Bitcoin appreciated 9.2 times, while Ethereum appreciated 14.7 times.
Let's ignore for a while the amazing growth and focus on something much more important. It's very easy to get lost in this trend, to ride the momentum and just think "everything will just go up, because, well... the world is changing... and the crypto is the future... and there are unicorns, you know....". I'm not saying the world is not changing. I also think crypto is the future. Not sure about the unicorns. Yet.
But what I'm saying is that beyond this craze there are subtler, more profound hints about what's really happening. Knowing what's happening at this deeper level can make the difference between becoming a real millionaire, with constant returns of investments or just a hobby trader, placing some orders every weekend, when you try to get some rest from your job, which you took to pay the losses accumulated because... well, because the world is changing... and the crypto is the future... and there are unicorns...
Ethereum Is An Ecosystem
The difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum, in terms of growth, is amazing. Just stop for a while and think.
Imagine you have a bottle of water on your porch. And next morning you find 9 more bottles on your porch. That's Bitcoin,in terms of absolute growth. Let's put those bottles aside.
But then next morning you wake up again to find 14 more bottles on your porch. 14 more! That's Ethereum, in terms of absolute growth. That's almost half more than the absolute growth of Bitcoin.
The speed of appreciation of Ethereum is mind blowing.
And you know why?
Because Ethereum is creating an ecosystem. Gnosis and Golem are just two examples. In order to participate in those startups, you had to buy Ether. Or to use the Ethereum network during the crowdsale.
Ethereum is growing not as much by itself, as it grows by its offsprings. It doesn't matter that, at the operational level, Ethereum is not even involved in those startups. What matters is that those startups are using Ethereum's "brick and mortar" foundation to build their own.
Bitcoin lost this battle. I don't even think it ever fought this battle at all. Bitcoin opened the minds of millions of people and that was enough of a war. Ethereum took over and now something bigger is happening.
Why the long introduction?
Well, because what I'm talking about is not really Ethereum, but Steem.
Steem Could Be An Even Better Ecosystem
After HF 17&18, something fundamental happened in the Steem blockchain. It went unnoticed by many, although I wrote extensively about it, as a witness.
It's the arbitrary split of rewards feature, also known, at the code level, as transaction beneficiaries. This feature allows the building of arbitrary rewards splitting platforms, using the Steem blockchain. In simpler words, it allows you to build websites that are saving the data in the Steem blockchain, and YOU control how the generated rewards for that data is distributed. And everything is IN the blockchain, the logic of splitting the rewards is IN the code, not in the application logic.
That's huge.
And we already see this happening, with chainBB, @jesta's latest project. chainBB is a forum-like platform, using the Steem blockchain. Off of the rewards generated when you post using chainBB, the platform - namely chainBB - retains 15%. And it's integrated seamlessly with the main blockchain. It's just there.
There are also other early builders in the Steemit ecosystem: eSteem, by @good-karma, and Busy.org, by @busy.witness (I'm suggesting you to vote for both of these accounts as witnesses, because that will support their efforts). Each of these platforms can benefit from the arbitrary split of rewards feature too.
Add to this the speed of transactions, the zero cost of transactions, the DPoS governance mechanisms (all of which are just to do's for other blockchains, even for Ethereum) and you get the picture.
The potential is huge.
That's the reason I'm still close to this project, despite the skids, or even temporary insanity bursts that are slowing down the development. But I know they are just part of the journey. I just try not to get in their way too much, when they happen.
The bottom line is that Steem can be an even better ecosystem than Ethereum.
At the moment of writing this article, Steem was trading at $1. According to the numbers with which I started this article, if Steem follows the growth curve of Ethereum, then in an year we may see Steem trading at $14.
I know it sounds hard to believe. But I also know that Ethereum was $11.90 just a year ago. That I know for sure.
About the unicorns, though, I'm still researching.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Thank you for mention! Future is indeed bright for Steem. eSteem is using beneficiaries since last 40+ days and was first one to adopt this innovative change. Initial 30 days was chosen as a trial period with 1%, with last update we have increased it to 5%. Great to see more apps utilizing it and even more exciting to see new apps coming up.
Once again congrats for all your hard work and for the value you bring to this ecosystem.
For Steem and the unicorns!! STEEM ON!! :p
Very inspiring. ChainBB potential is huge if we imagine how much people would appreciate the idea of getting paid for working for a community, and this is only beginning.
Yes, my thoughts exactly.
Yes, i totally agree with you about Ethereum growth.. Dubai will be the first city to implement their document processing on Ethereum by partnering with ethereum startup "ConsenSys". Adopting Blockchain technology Dubai stands to unlock 5.5 billion dirham in savings annually in document processing alone , equal to the one Burj Khalifa’s worth of value every year.
Whoa! Didn't know about that. But I did know about ConsenSys, they're positioned like the go-to guys for Ethereum consultancy. Happy for them for landing such a big contract.
Completely agree with you on this one. Understanding Ethereum's true position in the blockchain market is crucial to successfully participate in the cryptocurrency ecosystem right now.
Your idea of drawing parallels between steem and ethereum is new to me - and I love it! The quality of the Steem blockchain back-end is incredible - it's the secret weapon behind this whole project IMO
Wow... these information are priceless. It gives us better understanding and comprehension of the potential of our Steem. We are just at the beginning and we all should be thankful that we get on this platform early.
I will do your recommendation of voting @good-karma and @busy.witness as witnesses. And of course I will also vote for you.
Upvoted and resteemed!
Thank you for voting witnesses. The entire platform relies on them, so that's an important activity.
Exactly... that's why I never used it first when I joined. I want to use it for the right people. I still have 26 votes left now on my account.
That's one of the more compelling arguments I have seen, pointing to a bright future for Steemit/Steem. Unicorns notwithstanding.
We have some important differentiation here that a lot of alt coins just don't have. I'm a non-expert on the technical side, but I still think one of the best things we could see here is someone using the rewards splitting to build a full-featured Steem-based peer-to-peer marketplace for goods and services... like a combination of eBay (back in pre-corporate days when it was cool), Etsy for artists and Craigslist. Not just because it would be a cool feature, but because it would create a huge "economic reason for being" for the Steem token. So when a potential investor comes along... there's this huge existing infrastructure; an active economy.
With that in place... I might even become a believer in unicorns.
You are right about a marketplace not being (yet) operational in the Steemit ecosystem. I also think this will boost the growth very, very fast. There are relatively high entry costs for building such a marketplace, though. The biggest one being not the technical one, but marketing and PR. It's hard to get people off of their habitual places, where they build trust for years. But not impossible.
You might want to check out what @thisisbenbrick is up to with Steemsongs - an important step in the right direction for the ideas you're talking about
I agree with you.
The potential is more then just huge.
A new era where the one gets paid for serving the community, decentralized.
Great post, thanks!
interesting and useful article. thx.
I'm a bit lost in the crypto world, with so many new currencies and projects coming up every day.
Anyway, I'm just watching. ;)
Agree to the huge potential of ethreum network. I was planing to build out something based on ethreum. Now evaluating STEEM.. not 100% convinced yet. The reward scheme is too complicated and not sure how the main stream user take this...