Yours.network vs Steem: An analysis on Steem's competitor.

in #steemit8 years ago (edited)

If you don't know about it yet, yours.network is a project in progress, which has a rather similar concept to Steem at first glance.

In this article, I'll be covering the main differences between Steem and yours.network. I'll be presenting both the pros and the cons of each point. I'll try to be as objective as possible, however I'll assert my opinion at the end in the conclusion.


1. Yours.network uses the bitcoin blockchain.

Probably the most obvious difference between Steem and Yours is that Yours uses bitcoins, and Steem uses its native currencies and asset - Steem power, Steem, and Steem dollars.

Using the bitcoin blockchain will obviously presenting a few challenges:

Scalability issues.

You may argue that majority of the blocks are right now all full and therefore Yours would have difficulties keeping up with the demand if it does take off not due to its own platform, but rather due to the bitcoin network. But right now this is of little concern.

Transaction times and fees.

Getting one confirmation on the bitcoin network is pretty hard, since blocks are of 10 minute intervals on average. Fees on Steem is literally 0, and the blocks are seconds away from each other. I am aware of Yours attempting to use smart contracts on top of the bitcoin network, but it's too technical for me and probably others to understand - and they haven't released a demo demonstrating that yet.

Too technical, too volatile.

Steem uses Steem dollars, which are worth approximately 1 USD worth of Steem and fully backed by Steem reserves. It is also quite easy to understand, compared to bitcoin, for the average computer user. Bitcoin can lose half its value in a week, or gain double its value in a day. It's way too volatile.

But Ryan Charles(founder of yours.network) have expressed that he'll either have to explain how bitcoin works better, or just switch to USD altogether. That sort of defies the point of cryptocurrencies.

That said, if yours.network can use bitcoin's large user base compared to Steem to its own benefit, then the credit goes to them.

2. 100% liquid expenditure and rewards.

Steem invented "Steempower", the more you hold, the more influence you have on others' earnings. Your curation rewards get paid in full in the form of Steempower, and your author reward is paid half in Steemdollars and half in Steempower. You also get free Steempower when you sign up. Steempower is an illquid asset. When you vote, your Steempower does not get reduced. Rather your voting power get reduced, but that is only temporary.

When you vote on Yours, you literally "vote with your wallet". You are spending real pieces of bitcoins. The BTC gets deducted from your wallet.

This could lead to several things happening:

PROS

  • More careful curation, as more is at stake.
  • Equality of voting power, since each vote has the same weight(If I'm correct, the demo video shows that every vote is worth 5000 bits)
  • More incentive for writers, as they are getting paid by 100% liquid bitcoin tokens.

CONS

  • Less opportunity for newbies to curate
  • Creation of a severe speculation market(which I'll mention below)
  • Impossible to increase your voting power, and get more rewards accordingly.

3. Creation of a content speculation market.

With 100% liquid rewards, there is going to be a content speculation market that can be said to be gambling activity even. With Steem, you're not risking anything - nor are you receiving anything in liquid, tangible form other than Steempower. But with Yours, you're "betting" with real bitcoins.

So rather than curating the content that you like the most, you'd most likely be thinking to yourself: "Is this content going to be liked by others?"

This can lead to the elite writers being always rewarded the most, and the average 99.9% of the writers getting rewarded nothing at all, even if their content deserves curation, because people barely notice it.

Though it can also be argued that if you think that other people are going to like the content - it means that it is a good piece of content. But who really buys shares because it is a good company that they like? They buy shares because they believe there will be future demand for this share.

4. Centralized platform.

Unlike Steem it doesn't store content on a blockchain network. This means that content can be censored and deleted by the admin whenever he wants to.

When you deposit bitcoin to Yours.network, you are trusting the site to hold the coins safe for you. So there is a degree of counterparty risk here. What if there is a breach in the system? This is the exact problem cryptocurrencies are designed to solve - no need to trust anyone to hold your money safe. With Steem's blockchain, there is no such worries.


Conclusion

All in all, yours.network is still a project that is in progress, and no previews has been made publicly yet.

Personally, I think that everything that can be achieved through yours.network can be achieved through Steem, and honestly Steem is already having a growing user base, and it's easier to understand. I think that Steem has more potential as it offers a unique solution to centralization of press, by storing content on a blockchain, while yours.network's developers say that "It is harder than you think to develop your own blockchain".

I guess the two are aiming for different things. Yours.network's success will be mainly come from whether bitcoin catches on or not. It is merely offering a platform for people to share their content and get paid for it. But with Steem I believe the end goal is something more complex - to decentralized media, building a decentralized cryptocurrency,and to reward curators, and authors. Steem, in my opinion, is going to be the overall winner. Even the founder of Yours acknowledged that in a blog post, that Steem is doing a great job.

But it all comes down to the marketing. Who can market themselves better will be the long term winner.

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Is the yours network open to new members? We won't know how well it performs till it starts s in action. I believe that steemit was changed quite a lot in the first month or so while they were experimenting.

One flaw with steemit is that the price of steem against btc varies quite a lot. Obviously paying in bitcoin eliminates that variation.

I'd much rather get paid in BTC than any Steem variant.

Excellent post despite the fact that I think that your final comment is totally wrong . . . . Marketing gets you noticed and gives you a chance to succeed -- but all the marketing in the world doesn't save you from a competitor with a markedly better product.

For all the reasons you posted and more, Steemit is simply just better than YOURS. Fundamentally, Steemit is going to be better than Facebook -- because all the nice features that Facebook has can be duplicated with some fairly straight-forward effort (and if the Steemit team doesn't do it, someone else will on STEEM) -- but the economic system is SO . . . . MUCH . . . . BETTER. Now following.

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"all the nice features that Facebook has can be duplicated"
They need to get on that.
Many users are trying out Steem for a few days, then abandoning it and going back to Facebook because of the features there.

I will be surprised if Steem tries to be a Facebook clone. Steem is more of a Medium clone. I wouldn't expect Steem to add groups, live video or pages anytime soon.

I honestly think that YOURS has no chance to beat Steem

thanks for your analysis, I also feel that steemit is already solving problems that "yours" hasn't even considered yet.

well put together

Thank you. It's very interesting and useful article for me, as for beginner in cryptocurrency. Don't have enough knowledge and experience, just a feeling inside my brain that i chose right side, when came here :)

Lemme quickly read more about it