I love the concept of Steemit.
Since joining around 2 weeks ago, I've spent many hours crafting content for peoples enjoyment. Being able to jump onto a blogging platform and start earning cash almost immediately was groundbreaking for me. Knowing people saw value in my content broke me out of a years-long, no-writing slump. I have finally found my joy again: sharing my information with you. Being heard and hearing. It's all any of us really want.
But there are a few other companies who have benefited from Steem's vision, who have seen where the platform falls short. They are trying to use that knowledge to create their own systems. However, none of them are true replacements. They all differ from Steem in one fundamental way or another. But they're defiantly worth keeping an eye on. Not just for what they could do for us, but for what Steem can learn from their innovations.
Without further ado, here's some foresight into those four sites:
- Akasha
Like Steem, Akasha user's content is rewarded on a by-vote basis. When you post something to their platform it gets organized by the tag you give it, and users upvote if they like it.
Unlike Steem, Akasha won't be backed by its own crypto-currency to start. Instead the company has decided to use Ethereum.
"We chose to focus first on building a working decentralized application and learning from the actual use what sorts of problems we should be solving with a custom token," says the website.
Although it's still in it's infancy, you can download their alpha software and give it a shot.
Pros
Ethereum is a well-regarded token with a stable price-index. It's popularity and wide-spread use ensure that it won't be loosing much value over the coming years.
Basic file hosting is built into the platform, and creating posts is fairly intuitive.
It is a decentralized platform that uses P2P to store data. I'm not an overly tech-savy person, but in an age that values artistic liberty, it seems like a good way to circumvent censorship
It's creators all use their real names/reputations to back the platform. They seem trustworthy.
Cons
So far the only way to see what's posted is to use the app they have. No idea if they mean to make it accessible via a web browser or not. But having a standalone app is a barrier to mass inclusiveness. It's a lot easier to make people visit a webpage, than it is to make them download and app. (however I realize with the decentralized nature it can't all be via the web (or can it?!).
How Ethereum factors into the platform isn't quite clear. However I noticed when upvoting others posts, my own supply of test-ether diminished. This could mean that the project doesn't actually generate wealth, it just re-organizes it. For instance if you wanted to have an impact on the platform, you'd need to spend money to get it.
The company seems to be unrealistic about their goals, or bad planners. If you check out their roadmap, you see that they actually planned to be in beta by Oct 2016. There are very few blog posts in this regard, and progress lacks transparency.
- LBRY
LBRY is another platform with its own currency (LBC). However it differs from Steem in a major way: all LBC that is used on the platform must be purchased or mined. Like with Akasha, the only way for content creators to get some is if someone gives it to them by supporting their post.
It also looks like the company is focusing on video content. From what I can tell, any incentives they offer go towards video-creators. And most of what they've published uses video creators as example users.
Still this could make for an interesting platform, especially for indy artists who want to cut out the middleman. But it's more of a content marketplace than a blogging/aggregation site.
Pros
Decentralized network that pays users to host content
Pay content creators directly
Very active Dev team, with daily blog posts
Currently on-boarding a ton of creatives to jump-start the platform, making sure it has good content that will grow its user base
Cons
It looks like it'll be a decentralized version of Medium
Don't seem to be interested in courting print media
Users are expected that people will "buy" their content. They set prices on how much it costs to view. If the New York Times can't get people to buy content, what makes them think this platform will?
P2P content sharing and hosting means there is a massive chance for copyright infringement
- Synereo
From what I gather on Synereo's website, it looks like their decentralized app is meant as a complement to existing social networks. What I mean is that instead of being a place where people actually create content, it's a place where people share it.
"Synereo’s first set of tools will allow content creators to monetize original works on existing networks, without having to turn their channels into advertisment[sic] real estate, while granting their followers the opportunity to become paid affiliate publishers. "
It differs from the rest of these in a more major way however. Instead of creators and curators being paid for votes, they are paid for the amount of eyeballs they can get. Synereo call this the "Attention Economy" but gives sparse data on how this will actually work.
Pros
If execute properly, the "attention economy" could negate sybil attacks. There would need to be some sort of conformation that a new person is actually reading the article, but it's an interesting thought.
Decentralized, at least it will be at the end of their roadmap
Cons
They aren't clear about how this will work. Even their whitepaper uses vague and ambiguous language.
Taking point one into account with the setback detailed on their webpage, and one gets the idea they haven't actually figured it out themselves
Not much information on their social currency AMP. Hitting the bitcointalk forums shows that people were pretty suspicious they weren't going to let other's mine their coin. It does seem like a shitty way to start a decentralized network..
- Yours
Yours is possibly the most interesting of the bunch, but that could be because creator Ryan X. Charles has kept things pretty vague.
All you get when you head to his website is a brief survey asking you what kind of content you like to create, if you like curating, if you're male/female. That sort of thing.
Like Akasha, Yours' economy will be built on an existing token, but this time it's the all-powerful Bitcoin. Reading through his blog, it seems like the only thine Charles has managed to figure out is the tech behind sending bitcoin micro-transactions. These would be necessary to get around the relatively high transaction fees bitcoin imposes.
They say...
"We described our top five possibilities for payment schemes, 1) tipping, which are completely voluntary payments made to content creators, 2) endorsing, where payments deliver 50% to the creator and 50% to earlier endorsers, 3) purchasing, where users see a preview of content and have to pay to see the full content, 4) investing, where the users can purchase shares in future revenue of pieces of content, and 5), a market system where there is no standard scheme but where users pick the scheme that is appropriate for them."
So I can't very will give a pros and cons list. I will say however that is suffers from the same problems that all these other platforms do. That is, it only creates wealth for those who have it.