OpenSeed and OpenLink for Dummies

So several weeks back @andrarchy reached out to me and connected over Discord. This was around the time of Steemfest, however long ago that was. Went something like "Sup bro, I like your posts, maybe we can collab on some stuff sometime". I'm paraphrasing but that was the basic idea. I was down, as I'm generally interested in increasing my impact here on Steem and working on anything that I think will bring closer the glorious vision that I envision for this blockchain.

Over time we've chatted more and more, and the other day bro'ed out for hours on a voice call. I think we bonded. Anyway, the main topic of discussion has been the project you may or may not have heard of that he, @bflanagin and @brklyn8900 are working on, OpenSeed, also OpenLink.

So it really took me a while to wrap my head around what this project was about. Initially I thought it was basically creating widgets for Steem, which I thought would be great, but it's quite a bit more than that. So since I had a hard time understanding this project and I was in direct communication with the guys behind it, I figured it might be helpful to let you all know what I know in my own words.

So first off, let's relate this to something we're all familiar with. Steem. The relationship between OpenSeed and OpenLink is very much like the relationship between Steem and Steemit.

OpenSeed is an open source, cross platform database that can store whatever info you need including user info, all manner of different types of account info, digital asset info, whatever. All this information is safeguarded by strong encryption.

So similar to Steem, with OpenSeed, you'll have ready to go users, user settings, and a ton of other development assets that you can just tap into, without having to build all these things from the ground up. So if you're building something like this where does it make sense to start? Chat. That's where OpenLink comes in.

We all know that an integrated chat solution is sorely missing on Steem and considering that some of the most used apps are social in nature it's definitely something that has a high demand. Although talking to the team, the OpenLink roadmap goes a long way past basic chat. Some really exciting and innovative stuff is in the works.

Another aspect to why this is exciting and something you should care about is exactly the types of solutions OpenSeed would be able to provide. The general idea is to fill in the gaps with all that stuff that doesn't really work well to do "on chain". So basically a lot of the stuff that's totally standard on centralized platforms but is always missing on blockchain apps. OpenSeed wants to fill that gap and make it even easier for developers to get started by giving them tools and resources that will be ready to go right off the bat. Considering where we are in terms of the markets, where it looks like the crypto market has probably bottomed and the halvening is on the horizon, I think solutions that will make it easier for Steem applications to be developed and be more connected and cohesive are right on time.

The team has an SPS proposal that I voted for, I believe as soon as they launched it. Check it out and if it's something you'd like to see give it a vote.

https://steemproposals.com/proposal/64

I also want to emphasize that just like actual voting or with crowdfunding, every vote matters. I've worked in crowdfunding before and sometimes people disregard the $1 tier because they think it doesn't matter, it does. Those small contributions add up fast. Here what I'm talking about is smaller stakeholders. If you don't have much SP, your vote still matters, and if we want to see things get better around here we've all got to do what we can to push things in the direction we want to see.

Also want to take this moment to remind peeps that I have a witness proxy @theusersparty that is focused on supporting witnesses or proposals that I think will have a positive impact on the user experience on Steem. If you can't see yourself getting into the weeds of all the behind the scenes stuff happening on Steem, but still want to help, you can follow my witness proxy which for proposals just makes it to where you vote on what I vote on.