I'm featuring Steemit in a TEDx talk, wanna help?
This is my first post here, even though I've been fascinated with Steemit/STEEM and talking about it for a while. My bio and background can be found here. Most recently I am a founder and Chief Investment Officer of The Crypto Company, and naturally I do a lot of speaking and writing about blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
I am preparing to do a talk at TEDxCharltottesville on November 3rd. Here's the general gist of the talk:
"In the same way that the open source movement created new possibilities for collaborative software development, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies are powering open source business development. Ultimately, this could mean the end of traditional corporate structures, the demise of centralized platforms like Google and Facebook, and a radical remaking of business as we know it."
Here's a recent talk I gave where I discuss STEEM:
Living Economy Salon:
The purpose of this post is twofold:
- Learn by doing... I want to experience what it's like to participate on Steemit
- Get your feedback on how to make the TED talk really compelling
On this second point, I'm open to suggestions of all sorts, including what I may not understand about this community or the currencies associated with it, what other cryptos/DAOs/decentralized platforms I should be looking at and including in the talk, etc.
Thanks you in advance, and thank you for reading!
Dear Rafe,
I became aware of you through your recent article in HuffPost. Thanks for being the only investor with whom I closely agree with: Dash, Steem and Ethereum (well, after you research EOS, you might be changing).
As far as you giving a TED Talk on Steem, there are a few very important things to include, and they go back to why Steem was invented and the structure which dominates the system.
Steem is a Delegated Proof of Stake system which was invented by @dan Dan Larimer. I asked him recently if he invented this DPOS new system and he confirmed that. It's a refinement of the wasteful Bitcoin mining POW model. Now, I'm only talking about the genesis ideas for DPOS. Ned Scott and Dan Larimer co-founded Steemit, and Ned is still the CEO, running operations. Dan has moved to CTO of EOS, which is another DPOS system.
This means that Delegated Proof of Stake did not exist before him. Most people are not aware that he is the inventor of this. If you don't understand DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake) please read from Dan's original blog that defines it: https://bytemaster.github.io/article/2015/01/07/The-Most-Decentralized-Proof-of-Stake-System/
In fact, Dan's blog, Bytemaster Blog contains the many beautiful idea gems that gave birth to Bitshares, Steem and EOS (a blockchain operating system). All of these systems can be considered refinements of the previous. EOS is designed so that people can develop applications on top of it.
The important thing to realize about Steem is that it is a Delegated Proof of Stake system in which 20 Witnesses run the blockchain. These witnesses are chose by us, the community. If a Witness is acting bad, we remove our vote. Many Witnesses have come and gone, and the more good work you do, in the eyes of those who vote (and who have high SP), the more likely you will be chosen as a Witness. If you want to understand how the meritocracy aspect has played out, look no further than @timcliff who started out as just a very impassioned user. He was already a software dev, but he was not a Witness. He ended up being the one who communicated between the community and the devs. It took him a long time to become a Witness, but because he was dedicated to Steem community, he rose up in the ranks. Now he's way up there.
Also, you must also realize that Steem is closer to a virtual world. Departments have popped up that users created, and @steemcleaners and @spaminator are examples. We have @sherlockholmes who is a detective in here, investigated scams, fraud and other accounts which are doing underhanded things.
There are a vast number of other platforms like Steemit, which are all powered by the Steem blockchain. Steemit is only one. There is busy.org, DTube (YouTube competitor), eSteem (mobile app), ChainBB, and too many others to list. There's an entire Steem Wikipedia which catalogs the entire history of Steem.
In fact, the amount of information is vast beyond anyone's grasp of it. But I will link you to Steem.Center, because it contains all the definitions of everything Steem related.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have some more specific questions. I am on Steemit Chat....also on Skype as haizarahaizara
@stellabelle I am especially grateful for all of your ideas, pointers and encouragement... a few followup questions:
Why do people want to become Steem Witnesses and what are the upsides and downsides?
I notice on the Whales list a couple of exchanges like polo and bittrex appear. Are these the actual exchanges? How do we know? What are we to make of the amount of currency they hold?
Are there any people who are making a solid living just through Steemit?
(these are open questions of course to anyone who wants to answer)
Yes. I and my friend @ogochukwu from Nigeria, this platform has been of great help. He recently bought a Hp laptop from money gotten from Steemit. and so many other like us.
you can get more info about your questions if you check out steemit white paper. Its a 44 page presentation about steemit. you are welcome.
@arizonawise
Dear Steemians, I am blown away by the depth and level of engagement of this community. Thank you for showing me the rabbit hole and welcoming me down:-)
Hey rafe love ted! Heres a link you might find interesting for your talk, its a collection of one line sentences made by the crypto community, i beleive that there is still a few lines left, would be even better if you decided to take a line and add it to your speech?
https://steemit.com/steemit/@teamhumble/steemgig-steemit-crowdsourced-video-1-only-15-lines-left-to-go-increasing-to-2-steem-per-line-one-person-per-line-to-get-done-in
Wow @daniel82 i saw you took part in the project .
I did submit my line too yesterday.
It is an awesome project to participate in.
yeah that's a good idea. take part rafe! :)
Here is a topic you likely could make for a compelling discussion.
Censorship Free Platform = PizzaGate Could Not Be Censored
The term "fake news" was almost birthed at the same time as PizzaGate to try and debunk a very real scandal. Reddit closed down the R/PizzaGate thread and removed all the research. Then the researchers had to move elsewhere and they went to VOAT, however the moderators at VOAT remove posts all the time and censor content under PizzaGate especially. So the only place that was a social media platform that did not censor PizzaGate because of the blockchain was and still is Steemit. So as we move forward in the future, and platforms like Google and Facebook are more and more censored and controlled, real factual alternate news will rely on block chain technology to ensure the information is put out on the internet and not censored. This will not only ensure our information is not censored as alternative news journalists, but also whistle blowers will be able to directly release their information and ensure it is not censored by posting it on the block chain, it will make "leaking sites" irrelevant. In the future declaring something Fake News and forcing Facebook and Google to censor the content will no longer work for the powers that should not be, the information will be on the block chain and uncensorable.
@winstonwolfe did a great crowd-sourced video last year.
One second from each contributor.
Great vid!
Good luck with the talk if you need to chat about first feel free to connect with me on Twitter. I have written every day on this platform for 13 months.
Amazing!
So what's your experience been in doing so?
How does it make you feel?
Is it what you expected?
What are the economic implications for you?
What are the non-economic benefits/costs?
What should I be asking you? :-)
This is a fantastic initiative and it would be great for more people to learn about steemit and its culture. I believe making sure the audience has a good ground on what crypto is and blockchain is a start!
Do mention the importance of accumulating Steem Power.
Those of us on Steemit think most about Steemit.com as a blogging platform but, in the long run, other uses of the Steem blockchain may prove to be even more important.
i think that is really important, accumulating steem power
Great initiative!
Thank you for this and Welcome.
Please, keep us updated on this TEDx Talk.
Bots are obviously an issue on the platform but it appears that it was partly self-contained by the community.
I'm open to a conversation about how this place can create amazing communities in lightening speed.