Name a Scenario where Synereo could Steam-Roll Steemit?
As a new Steemian and also someone relatively new to cryptocurrency and decentralized social media offerings, I’ve noticed the buzz about Synereo and I’m trying to learn more about all of these topics. What better place to learn than Google, YouTube, and of course the Steemit community?
There are now plenty of articles about the — still vaporware — Synereo distributed social media platform that plans to debut its alpha release sometime during September 2016. Synereo LTD is the Israeli-registered, Tel-Aviv based company that is behind this fully-decentralized social media platform that promises to pay you for directing your attention in the Synereo economy. At ease soldier!
As a point of interest, coinmarketcap.com shows that Synereo’s AMP token has been up over 30% recently. And the Steem token used by the Steemit platform has recently been drifting down (to a low of well under $1 USD) from a high of over $4 in the middle of July 2016. Take that for what it’s worth, I’m sure there are plenty of plausible reasons.
There are a number of articles questioning and/or predicting the possible demise of centralized social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Reddit, and their possible dethroning by the new kids on the block, namely the likes of Steemit and, maybe-kind of-possibly-who knows: Synereo. But, as easy as it may be to dismiss the behemoth incumbant centralized platforms, it pays to recall an old quote from Samuel Clemens: “The report of my death was an exaggeration”.
So how do you see this all playing out? Will Synereo emerge fully-formed, ready to take on all comers old and new? Or, will its planned alpha release have its fair share of bugginess and slow user adoption? Will Steemit have to subsequently scramble to play catch-up, or is it already working on a new set of killer features to help it remain relevant or even distance itself from the competition?
Further, could a paradigm-shift from centralized to decentralized social media offerings, along with possibly too many flavors of each, cause users eyes to glaze over? I guess only time will tell. Below, I’ll share some of the links I’ve been reading. What are your thoughts and what have you been reading?
Comparison shopping
- My blog post on GitHub Repository Visualizations for Steem, Steemit, and Synereo
Some of the articles I’ve been reading …
Why on earth would I chose Synereo over Steemit? Synereo does not even exist!
Is Facebook About to Get ‘Myspaced’ by Next-Gen Social Media?
Move over Facebook. Synereo wants to decentralize social networks - and the world.
Steem vs Synereo, which one will lead the decentralized social media revolution?
Blockchain-powered Synereo Set to Challenge Facebook and Twitter.
Steemit and Ethereum Classic Fad Can Be Over As Newcomers Enter Scene.
Privacy and private messaging
Apparently, Steemit already supports a rudimentary private messaging exchange between Steemit users via sending of 0.001 SBD using your private/public posting key pair: Private messaging in Steemit is already here!
However, a more formal Steemit version of private messaging is currently in the works: Steemit Private Messages UI Design Concept - Desktop.
Synereo says it will guarantee your privacy and promises that it can’t store your personal info or track your history. It will ensure privacy by using local storage for all private messaging data. Synereo claims that all user data is encrypted and distributed among the nodes comprising the network.
Decentralized web applications
Synereo says that it enables web applications without any centralized servers. It further claims that it is completely decentralized and will reward those users who agree to donate computing power (i.e. a percentage of CPU usage) and storage space (i.e. a percentage of disk space for storage) in support of Synereo’s fully decentralized approach. It will also compensate users who agree to report usage statistics relating to the Synereo attention economy.
Steemit is essentially a centrally-managed web application that implements a social media platform sitting atop the Steem-based decentralized blockchain. So Steemit hosts centralized web servers that act as the gateway to the Steemit platform. Who’s in control of these centralized web servers and who thus has their finger on the kill switch? For example, how would a Steemit user be able to power-down if steemit.com became inaccessible?
Blockchain sharding
- What is Steemit’s answer to Synereo’s blockchain sharding approach? If I understand even the most basic, high-level concept of sharding, it’s that a non-sharded blockchain requires each network node to maintain a full copy of the blockchain. Whereas with a sharded approach, each node is only responsible for a smaller portion (i.e. a shard) of the entire blockchain. This approach supposedly facilitates scaling and true decentralization by allowing the full blockchain to be formed via the joining of the various shards.
More questions, there are always more questions …
If hundreds of millions of socialites are already comfortable with handing over some/most of their privacy rights and putting up with a barrage of advertisements in return for use of a centralized social media platform that provides no monetary compensation, whose to say how many of these users will be swayed into pulling up roots and moving to a completely new decentralized platform?
Will the lack of censorship combined with the permanence of blockchain-based content prove to be a double-edged sword, whereby many users will not want to be constantly subjected to feeds/streams containing many unsavory “uncensored” posts and may also be nervous about the eternal persistence of their own content (i.e. should you be posting content that you wouldn’t be proud to have your great-grandchildren read)?
How does the proposed Synereo AMP concept, which allows users to pay for the ability of a given post to penetrate farther into the Synereo P2P network, compare to a Steemit user’s ability to purchase Steem tokens and power them up?
INteresting. Wonder if its worth investing at the start and then pulling out once it gets popular. lol