I'm not sure we know what Steem is capable of or the tradeoffs that are being made for scalability. We'll find out if Steem continues to grow.

Building a scalable blockchain is quite a claim. We'll see how scalable and decentralized Steem's blockchain is as more people look into the project.

There are tradeoffs with scalability. Systems scale more easily when they're more centralized. We'll see if those tradeoffs are worth it for Steem as more people take a closer look at this project. I imagine

Bitcoin can do more than financial transactions: To me, it's unclear if the non-financial transactions on Steem's blockchain need to be on a blockchain. The phone analogy doesn't work because it isn't

Perhaps transactions to certain contracts (dapps) would make sense for tracking success of Ethereum?

I like to see my Steem Dollars increase so I can convert them to BTC. Don't really care about Steem Power at this time. Still learning how everything works.

The transaction numbers in this post are misleading. Just made a new post explaining why here:

It doesn't make sense to me either.

@decrypt I get that aspect of it. The model here appears to be different than appcoins from the past, so I'll need to research/think about it more.

I'm not sure what level of decentralization is needed for the next wave of social networks, but we'll likely find out in the next few years.

Lightning Network makes Bitcoin transactions practically free: Simpler payment channels are already functional. This is the kind of stuff Yours Network is using.

@jbrukh not sure why i can't reply directly to your comment, so posting like this. zapchain and steemit have two completely different models (even when you take away the altcoin). zapchain isn't much different

The only thing a website like this needs is digital cash (maybe not even that), and bitcoin already provides that. The appcoin seems to add a layer of complexity and volatility that is not needed. Having

Why is a blockchain needed for this platform?

Payment channels enable what are essentially instant confirmations. The Lightning Network is a generalized network of payment channels that means anyone can transact with anyone else with instant

I think there may be value in something like Steemit. I'm just skeptical of the appcoin.

I'm aware of Bitshares, but I'm not sure how well their tech has been tested. Many altcoins make large claims about scaling and other issues, but we don't really know if they work until they're tested

Someone told me there is a limit on how much you can withdraw, which raises flags for me, but I still have to look into it on my own.

I would say yes. Ryan X Charles (formerly of Reddit) is working on Yours Network, which is similar to Steemit and uses Bitcoin.

I will probably write a post related to that after trying it out for a few weeks.