One of the primary ways to size up a blockchain is to determine the community that is forming around it. Naturally, this involves the applications being created by developers. Ethereum obviously is doing very well in this area as is EOS. Another is to look at how motivated the other members of the ecosystem are.
On Steem, we have a sensational group of developers. This is evidenced by the applications that are being churned out on a regular basis. Between the back-end applications which are used for different monitoring/statistics about the blockchain and the front-end ones that allow people to interact, we are seeing some amazing stuff.
That said, Steem is not without problems. There are challenges which are continually being worked on. The development team along with the Witnesses are tasked with doing what they can to move forward. This is something that I believe all parties take seriously.
Of course, we all know there was a recent snafu with the Hard Fork. While things did eventually settle down and the benefits of the fork were realized, there were some unintended consequences which still require attention.
One of the main aspects of HF20 was the creation of the Resource Credits. This is something that provides Steem with a more sustainable system going forward. It also provides businesses entering the Steem ecosystem with a way to budget for the different activities it is seeking to conduct on the blockchain.
The drawback to all of this is that smaller accounts were affected to the point where some cannot conduct much activity. This is caused by not having enough SP to operate.
One of the goals of HF20 was to give more than just steemit.com the ability to sign up users. That was completed. The challenges is that accounts which are created using this method have no SP associated with them unless the application decides to delegate SP.
It is my understanding that nothing changed with the sign up process through Steemit. Any account created there will be delegated 15 SP like always. If accounts go inactive or is found to be spamming, Steemit will remove their delegation.
One of the impressive things about the Steem ecosystem is that if there is a problem, someone is going to work on a solution. Oftentimes, there are many people who take on the challenge.
The situation is being tended to, if my understanding is correct, by the Steemit team. It appears there is code being written which will allow Resource Credits to be delegated. How this will look and operate remains to be seen. Nevertheless, this group is working on a solution.
That does not mean it is the only solution being offered up. Yesterday, I saw a post by @gtg which offers up another solution. This is not a coding one nor it is done by the community but, rather, an individual taking it upon oneself to fill a void.
Basically, @gtg is going to delegate SP to "worthy" candidates in an effort to get their accounts up to 50SP. This should be enough to conduct activities which will earn some SP, thus powering up the account.
I mention a "worthy" candidate because there are some hoops to jump through before the delegation is offered. It is not overly complicated yet does require some action. The goal is to make it tough enough to eliminate bots/spammers while also finding those who are truly going to be active with the SP.
This post here lists everything one needs to know about what is being offered.
If you know of someone who is interested in being highly active but runs up against RC limitations, perhaps guide him or her to this post.
On a larger this scale, this tells a much bigger story. Here is an example of a Steemian taking matters on individually. The goal is to solve, or at lease alleviate, a problem. It is the stepping up by the members that makes an ecosystem strong.
Presently, we are in a development stage with many of the coders bringing out terrific applications. That said, the rest of us assist in the process by testing things out and chipping in wherever we are able to. We all have talents even if most of us aren't adept at writing code. The ecosystem will eventually need all of us to flourish.
I found when one commits to the growth of Steem, the opportunities to contribute simply appear. There is a lot to do here and many projects that need assistance. Sometimes, like with the Resource Credit, situations arise which necessitate larger actions. Hence, we see a solution being offered up, at least until a permanent fix is in place.
Another situation that I wanted to highlight was the problem of having to enter a private key in each time you want to utilize an application. This is putting a great deal of trust in Steemit, not only to not steal keys but also not to get hacked. This is a risk of any centralized site.
These are the thoughts mentioned by @yabapmatt. He is one of the developers of @steemmonsters. Here again, he decided to do something about it.
Without going into all the details, himself, along with @aggroed, decided to fund the creation of a new way to access sites using Metamask browser extension.
Now, using the Steem Keychain Chrome Browser Extension, applications can be accessed using this extension, thus negating the need for Steemconnect. This better protects one's keys.
Here is a short video showing the flexibility of the extension and how easy it is to use.
Full post explaining the extension and a future road map.
https://busy.org/@yabapmatt/hate-putting-private-keys-into-websites-introducing-steem-keychain
To add extension to browser.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/steem-keychain/lkcjlnjfpbikmcmbachjpdbijejflpcm
Once again, we see a situation that bothered someone on the Steem blockchain who had the ability to come up with a solution. I suggest everyone read @yabapmatt's full post to get a full understanding of what was done.
This is the power of the Steem blockchain. It is not only the technical specs but also the people who committed themselves to it. As we move forward and grow, we are comforted in knowing that challenges will be met head on by members of the community.
In the end, Steemians solving problems is a powerful force as evidenced by these two examples.
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