So last night I had an interview with @raci from the European Blockchain Center at IT University of Copenhagen. He's conducting a study to try and understand what Steem really is and how it's affecting users and society... And he had some really great questions, which really got me thinking about the true meaning of Steem. So I thought I would share with you my experiences as a moderately active member of this community.

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Key Points

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• Steemit is a Social Networking tool to me First

• A Media & Information Consumption tool Second

• And an Entertainment & Content Production tool Third.

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Introduction

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What is it that is seemingly drawing in some of the most interesting minds on the internet to Steemit?

Is it the stellar user interface with unlimited functionality, the incredible aesthetic appearance of the website itself, the super precise ways of searching for Steemit content within the platform, or the incredibly dynamic and riveting exchanges taking place on the Steemit “chat” application?

The answer to that question is absolutely none of the above.

Reddit and Discord probably do a better job at those than Steemit can.

When people are coming together around Steemit or some other front-end, they're not coming together around a traditional social media platform. Far. From. It.

They are coming together around an incredibly novel bit of software and technology.

The Steem Blockchain.

That's what people are really interacting through, and around. And it must be said, we still have absolutely no idea what might really come of it.

The Steem blockchain does not belong to any one group or entity, and anybody with a few Steem has a stake in this eco-system. A stake which they can grow considerably by having deep, profound and meaningful interactions with this technology and the other users on the network.

I contend that this "space", this network which is maintained by all of these witnesses and their nodes mining new blocks, is an eco-system in which we have only just begun seeing the true potential and benefits.

I'm already someone who fundamentally believes cryptocurrency has completely changed the game for ever. Light-years ahead of smart-phone, TV or game console tech, a blockchain is actually the most elegant technological invention that's occurred in my life.

For really only one simple reason: it essentially completely disintermediates large corporations and institutions from the role they play in serving our needs for platforms that enable and facilitate communication and all forms of socio-economic interaction and transaction.

It’s a trustless, peer-to-peer, free and open system.

Meaning: we can deal with each other as individuals, absolutely independent from any other corporation, if we choose to. Maybe we like Steemit and the Steemit corporation. Maybe we don't. Maybe we'd prefer Busy.org

Maybe we don't even interact with these front-ends. Maybe we want to use another one, and we have an idea that will allow us to build the best possible format to truly make the most out of the Steem blockchain... We probably have no idea what Steem will have enabled just a few years into the future.

The network is directly maintained and administered by representatives that the community chooses. The need for network operators that are not directly connected to the user-base is a thing of the past. Witnesses can be elevated and demoted at will depending on their performance. And the longer the blockchain runs, not only the more content it aggregates, but the deeper and richer the connections users of this technology can make with each other. The more value we can all get through each other's educational, insightful, informational, and other forms of contributions.

This is the Blockchain. This is our Community. This is our Virtual Space where we can Come Together and Accomplish Incredible Things.

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If we we’re to think of it in terms of energy, a blockchain is like spinning vortex. It draws information inputs in from all the users, processes it and redirects it through all of these channels and veins to be consumed by the community-body at large.

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The Steem blockchain is a Chakra.

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It's drawing in and condensing energy and emitting it back out in new forms and compositions.

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Steemit as a Networking Tool

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"Come for the Crypto. Stay for the People."

How many of you have heard this place's slogan? Here's my first main point: the fact that this technology is so novel is what makes its community so rich and diverse. And what makes the interactions on here so much more in-depth and valuable.

Sure, this place may not be as technical as a forum, because posts are not as easily accessible as forum threads... Yet, Steemit enables us to connect with other people engaged in the cryptocurrency space, and to get into contact with them directly via interactions on a blockchain.

When I upvote and comment on somebody else’s post, I’m directly interacting with their wallet, and everybody else’s who visits that post. We’re pooling resources together and allocating it according to the value we are seeing, creating further incentives for more novel inputs of information.

Somebody who’s just enjoyed a great personal victory, breaking into new territories of insight, making real progress and achieving real success in the world now has a financial and ideological incentive to share that information with the world, where it might benefit an untold amount of other people.

The fact that this blockchain is drawing in a rich and unique pool of diverse, global human beings who are really well-versed in a wide range of subjects matters and who are all interacting with society on a whole spectrum of angles; and most importantly, people who could not justify sharing their insight and material on traditional social media, because the format does not offer a suitable medium (Twitter doesn't allow depth, Facebook just steals all your content or hides it, etc.), now, these people have a platform where they can justify lengthier and deeper interactions with "the internet", by using their talents and skills and really doing the best and most passionate job they can. Because this kind of behavior can now be reasonably valued and remunerated by a self-funded community of wildly diverse individuals...

That's what the incentive system on this platform is bringing out of people... A belief in a novel type of hope, that we could actually sustain ourselves in life; in an economy that revolves around the circulation of thoughts and ideas, analysis and creativity, experience, authenticity, community...

This is what has up to now been previously unimaginable. Is this belief that an incredibly dynamic group of human beings, who would otherwise have absolutely no interest in connecting with one another, can now come together and deal with each other completely directly, with no other coercive environments like "an office" or some corporate or societal "institution" or platform, with all the consequences that entails...

Now we have a virtual space that brings us all together and allows us to learn from each other, share with each other, and grow together into something unique and brilliant.

Seriously, how can I not fail to understate the consequence of this technology? There are travelers, writers, developers, musicians, graphic designers, homesteaders, farmers, doctors, scientists, professors, media icons...

And they all have a place to come together, and start interacting and transacting with one other on this blockchain. They all have the possibility of pooling resources, ideas, know-how, suggestions, inputs from the entire community, and aggregating them here...

Seriously, is this technology not an elegant composition combining the greatest aspects of LinkedIn, Reddit, and Twitter, and mixing these together to create a space where in-depth, value-generating interactions can actually take place...

And we haven't even begun to see the true effects or potential of this kind of idea. Yet what is already become clear to me is that this kind of tool is going to be invaluable moving forward into the future, and I can imagine huge segments of society will never be able to imagine living life without these kinds of tools at their disposal.

I mean is it only me, or are there actually so many important relationships being forged here every day? Relationships that may one day sooner than we believe completely change our lives forever. This is the new form of social-power that Steem is harnessing. It can be as professional of a work tool for some as it can be a positive and fun distraction for others.

It has the ability to accommodate and suit a rich and diverse community that I truly believe no other platform remotely similar to it has really ever even had the prospects of entertaining and growing.

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The more we as users explore these infinite possibilities, and create success stories for ourselves and our fellow Steemians whom we interact with, the more grandiose and prosperous this tool will truly become, and in the process, I believe this will change the way we view these information technology tools in the long-run forever.

Instead of interacting with faceless and anonymous users over a whole host of other platforms, maybe YouTube or some other platform, with no clear incentive to do so, to make anything lasting out of it... Now we actually have a tool that respects us and our time. That values our input...

We have the possibility to actually pour all of our talents and dedication and passion on a free and open platform and make it available for others to benefit from, and in the process, pull our weight in society and even possibly thrive from finding a new means of contributing to our world in a direct way. This is our platform, and everyone has a voice on it. And with the right intentions and actions, that voice has the potential to garner other's attention, and amplify itself across the whole space...

Many of us will find this model completely blows all other models out of the water...

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Steem as a Media-Consumption Tool and Content-Production Tool

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Steem is a cryptocurrency with unique features that make it an ideal hub capable of attracting novel, unique, pertinent, cutting-edge, breaking-news type information. So it functions as an incredible catalyst for the aggregation and dissemination of timely information and prescient insight.

Yet beyond that, it also rewards displays and examples of creative thinking and creative ability. Creators can come on this platform, and share their creations with the community. The community can then decide how cool this work is, and incentivize it further by allocating it some Steem.

And most importantly, this space is capable of accommodating alt-media, news aggregation, analytical commenting, as well as more creative-type information... Or simply just interesting human beings with interesting personal stories and thoughts; and it brings them all together in an eco-system where they can co-create their content and collaborate on trying to create value for the community.

It’s an incredibly dynamic (though competition) and collaborative (through co-operation) community.

Steem completely obliterates our traditional model of social media.

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The obvious points of monetization of content, and its resistance to censorship are two points that cannot be neglected. Everybody can see the obvious benefit in these two points. But are there any other hidden benefits?

What about the aspect of making Steem a de-facto repository of human knowledge and experience… It’s a collective and decentralized ledger, which means it serves the purpose of a diary. We can keep record of virtually all forms of events and interactions and make them easily accessible to the rest of the world.

As an immutable ledger that records absolutely every single interaction with the blockchain, content can also be uploaded to this blockchain, which is an act of copyrighting on this network. So Steem is a publication tool, similar to a website, and the best is that the content belongs to whoever has the keys; no need to worry about content being stolen, it's here forever. Marked and dated.

Or let’s consider the fact that because big amounts of users’ money is invested in Steem, and those with the most Steem control the allocation of all new Steem, this fosters a culture of patronship. What does this mean? This means that the community can reward users who contribute novel, valuable and pertinent information, media, skills and talents.

In Other Words: This culture has some very interesting emergent properties.

And even though it must be stressful for many having their money in a project like Steem, we can't underestimate that the creation of these powerful incentives is really creating a previously never-seen-before internet community.

It's a platform that can pose problems to its community, and find truly innovative and practical means of solving them.

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Through my time here I've even come to notice how remarkable this community is at self-regulating and self-governing itself. Without the need for too much policing of others, yet a communal will to deincentivizing bad behavior, the community stays dynamically engaged and has a stake in reaching out to other users, and trying its best to educate them about this blockchain and this community, and the best ways to interact with it for maximum benefit; rather than merely ignoring the bad behaviors... This is leading to more compassion and empathy and broad-minded thinking, which are mostly unheard attributes of most big internet platforms... And that's exactly what this project needs if it is going to fulfill its promise and realize its potential, and completely change the way we see these technologies, and the future benefits they might bring to our lives.

This new kind of internet community... I believe is One that is capable of dreaming bigger, working more closely-together, and investing more time and effort in itself...

Personally, Steemit fixes about 80% of my problems with all other forms of social media. And that 80% is absolutely all of the structural problems related to the negative externalities I found with other social media. "Waste of time", "Addictive Dopamine Behavior", "Unproductive interactions with other users", a "Negative Culture of Trolling" and other negative environmental factors typically associated with other platform's formats.

This is the first free and open collaborative social media project that is trying to remedy problems from previous generations of social media, specifically by tackling structural issues with previous' platforms models... It is simply pure genius to focus on reallocation and re-appropriation of the incentive mechanisms, because these incentives really produce remarkable new forms of online behaviors...

I mean, in my own experience, Steem really allows me to come together with people I would otherwise never have any meaningful interactions with, look at their thought process, their research, their work and unique take on things, and then ten minutes later, be discussing those very ideas on a one-to-one basis.

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And this is all being incentivized... People for the first time in social-media recorded history really have no excuses for not coming together and making something truly fantastic out of it.

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In Conclusion

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I predict that we have yet to fully see how brilliant and exhilarating the possibilities are for Steem and everything that is going to be built on top of it. I think we really still have yet to see the ways that the power of Steem will be harnessed to accomplish truly previously unimaginable community projects.

It's like a quantum leap into a whole new paradigm of social organization, political action, and economic cooperation. It’s a decentralized platform that can bring humans from around the world together in a political socio-economic eco-system. It's a platform that can pose problems to its community, and find truly innovative and practical means of solving them.

The more we continue to contribute to this network, and the deeper and richer our involvement and commitment, the more this tool is going to open up doors for all of us.

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I wish new users to Steem would understand this. It's not about making a quick buck. No, we're in the process of creating something even more revolutionary than YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Soundcloud and LinkedIn COMBINED.

I might have made some contacts who I've gotten to know quite intimitely who live all around the globe, and I may very well come to meet them in real life, and work with them on all kinds of projects.

Why? Because we have the potential to create value, have fun, and live interesting and dynamic experiences.

One second I'll be flying to the Philipines and meeting a friend there, the next I'll be heading over to Canada, and so on... This community has the power to really open up the world to us... Like I said, the possibilities seem endless, and the culture is ripe for it... It's hungering for it... Everybody on here is waiting for the next big success story, the next big event that is showing everybody on here that the dream is real and it is possible.

I'm not a seer and I cannot accurately predict what may come from this Blockchain. But honestly, just thinking about it for a few minutes and my brain just goes crazy with ideas...

We could have Steem flashmobs, live-streaming Steemian spontaneous acts of creativity in novel forms of self and group expression... We could have Steem movie-showings... Playing it in theaters around the globe while it is being subsequently live-streamed, selling tickets in SBDs! We could have Steem food fairs, city-wide cookouts and block parties... We could have Steem auctions, Steem charities, Steem fundraisers, galas, live-performance recitals...

I still don't understand why people wouldn't even sell freelance services for Steem. Anything remotely productive or creative, I mean that is the power of Steem. Can work on advertising projects, product launch projects... The combinations and options really are as limitless as we truly want...

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And all of it is made realistically possible thanks to this novel piece of technology: The Steem Blockchain.

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IMP UNITY REVOLUTION

Peace and Love

Hae-Joo

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Pixabay: Code / Blockchain-Family / Connecting-With-Each-Other / Elegant-Innovation / Girl-Binary / People-Connecting / Social-Media Revolution / People-Networking