We go through phases where we see articles and Tweets about the next "Steemit Killer".
I am often perplexed by what they mean by this since there is a lot of confusion out there about Steemit. Most use the term when referring to the blockchain so are they really saying they are going to kill the Steem blockchain? That is not likely to happen.
I can only surmise they are referring to Steemit.com. This is the most heavily used interface on the Steem blockchain. The problem is that most of the Steemit-Killer crowd does not realize that there are others.
And this provides Steem with a distinct advantage.
There was an article in Hackernoon detailing the latest addition to this. SNAC is supposedly the next generation social media application and one that is going to take Steemit out. In the article they were even so kind to spell out the rise and fall of Steemit.
It detailed Steemit being the first one to create a social media platform that rewarded users and how many started thinking it would become the next Facebook.
The article also states this:
Just recently, it was reported that Steemit laid off 70% of its staff. Even though the company accuses bear market of the downfall, let’s just agree that it was because of boring UI/UX, lack of mobile application, absence of diverse content and very low compensation.
All if this is true. Steemit Inc did lay off 70% of its workforce in a reorganization. Of course, they were not the only ones to do this so I am not sure how this is really a major issue. In fact, if some research was done, it is easy to see that Steemit Inc is actually more productive since the lay off than before. My view is they accomplished a lot more for the blockchain since that time.
As for the interface, I whole-heartedly agree. For more than a year I wrote how the interface is something out of the 1990s and there were better options out there. I personally use Busy.org and Steempeak for most of my activity.
Nevertheless, here is the key. The fact that Steemit.com does not have a monopoly on interfaces is a good thing. While the article points out the boring interface and lack of mobile, that does not mean it does not exist on here.
The idea is distribute the power. Facebook is such a nightmare because it has so much control. The fact that there are other desktop interfaces on Steem make the ecosystem stronger. We also have esteem and partiko in the mobile arena.
Here again we see something very powerful overlooked. While Steemit.com has been ignored for a couple years by the developers, the other interfaces received plenty of attention. Just taking it from an idea perspective, there are multitudes of groups all over the world improving the interface experience on Steem. It is not relegated to one team like with SNAC.
Also, what happens if SNAC faces the same things as Steemit Inc? What if one of the founders gets indicted for something? Perhaps a regulator somewhere gets a hair up his or her ass and goes after the company. What if a massive DDOS attack takes place that lasts for days? There are hundreds of things that can happen to an individual, centralized entity.
With Steem, we do not have that problem. Problems at Steemit Inc, at the interface level, do not affect the ecosystem. The other teams are progressing along regardless of what that company does.
As for the diverse content, that is up to the user base. No interface alters the content put up. All of them on Steem allow people to indulge whatever area is of interest. The fact that the content is not consider diverse is, first, an opinion and, secondly, a reflection of the community.
The same holds true for the "low payouts". Compared to what? What is the barometer? And when? Compared to what Facebook and Twitter pay, the payouts here are high. The blockchain puts out over 800K STEEM a week in rewards (roughly $300K in USD now).
What people are missing is that Steemit.com is becoming a smaller part of the entire ecosystem. This is something that shows the expansion and growth of this ecosystem. The evolution is moving it away from the original design. Steem is no longer a blogging platform. In fact, the content creation idea is starting to drift back a bit. We are seeing other applications showing up that use the blockchain for different purposes.
Looking at the State of the DApps, of the Steem apps in the Top 20, half (5) are not blogging applications. Their interacting with the blockchain is for other purposes.
Perhaps SNAC will be a widely successful endeavor. I have no idea. That said, if their intent is just to go after Steemit.com, then I think they are barking up the wrong tree. In my mind, Steemit is becoming less relevant as an interface as times goes by. It was the first application on Steem and had 100% of the users at one time. Since that point, it is steadily heading downward as activity is spread among more applications. I see this continuing into the future.
Here is the article.
https://hackernoon.com/snac-a-steemit-killer-3581d878211
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Picture from article linked.
