Wen adoption?

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There is a lot of amazing blockchain and crypto-related reading material on Twitter and Medium. Since first becoming interested in this space back in August 2017, my journey down the rabbit hole has led me to discover great thinkers to follow and learn from. To name just a few, these include: Chris Burniske, Tony Sheng, Nathaniel Whittemore, Jill Carlson, Travis Kling, Spencer Noon, Meltem Demirors, Qiao Wang, Ryan Zurrer, Dovey Wan, Nick Tomaino, Laura Shin, Jose Garay, Luis Cuende, Joel Monegro andJoey Krug. Whilst trawling through Twitter and listening to podcasts I've added these names after hearing them being interviewed or noticing retweets of theirs from someone else I'm following. The word 'narrative' gets used a lot in the crypto community. One narrative that is consistently talked about by these folks is that we need projects with working products, working products that actually solve problems, and working products that are currently out in the wild and being used to propel crypto into the mainstream. Steem is all of these things. Meltem Demirors consistently says she goes out of her way to use blockchain software to drive adoption, and yet where does she post these thoughts? On Twitter and Medium. Why? Most likely because everyone else is there.

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Why not come over to Steem?

• Because the content is inferior? Yes, Steem feels a bit spammy but I'd expect this to be less of a problem as the ecosystem matures.
• Because the publishing software is inferior? Have you tried anything other than steemit.com?
• Can't make money? Maybe the earnings potential is less to start with but if their followers follow them to Steem their earnings should take off.
• Hard to build a following? It's perceived to be dominated by whales and a tough place for newbies* to get traction. Well, I'm a newbie and, yes, I've earned next to nothing, but I'm not expecting to earn much at all for the first twelve months whilst I build a following. Meltem and some of the other names mentioned above shouldn't have that problem because their followers would most likely migrate to Steem and upvote their content.
• Identity crisis? This is a big one. A Steemian I follow - @taskmaster4450 - has a 'signature' that he uses at the end of each post ('Steemit is not Steem. Steem is much bigger than Steemit!'). I admit that I thought they were one and the same until recently. steemit.com is just an interface for the Steem blockchain. There are others out there that are more actively developed, are optimised for mobile, and have added features that are more engaging than steemit (Partiko?!). Once I discovered this my views on Steem as an ecosystem changed significantly.

It seems a lot like the chicken and egg scenario. If adoption is what we need for crypto to become mainstream, there is already an innovative decentralised platform that is widely used today. These smart thinkers in the space use centralised platforms because that's where the audience is. If just some of them migrate, others will follow. This, in turn, will increase the value of Steem and the quality of the content and draw in more users. Network effects will kick in fast! So I challenge smart people in this space to put their money where their mouth is and give Steem another chance!

*TIL newbies are considered 'Plankton', and reach 'Minnow' status when they earn about 500SP!

Posted using Partiko iOS