Why I love Steemit but I still wish it was on Ethereum

I find Steemit incredibly interesting, for the service it provides yeah, and the community it builds, but more so for the fact that it seems to be the first DApp since bitcoin with a shot at widespread use.

Overall, it really is a fantastic platform, from its design to its UX; I really don’t think there’s any other application with its level of usability and polish in the DApp space. Of course its not without its flaws, we’re already seeing fear and mob-mentalities influence some of the voting and content on the platform, some of the content is a bit shifty, and I’d love to see a third party client for it, but it really is approaching the ideal: DApps you can hardly tell from Apps.

That being said, I still find myself wishing that Steemit was built on Ethereum. As the first significant non-financial DApp, it can be used as a fantastic example of the value the platform adds.

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Firstly, before I dig into it, a disclaimer: I think Steemit is great, I don’t think its doomed to fail without Ethereum, and I have nothing against it being on its own chain (in principle). In short, I am not an Ethereum maximalist. I am, however, an Ethereum developer, which means I do truly believe it is the absolute best place to be growing DApps. Here’s why.
Imagine for a moment that I wanted to write on Steemit, but I wanted to do so with a few caveats. Perhaps I wanted to have all my posts send a portion of their earnings to a non-profit company, or to the platform developers. Or maybe I wanted to start a sponsorship system for my writing, and allow individuals to buy advertising space in all my works. I could do these today, but I’d have to do it all manually and any party engaging with me would have to trust that I’d carry out what I say will. Trusted central party you say? In comes Ethereum .

I could simply write a simple smart contract, interfacing with the contracts making up the Steemit platform, and have a universally accessible, trustable and verifiable way of meeting my needs.

But ethereum also enables things that wouldn’t at all be possible without it. With a smart contract I could create a forum where only those with a high enough Steem reputation could post. I could create a decentralized and anonymous publishing group where like minded thinkers could edit and refine their work before publishing under a single entity. I could create a media conglomerate DAO that works entirely trustlessly. It sounds cliche but the possibilities truly are limited only by one’s ingenuity.

Of course Steemit could be expanded to allow for these applications, but will those developing it come up with them? For every feature they implement hundreds more will be dreamed up by smart contract developers of every age and background. Even if they could come up with a 10th of the possible applications, we’ve seen how difficult it is to navigate the issues around adding new features to a decentralized platform.

This is by far the biggest point to me. Having all our DApps on a single smart contract-enabled chain essentially allows universal open APIs for every project and decentralizes application innovation. Its been said before: Ethereum’s killer feature is interoperability, and its killer apps will make good use of that network effect.

Sure, its possible still that this development could happen even with Steemit on its own chain, after all trustless oracles do exist (like the btc-relay But they’re far from a perfect solution. The relay for example can only verify single transactions and pass them along, not create them, or find them. Plus they relay on motivated relayers, which may be hard to drum up for every single DApp chain. One would have to make extensive use of an Oracle service to even approach interconnectedness. In short, sure, it could be possible, but it’d be a pain in the ass.

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If we want the decentralized future we all hold in our hearts to come into reality we have to build to grow, and that means making growing not a pain in the ass. It also means embracing the fact that we, as developers, cannot plan for everything and so have to build to be extended, by anyone and in anyway. The kids should be able to see it, and do it. Only then will the decentralized apps we’re building evolve into the decentralized infrastructure for the society we want.

I think Steemit is a fantastic platform, but I don’t think its a perfect one, nor do I think it ever will be. And if one want to make it so The best way is to open it up and allow it grow. I can’t think of a better system for that than Ethereum.