Recently, I've been doing some reading and research on the Blockchain Technology as well as its key counterpart, cryptocurrency, along the way, I discovered
Steemit. Hence, Steemit is my maiden real life blockchain experience.
What is Steemit?
Effectively, Steemit is a Blockchain-based Social Media platform (very similar to Reddit) which allows the users to publish content (blog), engage/interact with other users through comment and Upvote (equal to Facebook's Like button with a twist, more of this later).
What is uniqueness of Steemit?
The unique selling point of Steemit is that it is integrated with their very own Cryptocurrency (STEEM) of which it form their very own Social Media ecosystem whereby users who are contributing to the site through their blog, comment, Upvote got to share the "revenue" of STEEM (mainly from mining as well as the Upvotes garnered, this is the twist that I am talking about earlier). STEEM can be converted to more popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum via the designated Exchanges.In fact STEEM is of of the trade-able alt-coins.
In fact, this "revenue sharing" platform is nothing new, not too long ago, there are a couple of popular US sites like Hubpage, Squiroos etc.. provides such feature too (but their business model is through the advertisement revenue).
What is my maiden Blockchain site experience like?
In fact, I can't really tell the difference (in terms of User Interface) between a normal site and a Blockchain-powered site. However, I do noticed some key areas which are worth mentioning:
1. Since it's a Blockchain-based and the data/transaction is immutable (i.e. cannot be deleted/changed), the side effect is as follows:
a. The password (which is a long chain of characters/numbers) is auto-generated and you need to make sure that you keep it somewhere and not to lost it (there are triple reminders to warn you that once you lost it, there is no way you can get it back, not even Steemit).
b. Once you've submitted your post/comment, you cannot un-do it.
2. Not sure whether it is due to the Blockchain technology used, the system response time seems to be a bit lag (but still bearable) especially when committing transaction like "Post", "Upvote" etc..
That's all from me for now. I will continue to use it for a while and see anymore new discovery.
Do share your Blockchain/Cryptocurrency experience in the comment section, if any.
Cheers!