Not wanting to cast too much of a shadow on the congratulatory replies about your great summary of STEEM but... not one reply yet has mentioned the possible risk of EOS to this STEEM party.
@pandorasbox summarised the seeming dispute between Dan and Ned that seems to be a death knell for any cooperation between the two to integrate steemit and an EOS equivalent. The lack of controls around self voting and gaming of the steemit system are a BIG problem here.
EOS is faster. EOS is an evolution of the technology Dan invented, with others, for STEEM so if EOS does launch a competitor that is executed with a fairer control of votes steemit.com will be dead in the water. This site will become a desert of whales gaming a system as the price of STEEM falls off a cliff.
I'm new here. I've been reading up on the witnesses who are to drive the change that is needed and I'm not convinced yet that the change is coming anytime soon. If you don't have thousands of dollars to throw at upvote bots and resteem services you don't have an audience. The very nature of the 7 day post payouts means you can't even benefit from posts when your quality information is indexed by Google.
Watch out for EOS! It is coming and if steemit doesn't change soon it is ripe for extermination.
Hello @coolisland thank you for informing everyone about EOS although most of the people that commented might have known about it already and has chosen not to say anything about it since my post is about STEEM not EOS. Yes there are issues here and there but it will be resolved and it will make the STEEM better.
Personally I also like EOS and ranks high in my list of cryptocurrencies. It should also be awesome as the chief architect of EOS also made most of the tech behind STEEM so it is right to assume that there should/will be improvements. Maybe when there is already a running application that is equivalent to Steem that people will actually use, you will see me there as well and build a community also why not? As of the moment I just buy EOS in the markets and just play with its price and speculate. I did try to make it run once but i found it hard to configure maybe I'd give it another try again when there is an application that ordinary users can use.
You might want to check Golos also it is a fork of STEEM and I believe is run differently and might have address already some issues that plague STEEM. I would assume that since it is a forked of STEEM there should be improvements also maybe when it gets more popular and addresses its issues I might try it also.
As a crypto-enthusiast and investor with all the issues that is plaguing STEEM I still believe that it is an awesome investment because I believe in it, I believe in the platform, I believe in its community and I believe that change will always be possible for good. That is why I am here.
You are CEO of steem as well. With you and everyone, it won't get dead in the water. Steemit is one app, plus there has been history and alot of improvement have occurred. Try go back in time a bit and see where steem was at about two years ago and find out that there has been positive adjustments and its been ongoing. Change happens gradually and on steem, this change has alot to do with us. If we see steem as ours or at least a portion of it and make sure this portion doesn't crumble, it won't crumble.
Disputes on the surface may not mean disputes in the background. While we talk about it, there may be handshakes behind the scenes. Payouts was 24 hours before it became 7 days (was also an adjustment of curb on gaming of the system like you put it), pointing to the fact that on steem, consensus can be made and adjustments achieved. Plus, there wasn't provision for delegation or the bot enterprise before now, showing again that change can indeed happen but alot of the change involves us. Now more than used to be the case, minnows and dolphins have more amplified voices as our SP now has more influence as opposed to how it was in the past where whales had squared power. When changes have been agreed upon and implemented, it gets tested and our feedback is important in another adjustment happening, so a lot has to be with us. Anyone can also be witness. But like is the case in real life and communities, when there is a new witness, his voice may become amplified overtime, same as change or adjustments even positive adjustment happens over time. The simple truth is, there has been many positives since steem started. Note, that steem wasnt even this scalable in the past, so as per speed even, if it becomes our priority to make it faster, it is attainable. Disputes and all aside, i doubt very much that Dan would want to see steem fail. There bigger things than stuff like that. He was a major part of its creation.
There is no reason why EOS and Steem can't compliment one another.
Thanks for providing more background. I feel too many witnesses are self serving and offering their upvote for pay. I do not put you in that same category and admire what you are doing with streemgigs.
Thanks for the insights. As I have said if I didn't believe there was hope for Steem I would not be here.