HF20 Still Looking Good
It seems things are going better already on the steemit platform. A lot of the initial panic has subsided and despite some declaring this hardfork to be a total disaster, we're still here, posting as usual and seeing the actual VP and RC cost getting back to normal.
![Steemit-HF-small.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma9jTc6FmgXwZBpYswydYQtNPpH9SVy2Jnj1NoU61QGcT/Steemit-HF-small.jpg)
It was a minor shock, it has to be admitted, to see the Resource Credits drop to nearly 0% after making only 1 post after the hardfork a couple of days ago. If it weren't for the information I gained by listening to the discussions on Discord, and the witnesses active there constantly explaining what's happening, I think I would have stayed worried a lot longer. As it was, it was made clear very fast to me that this was all part of the transfer to a better way to calculate costs of interaction on the blockchain, and that the system would be re-balancing while VP and RC regenerate.
But it must be said that communication could have been done better: the impact this temporary halt on many users' ability to post, vote or even transact had on a majority of steemians is testament to that. And as a result of "the public" not being informed as well as they could have been, a lot of FUD has apparently been spread. As much as I don't like that, I can understand it very well. I realize also that it's easy for me to talk, but I know there's a lot of fellow steemians who are not so fortunate and depend on the small income they're able to generate on our beloved platform.
Also I've witnessed a strong sense of community during these past few days, and I want to stress that a lot of your witnesses are doing very good work, even if this hardfork could have been implemented so much better. In the @helpie Discord channel @meno and @crimsonclad were constantly giving extensive updates and repeated the same answers again and again as they kept coming in, and today our meeting was all about the hardfork. As far as the negative aspects are concerned, there was pretty much consensus on two major faults.
First point of criticism was that this hardfork tried to do too much at once. It's easy to judge with hindsight of course, but @meno explained very clearly why software development normally takes small steps, because any bugs can be fixed soon and easy that way; rather take multiple small steps than one large step. Second point was worded eloquently by @ancientknowled3, as he made clear that the lack of communication and the resulting unrest and FUD could very well have damaged the image of the platform. It is good to have these discussions as no one can claim that the implementation of this hardfork was a success.
From where I'm sitting though, things are looking good for the immediate to mid-term future. First let me show you the result of the latest patch as pointed out to me by @themarkymark. I made a screenshot on steemd.com before and after upvoting and commenting on a post:
![vote_and_comment.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaDwYyRVUSgRUzt6Gd6tMFup2VR5JK2FJgJTFXANhcHL8/vote_and_comment.jpg)
From 67.53% to 66.22% VP after a 100% upvote, and from 100% to 99.80% RC after a short comment.
As you can see, costs for interaction have dropped drastically already it seems. Now, this could go up and down a little still, as the blockchain is performing price-discovery while adjusting to people starting to use the platform in a more normal way again. That would be my advice also; start picking up your normal routine again, while keeping an eye on those two bars for the time being. But with RC costs as seen in the screenshot, even making small corrections to posts should be fairly painless again shortly :-) The main thing to realize is that in essence nothing major has changed, as there have always been costs attached to posting, commenting, voting and transacting on the blockchain, they were only named differently: "bandwidth" has been replaced by RC and many steemians have misinterpreted these Resource Credits as something new. It's not, it's just bandwidth calculated differently.
An important thing to understand is that it's necessary to make posts and comments costly to a degree: the blockchain would be bloated with spam, shit-posts and shit-comments, by bots and people coming for a quick profit, in no time if there weren't costs attached to it. No normal human being, as @helpie's @meno said during our meeting tonight, will complain if he or she isn't able to make 1000 comments per day. Bots would complain. Now it's just a matter of finding a balance, let real usage by steemians and re-balancing of the blockchain determine what's a reasonable amount of comments to make in what time frame, so we can combat the bots and spam-commenters without constraining humans in their ability to post and comment.
Another positive thing to remember is that when we've endured this little storm, we've also made the first steps to eventually implement SMT's in the first half of next year. The steem blockchain will then become the backbone upon which many DApps will run, comparable to what EOS is trying to do. The difference here is that steem has already proven to be able to handle that, with Steemit, DTube and Steem Monsters being a couple of examples. With DApps having their own tokens, running on the steem blockchain, price discovery will be more targeted and focused on specific content-types. Many of the current changes and the coming hardforks (yes, there will be more soon), are to make this possible.
It was sad for me to learn today how much unrest this hardfork has caused, and also surprised to be honest. I knew there would be some discontent aired, but not so much; I was lucky enough to be surrounded by knowledgeable people and hard working witnesses I guess. And I hope the screenshots can take away the worse of any concerns that may remain. I'm not saying everything will be smooth running from now on; I can't predict what'll happen. But I do say that the steemit community has once again showed it's resilience and flexibility. A lot has been learned by the way this hardfork went down, at least that's the feeling I get when listening to the witnesses in Discord. Some of them are really in it with their hearts and souls and do so much work to make the platform a better place for everyone.
If you haven't yet, I would like to invite you to vote for some of the witnesses you trust. A much overlooked feature is the possibility to let another steemian you trust do the voting for you. If you go to the witness voting page, all the way at the bottom, you can set a proxy; insert the username of a fellow steemian and you'll copy his or her witness-votes. If you're fairly new and / or don't know any witnesses yourself, this can be a good way to do your part to make sure we keep enough committed people working on the blockchain's future and growth.
Whatever you do though, make sure @helpie gets your vote! ;-) Also @themarkymark and @followbtcnews (@crimsonclad) were literally everywhere answering everyone's questions about the changes, and deserve every vote they get.
I thank you for your endurance and your visit to my blog :-) I will be back tomorrow and hope you will be too. Until then, keep steeming!
![wave-13 divider odrau steem](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU6tFLSzDEkxq3xneXTH74gx4vhqbcyurn9NbqxFj8jY5/wave-13.png)
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Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!
![wave-13 divider odrau steem](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU6tFLSzDEkxq3xneXTH74gx4vhqbcyurn9NbqxFj8jY5/wave-13.png)
Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:
Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO
![wave-13 divider odrau steem](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmU6tFLSzDEkxq3xneXTH74gx4vhqbcyurn9NbqxFj8jY5/wave-13.png)
@helpie is a WITNESS now! So please help @helpie help you by voting for us here!
![Helpie_01.png](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVNwKHPnjtaTaunEjoCr1fmyJzgwrrFNKCMYLCLcLWA4e/Helpie_01.png)
@ meno I am hoping for the best brother, I am posting again, RC at 100% sigh...... RC recharges quickly, but voting power never went above 76% and it recharge's very, very slowly. I never let it get low, but now I cannot get it any higher than 76% unless I stop voting completely............Thoughts????
So I will upvote you when it get's back up :) peace
but resteemed..........
I do not fully agree with your vision because if it was true intention to avoid spammers, there should be limited number of comments for everybody, not depending of account value.
In this way, who are planctons will never have the chance to grown and who have big account do not care about this change, let say Steemit is becoming a rich club and not a popular social...:((
Thanks so much for stopping and commenting @intellihandling, I appreciate that :-) However, you're not right and are a bit too early to declare Steemit a "rich man's club"; it's far from that. All accounts, big and small, have been reset to 0% after the hardfork and all had to wait for the VP and RC to regenerate to what it was before the HF. Now it's true that small accounts can take a bit longer before they're able to resume "business as usual", and we all agree that implementation could have gone better. But as it is, the adjustments are necessary to combat spam and prepare for SMT's; all goals we'll all benefit from.
I say give it a bit more time. Big curation projects estimated one week before they would resume doing what they used to do; give it that time at least and then make a judgement.
Hi winston. I am glad you mentioned the witnesses who have been helping in discord. They have been fantastic and it was great to know what has been going on and explaining things as well. I have a better understanding now and it was just good communication by them all the way through the hard fork.
I couldn't agree more.
Whilst communication could have been better, I'm not sure that would've alleviated the level of FUD I saw going on in some chat servers. And it didn't matter how much factual information was passed on, there was always some choosing to stick to the "end of the world" scenario. Whilst I could completely understand the frustration, not listening to what witnesses were spelling out and creating grand, intricate conspiracy theories was just fuelling the fires of angst.
And all the while, there were heaps of witnesses keeping us informed of what was going on. Every. Step. of the way! HUGE kudos out to them!!!
And now we move on. I'd be interested to see how many of the hotheads will follow through with their threats of leaving Steem for [allegedly] greener pastures on 'other' platforms. But the behaviour of the many has confirmed for me the vast difference between other social media platforms and the wider Steem community... and that is the presence of a community, differences of opinion, and all.
I would even say that the way these differences were conveyed were more in line of what a functioning, harmonious society is like. Robust and honest discussion, sharing of ideas, and working and supporting together towards a common purpose.
This episode has also demonstrated that the blockchain is in good hands. Problems are addressed immediately and implemented. Yes there have been things that could have been done differently, and the best thing is that just like any living organism, mistakes lead to changes and evolution, which lead to further growth and thrivability.
This has been naught but teething problems.
And Yay!! for @helpie - would love to be part of this community too. 😀
Thank you so much for such a beautiful and positive response @metametheus :-) I don't have anything to add here really. @meno already invited you to @helpie, so send him a DM in Discord, or contact @paintingangels on discord at paintingangels(serena)#3668.
I couldn't agree more with all you said, especially the remarks about the honest discussion between community members ;-) Thanks again and hope to see you back here soon, or in the Helpie Discord channel :-)
send me a dm on discord brother!
:)
@helpie is the best @meno is their jesus , he is the one who mans the door...
Well said ^^ 💙
Your post had been curated by the @buildawhale team and mentioned here:
https://steemit.com/curation/@buildawhale/buildawhale-curation-digest-10-02-18
Keep up the good work and original content, everyone appreciates it!
Thank you @nicnas! It's much appreciated :-)
You Are Very Welcome!!!
Also hoping it all be to the best... I guess it will take some time for us to start seen the good effects of HF20... Spam reduction, increasing new accounts and people boarding the platform more easy... And of course, steem value going up! :D
Hi @zyx066!
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