The broadcast was so valuable that I thought it would do it justice to recount the points that were made. Perhaps you don't have two hours two listen attentively and take notes. I hope that reviewing the discussion items and responses may help your understanding of Steemit, crypto and blockchain in general.
As for the panel, this 2-part series may serve as minutes of the event.
During the MSP-Waves Broadcast, we counted an average of 75 listeners, with as many as 150 unique listeners tuning in. It was worthwhile.
But first, from a MSP-Waves Operations perspective, a big thank you to the panel members who came on the air for checking in with Operations for a sound check.
Thank you also to the listeners that came on the air with live questions.
A big thank you also to the ops team for keeping the wheels oiled during the broadcast.
Subjects discussed
A loose transcript in chronological order as it was aired:
Spike of SBD
@blocktrades stating that SBD supply is limited and, even though it may be easy to push the price up because of it, it's not as easy to push the price down.
A higher SBD is good for the content creators on Steemit. Potential downside is the use of SBD as internal currency.
@lukestokes reminded us that a spike happened back in May 2017, when SBD reached $20.00 - and it is a temp spike. He highlighted that user education is essential to achieve the optimum gain and not losing out.
@jesta suggested to implement a solution to protect Steemit users,
@andrarchy mentioned that Luke nailed the downside, which is the Convert SDB to STEEM function, which will result in a loss compared to trading a high valued SBD on the open market, which could achieve a profit/gain. He stressed that user education is most important.
I traded less than 20 SBD yesterday with @r0nd0n's help for @disarrangedJane and got a return of over 100 STEEEM for Jane!
Convert Steem Back to SBD
@aggroed raised this question: Holding SBD is a good thing. Should there be an option to convert Steem to SBD from within the wallet, just as we can convert SBD to Steem?
@timcliff has been somewhat involved in such conversation, as have @blocktrades and others on the panel. This is indeed one of the main ideas on the table. Converting STEEM to SBD could solve the lack of supply issue of SBD. A definite advantage of an SBD price spike translates directly into additional demand for STEEM, as people would want to purchase Steem to convert to SBD - though also asking if this is a big enough problem to devote resources to it at this time.
Tim would be in favor of implementing a reverse conversion and doesn't think it would be a big undertaking from a implementation point of view - but priorities lie elsewhere just now.
Wat will Steemit bring to the platform?
@andrarchy No surprises for insiders. All resources are focused on SMT (Smart Media Tokens), HardFork 20 and making creating a blockchain account the easiest and safest way in the world via Busy.org for the purpose of allowing developers to onboard any user via their Steemit applications as rapidly as possible. (wow, that was a mouthful, paraphrased though)
We are tasked with creating the best Open Source tools for integration for integrating in a blockchain protocol.
Priorities are really high-level such as Scalability - that's huge! more so than SBD - but we are, as a company, focusing on core customer concerns.
What is the panel's vision for the Steem Eco System?
@aggroed asks: Where else should we take this, what else should we be working on? How can we grow this?
Aggroed's next main focus is our Radio Station MSP-Waves, which we are turning into a broadcast network and try to get alternative media growing organically of the Steemit Eco System.
@elear: Steemit front end - the face of Steemit. As a front end developer - front end doesn't look finalized. He believes, as a Social Media Network Platform, which Steemit is, the front end should have much more importance and much more work should go into it, especially for content discovery. Leading utopian.io, he receives ample of feedback, suggestions and complaints about front end functionality. While a lot of work is being done on the Steemit blockchain, the Steemit front end requires serious attention. The problem, @elear tells us, is the database, which is the foundation for search, sort and retrieve functions. Finding content via the front end is currently an issue that needs attention.
@aggoed added: Content creation, search features and the view on condenser. Inspired by the night-view option, if this is possible, we should be able to offer lots of other skins. Aggroed voiced the idea of having a Steemit Skin contests...
@elear launched a condenser design contest, which he looks to revive.
@timcliff's responses to a post for a suggestions for the community roadmap. A few key points emerged:
signup process to grow Steemit user
communities features, addressing many steemians not getting noticed.
Trending page to be improved - landing page would show the most active content instead of highest value posts.
"People land on Steemit first. They should be landing somewhere else first, because the blockchain is a lot bigger than Steemit."
"We are talking about the signup creation process. Users should land on a kind-of on a Steem creation...process, which might be what we are gonna get with SteemConnect changes, coming soon. But, I think, instead of just dumping users into Steemit, the solution is to 'dump them' into something else that follows them through everything that's powered by Steem."
He continues: "I don't know that this belief that STEEM is Steemit and Steemit should be the focus makes a lot of sense."
@jesta has been pushing for a lot of changes that allow for different kind of content. He works on ChainBB. His main point is that STEEM can be a lot bigger than Steemit. There can be other platforms, like utopian.io, like ChainBB, even eSteem and Busy.org can move off and offer aggregated content in their own ways. We have so much content, and there should be more than just one website.
@lukestokes: One of my visions as ... witnesses education... there is so much information. I have been here a year and a half and I am still learning every day.
One of the challenges: Huge information asymmetry between those who understand what's going on and have been here a long time, and those who want to understand but... there's just too much... Even Steemit, the company, wants to see multiple interfaces and it benefits all of us to get on board. Whatever the solution, it needs to be understood and considered, this is different than anything else I have ever experienced...This is a blockchain.... Here is STEEM - the Hub, with multiple interfaces, and here are even the resources to make your own...
@pharesim added: It's the official standpoint of Steemit Inc. that Steemit is just a proof of concept, as @Sneak said it should just be good enough. We should focus more on what kind of platforms we'd want and create them than what Steemit should be.
@aggroed: The thinks don't have to be competitions but can well be cooperatitions - all these sides add a touch point to bring people into the eco sytem, so less than a competition, it's a compilation of tools to bring people into the blockchain.
@jesta: An opportunity for people to use whatever platform they choose just like BTC, where people can participate regardless of wallet, OS, site used. You can trade the value - and it's the same with STEEM, except, it's content and messages. We can communicate regardless of the platform used... Nothing like this has really ever existed before.
Another think that we, as a community need to focus on is STEEM as a currency. We have been talking about STEEM as a content platform. But there is an entire other side to it, too......as far as how STEEM has zero transaction fees, three seconds confirmation time.
We are processing more transactions than any other blockchain and we're doing it fast, unlike some of the other blockchains that are currently reaching some technical limitations in transactions. We're chuggin' along. We're still processing and we can easily do more.
Getting the word out there how STEEM is a currency is amazing, is very important for us to do as well, because there are tokens that are worth more than STEEM - that their only function is to transfer financial value. There's no content platform on it and we ever do that part better than those currencies.
When we are sitting here with a currency that are worth more... and on top of it, you have all the content aspects of it... I think we have a real value proposition as far as what makes the currency great...
Another thing that I think we should be focused on more, and I am interested to hear from other people on the panel as far as how to make this happen is: How do we get STEEM accepted as a form of payment in more places...? Buying a cup of coffee for example.
@aggroed asked @blocktades on his view on more ways to get STEEM accepted in commerce.
@blocktrades: A difficult problem to solve. Many crypto currencies have tried to solve this issue to become a real payment system. I don't think there is any easy or immediate solution. One thing that could really help is as we here have a direct route to fiat currencies.
@aggored: What is the biggest challenge going from Crypto to fiat and back? Just regulation, or technical hurdle?
@blocktrades: Just regulation. No - not technical. I could do it in a couple of weeks if there weren't regulations involved.
@aggroed: Are there alternative ways, maybe not directly into fiat, as it wold go into buying and selling currency, but are there other ways that we can use the platform?
@blocktrades: There've been some efforts in this direction already. There's been... a peer hub comes to mind. It's one thing like that. I am not sure if people are familiar with that: There is a site were you could put up things for sale and they're purchasable with STEEM, SBD. More of that, if there is enough concerted effort... A part of that also comes in to growing the user base of STEEM itself...* The more people you have on the platform the more realistic it is to expect it to actually work as a normal currency.
"Morpheus, are you telling me that one day I can dodge bullets? And Morpheus says back: No Neo. I am telling you: One day you won't have to,"
My thought here is: Are you telling me that one day I can convert into US Dollars? And my hope would be: No, one day you won't have to go do that!. If I have to pay a mortgage, I rather go and pay it in STEEM than in US Dollars.
@blocktrades: Crypto currencies was created as a concept to replace things like US Dollars.
@andrarchy: Once you no longer have to is probably about when you be able to convert it into fiat, effectively. If it becomes so valuable that once can buy a lot of stuff with it, then... legitimate vendors would want to get in on it. Like Bitcoin and Overstock...they were early adopters, and at some point, there is just going to be so much money he made by accepting BTC that they will do it...and that will be the point when there are other options that are now competing with the mainstream outlets. I do not think that STEEM won't convert to fiat, and I don't think that we will see a point were people are going: I never need to convert it to US Dollars, because there are just so many great options to purchase with just STEEM... It's gonna be both. That's my prediction. It might be years.
@aggroed: Commerce plays a big role. Sometimes.there is even a negative business mindset on the platform. I keep thinking: We want more investors to come in here. We want people to wanting to hold STEEM. One of the best ways to do that is to engage in more commerce.
What are other avenues to brining STEEM into more businesses?
@lukestokes: on the commerce side: I have been running a business for 10 year, and we have been trying hard to get vendors since 2013. And with thousands of stores, they're just not interested to sing up with WiPay or CoinBase in order to accept BTC. Until customers are beating down their door, saying: I will pay you money right now if you accept this! And that happens when they want AmazonPay or PayPal. But when it comes to Crypto currency, there weren't enough people, especially in 2013, who were willing to do that. And we all heard, now with STEAM the gaming platform dropped it as a payment option because it is just too expensive and it takes too long. There has to be this mass-adoption of currencies and the customers themselves have to drive that to the merchants.
What about shopping carts, do we have open source shopping carts?
A vendor, could just with a click, implement that into their WP sites so they could start accepting STEEM as a payment model?
@lukstokes: I was that working at the hack-a-thon at STEEMFEST. There is a platform that supports STEEM... Just the tooling isn't the limitation...
@agroed: It's certainly one of them. This get's back to one of the reasons why @elaear is on the panel - to try to make it so that we have somebody that can help with development of open source tools. He has got a community of open source developers. One of the thoughts that might come out of this is: If we want to see STEEM embedded in more places we need more tools dedicated to allowing that to happen.
@jesta: I think it is a balance between supply and demand at this point. The effort it will take to build world-class e-commerce tools for STEEM is rather high and the demand is rather low.
@andrarchy: If you combine what @jesta said with what Luke just said, you have the right picture. Luke is 100 percent right. It does not make sense to develop.... on tools that nobody is going to use. And the first step is to go back what Dan said, or @blocktrades, the key is the number of people who have the currency. That's what we're focused on. We'e focused on
growing Steemit
so as to maximize the number of people who integrate with the STEEM blockchain though that interface and then we're focused on
SMTs, which is a way of infecting the internet...through a Trojan Horse.
One of the ways you can look at SMTs is that they're a Trojan Horse for the STEEM blockchain. They make it so much easier and so much more valuable to integrate with the blockchain that it should become irresistable to developers. They will integrate with the STEEM blockchain.
Sign in, create many, many, many accounts, and all of these accounts will also be... STEEM power, when they participate in the eco system. And once you have millions and millions of people, which, based on our current growth rate is highly probable, that's when you start developing the tools. And you wait till just the right moment, as @jesta said, because the longer you wait, the more tools are available to you to launch the product faster. Otherwise you are using worse tools that are more expensive and more difficult to create the right product.
@elear: It's not just about creating tools. There are many ways to add value to these currencies. One of the ways could be using it as a real currency in the commerce space... and these kind of tools. Another way could be to use the currencies to create jobs. That's what I am trying to achieve in Utopian in the very long run. This is the main niche. If you think about it: As an investor you could just buy STEEM and reward people without having to pay anything. And on top of that, you're earning something, and you are also having a profit thanks to the curation rewards. I think this concept is really important... It's crazy... I am experiencing this with Utopian, I can reward people for their work just by up-voting them. Of course, you need very big voting power. But, when we talk about investors, this could be a good way to bring big investors into the platform by creating a platform for jobs. My platform is very specific for open source... and the concept would work beyond open source development work.
aggroed: If there were easier ways to get beneficiaries built into the platform at an interface level, when I post, I have a default, and I can choose from several defaults, who I want the beneficiaries to be, that would be pretty awesome. I also saw @rhondak posting in the general chat room here... She is currently employing people directly using the currency, not just using the upvotes, but using the currency.
I have used things like Fiverr and Freelancer.. I don't know if Crypto versions of Fiverr and Freelancer exist. Things that don't require any shipped goods like digital pieces such as music, art or movies, or labor, when somebody is drawing or writing or who know what. Having that outlet as a way to take my currency and give it to someone else to get work done... More ways we can engage will help us, too.
We just need more commerce happening. Because more commerce that happens here will drag people in and as we drag people in more people would want the currency. That will push the price up and actually make it less expensive for us to purchase all the things that we want.
@jesta: That's exactly the kind of stuff I am talking about. I am trying to say: It's bigger than Steemit. We can have all of those platforms, creating a bigger economy for the currency itself.
@andrarchy: Facilitating applications like that is exactly what we're trying to do with SMTs. This is exactly what we should be working on. Specific applications dedicated to that... It's solving all our problems. As opposed to* trying to have Steemit be the solution to all* niche problems that are incredibly valuable. What we are designing SMTs to do is:
You are a developer who's thinking about this it will enable you to generate even more revenue, capture more profits more rapidly. Because you can do things like allocate founders tokens to yourself. You're about to commit all this labor into this application that leverages the STEEM blockchain, we want to give you the tools that are better going to enable you to reward yourself more rapidly. Because, this shouldn't be about charity. Developers should be able to integrate the STEEM blockchain and make it profitable for themselves. That's what we're trying to do with SMTs. But I agree 100% with everything that has been said.
This forum has done to Crypto Education what @aggroed's and @isaria's Peace Academy do for achieving Peace, Abundance and Liberty in our ever growing Minnowsupport community.
Thanks @aggroed for spear heading these discussions and involving the community and** MSP-Waves** listeners so effectively.
An new Steem Panel Discussion will air December 13th and the next Steem Growth Forum going live Dec 27th.
Make sure to let @aggroed and the MSP Leadership team know what you like to hear discussed by the esteemed panel of Steemit movers and shakers.
@r0nd0n's help for @disarrangedJane and got a return of over 100 STEEEM for Jane!
@blocktades on his view on more ways to get STEEM accepted in commerce.
