After my post yesterday, I received a number of messages on Discord asking if I would leave Steem over Hard Fork 21.
To start, in spite of some of the attacks levied against me (one extremely personal), I would not leave Steem over a disagreement. Do I believe EIP is going to be the magical formula it is being sold as? Not by a long-shot. I think the idea that people are going to change their behavior to toe the line does not make sense to me. Those who are manipulating the system are going to figure out a way to keep doing so.
That aside, there is something that I always promoted about Steem. Many like to attack this blockchain like it is unique. What is being experienced on here is not uncommon in this industry. The ones who regularly attack Steem are the ones who do not look at what is taking place on other chains. Ignore pricing action and hype, instead looking at what is truly taking place.
Regardless of what comes down with Hard Fork 21, there are two things that Steem has over most other blockchains.
Fast AND Free
This is so valuable. Ethereum is neither fast nor free. Same with Bitcoin. EOS is mega-fast but it is not free. With the introduction of MIRA, there is a chance that the cost to operate this blockchains goes DOWN over time. That is mind-boggling.
We are one day away from the supposed announcement relating to MEOS. June 1 is the day that EOS will be making a lot known and introducing Steemit 2.0 (I still do not know what that means). We all know there was a great deal of hype surrounding it and I give Dan credited for doing a terrific job of garnering interest.
The question is what is it going to be? I read someone on here (I wish I could remember who it was) who said, with EOS, buy the hype and sell the news. In other words, the reality is not going to match the hype.
I can agree with this.
The truth is that it takes a lot more than a better algorithm to make a successful social network. Now I am sure Dan learned a lot from his previous ventures and will look to improve upon it. He could have wonderful things that he introducing. Yet to think this is going to be a success overnight is a bit presumptuous.
MEOS might end up being a fine platform. There is no reason to believe there won't be multiple social networking platforms that succeed. I am sure there will be.
Yet, as we learned on Steem, it takes time for people to get involved. Human tendency to switch what they are doing, is often slow. When we look at the entire cryptocurrency space, it is still very small. This means that MEOS will have many of the same problems as Steem.
For example, is MEOS instantly going to make cryptocurrency easy for people? The average person does not know how to handle keys and are accustomed to getting a new password when things are lost. In crypto, that is not the case.
Are they going to immediately overcome the stigma associated with cryptocurrency that the media pounded into people's heads over the last two years? We all know from talking to friends and family that people look at us strange when we bring it up. Why does anyone believe it will be any different over there?
Another point, as I tried to drive home over the past year plus, the distribution of Steem is in line with what else is out there. While that might not be consoling to some, the fact is we do have a situation that is changing. Steem is only three years old. Over that time, there were a ton more Orcas, Dolphins, and Minnows created.
EOS decided to address the distribution problem by having a year long ICO. The result was 10 wallets holding almost 50% of the tokens. The entire idea behind the ICO was to not fall prey to what happened to other blockchains. Unfortunately for most, this is exactly what happened.
The great part about Steem is we can have our differences. I am against Hard Fork 21 in spite of what some are proclaiming. I made that point perfectly clear. Some are optimistic about the change in behavior and we will see how it unfolds. The good thing is the metrics will be obvious in the first 90 days.
There is, however, an even more basic point to the question of would I leave Steem and this, in my view, pertains to everywhere?
Where are you (or I) going to go?
We are in the early stages of cryptocurrency/blockchain and to believe that we are unique in our problems is completely false. In fact, the stuff be debate about on here is minor compared to what other chains are going through.
Consider the Ethereum world and trying to figure out how to increase the speed of the network. Can you envision the fights about whether to keep POW or go POS? Bitcoin seems to be good for a fork every few months (they are about due for one). EOS, for all the money and hype, started off with governance issues, questions about immutability and decentralization, and a run up in the price of RAM.
So am I still optimistic about Steem even if I don't get my way with the Hard Fork?
Absolutely. You cannot beat Fast AND Free. This is one of the major things that separates this blockchain from most of what else is out there.
I am not one to hope against something working just so I can be "right" on the Internet and type "see I told you so". In spite of my reservations, I do hope whatever form the next Hard Fork takes, it is a raging success. Even if it is not, Steem is strong enough to weather whatever happens.
There is another advantage Steem has. We are ranked number 62 in market cap and nobody on the outside gives a sh*t about us. Contrary to what everyone thinks, that is a major advantage for a start up implementing new protocols and technology.
Basically, if we f**k everything up, other than ourselves, few are going to notice. Sure, Dan might tweet some more stuff about Steemit Inc. but, at the end of the day, few will care. Compare that with EOS where every hiccup is national, crypto news.
So we have the advantage we can stumble, fumble, and jump into all the alligator pits we can find. As long as we keep trudging along, we have the ability to keep moving on the forward path.
We adjust and adapt. I have the pic at the end of my post that says "Vision 2025". This is a long-term view. Nothing is going to be set in a year or two. Bull or bear, matters little. Steem is not going to zero and it will be a blockchain that is around for years to come.
One final thought: whatever is introduced by Block One is going to be open source. That means that the code is out there for any developer to look at. It could be something that he comes up with that can be implemented in Steem.
None of this is the end of the world nor Steem.
Steem is here to say.
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