PineForest is an alternative client for Steem blockchain, similar in mechanics and concepts to Patreon, but differing in key aspects of ecosystem dynamics and game theoretical settings.

Concept status

PineForest hypotheses will be validated during multiple successive iterations. Some elements will remain, some will be removed, others will be reworked.

Current Patreon status

• The number of monthly active users is 1 million patrons and 50,000 creators
• It is expected that Patreon will make more than 150 million dollars in payments to creators in 2017
• On average every fan on Patreon donates about $12 each month to each creator

Terms

I'm intentionally using somewhat inelegant names to underscore their fleetingness. PineForest is also temporary name. Why PineForest? I love coniferous forests, they are amazing.

• ecovestors: Steem Power holders, who support creators/projects. Ecovestors own enough Steem Power to influence the direction of the entire ecosystem. Also known as whales.
• donators: Steem Power holders who support creators/projects
• creators: authors/projects participating in PineForest

Key differences from Patreon

• Decentralized vs centralized, open source vs closed source
• "Patrons" don't have any profit expectations unlike most of Steem token holders
• Patreon creator payouts mostly don't depend on the fluctuations of Patreon's valuation or actions of other ecosystem participantts
• Creators payouts in Steem and, as a consequence, PineForest depend on the token price, ecosystem state and actions of ecovestors
• Patrons and creators in Patreon are mostly disjoint sets of users, while PineForest donators and creators have a lot of members in both groups
• Creators don't get a short-term stake in Patreon

Context and assumptions

• PineForest is a living part of a Steem ecosystem. It should be viewed not as a service, not as a platform, but as a part of an ecosystem
• PineForest is developed with an explicit assumption of participation in global hypercompetitive fight for attention
• Active curation using steemit.com requires considerable attention and time
• influence of PineForest on Steem ecosystem will be complex and unpredictable
• All projects that affect the payout pool have a political component
• Competition for Steem Power token holder attention increases with stake
• Curators and authors form voting habits and alliances
• Curator payouts are mainly distributed among ecovestors
• Token owners get increased utility from better curation tools

PineForest goals

The successful launch of PineForest will increase content quality and positively affect the token rate.

• Test a new model of sustainable crowdfunding
• Increase the chances of Steem blockchain to go mainstream by attracting wider audiences with a familiar model
• Save token holders' time and attention while providing effective curation and subscription tools
• Provide stable support and creative freedom for authors
• Improve public perception of Steem blockchain as a source of somewhat altruistically-focused crowdfunding
• Incubate unique projects
• Provide another reason to buy Steem tokens
• Increase competition and, as a possible consequence, content quality throughout Steem
• Generate meaningful and measurable social good

Focus areas

• a different set of tradeoffs in comparison to steemit.com that will allow to simplify UX/UI and bring performance on par with regular web apps
• curation rewards are de-emphasized
• cognitive filters (interface patterns that offset random events, like an upvote from a whale)
• openness and transparency of the system that will create a foundation for emergence of new rules (as in game theory)
• an educational component during the onboarding process (with a focus on game theory and tragedy of the commons)
• private content for donators with matching levels of Steem Power
• seamless usage by existing Steemit accounts
• an anti-donator role as a way to counter abuse
• vim-like shortcuts for power users (more important than it may seem)

Client UX/UI

The key difference with canonical steemit.com client arises from alternative curation mechanics and user experience. It can be described as a step in evolution of voting bots. UX/UI is optimized for speed, ease of use, low cognitive overhead and decreased attention requirements.

Feature list:

• No global post stream
• Author/project profile with in-depth relevant data
• PineForest donators don't vote for the individual posts but "support" (and "unsupport") authors or projects
• Authors add the pineforest tag if the post meets their subjective quality requirements and donators expectations
• Upvotes for posts with the pineforest tag are sent to the blockchain by an automated subsystem
• Creators/projects, not posts are on the front and center of the app
• Browse creators blogs by category/anonymity level/registration date/payouts/etc.
• Creator statistics: averages, totals, dynamics, etc.
• Donators and ecovestors statistics
• Category and tag statistics
• Donators: automatic voting for creators
• Donators: manual voting for posts is hidden behind several clicks
• Donators: statistics dashboard
• Creators: payments for individual posts are hidden behind several clicks
• Creators: statistics dashboard
• Creators: posts, comment replies, etc
• Creators: content license
• Creators: collaboration tools for creators
• Chatbots for various chat platforms
• Statistics reports will use real SBD VWAPs.

Ecosystem development

Classical crowdfunding platforms have a list of problems that are hard to solve within the current paradigm: lack of practical anonymity, lack of coevolution among creators, censorship, lack of transparency.

PineForest can attract the following new target audiences:

• On the part of authors/projects: developers, illustrators, bloggers, photographers that need a predictable source of fundting
• Donators: people who are interested in crypto-currency projects generating social good, creators' friends, ecovestors that will benefit from advanced curation tools

Key tasks:

• Develop a user acquisition pipeline, both for creators and donators, "build it and they will come" is not enough
• Focus on a beachhead strategy with an optimized combination of:
  • time to market
  • attractiveness for ecovestors and donators
  • potential for authors' growth
  • potential for virality of content
• Build sub-system for Steem authors to migrate and adapt the content for PineForest
• Focus on onboarding

Social good

I believe that blockchain is a foundation for a new kind of economic ecosystems that enable efficient stakeholder coordination and generation of positive externalities.
It's possible that PineForest will become one such ecosystem. PineForest will emphasize projects related to education, self-education, creativity and self-development.

Crowdsale and token

Possible.

Tech

• Glasnost backend
• PineForest-web, a new open source front-end client optimized for simplicity and speed

Next steps

I expect that alpha version will be ready within a month. I'll be publishing regular developer logs.