Let me be clear from the start: I do not want to bash steem(it). We all use steem(it) and thus are all biased to love it. I’m a quite new member and after two months there becomes a pattern in reoccurring issues that I notice. IMHO the future of steem depends on how these issues will be handled in the future as well as when they will be handled. Let's dig in, what are the issues.
Just an obligatory image to draw attention to this article, an issue in itself
Limited decentralization
As @vortac told me once. It’s not perfect but it’s the most decentralized social media I know of. He is correct. But will that be enough? As time passes by I start to notice that the development of the blockchain is fully centralized around steemit. Steemit is a private company and thus will take decisions that fit their (profit) needs best. Those needs are not necessarily equal to what we as a community think the platform needs. I see several signs of this centralization of power. Source code is opensource but under the control of steemit as I understand it. Capital and voting power is also largely centralized. The top 10 accounts own about 60% of all value, expand that to the top 20 and that only increases to 65%. I think it would be naïve to think those accounts belong to distinct people. And they surely are in close contact with each other, they control the future of the platform. I have no issues with this. To me it’s perfectly fine that big investors control their investment. But one should be aware of it.
Voting
The voting system has improved but to me is still lacking. I find it illogical that voting power is related only to steem power. Steem power is something one can buy. Think of the fake news fuzz lately. How hard would it be to spread fake news here and let it appear in the trending section? Just throw some money at it to have it done. Some good friend with money can make you, some bad enemy with money can break you. Regardless of the content of what you post. Reputation on the platform is not related at all but would be a much better metric. Again, I agree that investors should have a say in the future of the platform. But also being this influential on the content again centralizes power and opens up to abuse. Pick your enemies carefully.
Illegal content
Illegal content might become a big issue if the platform grows. At the moment the platform is probably too small and the type of copyright infringements do not cost enough to the industry. But I think the whitepaper minimizes the reality. I’m no law expert but if content in the blockchain is deemed illegal that probably would mean the complete chain is deemed illegal. Since this is a public network it wouldn’t be too hard to get a hold of all witnesses and force them to shut down or move. We have seen many examples in the past of P2P networks falling apart though the same excuse was used to claim they are solid. Can a witness host an illegal blockchain from a country that doesn’t intervene? I know I wouldn’t want to bet on it. Might the day come illegal movies are hosted on the blockchain similar to the way they are posted on usenet? I don’t think looking the other way is the solution here.
Censorship
From the whitepaper
Steem is a decentralized network that is operated by witnesses in jurisdictions around the world. All user actions are publicly recorded on the blockchain, and can be publicly verified. This means that there is no single entity that can censor content that is valued by STEEM holders. Individual websites such as steemit.com may censor content on their particular site, but content published on the blockchain is inherently broadcast traffic and mirrors all around the world may continue to make it available.
Also section 20 clearly states that content of the blockchain might be censored on the steemit.com website. It seems their way of handling abuse: wash their hands in innocence. This only works to a certain limit. The site might censor and the blockchain might be illegal. Certainly not the way it is advertised. We also have no idea to what extend this is happening. I also have no idea on how they present the content. If I compare trending pages on several blockchain interfaces they all look different. We have no idea on how they manage content.
####Social media platform
I find it difficult to call it a social media platform. I’d rather call it a blogging platform. It’s virtually impossible to interact with other users. If I want to interact with someone I mostly have to reside to something else. Steemit.chat and discord seem popular, but not in every subcommunity.
Steemit.com links
Steemit.com is quite important to the blockchain. The blockchain can exist without it but many users were left in the dark a couple of days ago when steemit.com was experiencing issues. If steemit.com cannot deliver something else might take over, or maybe several parties. That would be good I think. The problem I see is the links which are used in the articles. They almost all link to steemit.com. Suppose steemit.com disappears all those links become invalid. There should be a way of linking to content in the blockchain without referring to steemit.com. The same holds true for lots of images hosted by https://steemitimages.com. What will happen with them if steemit.com goes down? There are blockchain cloud solutions by now.
7 days limit
Why are editing and rewards limited to 7 days? As if content becomes less valuable after 7 days. IMHO it’s only an easy solution to get to trending topics and limit the technological complexity. I often see the argument that an article cannot be edited because it is in the blockchain. The blockchain is immutable and making editing possible would turn it into a database. I do not agree to this. Just think of versioning systems. They track changes incrementally. The blockchain could store changes as well and a website could show the last version as well as a history. That would for example allow us to change the steemit.com links issue mentioned before. Not allowing editing also creates quite some outdated information. Especially about the platform itself. The platform changes, the content becomes outdated but there is no way to hide it or change it. And to make matters worse search engines value is more.
Conclusion
This seems like a very negative opinion but don’t be fooled. I like the concept and will continue with it. As a proof I will use 100% power up on this article. There’s no better alternative at the moment. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. These are some key points that need attention for the platform to survive. If not something else will eventually pop up and take over. Feel free to see this as a starting point of a discussion and not the end. I'm looking forward to your opinions.