[Steemhunt] Steemhunt as witness

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Hi, @jayplayco here.
@steemhunt made an announcement last Monday that they will start a witness node. Witnesses are not only important because they are running nodes but also have immense influence within, and if they want, outside of Steem.

0. Repository

https://github.com/Steemhunt/web

1. Where is Steem?

One of the main reasons I like Steem as a blockchain is because of the possibilities it has after the release of SMT. I am personally keeping a close eye on relevant SMT projects and especially the ones who can have a direct impact outside of Steem.

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Source: Blocktivity.info 2018.10.12

So let's have a look into blocktivity.info. We can see here that @dan was quite successful to co-create three of the most active blockchains ever.

BTS(Bitshares) has a great AVI(Activity Valuation Index) of 1,271 but as a DEX (decentralized exchange) not directly interesting for me personally.
EOS is of course also attractive as it allows already to create coins with smart contracts. AVI is also 62, so the market cap has still some room.
BTC (Bitcoin) is the index, and the CUI(Capacity Utilization Index) is almost at max with 90%
ETH (Ethereum) has an AVI of only 5, and the biggest issue here is that the CUI is already at 100%

Activity Valuation Index - set Bitcoins market cap number of transactions as an index to "1". A higher number means a low market cap but more activity than Bitcoin. Source: Blockivity.info

Capacity Utilization Index - represents the blockchain usage and remaining available capacity. Source: Blockivity.info

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Source: Blockivity.info

So what about Steem? We have a very active blockchain and except BTS the highest AVI of 660. We as Steemians are using Steem and co-creating one of the most active blockchains on this planet. Having a CUI of only 0.07%, there is plenty of room of capacity and the low market cap compared to Bitcoin (AVI) gives Steem also the possibility to grow a lot in value.

With the launch of SMT, Steem will have the ability like Ethereum or EOS to create own Token economies, which is a massive advantage for service providers. Not every single service needs a separate and own blockchain, but a functional and stable one to dock on easily.

2. Witness of Steem

An article from @teamsteem is an excellent overview to get a feeling what a witness of Steem is doing. The excerpt below from "What Are Steem Witnesses And Why You Should Support Them!"@teamsteem gives an insight on what the primary job of a witness is.

What Witnesses Do!

Maintain their witness node up (Make sure it's running 24/7.)

Maintain their price feed, APR, and registration fee up-to-date (Less important for a backup witness.)

Maintain Steem full nodes

Update their witness node (Only if they agree with the proposed hardfork.)

Review the Steem code and new proposed hardfork changes if able (Github)

Support the creation of new Steem Apps (Code and financial support.)

Debate the proposed hard forks and every Steem rules new or old

Informed and help the community (Posting, commenting, Steem Chat and Steemspeak.com)

Outreach (Marketing, networking, etc.)

Do what every Steemians do (Upvote, post, comment)

An interesting difference between Steem witnesses and as an example EOS's Block Producers or Tron's Super Representatives is that there are less company based witnesses. The reason why this may be important is, that of the outreach possibilities they have compared to individuals.

3. Steemhunt as witness

Steemhunt has mentioned two specific activities in their announcement on which they will concentrate, besides their basic responsibilities.

1. Get companies involved with the Steem token economy at a global level
2. Drive the blockchain to be scalable and user-friendly for Steem D'apps.

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Source: Steemhunt.com

Steemhunt is preparing a whole economy based on Hunt tokens. "Review Hunt" and "Idea Hunt" are exiting platforms for companies to laser target their customers and reach the needed influencers. "Idea Hunt" is going to be a Kickstarter on steroids, as the first buyers on the platform are the hunters from Steemhunt buying products with Hunt tokens.

Steemhunt has surpassed the MAU(monthly active user) of 70K which is an incredible number for a blockchain project. But to compete with competitors like Kickstarter, the user number needs to be increased massively.

Number of total and repeat Kickstarter project backers
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Source: www.statista.com

Kickstarter had already in 2014 more than five million backers (not users) and 1.6 million repeat backers. Kickstarter started in 2009, so the number at their start would be much smaller. But to reach a measurable number of backers at "Idea Hunt," the total MAU would need to increase to a much higher level. Steemhunt will only be able to reach this goal with an easier onboarding of users, as it is common on non-blockchain platforms.

Steemhunt is already working on a scalable new user sign-up and on-boarding interface directly via Steem D'apps. With this new user sign-up, it will be possible to convert incoming traffic to Steem app users. Also, a significant part would be creating a funnel to transfer these users between different Steem D'apps.

3. Conclusion

I found my way to Steem when I was looking for articles about different kind of crypto projects. The SEO power of Steemit Inc. is quite strong, but it took me another six months to convert me into a Steemian because I always stopped during the sign-up process. A much easier process for incoming traffic to onboard on the Steem blockchain and also content related to the mass (as Steemhunt is providing) is essential to get Steem out of the niche. Steem is an excellent place for the public to interact, but they don`t know, and it is currently too difficult for them to onboard now. So let's change it together as Steemians.

Vote for Steemhunt as a witness
or, go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses and look for @steemhunt to vote manually.

"Keep the hunt on"

Thanks for reading!