You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Censorship: Why All Blockchain Projects Should Join Steem (especially Status)
While I cannot deny the fact that this article is fantastic and well written, I still cannot ignore the fact that there is no true decentralization on Steemit at the moment. In fact, there is a centralization within the decentralization. How do I mean?
At the moment, the whales can flag a minnow into extinction. This means that a whale can censor what he or she wants and does not want. In the end, Steemit has degenerated into a platform where all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others. We claim to be decentralized but we are intolerant.
We must stop flagging by voter power, otherwise we will make a primitive empire out of our beloved Steemit. I trust this meets you well.
That's not quite the same thing as decentralization in this case, however. I know what you mean — it can be intimidating to think that a higher rep can adjust your rewards and penalize your own rep with a heavy flag... but this still doesn't truly censor you. The posts you make are in the chain, for good. Even with a negative rep and UI hidden posts or comments, your followers, and anyone else, can still find the entirety of your work in the STEEM blockchain, forever, just as you put it there. This really isn't true of many other social media, which can disappear any trace of you or your intellectual property at any time.
The flagging and rep system are both tools designed to help our community try to decide on and enforce common societal rules and values, but they are not perfect. There has been a lot of discussion on how to improve these tools, and I think we'll see some positive changes to both over time. While it may feel like true censorship to be flagged, just remember that absolutely nothing and no one can take your work out of the chain and away from the people who are looking for it!
Thanks for this new perspective. Sounds convincing.
Agreed, Steemit seeks for checks and balances. I like the competition of Steemit and cryptocurrencies in general. Free markets can be tough but I like them.
Yes you are right, steemit is actually not decentralised. It is in fact a company registered in NY. So that is an avenue of attack, however the blockchain itself is decentralised. It's on computers all around the world and even if China, Russia and the US got together to unplug all of those computers steem would continue.
I don't know of a portal into the steem bc (busy/steemit/zappl and many more) that is not decentralised. However, with not too much technical skill we can all build our own portal in. It won't be as polished as the above but the functionality is there for all of us and that cannot easily be taken away.
The whales, whilst they have a lot of power, are not centralisation. They are points with a large amount of power but they cannot dictate what you do or write. All they can do is make it harder to find you. Youtube and FB on the other hand can literally stop your content. BTW technically steemit/busy etc can also can also dictate what you see however that would not last long at all.
Governments and corporations are single entities. Each whale is for the most part a different entity with their own ideas and ways of thinking. They might come together on issues but it's not the same as a government or corporation.
Thing is, the whales have to be careful because if they are irresponsible they risk losing everything overnight. That's millions of dollars they can blow if they are too douchie. So it behooves them to take right action. And if one or two whales jeopardise the system it is definitely in the interest of the other whales to correct that. This is one of the philosophies behind steem's voting system and is covered in the white paper.
Agreed, I prefer Steemit over Facebook and even Gab and Minds. I wonder if there are videos or articles on how people can plug directly into the Steem.IO blockchain, to post, or even to design platforms. Like you said, we have Steemit, Busy.org, Dlive, Dtube, and other Steem apps, but I may want to design my own app. We all may want to do that.
Check this page for starters
https://steemit.com/programming/@cryptonik/build-your-own-steemit-interface-with-steemjs
Thanks.
check the tuts in this channel
https://discord.gg/VuQeC4
steemdevs on discord
Yes the info is all out there. But it's not neatly gathered hence it's difficult but therein lies opportunity.
Yeah, Steemit can be tough, but do you make money on Facebook? I make money on Steemit. I like that. Facebook deleted my Hitler photo. I don't think Steemit has ever removed anything of mine and Steemit probably can't delete my photos, either, or so I've been told.