Well said sir. The EIP bothers with metrics people dont really understand anyway... But the SPS is just the breath of fresh air steem needs.

Thanks for sharing the update about HF21 and I am pretty sure that these changes are for the betterment of STEEM. Steem has come a long way and it's the future of internet.

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Resteemed!

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Congratulations @yabapmatt!
Your post was mentioned in the [Steem Hit Parade](/hit-parade/@arcange/daily-hit-parade-20190604) in the following category:

* Comments - Ranked 1 with 93 comments

I wanted to wait until the weekend so I could digest your shared witness thoughts, but somehow, the weekend passed by in a blur and it is Monday again. Carving some time out now.

I did a cursory glance on EIP when it was introduced by steemit inc, but the topic didn't hold my interest. We do seem to be discussing the same topics on reward pool curve and downvoting, all topics related to blogging. The traffic on steem these days are from dapps, so who will benefit from EIP? Not the thousands of users that realize blogging is not their forte.

I guess no one really cares that the steemian that proposed the EIP has spent the last year (or more maybe) self voting with his alt account nearly 100% of the time. He may have had the "good" interest of the steem blockchain at the start but later adopted the "if people do it, heck, I will too" attitude later on when there were no changes. Hard to have faith into such a proposal.

The reason why I believe in you as a witness is because you care about the small and big users here on the steem blockchain, but more importantly, you see areas that could be improved and you take action. As we've already seen, some people see abuse and follow suit. You on the other hand, take the visionary path to build and improve the ecosystem. Case in point, steem engine and SCOT. Let's not forget about Splinterlands, which is the reason why I'm even still here on the steem blockchain. Thank you for everything @yabapmatt! :)

I wonder if our browser is tracked with having no ad-blocks on and the advertisement now  tailored to the user? Earlier I was browsing backyard patio enclosures on google chrome (no ad-blocker on) and now I'm seeing advertisement at the top of the Steemit site for patio enclosures at Home Depot. I don't mind clicking on them but it does remind me of Facebook now with the tailored ads.

Anywho, hope you are well!

Great to see some people see bigger picture from witnesses. I think big problem is that all the problems are considered here to be caused by some algorithm, that supposedly a vote-seller will stop selling votes if you change algorithm. Human is here reduced to some cog that spins according to algorithm and if something does not happen as is wanted, it is a technical problem.

> but because I just don't think it's what we should be focusing our time and effort on right now.
>
> While we're spending time messing around with parameters that a very small number of people actually understand or care about, Steem will continue its steady decline as the rest of the world flocks to the platforms that understand user experience and marketing.

I can't agree with you more. Moreover, that EIP (which consists of three different agendas) was surveyed as a package, which was another problem that made people difficult to say no.

Do you think Steemit, Inc. providing a larger donation (several million STEEM) to the worker proposal fund will be a good approach?

@yabapmatt, **VOICE** is not competitor of **Steem** if still anyone have doubts regarding it. The most important thing is, no matter what we think or don't think change should be arrive or change will arrive itself.

I am not good in **Marketing** or never pursued those skills but no matter which business, to reach masses we need **Marketing**. We are lacking Users on Steem Blockchain due to lack of Marketing, whatever Steemians are doing that's appreciable too because we all know that we see effective numbers on this platform but it's not enough for **Huge Marketing** (Collectively with proposed channel of marketing can be thinkable point) because we don't have any Institutional Investors or Giant Promotion Companies, so with this Decentralised Ecosystem we will see slow progress but in my opinion ground work will give strong foundation for the future.

Good to know that you are ready to cooperate with other **Witnesses** to carryon with both models smoothy if possible. And at this point of time we need **Togetherness** more than ever because we are already watching the **Breakdown System** of Centralised Platforms and many are losing their expression and voice on these platforms. This is the practical time to show the true light of **Steem** and to let the world know that there is a platform where every voice is heard.

At last i really agree with you on one point and that is **Steem Blockchain** is **Factory Of Applications** and Businesses and Communities can Monetise their user interfaces with the help of **Smart Media Token Protocol**.

Your development efforts and view points are really appreciable. Stay blessed.

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Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, Matt! First off - I want to mention how refreshing it was to read an update from a top witness that was succinct, convicting, and not overly technical.  

There is one point I want to offer a different perspective on though.  I used to think that a lot of the crypto community just didn't know about Steem - and if they did, things would be different. Basically, I just thought we needed to get the word out. 

I've been getting out into the greater crypto community a lot more lately at different events, meetups, and online and have found most people I meet (including investors) are *well* aware of Steem. I know they aren't mistaking it for Steam because we usually have a conversation about it and they'll mention Dtube or blogging. The general consensus I've found from people is that they looked into Steem once and were super unimpressed... so they moved on. A quote I've heard from a few people is... 

> "I have no doubt in the technology, but have zero faith in the leadership or direction." 

As you point out in this post - we need to show the greater crypto community that we *do* have direction and develop a differentiating factor from other blockchains that can "seemingly" do similar things. 

So I've changed my perception that we "just' need to get the word out. That is obviously still important, but I think we also need a major PR overhaul with the crypto community to show what we are *really* capable of.  I have my own ideas of how we could do this - but that's a conversation for another day!

Great to see a witness agrees with most smaller and mid-sized accounts and NOT support the EIP! You got my witness vote, and unvoted everyone who supports that. I really believe the reward curve change and the 50/50 split has a high risk of messing up a lot of the dynamics everyone built upon the last few years. The linear reward curve even though it has it's flaws, gives a high sense of control and predictability. This idea that it all needs to be about quality content discovery in my view won't work. None of the bigger social media platforms are abou that. What it looks like is that this EIP will make it even harder for new accounts to get something going. I hope some witnesses still change their mind on it.

Dear @yabapmatt

> I've seen many great products fail because people never even know about them, and many poor products ultimately succeed simply because they are good at marketing.

Yep. And yet majority of companies seem not to understand power of marketing and their marketing budgets are very limited.

> We need to compete with all of the other blockchains who are actively going out and offering funding for app developers to come to their platforms.

Hard not to agree. Is Steemit Inc actually dunfing any app developments at the moment? Any idea? Just curious.

Seriously great read. Upvote on the way.
Yours,
Piotr

>but it does nothing for the brands, businesses, or communities who want to have their own experience tailored to their specific use case and reward their userbase for their contributions in a decentralized manner

I don't think Steem achieve that either. I feel like Steemit,Inc didn't use enough or promote interaction in the community. I mean all blockchains try to get a decent and active community while a social network somehow already has it. Well now look where we are. I am not even sure how to get better nowadays. I don't believe in SMT but I still support the efforts the community do to implement them.

Let's see where we go from here.

Thank you for keeping us informed about all the updates that come for the platform, or rather the expectations that the people who really work to support this wonderful social network have ... I am a simple musician who makes and creates music to keep me happy and I live in Venezuela with all the problems that we live here every day if I did not have this place to live and dream, I think I would have left the music aside. I thank in the soul that this place exists.

I love this post because it is the same as I think. What Steem needs most is marketing to ordinary people who still do not know about crypto, explained in a simple way.

Now I ask you @yabapmatt, do you think that marketing should be focused on dapps specifically or Steem as an ecosystem?

Users or communities that want to promote should look for a dapp to promote it or should they do it with Steem? Which do you think is more effective?

You have my vote witness, thanks for this post

<center>
  <img src="https://i.imgur.com/5FTrFXt.png" />
  <p>You're upping the drama to new levels! Have a DRAMA.</p>
  <p><sup>To view or trade <code>DRAMA</code> go to <a href="https://steem-engine.com/?p=market&t=DRAMA">steem-engine.com</a>.</sup></p>
</center>

> In a grand vision of Steem where millions of people are playing Splinterlands, sharing pictures on Appics, posting reviews on SteemHunt, logging their workout on Actifit, and so much more - all of which are using their own tokens with their own individual economies powered by Steem - does the curation split or reward curve of the STEEM token really matter? 

Thank you for speaking up as the current #1 witness and probably as one of the best ones we got. The above doesn't matter at all in the bigger picture and it's distracting from current goals Steemit inc. explicit said have more priority. 

One other point on the EIP is that it might make content discovery better. But considering this is an app-specific blockchain I fail to see what that has to do with apps.

Also, nobody knows 'for sure' what will happen and the 'hope' is that people will change their behavior. But none of this matters long term because apps will have their own token and economics.

But what if instead of making the current economics better it turns out to make it worse. Is this thought even considered in the decision-making process? Wouldn't that be something? What kind of message would that send and how much time will be spent fixing that.

Predicting human behavior by changing rules is extremely difficult. Just because we can control computer code doesn't mean we can control irrational/emotional human behavior. 

> If we can show the world that we have the potential to become the leading platform for websites and apps that want to take advantage of blockchain and crypto, I believe that the valuation of the STEEM token will quickly rise up to where it should be in comparison with other blockchain platforms with similar metrics.

With Splinterlands you guys are sure showing that. Thanks for that and thanks for being a witness for Steem.

"While we're spending time messing around with parameters that a very small number of people actually understand or care about"

Thats true. We need to be a good sandbox other people can build in ( there business)

@yabapmatt

Short Question,


Is it possible to integrate a soft wallet with which you can log into the Steem Blockchain with an easy-to-remember password.

So you can give Soft Wallet permissions how much Vote Power you can use or how much cash you can use. Maybe even with a slider to adjust.

For example, you have 500 SBD in the account but only 10 SBD in the Soft Wallet. If you should lose the soft wallet key, the 10 SBD can be stolen.

The same with voting settings.

As with the key hierarchy. Just that you have a new key that is a mix of restricted active key and posting key.

So the private keys would be "safe" and the normal end user can use his easier password for using Steem.

I'm asking you, because you've developed keychain and you know so well with it.

I really like your thought process, explanations and vision for Steem. However, I disagree with your conclusions. 

I don't think SPS is necessary especially if it takes away from author/curation reward pool. If SPS is funded with removal of interests on SP that would make more sense to me. I do think EIP is a positive change. 

My reason is making Steem an attractive asset to invest. Simple economics suggest more people buy and power up than sell prices go up. I think EIP will make Steem more attractive. Primarily, because most social media users are content consumer and not content creators. Giving content consumers a fair chance to be rewarded by investing will create a better economics. I think institutional investors would follow the suit, if retail is happy to invest.

Even yourself mention in one of the comments the importance of the token price. That will be the biggest marketing needed. 

Bottomline, if average users are not interested to invest their hard earned money into Steem why should large investors bother? For these reasons EIP makes sense to me, and SPS seems to undermine that. I like EIP, but with combination of SPS that potential could take away from authors/curators probably brings us back to where we are right now.