Potentially getting ahead on Steem

Yesterday, @steemitblog announced that they are committed to implementing SMTs on the blockchain March the 24th, 2019. If you don't know what SMTs are, don't worry, no one does. Well, that isn't true but no one really knows what kind of effect they will have on the Steem ecosystem or the pressure they will place on the Blockchain.

The hope is of course that it will be positive on price and provide the possibility for Steem to become a foundational piece of the blockchain world. A week earlier, the date came for the implementation of Hardfork 20 on September 25th, only six weeks away. This Hardfork is going to provide developers and data analysts a lot more functionality and ease of use for using and viewing the blockchain. When will Hivemind communities arrive? Who knows.

These developments however are coming at a good time I think as at the moment, there is a great deal of interest in the cryptosphere from investors as well as developers but, it is very difficult to decide where to put ones time, energy and money. Most blockchain projects are full of nice ideas but little else and very few have any use case experience other than for speculation upon in the markets. No matter how one reads the whitepapers or believes in the teams behind the words, the proof is in the pudding as they say. Potentially, a lot of investors are once bitten, twice shy when it comes to tech investments after the bursting of the dotcom bubble two decades ago.

However, they also know that from the heady days of money pouring in and then being sucked out again extremely fast, some companies not only pulled through to survive, but became giants in their own right and birthed new giants along the way. The Googles, Amazons and Ebays which enabled the Facebooks, Instagrams and all of the various service points that run between. Many investors are likely hoping to this time, wait until the hype clears out the trash and see what is going to pull through in a hope that they will be able to pick the coming giants.

There is going to be a great deal of speculation between but over time, the field will begin to narrow down to large projects that offer stability and the room to move and expand upon. This goes beyond just scalability of volume, it is also the ability to be able to build and integrate a diverse range of applications. For example, Groupon is one of the highest earning websites in the world but is unlikely to have been able to be so if Facebook and similar didn't provide a framework for it to propagate itself upon which in turn is made possible by all of the large companies that drove for internet adoption globally before it.

The hope is that Steem, SMTs and communities are going to be able to work in unison to provide possibility for those looking to improve their performance and get an edge over competitors to increase market share. Potentially, Steem could close both some gaps and barriers to entry into a highly competitive industry and offer a range of options for the smallest to the largest organisations to utilize in a variety of ways.

I say hope and potential because nothing is ever certain and there is a long way to go until the real possibilities of blockchains, cryptocurrencies and tokens will be realized. This isn't a short game although, there always tends to be a driving force to rush to get there. This is likely the impatience of human nature at work where we want what we want now, even though we know that the road in front is long, twisting and full of potholes.

No matter what anyone says and no matter how confidently, we are flying somewhat blind into the future as there is a lot of speculation on just what is going to work and what is not. If for example like was mentioned, SMTs do for Steem what ERC20 tokens did for Ethereum, going on current prices and supplies, Steem could be a hundred dollar coin. Is this possible? Yes. Is it likely? That is what the speculation is on, isn't it?

I have very little idea about the tech and just as little about the way markets work but, I am still learning along the way in the hope that what we have here will turn from potential into some form of reality where Steem is part of the future puzzle that will help empower blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies and availability for the masses to have a little more opportunity and freedom in the way they use ad potentially, live their lives.

It is all very uncertain about whether it will work and, how it will all come together but things do seem to be coming to a head in more ways than on the Steem blockchain. All kinds of tech projects as well as a whole host of financial mechanisms that will allow large companies, investment funds and of course individuals to invest into what will hopefully be the future of the internet in both the infrastructure and the content.

I think that the next year or two in this industry is going to set the tone for the next decade to follow. It is kind of exciting to not only witness but, have a chance to be a part of, even if it is only a minor role played.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]