Blockchain technology is a highly disruptive one. This is because it has shown the capacity to change the way a lot of things work. From the finance systems around the world to how products and services are obtained and consumed. It cuts across a lot of industries including Health, Education, Logistics etc. In effect, it is a way of freedom.
However, I think we are our own problems. The early adopters. We might have overhyped blockchain technology far above the extent we have found it useful yet. Which can be frustrating when people come in only to discover it doesn't offer that smooth transition from what they're used to and it's not as effective yet. Sure, it has a lot of potentials, but what's the use of a new piece of techmology to me if it cannot do what i've always done before in a better way.
Cryptocurrencies are powerful. But a lot of people seem to only think about how much value they can attract and then immediately extract from the space. How much their stakes or coins are worth as opposed to how useful the technology is growing to become.
Exchanges? DPOS? POW? Private keys? TX hashes and code scripts? We do realize not everyone gets to be a geek right? And we do realize that the internet is made up of more people who just want to mind their businesses, make simple transactions or post pictures of their cats easily without having to worry about excessive liquidity or some blockchain mumbo-jumbo, right?
There's still a lot to work on, a lot to learn. We need Dapps and front-ends, products and services that can effectively copy or imitate some of these centralized ones in workability and use. Think Amazon and eBay, think social medias and community groups, think emails and other sharing services. What if we could just recreate the whole of Google on a platform such as Steem?
We don't have to always innovate things from scratch completely. If it works without problems, it sure as hell will work again. I think it's best to start off innovation by getting everyone on the same page first, then work our way to the real vision with time. So, more Dapps with human-readable features that can offer that smooth transition to the new technology, ease of use and effectiveness. And until these things fall in place, mainstream adoption will continue to stall.
We also might have to deal with the ICO mentality. Today, every project wants to develop a coin and sell those for money without trying to build a working MVP or a community around that product first. The result? Some of them cannot live up to the faith and expectations of investors and soon exit scam with the money. It hampers the growth of the technology and leads to so much distrust. What if new projects spend more time developing on their products first and getting a functional user database before asking for funds?
A few thoughts about Steem.
On Steem, we're extremely lucky to have a blockchain that's well beyond its time. We've been here for over 2 years and without major fixes or upgrades for a while (apart from HF20), even with that, Steem beats over 90% of the "new generation" shitty blockchains out there. It's now up to us to make it what we want it to be. To build an economy out of it.
I see a lot of potential and I'm happy to be a part of it. I might not have started with ninjamined coins, but I've worked fairly hard on here to earn a few stakes. But i am learning a lot so i can contribute meaningful things to the ecosystem and I'm willing to use a part of my stakes to support whatever brings "sustainable value" to Steem.
I like to think there are a lot of people who are willing to build as well.
Until then, can we all stop screaming When moon?
This was written off the top of my head.
Cheers, Pan.