The start of the rest: We take Steem forward

Day one of presentations has kicked off with @roelandp taking the stage in a flaming ensemble (flames are so hot right now) and welcoming all attendees to SteemFest3.

There is a full line-up of presentations ahead and a lot if information to come and it was good to listen to what @ned has to say about how sees the immediate future of Steem.

When asked about the biggest innovations in the blockchain industry he broke it down to 3 points, Bitcoin which introduced sovereign value, Ethereum that brought the ability to raise capital, and Steem which brings distribution of value to the sphere.

This distribution layer is what will be able to take the other two components and connect them to the greater marketplace, but it requires channels in order to connect value to people's lives. This becomes the core focus for the next 1-2 years according to @ned.

As I have said earlier, Steemit.com is not going to be a focus for the future and it was confirmed as now being in "maintenance mode". This is a good approach as it forces front end innovation and will slowly push user reliance across to the applications.

Applications are going to be the real distributors of the future and the way users can adopt and embrace a future of blockchain and crypto. This has been mentioned many times before of course by myself and others but people really should start taking the opportunity of applications seriously, this includes the devs in their UI and UX design. The goal is to close and reduce as many gaps and steps in experience to lower the barrier of entry for consumers.

@aggroed's presentation that followed went on to show how they are part of reducing barriers. One of the benefits of phasing out steemit.com is that it reduces the focus on the need to be a blogger which means a greater inclusion rate as not everyone is a writer.

The application layers to come, which throws @ned's own Destiny project into the competition pool, means that there is going to be increasing experimentation across decentralized teams to find the right blend for the targeted audience. In time, this will create not only much smoother onboarding but a much more compelling and valuable consumer experience.

As @aggroed said, at this point the best thing for users to do is to build. Build apps, communities, networks and of course relationships. @techslut in her @utopian-io presentation mentioned more of the same and repeated something often said, money is not everything, community is.

@llfarms is on stage now talking about curation projects on behalf of @curie but has mentioned the others like @c-squared and @ocd. Don't wait for them to find you, find them.

In my opinion, no community can find and include everyone, but every individual can find, create and be a valuable part of one. The future of Steem is communities tied to applications that distribute and a large part of that is the willingness of individuals to take the initiative and play and learn to work out what works for them.

We are all part of this and even though we have individual voices, together we can make a lot of noise.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
_{(posted from phone)}