Steem: Activity Is Changing Which Is Skewing Perception
The other day I wrote a post about how viewing Steem through the spectrum of the user and number of posts is a bit misleading. In it, I detailed how while we are down from the all time highs, the activity which was present, at that time, was due to spamming and flag wars. Certainly, this was not the totality and we did lose some very good bloggers. However, the overall numbers tell a worse story than what actually took place.
https://steemleo.com/steem/@taskmaster4450/why-the-user-and-posting-stats-are-somewhat-misleading
Almost simultaneously, @dalz put up an article that covered a different aspect of the blockchain that I feel is worthy of discussion.
In his post, he took a look at the blockchain activity. From this data he charted the different types of transactions we saw on Steem over the past 10 months.
There is a golden nugget in here that tells exactly what is taking place. Based upon this data, Steem is changing before our eyes. What started out as a blogging platform has transformed into something completely different. The posting activity is down yet it has been replaced, to a large degree by something else.
Notice the blue section of the chart. That cover the JSON transactions over the period of time. That has doubled from 200K transactions per day to 400K. It is a very telling statistic.
So What Is JSON?
I will use his definition that was taken from Wikipedia:
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an open-standard file format or data interchange format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and array data types (or any other serializable value). It is a very common data format, with a diverse range of applications, such as serving as replacement for XML in AJAX systems.
JSON is a language-independent data format. It was derived from JavaScript, but many modern programming languages include code to generate and parse JSON-format data. The official Internet media type for JSON is application/json. JSON filenames use the extension .json.
Basically, if I understand the process correctly, JSON commands can be transmitted to the blockchain. However, they are not coded for Steem, thus the blockchain essentially ignores them. They do have pertinent information that is now part of the ledger and cannot be changed.
Who Uses JSON?
On Steem, according to the article:
- Steem-Engine
- Splinterlands
- Tribes
- Next Colony
- Other new games such as Holybread
This is very interesting. The layer 2 solutions are the ones receiving all the activity. Naturally, this should come as no surprise as the popularity of the tribes and a couple of the games are really taking off. This has made up for some of the decline in other activities.
A bit part of the reduction is in the number of votes being cast. This, too, makes a great deal of sense as the blockchain was cleaned up. There were a lot of "spammy" posts that were getting some upvotes. Those are now removed from the equation.
Is This A Good Thing?
That depends upon one's perspective.
Steem is getting away from, to some degree, the concept of being a blogging platform. I think this was something that most foresaw. There are still a handful of people who are trying to maintain that original concept yet, I feel, that Steemit.com was meant only to be the first of many applications. The idea of the blockchain was to allow anyone to build upon it.
I think one positive we can take away is the JSON arena is a much bigger market than blogging. The types of projects that are using it tend to be in sectors that are enormous. For example, gaming is a gigantic industry. In the United States alone it is more than $20 billion a year in revenues. That surpasses the NFL. Steem-engine shows the value of exchanges which, as we know, can have huge volumes.
Where Do We Go From Here?
That is the beauty of open and decentralized. We honestly do not know. It is up to the community to decide what is developed and what the users prefer. If we see a big advancement in gaming, that could end up being the majority of the activity on Steem. Of course, if something like 3speak becomes a viable alternative to YouTube (a goal of @theycallmedan according to his interviews), then we could see content creation and commenting accounting for a significant portion of the activity.
No matter the path the platform takes, I can say that we will have more users in the future and the developers will keep bringing out new projects. Over the past two years, in spite of the bear, we witnessed the release of a lot of new applications while also seeing the existing ones expanding. This is what I consider the compounding factor of Steem. Over time, it all just keeps building upon itself.
These are the variables that I utilize when I am judging what is taking place. A lot of the other factors only tell part of the story unless researched deeper.
Time will tell how it all will turn out yet I am confident in the direction of things.
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The comments are always abysmally low. I wonder what it would take to get more people to comment. I appreciate the votes I get, but I get the feeling that many of them come in automatically. A lot of the votes I give are via curation trails, but then I try to check out some afterwards and leave comments.
I sometimes wonder if anyone bothers to read my posts. Really though, I ULOG which is basically an online diary, so it's fine that it just sits there. I did write articles in the past, but I didn't market them to a wider audience than the Steem Blockchain, so I felt like my efforts were... useless.
I still love my blog though, I like the idea of my words being recorded on a blockchain.
Posted via Steemleo
Comments, for the most part, around the Internet are low. You get a few big hitters on YouTube that get a ton (or things like songs). But look at Medium and see the number of comments. Check out ESPN too.
Very few comments overall.
Posted via Steemleo
Time to get guest commenting working if you truly want to open up the commenting ... so people can interact from people all over the internet not just from within the small steem community. SteemPeak was working on that but is presently doing community interface but then will get back to that.
Love that idea!
My mantra has long been that STEEM is becoming more than a one trick pony. A look.at @dalz' graph seems to be making that point.
You could probably separate out @nextcolony JSONS and it would be more than comments.... my NC account is run by a bot, have a scroll down this...
https://steemd.com/@revisesociology
I'm not the only one either!
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JSON activities probably show how far we can go with STEEM blockchain. Layer 2 solutions are what the industry will be focusing on this year being it Bitcoin, Ethereum or EOS.
@taskmaster4450 I am glad to see Steem grow beyond just being a blogging platform. I do hope that there will soon be a decentralized version of youtube/twitch built on the Steem platform, one which actually is able to store the content indefinitely unlike Dtube is currently doing.
In my opinion, Steem Inc. should consider approaching major game developers (ie. Blizzard, etc.) to see if they would be interested to develop a major MMO or card game on the blockchain, with all rewards and items having access to a Steem marketplace where players can trade safely.
For transcoding services (converting files to be viewed on different kinds of devices), it may be wise for the video/streaming app developers on Steem to cooperate with Livepeer.org.
Another great sector of app development on Steem is the decentralized marketplace (ie. eBay, eBid, etc.). This one is a lot trickier due to the regulations and laws involved, but could be very profitable if properly executed and managed. Cybermiles.io is already doing this on their own blockchain (CMT).
Just throwing some ideas.
3Speak already does that. It is still in beta but it stores the videos on IPFS and SIA (if memory serves me correct).
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yeah, people may not be posting as much but they are still participating on the Blockchain by playing games.
Me! I blog a lot less, but I play Splinterlands, drugwars, and now HolyBread. It super entertaining for me...
Posted via Steemleo
I recently started playing HolyBread.
For a non gamer, it is easy and enjoyable.
Posted via Steemleo
Perhaps what we're experiencing here is a gradual shift from blogging to simply content, and content is an exceptionally wide notion. But "content" is still a very visible use of a blockchain... as opposed to the many whose uses are strictly background technical.
And I think that's important, in order to help blockchain/cryptocurrencies move from the realm of strictly "nerd games" (like the early Internet was only for academics and nerdy developers) to being something for everyday people.
Posted via Steemleo
I dont disagree at all. The path the platform takes is still using the platform. If 3speak is believed, video will become a bigger part going forward. Gaming is already picking up so we can expect that to continue.
Blogging will always have a place here, it just might not be the biggest chunk of activity.
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Well presented. I gave you a downvote on the last post for shitty proofreading/quality. Here's an upvote for this one.
Thanks I will be more careful in the future.
Gotta love those avtivities.
I loved steem when it become a gaming platform. A social media is also good.
Interesting article-- thank you for sharing! I got here in 2017 when it was booming and like you mentioned, it was a blogging platform for original content which was exactly what I was here for so it was great. It started changing and I found myself and my friends starting to pull away and put our efforts elsewhere as some bugs started to surface with bots and fake accounts.
I've always been highly optimistic about the future of Steem however and have recently just returned to see how things are going and spend some time here with the community I'd missed while away.
I'm very curious now that you mention this what shall come!
Congratulations @taskmaster4450!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
Really superb article... I for one am great for this down time that has been allowing our culture to shift priorities and establish some new depth to everything we're capable of on Steem. When prices were high it was very short sighted and tunnel vision... which didn't seem to allow us to make our roots deep. Then when the crypto storm came through it basically had too much damage. Now we're hopefully aiming toward a more solid foundation that isn't built on just one thing like rewards for blogging.
Also of note is that all admin tasks for communities are also done with JSON. So the JSON number is likely gonna go way up.