Can there be a social media app where no one or entity would be in control of it?
People still engage themselves daily using social applications to interact and have fun. But despite the hypes about crypto coins and how it is going to be the next generation of the internet, all these social applications are still centralized. Let us check out the reason for using these two blockchains Ethereum and Steem as a reference.
Ethereum has the highest number of developers among another blockchain. Up till now, none of them have been able to build any form of social application. There was once a time when Steem was one of the blockchains widely used around the world. Among the social DApps, it was regarded as one of the most used. Its market cap got to an all-time high of $2 billion in 2018.
Although Steam grew quickly and had hundreds of thousands of users. But it was unable to attain the adoption level of Ethereum’s developers. Unfortunately, it couldn’t live to its potential. Why and how all these happened is an invaluable lesson about building blockchains and DApps.
Ethereum: A general-purpose blockchain
While Steam was being created, developers could only build their DApps on Ethereum blockchain without modifying or forking an existing blockchain code like Bitcoin. Ethereum made things easier for developers.
All thanks to them. So instead of starting to build a blockchain from the beginning, developers could just write up the needed code for their application and then upload it as a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. This enables the developers to enjoy the benefit from all the hard work done by the developers of Ethereum blockchain and concentrate on their application.
Infinite possibilities were created as codes could easily be uploaded by developers to the blockchain. The negative part of it was uploads of code that uses all the resources of the network making it purposeless. Something has to be done to limit this limitless. VitalikButerin invented a charging fee referred to as “gas” on the decentralized system for anyone that wants to execute a code on Ethereum’s blockchain.
Blockchain Fees
This Ethereum fee-based plan was brilliant and the path of general-purpose blockchain design was set for ten years and every blockchain developed after that time implemented the concept of gas
The intelligence of Ethereum gave developers limitless access to programming language. The intelligence of gas created decentralized restrictions on what could be done with the language by developers. This conflict between the limitless and limitless is the reason Ethereum doesn’t have mainstream social DApps.
Fee-less blockchains
The developers of Steem took an approach that was completely different from that of Ethereum. A basic blockchain was built named Graphene. This framework could transform easily into an application-specific blockchain.
As an addition to social design, the developers made a trial with a system for network usage regulation which was basically different from gas. Apparently, no fees are charged.
After Steem was launched, people thought of it to be a scam because of its no-fee-charged system. The fees charged by Bitcoin and Ethereum made people believe that a blockchain without fees cannot stand.
Smart contract rules
Could it be the fee-less system that did not make Steem meet up with Ethereum? No! It has nothing to do with it. The core developers have been refining it over the years and it is still in operation up to date.
Although Graphene lacked smart contracts, it made the launching of specific features easier. It is not as easy as it looks because the addition of new features and changing the previous ones are very difficult. But Ethereum allows any developer upupupoaloadhatever code they want when they want.
From the theorizing pointvof view, the solution becomes clear. If Steem’s fee-less system could be combined with the flexibility of a blockchain-based smart contract just like Ethereum. It means we can highlight the benefits of both systems to the developer and allow them to create an application that is free to use, and that can also grant them the freedom to add new features whenever they feel the need for it.
About The Author
Stephanie Braga
Hi, I am Stephanie Braga. A professional blogger and content community manager on this platform. I love to write and post content on different niche. Contact me, if you need any help related to digital marketing or content marketing.
