The Steepshot Series: Introducing the Instagram-like DApp (Episode 1)

Repository

https://github.com/Chainers/steepshot.io

A. Introduction

The Steem blockchain has really evolved since the time of its creation. From having just two condenser platforms - Steemit and Busy - the same blockchain has now grown to accommodate hundreds of new dApps, taking them under its shelter. There are the likes of Hede, Utopian, SteemSTEM, Steemhunt, 1ramp and several others that have been created on this blockchain. All of these have in one or more ways been of advantage to the blockchain, as well as to the community of users existing on it.

"The world is now online, live in it" is a great quote I remember reading somewhere. This is quite true of the Steem blockchain. Several dApps built around different topics and subject matter now grace the blockchain. We can now spend several hours on each one of these without feeling bored. Facebook achieved this feat with its platform. Then Instagram was built and thousands of users flocked to the picture sharing app.

The Steem blockchain comprises of dApps that are similar to these two. In this post, I'll be talking about an Instagram like dApp existing on the Steem blockchain - Steepshot. Here are the things I hope you'd be able to grab by the end of this article:

• A brief overview of the history of Steepshot as well as an understanding of what the platform is all about.
• A little comparison of Steepshot platform to its Instagram counterpart.
• The different Steepshot platforms vis-à-vis web, iOS and android)
• And finally, my thoughts about this project.

B. The Steepshot Project - Brief History

When I joined the Steemit platform early this year, I remember posting a few pictures through the Steepshot web platform. It was an easy and seamless process, even giving me the opportunity to use more than the stipulated 5 tags in my post. This simply shows that the Steepshot project has existed on the blockchain for a very long time. Let's see what we can dig out from the Steepshot official account.

Steepshot started out about 2 years ago, as we can see from the screenshot above. The first post made from the official Steepshot account was made back on the 5th of March 2018. The Steepshot project first began as an android Alpha test version and has since added other platforms to its ranks. Ever since then till now, this project has continued to undergo several changes as it treads the road to become a worthy contender with the popular Instagram app. Let's look at what the Steepshot app is all about.

C. The Steepshot project - What?

Steepshot is simply a platform built on the Steem blockchain with the aim of incentivizing its users for sharing their visuals and lifestyle experience to the rest of the world. That is to say that if you take pictures with your phone camera, and upload them to the Steem blockchain via Steepshot, you get rewarded for it. Simply login or create an account through any of the Steepshot platforms and begin posting away beautiful pictures with little or no write ups accompanying them.

Steepshot is now a home for all Instagram lovers. The best part of this is that unlike Instagram, you actually get incentives in the form of upvotes for posting your pictures via this platform. You also have the opportunity to use either the mobile platform (iOS and Android) or the web app to post your pictures. You might be wondering why you should leave Instagram to come blog on a virtually unknown blog. Well, in the next sub topic, we will compare both platforms and see if there is any tangible reason at all why you should join Steepshot.

D. Comparing Steepshot to Instagram

Instagram was founded back in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and ever since then, the photo sharing platform has grown to accommodate over 500 million users. However, the platform is now owned by Facebook Inc. who acquired it in 2012 for a whopping $1 billion. Well, there is a lot of money in the rollers here and Instagram is quite popular. Let's take a look at the Steepshot project.

Steepshot on the other hand was founded back in 2017 by Pavel Martyrov and is built on the Steem blockchain. It aims to incentivize users for posting their pictures via the Steepshot app. It is an open source application and a decentralized platform as well.

The similarities these two apps have is that they are both photo sharing apps. Also, they both carter for users of the web, android and iOS market. Also, both apps offer users ways of meeting and interacting with new people. Finally, users can comment on each other’s post, like and share to their followers/friends.

But what are the differences? While users can only like and share post on Instagram, likes and shares on Steepshot are called upvotes and resteems respectively. Both actions could bring about some measure of financial rewards for users of the platform. In simple terms, you don't get anything for using Instagram. However, you are rewarded financially for using Steepshot.

Another difference is that while the Steepshot platform is decentralized, Instagram is not. Therefore, your pictures could easily get deleted or removed from the Instagram platform by the powers that be, while on Steepshot, it is not so. I believe these are some of the advantages this platform has over Instagram.

In terms of features, Instagram might be in the lead but since Steepshot is a relatively new platform, we can't say it is doing so poorly yet. Hopefully, we will get to see some features of this photo sharing platform in another post and then we can judge which truly has more features.

E. The Different Steepshot Platforms (Web, Android and iOS)

One good thing Steepshot has been able to achieve is to create different platforms through which its growing number of users can access the application. For owners of devices running on the android operating system, Steepshot has been able to create a slick app that makes uploading pictures or carrying out other activities very easy. As an android user, all you need do is to visit the Google play store, search for the Steepshot app, download it, and login with your Steem details. If you are new to Steemit, there is also a button which when clicked upon, you can create a new Steemit account.

IOS users are not left out in this project as well. If you have an apple device and you are interested in being awarded financially for uploading your pictures online, simply visit your apple store. There, you can search for the Steepshot app, download it and when you have logged in or signed up accordingly, you can then begin posting your pictures to the Steem blockchain. If you are unable to find the app in either the Google play store or the iOS store, then all you need to do is to visit Steepshot.io. There, you would find links to the app on both stores. On this same platform, there is also another link that redirect users to the Steepshot web platform when clicked on. This is for laptop users like me, or those who prefer not to download an application to their phone.

Once you click on that link, you are redirected to the Steepshot web platform. There, you can also login or register to begin uploading pictures to the blockchain, or viewing and upvoting pictures uploaded by others. These three platforms are regularly updated by the Steepshot team with new features and functionalities.

F. My thoughts about this project

When I started using an android phone, I remember that it did not take me long before I signed up to Facebook. There, I began uploading my pictures almost on a daily basis. I got to learn about Instagram later and I visited the photo sharing platform to register. However, on getting to its homepage, I was put off by what I saw. For me, it looked too plain and boring so I decided not to register. I think it was just about 3 years ago that I finally registered on Instagram because I needed to apply for a job through it and I hardly use it till date.

On the other hand, the first day I came across Steepshot, I fell in love with it because to me, it had such a beautiful design. I really loved its look and so I posted about two pictures right away. The fact that I got some incentives for publishing my pictures even made it more interesting. However, at a time, due to work related activities, I went on a hiatus from using the app.

Truly, Steepshot is a wonderful app to use, I can tell you that for sure. The Steepshot official account is however low on Steem Power and is in need of a delegation pretty fast, else interest in it, especially from new users will wane very fast. I think apart from waiting for a delegation from @ned, Steepshot can take a cue from Actifit and begin an incentive related program for delegators to its account.

If this is properly set up and managed, more users would quickly flock to the platform, thereby pushing its standing among dApps to a higher level. In my next post in the Steepshot series, we will look at some other things like signing up and logging in on the Steepshot platforms and also some of the features of this amazing photo sharing platform.
Thank you so much for your time.

I remain your amazing dApps presenter, @curtwriter.

Resources

A. https://steemit.com/steepshot/@juanmiguelsalas/review-of-the-bot-for-telegram-of-the-steepshot-application-the-fastest-way-to-post-a-photo-on-steem-s-blockchain
B. https://www.biscuitsandbath.com/our-locations/park-avenue/instagram-logo-2/
C. Other pictures were screenshots from my device.

Series Backlinks

• This is the first post in this series