Happy Face ^^^
In the beginning there was Ethereum, the father. Ethereum created The DAO, the son that was created in its own image. Alas, the son was a troublemaker. The holy spirit of Vitalik Buterin tried with all his might to save both the father and the son, but the blow was dealt and the damage was done. The son was lost, at least for some time.
Background
On a more serious note, you may all know that the blockchain crowdfunding DApp on Ethereum, The DAO, was hacked a while back. It is a sad and harsh lesson to blockchain newcomers, and serves as a warning that blockchain platforms are risky, and there's no free lunch. I wrote a comment on this myself;
https://steemit.com/crypto-news/@spectral/ethereum-you-need-to-let-thedao-sink
where my clear advice to the Ethereum community was to please let The DAO fail, so that no harm would come to Ethereum, a project that I truly love and have supported from the beginning. I am really excited about the potential of the technology, especially in terms of trying out new things. As Ethereum is a very general purpose platform, its main strength will surely lie in prototyping and development, at least for the time being. But also, intricate uses of advanced modules that may be used by other projects, could quickly gain steam (no pun intended)
DAO
So what is a DAO, and where does the term originate?
To answer that, I would return to the roots of BitShares in 2013, when founder Dan Larimer was going on about what he called the Decentralized Autonomous Corporation. It was a really hard-to-grasp idea at the time, but thanks to my brother @clains, who has been an active member of the BitShares-community since the dawn of time, I spent enough effort reading about it and discussing it, that it began to dawn on me what this thing was really about and how revolutionary it is.
In Norwegian we have a proverb that goes "A Beloved Child Has Many Names". That is certainly true for the DAC:
Decentralized Autonomous Corporation
Decentralized Autonomous Company
Decentralized Autonomous Organization
Decentralized Autonomous Societies
Decentralized Autonomous Foundation
Decentralized Autonomous Application
The combinations are endless. But they really describe the same thing.
(just maybe except for the DApp, which is a layer 2 construction, not itself part of the blockchain protocol. Ethereum, being a general purpose construction, layer 2 stuff does what would otherwise be done on layer 1)
Us early 21st century humans are trying to squeeze future technology into the terminology of the past. It really represents something completely new. Is it an organization or a company? It has aspects from both. A company in terms of the capitalistic nature of blockchain platforms. An organization in terms of the community-focused and democratic aspects of the blockchain platforms. In essence it is the same thing.
So in my mind, The DAO from 2016, is actually the first manifestation of Dan Larimer's DAC from 2013, that has gained steam (pun intended).
So! What does all of this have to do with STEEM?
Well, I'd say that it has everything to do with STEEM.
A cryptocurrency veteran I know asked me the other day (We've previously been discussing DPOS2, BitShares, Dan Larimer, and he has always had an interest in these projects)
Him: So tell me, what is this STEEM all about?
Me: It's actually made by Dan Larimer, like BitShares.
Him: So, it's like BitShares 3.0?
Me: Well, yes and no. No, because it's kind of something completely new, with a different purpose. It is meant to be a media platform, while BitShares is an exchange. Yes, because it's built on the basis of Graphene, although it has evolved significantly and has some fundamental differences. But in spirit, absolutely, STEEM could be seen as BitShares 3.0
Him: So, how is it going this time around? How is STEEM doing?
Me: Well, it's higher than BitShares already after a couple of months!
Him (excited): Really!!? So Dan Larimer really DID IT this time around?
Me: Yep. This time something clicked. It's bringing in users from outside the traditional cryptocurrency sphere (not unlike Ethereum). And I believe it will be so good that it's gonna pull BitShares up with it. Maybe even trigger a new Bitcoin Bull Run!
Him: Wow. You really think so?
We went on to talk about how his cryptocurrency project (nothing to disclose yet) could benefit from STEEM, and how we (@bitspace) could maybe build something together with him for STEEM. But that will be a post for another time.
The magic ingredient for the real DAC/DAO
In this race of Giants, building a successful DAC has been a long and taxing journey, and all of us that have followed the BitShares community for some time, know that that is the case. For that reason we are oh so happy to see it finally break through! Dan Larimer's ancient idea of the Decentralized Autonomous Corporation is finally becoming a reality. Although one could argue that BitShares has been and will be a successful DAC in its own right, there is no denying that STEEM is in the middle of a major breakthrough.
Maybe @ned was the final magic ingredient that was needed to cook up an instance of George's Marvellous Medicine. Fact is that this time it is for real. And it seems to be the first actual, working, real DAO, and it's quickly growing to take over the world!
Thank you, Ned Scott and Dan Larimer, for bringing us the real DAO!