I got a comment a little while back comparing Steem to Facebook and the like and one of the points was that Facebook's success was because it was perfect for development as a small and very centralized startup.
Well, it isn't small, nor is it a startup anymore.
The argument is that due to the nature of Steem being decentralized, it isn't great for development, but what I tried (likely unsuccessfully) to explain is that while Steem is not great to develop, Steem the blockchain is fantastic to develop upon, especially once the owned communities, the SMTs and the various tools to build with get brought online.
So, while I was looking for a way to visualize this, I remembered something that I vaguely knew once upon a time and then searched for it as I think it is a pretty good visualization of Steem's potential.
This is the largest organism in the world:
Actually, it is not, it is a group of birch trees around the corner from my home, but it represents the largest organism in the world, an Aspen in Utah named, "Pando"
Pando occupies 43 hectares (106 acres) and is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000,000 kilograms (6,600 short tons), making it the heaviest known organism. The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms.
Now, all of these trees are actually suckers off the one root system and all have an identical DNA. The individual stems come and go with the average age being around 130 years, but all are part of the whole, all connected, all hooked into the below-ground infrastructure. think that this is a pretty good representation when we visualize Steem as the root system below ground that serve as the veins and feeds what is above.
Where Steem shifts from the one organism visualization substantially though, is that while the stems of Pando all have the same DNA, the tokenized stems of Steem will be bound to, but can operate in fundamentally different ways than the root system that enables it.
The Stems of Steem are independent, start off small and, are centralized.
While the root and energy transfer systems of Steem draws upon the many stakeholders who live in different conditions and climates due to the sheer spread of the roots, the Stems are able to operate locally, personally and with granularity to best take advantage of the conditions they can create. Each Steem stem will be able to decide for themselves where and how they will grow and how they themselves will adapt to survive because while the Pando offshoots are bound, the Steem growth is able to make their own space in an endless digital field.
Some will be successful, some will not, but the death of one doesn't endanger the whole, but the success of another improves the whole. With Steem being a largely indifferent content delivery platform, the range of possibility of what will be created is near internet endless.
Normally I use a city as the visual for Steem because it works for me, but perhaps this will work better for others. What I do think though is that many people get stuck in the current conditions of Steem without recognizing that it can change relatively quickly and enormously. Comparing it to Facebook might not be overly fair but what needs to be remembered is that Facebook started as FaceMash, a Hot-or-Not comparison site.
I think that if the blockchain is developed in a way that creates stability and security with the technology and stability and security of the economy through active and dedicated investors, ownership of content and community, independent experience tokenization and the ability to transfer around the world in three seconds for free provides a lot of root system to build upon.
Just some Friday night thoughts.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]