Announcing Steem 0.14.4 . Shared DB Preview Release
Today I am happy to announce a preview release of Steem powered by our new Shared Memory database architecture. We previously introduced this as Graphene 2.0, but have chosen to rebrand it as a separate and fully independent Database library named ChainBase.
This release should be feature complete and could in theory be a fully functional replacement for all Steem nodes. We are releasing it as a preview to get some extra testing before migrating over into the official repository and making it a highly recommend update.
The new ChainBase repository is a dependency free implementation of the core database technology that powers this latest preview release of Steem. The idea is that any blockchain (or non-blockchain project) that needs a fast, efficient, version controlled, nested-transactional database can benefit from this library. In particular, there is no dependency on fc or steem. There is also no blockchain logic in this library which makes it politically neutral for any blockchain to adopt.
The benefits of this release include:
- Faster Startup / Shutdown Times
- Less frequent database corruption (less replay)
- Less frequent blockchain corruption (less resync)
- One step closer to multiple processes sharing same memory (more web clients per computer)
While most Steem users will not see any benefit from this release, those of us who provide the infrastructure will greatly appreciate these updates. Now that this migration is complete, we can begin to build new features that will benefit everyone.
Blockchain Features on the Short Term (this year) roadmap include:
Allowing the community to vote on Blockchain Paramaters such as:
a. Reducing the Inflation Rate
b. Reducing the Vesting Withdraw Period
c. Reducing Vesting rewards
d. Reducing Witness pay
f. Other properties that are currently hardcodedCuration Guilds - allow people to pool and share voting power
We are not advocating to change any blockchain parameters, but we respect that these things should be subject to community approval.
when can we have a bookmark feature?
found it on busy.org frontend
I'm sure "allowing the community to vote" really means allowing these parameters to be controlled by the 19 witnesses who will do whatever Dan and Ned tell them to do out of fear of losing their spots. Correct?
Correct.
I disagree and allow me to explain.. By no means am I a known whale on any platform but, I see the good in what they are doing. This gives me further insight on what is to come because instead of worrying about who's who, I worry about how you are doing..
Please include a Visa/Master card solution to buy steem in order to get investors to input money without buying Bitcoin first and being forced to pay 10%-20%
broker fees.
I've suggested this as well, and I do support the idea; but just so you know this will be a very difficult change to make. Steemit, Inc. would likely need to register with the US government as a money exchanger, which has a huge regulatory burden associated with it.
[Edit] Either that, or find one that it could integrate with.
Neither...You simply void the problem without notification redirecting traffic.
Mmm, or just tell them that banks don't really drive your money to every purchase you make around the world... Broker fees? Is that not the same as Ripple or any other voting pool out there?
"Curation Guilds - allow people to pool and share voting power"
IMHO This curation guilds thing just lowers the value and incentive to build Steem Power, encourages sock accounts, makes things more confusing for mainstream users and is a waste of resources that could be better spent on bringing more basic social functionality to the site.
I understand that these features make a big difference under the hood for developers but please throw us a bone on some new front facing features.
User registration and retention has stagnated for months. The price is in steady decline. Morale is getting pretty low in the trenches and everyone is clamoring for features that improve the user experience.
Your bone is on its way today!
Eagerly anticipating!
You can see new features on https://test.steemit.com including notifications, new medium style editor, and various other improvements.
wow @dantheman the test-server is looking really good!
Still missing a Profile-Picture... Would you be so kind and surprise us with one before midnight? <3
Thanks Dan!
If users use the test site, will the actions they take still be processed on the 'real' blockchain?
Yes. I just posted from the test site with the new editor.
(Replying here to your other comment due to the nesting level)
Ok, cool. Thanks!
Great job to everyone that worked on this. It will be a huge upgrade to the user experience!
the site is not working at the moment. "502 Bad Gateway"
Wow man, I was sooo close to giving up on steem as a glorified scam. Thanks so much for putting some value back in everyone's investments and curation time. This is some kick ass shit for real. Great job! :-)
lolz!
I disagree that curation guilds are a waste of time / bad idea. Curation guilds are a highly needed tool to help the community work together to better allocate whale voting power. This helps to address one of the core issues that is impacting user retention.
If the vesting withdraw period is reduced very significantly, the distribution of steem power will happen much faster and so curation guilds will quickly become useless.
Hmmm. Not so sure about that. The law of imbalance (80/20) can't be avoided. Re new buyers: 20% will buy 80% and 80% will only by 20%.
I could be wrong but does it still not erode value and incentive to accumulate SP? Doesn't this incentivize the accumulation of many small accounts to latch onto a guild?
They haven't posted all the implementation details yet, so it is hard to say for sure, but it will probably be something similar to how the Curie project works, just automated instead of everyone needing to use voting bots. There should still be incentive to hold SP because you should still be able to earn curation rewards from the voting that the guilds do with your SP.
My incentive is this... I like to evaluate the best possible outcome no matter if I am voting you, or you voting for me. If it is better for everybody then the question prints itself.
Yes and here's a personal example.. I as well as many others need help focusing on the real value of steemit, each one of us working together for one understanding truth. When we see whales or master levels then we tend to try harder while observing those who are closest to us- or those we admire. I also feel that each person brings a different set of values to the table making a steak dinner- A steak dinner with potatoes and lobster :D Seriously though, I like the builda-guilds.
I agree 100%! I have been into bitcoin and blockchain for several years now and still have a hard time grasping the breakdown. I understand it mentally, thank God, but tend to focus on the smaller things that may not matter as much..
I completely agree about the curation guilds. In my personal opinion, we need to get back to taking personal ownership of our votes, especially for content. There is too much opportunity for nepotism and no matter how hard they try, they're still going to miss great posts - and people will still be disgruntled because they weren't noticed.
curation guild is important for steem power distribution
Perhaps, @craig-grant, but I think it also gives new people who haven't put a lot of sweat equity in steemit a false sense of hope and the potential for huge disappointment once those guilds stop voting for them. IMHO, there's a point where too much hand-holding is detrimental to their personal growth and stamina. Just like children, you have to let them explore and get the scrapes and bruises. Just be there to kiss the boo-boos.
curation guilds help users who want to grow their steem power by earning rewards using voting power they did not purchase, but is loaned to them by the very few who have 90% of the steem power, it's not only about bloggers earning rewards. Users with the perception that they have more fair ability to distribute and recieve rewards rather than having to wait on a hand out from a "whale bot" improves the user experience and eliminates the complaints about centralization of power. There will always be too many content creators, because creating content is not hard
Respectfully, @craig-grant, I'm still only partially convinced because individuals are still loaning their vote power to a larger entity which is still made up of fewer individuals with discerning tastes and therefore potentially limited interests.
I am partial to individuals doing their part. Pay It Forward. Have a true gift economy where if you see something that is really outstanding, gift them with a little STEEM or SBD with a comment and let them know that you, as an individual really enjoyed the piece. I believe that is more meaningful to everyone involved. And as content creators, we can say it's easy - but for a lot of people coming into Steemit, it's their first time blogging and there are lots of challenges.
I definitely would not gift any steem or sbd, and would not expect or wnat any gift from anyone unless the gift was being distributed to hundreds of others and myself at the same time
SP still accumulates faster when pooled in one account.
Things might start to get interesting around here...
So does this mean I can't buy discounted Steem anymore?
I have a very grave concern about changing the vested withdrawal rate.. Essentially, SP balances represent debt in the same manner as SBD... There has been a lot of concern raised about the debt load of SBD, but a meaningful change in the SP withdaw period would present a much greater problem.
The only purpose for a long 2 year withdraw period is to prevent the highly inflated steem to be dumped on the market, if you remove the inflation ( which is totally unnecessary I might add) the lock time period could be 48h and the price of steem wouldn't be impacted at all.
What did you have in mind?
It is a great idea to publish the road map! Thank you.
Can we please vote on a reward taxation that reduces inflation and keeps more STEEM circulating on the platform? The reward rate of STEEM is adding to the current sell pressure we're experiencing on the market. We had a reversal today after these announcements but because there's so much supply, there's a lot of it being sold, forcing the price into dangerous regions. If we don't address these inflation/creation problems soon, we could see the price of STEEM tank to $0. And this is from someone who's holding long term. It effects investors negatively. There's literally no reason to invest in the platform when there's sell orders of over 1Million+ STEEM and only 50 BTC worth of buys. This needs to be addressed, solutions need to be put forward, and a vote should be had. I don't care if there's only 19 witnesses voting, just find the solution before STEEM tanks.
Can you please explain 'reward taxation' more?
Because the creation of STEEM is at such a high rate, I suggested here and on other threads that we should introduce a fee on rewards. A small percentage that is taken every time STEEM is created which can be recirculated within the economy. This reduces the amount of STEEM needing to be made as there's already a supply within the economy which can be used to pay rewards. If creation of rewards then become more frequent, and if there's less rewards being handed out, we create a surplus that can be paid back to investors.
The same thing happens with banks and taxable incomes. State banks tax incomes to recirculate money, reducing inflation, and then use surplus for government spending. (As I understand)
This is great news! The issues we are opening up for vote are some of the things the community has been complaining about the most over the past couple months! Thank you for listening. Looking forward to some welcome changes! :)