A month ago, we were all flying high. The blockchain was rocking along and people were buying STEEM. The bear grabbed all of crypto including STEEM sending it to absurd levels. This initiated many of us buying to take advantage of the low prices. What a wonderful time to power up to increase our stake on the blockchain.
Then the bomb was set off. We found out that Steemit Inc was having financial issues. What a kick to the gut. Suddenly, fear gripped those who were previously optimistic. What was going to happen?
Since that time, things became clearer.
Hence, if you liked Steem a month ago, you should love Steem now.
Here is the bottom line.
- There are no problems today with Steemit Inc that were not present a month ago. The difference is we had no idea about them. Their financial difficulties were not shown to us unlike they are now. At the same time, we each had counterparty risk with Steemit although we were not aware of it.
Just because we were not attuned to the problems does not mean they did not exist.
- If you thought the community was an asset before, double it now. Whether it is people like @shredz7 or @fulltimegeek developing projects that will provide the blockchain with token creation or @blocktrades stepping up with the expertise to code the blockchain and proposing their services to @ned, we see the value that is here.
Many in the community are stepping up. Developers are focusing on ways to create projects that can fill some of the void that Steemit Inc would leave if it went away. Non-technical people starting posting articles expressing ideas about how to decentralize. In short, the community awoke to the idea that this is our blockchain.
Welcome to the age of anarchy and the ending of looking to big brother to take care of us.
One of the major concerns was the fact that Steemit Inc is running the master nodes. I will give them some credit, based upon their postings, the move to RocksDB looks promising. A major part of their survival strategy is to get the master nodes down to 4GB RAM.
Here is where Steemit Inc achieving their goal helps the community. If they get the RAM requirement down to that level, the cost they pay drops significantly. At the same time, since it is far less expensive for Steemit, it will also be that way for everyone else. Therefore, many applications will be able to set up their own master node if they prefer, further decentralizing the Steem ecosystem and becoming less dependent upon Steemit.
Steemit also is, based upon what they said, more concentrated upon their development responsibilities to the blockchain and going to exit the social media side. Organizations that streamline their focus along with expenses tend to become stronger.
Hence, in 90 or 120 days, we could see both a stronger Steemit Inc along with a community that is less dependent upon them. That would provide a double boost to the ecosystem.
The point is that, regardless of what happens to Steemit Inc, the blockchain will go forward because of the talents of the people on here. We already witnessed how powerful the community is and how quickly it can react. We are looking at basically three weeks since the announcement yet much advancement took place.
I would be remiss if I did not mention @reggaemuffin and the work being done behind the scenes for the community (hint: a witness vote is a great idea). It is another great example of what talent is stepping up on our behalf. One individual is looking to be a major force at bridging the gap between what Steemit does and the community.
All this put together makes me extremely optimistic about the future of Steem. I do hope Steemit Inc is able to pull it together since it can be an asset to the ecosystem. That said, if the community has to go it alone, it is good to see we are more than capable.
The entire Steem community got a wake up call and it responded. We will see a much different situation 6 months from now.
This entire process is only going to make us stronger.
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