Response to Steemit inc. Layoffs | Community Coding for Steem: Let's Make Steem TRULY Decentralised!
So @ned just announced that he has had to end the employment of 70% the Steemit inc. staff! That's seems a pretty extreme action, but I don't have all the figures in front of me to comment accurately. I do know this though - there has never been a more opportune time to get involved in the running and improving of Steem! Suggestions are covered in this video that might solve many of the challenges Steem has had all along.
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I 100% agree with you on this, and it is exactly the sort of response we needed from a Witness. The Steem blockchain has 150 active witnesses supporting it, there are a number of independent Nodes being run - and I am quite sure throughout the existing community if needed any lost nodes would be replaced - certainly running a node myself is on a list of my own future commitments to the blockchain.
I'm not concerned about this update from Steemit Inc because I believe the blockchain has more then enough people outside of it to keep everything running - it's unfortunate that the current cryptocurrency price crash (thanks to Bitcoin Cash predominately) has brought this situation to a head - but I am also sure that any of the laid off work force that truly believe in the Steem Blockchain will continue to support it one way or another.
@ura-soul you have always impressed me as Witness for being technically prolific, extremely thorough and putting in a large amount of work to promote the Steem Blockchain and onboard users. I hope anyone that does not already support your Witness considers doing it now.
#thealliance #witness
I agree @ura-soul his role as a Witness really seriously and delivers great content as well. I really appreciated it, good job!
Thanks for your kind words and support! We really need to see the figures involved regarding traffic and load hitting the Steemit inc. nodes - I don't personally have that data but it is claimed to be high enough to warrant pretty high annual costs. I can tell you that my site steemocean.com is logging around 60,000 active voters on the blockchain and also that blocktivity.info lists steem as only using a tiny percentage of it's capacity (though this is not accurate enough to base serious calculations on). We really need more real data to go on to attempt to solve this in the community, but generally this type of data is not released by Steemit inc... so.. they don't do themselves many favours in that regard.
I still think that the crypto prices are going to recover before the end of the year - at least to a point where this crisis might be less of a concern. We shall see! In the meantime I'm polishing my harmonica to get back to my day job of busking on roundabouts :)
Strength in numbers, let's start ramping activity and productivity up again on STEEM. peace
What a great video my friend! Couldn't put it better myself...
Specially the part of rewarding contributions/top witnesses, which probably would mean that Steem could be surviving on it's own...
Looking forward to know if there is any way I can help as a C/C++ developer, as I already offered back in time and got completely ignored by the dev team... My offer still stands guys! :)
Also we were talking about the Steem Foundation with @arcange in SteemFest, so possibly this is one of the ways to achieve the goal of getting more decentralized... Let's get this discussion going as well fellow Steem witnesses!
As you said, now is the time...
Thanks! Since the Telegram group 'Steem Foundation' was renamed to be more dApp specific, maybe a new one or a discord can be created specifically for this topic?
If you are talking about community coding, check out https://github.com/SteemCommunity :)
Thanks - yes, though on top of the actual technicalities of code management, we need some kind of organisation of work and task management that involves the Steem core development team - otherwise we are headless chickens!
That was the goal of the organization. Be an organization that does all task management etc
I see, ok, is there a project management app part of the community too? The most I have seen is the issues list in github, which currently has two in it only. What I am envisioning is more of a community hub where brainstorming occurs, roadmap design, scheduling and so forth. I suggested using a testing specific tool for this in steem.chat after HF20 and only a couple of coder witnesses paid attention. It's just not possible to efficiently manage a software team without something like this.
The problem is like always participation. Github issues can be very versatile if you use them right. And I can set up tools that people can use, just getting them to actually use it is the hard part.
If you find people brainstorming and planning, I'll set up all software for it in a breeze
i think this is 'chicken or egg' in that people won't be seen to be brainstorming or planning unless there is a place for them to be seen doing it. i chatted with many people at steemfest who would participate in this, including @arcange and @prc - if you built it, they will come! (cookies are also a potential)
Good stuff. Thanks for linking to this video in your comment on my post. If we have tools for governance (something @eosdac is working to build), we might be able to turn into a truly decentralized, community-run blockchain. I hope that's our future.
Thanks - you are welcome. Absolutely, yes - I will definitely put some time into keeping up with your work there. :)
I am not a computer person, but from a business standpoint it’s surprising a downturn in crypto was not taken into account. In general crypto prices are always driven down around this time of year as folks take profits before the end of the year. It’s just crazy plans weren’t made when the price was high to cash out some and save it for the downturn.
I like the idea of decentralization, there should not be a “choke point” where everything is dependent on the company remaining viable by the sale of Steem supporting the payroll and infrastructure.
I am optimistic that having a large body of witnesses to aid in supporting the platform will help. I just hope the whole thing doesn’t collapse after everyone has put the time and effort in these past few years.
I agree 100% - it's so obvious that it is not surprising that people are skeptical about the situation!
You got a 25.38% upvote from @redlambo courtesy of @lucky-elephant! Make sure to use tag #redlambo to be considered for the curation post!
Listened through and we're on the same page on many levels. Well spoken and words carefully chosen.
We share many similar questions since we're not yes-men.
There are generally too many eye-raising things for me to feel as confident as I did before. I think funds have been sorely mismanaged, and that's not a surprise when a few people have access to such large amounts of their own crypto, the ability to pump, and the keys to the castle.
While Ned always stresses the community, it hasn't felt that way with the information we're given, and the challenges we haven't had much opportunity/intel to be able to formally do much with as a result... until potentially the start of it today. It's time for the company to lift up the hood and let people help. It might not be pretty, but it'll get done the right way over time this way.
Something was very off about his SteemFest visit, so I feel that is par for the course for someone who didn't find enough value to stay for a couple of days to meet and speak with hundreds of people who love his project.
My challenge is in not having tech skills to help in the development regard. If Steemit could propose the type of help they could use from us (tech and non-tech), besides saying the well is dry, that'd be a big help.
Thanks! I agree completely - sadly, though, I won't hold my breath on that kind of communication - I sense a big ego gap has to be breached first!
An Excellent video, thank you.
I suggest we can make this a focal point of those that wish to discuss both decentralized development and decentralized marketing moving forward.
Meanwhile many separate front-end projects appear to be competing against each other, on many levels. Yes?
Most of this has to do with mimicing existing products in the social space, so be it. But I am thinking, one app that does it all, wins. Hee Hee
mobile
Thanks! Absolutely, yes, there is a lot of competition and really therefore, a lot of wasted energy and loss of opportunity.. It is understandable though since those involved want to be masters of their own destiny and not worry about the mistakes of others. IMO the solution to this lies in open sourcing as much modular code as possible so that everyone can share while still going off in their own directions.
It's very tempting for projects to try to compete on all fronts at once, but in truth it is important for them to excel at one thing first and then expand.
It would actually be more of an issue than just no code upgrades of Steemit Inc. stopped functioning and running its full nodes. Not to repeat Gillian's post here I'll just share it. Bottom line it would be a big issue.
To me a movement toward paying even more people with steem would be even worse. With such an early stage project (in such an early stage market) I don't actually want to see anyone getting paid with the tokens unless they are still in a lock period. All this coin selling at such low prices by people who need the income to live on is a big part of the problem. I knew that was happening with some witnesses, but hand't realized the entire company's operating expenses were being covered that way. Terrible business model!
I come from a business not tech background, but my experience tells me that the best course is to sell some company equity and use the cash to pay people with cash. Give them steem too, sure, but require vesting for at least another year, until after SMTs are stable. Just my 2 cents.
Yes, I am aware that the issue extends to running nodes, however, the current situation has been presented as that the nodes have paid support for the meantime. There is currently 55 million steem held in the @steem and @steemit accounts combined. I know that these accounts perform functions intrinsic to the operation of the blockchain, but if the choice was to sell some of those tokens or lose the blockchain, it makes no sense not to sell some. That level of funding can easily pay for what is needed for a significant time period.
I think the value of steem is extremely likely to increase, regardless of what happens on the blockchain, which can be seen literally every time there is a problem with Steem - instead of the price dropping, it just follows the moves of Bitcoin and may even go up at times that Steem is really facing a major challenge (rather than down as we may expect).
For these and other reasons, it makes perfect sense to offer Steem to the community in exchange for coding - it should have been done from the beginning. The 'problem' of coin selling by people who need them to live is really only a problem to investors looking for short term gains. Those who see the value of the project long term will probably think differently.
As far as company equity goes - I know nothing about that and have never even heard it mentioned in public by anyone who might know.. I presume Ned owns most or all of it - but they do have an 'angel' investor too.
I've commented on this elsewhere. Instead of dumping the tokens on the market and putting selling pressure on Steem, this should be done off market, with strategic investors or partners and after careful negotiations, in which not the price or the stake sold should be the main concern, but what is obtained during the negotiations. The new stake owner, terms and price should then be announced publicly. That of course would have been better to do when the situation wasn't as it is now.
Otherwise I completely agree with Indigo, we need more fiat into Steem, to grow its market cap, and not just play around with the little we have, because that only feeds the downward spiral.
I don't compare the situation to just what's happening in crypto, but what happens at most tech companies. As I'm sure you know having worked in tech startups yourself, payments that comes as stock in the company require vesting. The idea is to get the company to a stable position before there is downward pressure on the stock by employees selling large stake they are given. I think there is a wisdom to that that made it the industry norm.
Now granted, they only had the option of offering stock, not coins, so it is a little different. I don't think it's different enough though for that time tested experience to be ignored. And in fact, many crypto projects do duplicate that. The question is also for how long, which it can be argued that at roughly 3 years, all initial vesting would be done already anyway. But some vesting schedule are tiered over more like 10 years, and often 5.
I don't think it is the short-term investing view that sees the problem in these token dynamics. Quite the contrary. It is the long-term that brings the problems. In the short term investors are powered up. But there doesn't wind up being a long-term at all if everything is paid for by selling coins and the way it's being done leads to the coin price continuing to fall until it can no longer support essential expenses.
I don't know what effect more rapidly distributing that 55 million STEEM would have, but I can't image it would be good given that the current rate is already problematic. You mention the price going up even with the blockchain is having problems, but what I've noticed is the price going down faster than other coins. What I've noticed is the rank slipping and slipping and in danger of falling out of the top 50. All those other coins have also faced the same bear market, but we are losing relative position to them. I believe it is because there is an extra downward pressure on the price that is completely linked to such large amounts being distributed without any vesting schedule.
Now of course, there is a need for more community involvement, particularly by coders, to take over some of the responsibilities staff were fulfilling. But apart from their payment, I wonder how that would work given what you've already said about their communication, code commenting, and responsiveness. If they were like that with more staff, how will they be with staff stretched even thinner?
I am certainly hoping for the best here, but I can't say I'm feeling all that optimistic at this junction. I'm not seeing a clear path forward, other than whoever owns equity in the company being wiling to sell some to use THAT to cover operating expenses instead of selling STEEM to. And maybe then, with staff completely paid with fiat, it wouldn't be a problem to use STEEM payments for all the community programmers who volunteer to help. I just don't see increasing the rate of STEEM being paid out as being the answer when the low price of STEEM is what he said has precipitated the problem.
I'm not sure of the details of the equity, but Steemit inc. doesn't really turn a trading profit outside of the Steem tokens as far as I am aware - so in a sense I imagine the price of any stock in steemit inc. is effectively relatively moot in comparison to Steem tokens, which actually have value. That could well be why I never usually hear anyone even mentioning the subject. It would be interesting to see accounting for Steemit inc. - I just did some searches but couldn't locate them in D&B. If all of Steemit inc's work goes towards raising the price of Steem, but Steem isn't actually owned by Steemit inc. then the value of Steemit inc's work is to be measured in Steem and not shares. At least that's my current logic - it could change depending on the long term capacity of Steemit inc. beyond Steem.
I actually went to Steemit.com and Steem.com looking for a company address, but didn't find one. When I clicked on 'contact' on steem.com I went to an xml file instead of a page.. lol
Great video! I like the idea of taking this opportunity to become more decentralised.
The path to success always involves turning problems into opportunities. :)
Yes, I have been suggesting this approach since @ned's video dropped. Glad to see people with more knowledge and standing in the community than I thinking along the same lines.
I think SMTs are the most important development now needed for growth and to improve STEEM's position. My 2c is that Steemit inc should take on the role of project manager and outsource most of the work.
I really like the idea of redirecting some of the reward pool to pay developers to work on the chain. (I also think a small portion should be redirected into a marketing fund but that's a different issue).
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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