This article by @rasamuel is part of a creative blockchain investigation series. Learn more about the #dappexplorer project here.
Musing the Blockchain
Over the last few days I've had the opportunity to try out musing.io, a DApp built on the Steem blockchain, and here is my experience. Disclaimer - All opinions expressed here are mine and not Sndbox's.
I should first begin by saying that I haven't really been the most avid Steemian at trying out Steem DApps; this not because of any apathy on my part, but because I really haven't had the need to. During my early days on steemit I focused mainly on writing and lately I had focused on curating. Now, however, thanks to @sndbox, I was pushed to give the app musing.io a try. And it was/is a terrific experience.
What is Musing.io
Musing.io is an app on the Steem blockchain built for the main purpose of asking and answering questions. The internet is an avalanche of information, and this avalanche might be confusing to users Sifting through it vast reaches to find a single piece of information might be a cause of headache for some.
Thanks to search engines and their indexes, however, it is possible to have a platform dedicated mainly to asking and answering simple questions in a very direct manner, generating an experience which is very different from being thrown into a pool of information as it was in the early days of the internet. A few companies and individuals had taken advantage of this, and built thriving websites worth billions of dollars, the most popular of which is Quora.
Musing.io can simply be regarded as the Quora of the steem blockchain, hoping to reward users who engage in asking and answering these questions--thereby generating the content that drives traffic--in a way that traditional websites like Quora doesn't.
WEBSITE AND U.I
First thing I noticed when I entered musing.io was their lovely website, colorful enough to be attractive but not too colorful to be shabby, with a compact and elegant user interface. I must admit I also came to the realization that I wasn't as tech savvy as I thought, seeing as it took me a while to realize where the tab to ask a question was, and that you had to click a question to be able to answer it. But all these are trivial, of course, and once I got underway, the joy I got from musing.io knew no bound. I became addicted after the first upvote.
PROS AND CONS
A platform like musing.io has so much advantages, and such a huge potential that it would be really hard to write them all. We all know how esoteric and a bit ambiguous steemit.com -- and the Steem blockchain as a whole -- can appear to new users. Having a platform like musing.io, where the main business is to ask and answer questions, might be just the way to solve that problem.
Also in light of the recent Velocity Hard Fork (HF 20) it's obvious that the blockchain has gotten even more esoteric, but Steemians on musing.io are already hot on the case. Among the questions one finds on musing at the moment are;
- What is HF 20?
- what are the effects of HF 20?
- What are RCs and Vote Mana?
- How do you think the future of steem will be affected by the latest Hard Fork etc.
A NEW FORM OF ENGAGEMENT
Not everyone is a traditional blogger or vlogger. The beauty of the Steem blockchain is its numerous DApps that seek to encourage and reward interactions on different spheres of human endeavor. The human mind will always be a curious one. And it is an absolute beauty when something fundamental to human nature gets rewarded. Imagine getting paid for sleeping, or breathing. Well this is basically just the same. By simply asking questions, you get rewarded. By sharing your knowledge you also get rewarded. Engagement on the platform goes up and everyone wins. Thus another one of the reasons musing.io is a valuable addition to the blockchain.
The platform is, of course, still in its infancy. And there are still a few tweaks here and there. The most concerning aspect might be the fact that at the moment the questions aren't as diversified and thought-provoking as they could be, even though the answers are all pretty advanced and sophisticated. A reason for this might be the low incentive on asking good questions. But all these are nothing that can't be fixed. And with a solid team lead by @jonching, I believe the future of musing.io is a bright one.
MORE SUBJECTIVE ADVANTAGES
Personally, as a writer, musing.io provides a platform where I can amass informations and caery out research on topics pertinent to my writing. Information is of course of utmost importance to a writer, and I'd like to see more questions and interactions on creative writing. Also as I've found that interacting with the questions and trying to provide an answer is a really effective means of intellectual stimulation. Taking a seemingly innocuous piece of interrogation and seeing your mind run with it; seeing the places it takes you and how well you deal with tackling it really comes in handy in stimualting creativity for a writer, because what is creativity anyway but taking a piece of observation and turning it into a finished work of art. And you get rewarded for it! The best icing on the cake.
CONCLUSION
Musing.io is another example of the brilliant capabilities of the Steem blockchain. It is a highly addictive platform that has the ability to improve the quality of the blockchain and drive up engagement while providing rewards for hard working Steemians.
This post was authored by @rasamuel, a member of the sndbox incubator. Learn more, follow @rasamuel or begin a conversation in the comment section below.
Empower artists, writers, musicians, non-profits and community initiatives - delegate Steem Power to @sndbox (using the links below) or follow our curation trail. Learn more about Sndbox - watch our introduction, here.
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://sndbox.blog/musing-io-get-rewarded-for-your-curiosity/