As you may be aware, I have been very busy recently writing lots of code and making many improvements to @ureka. The main focus, besides general maintenance, has been to integrate the #steem blockchain into Ureka, to produce a hybrid Steem dApp (Decentralised App) that both supports the benefits of the Steem blockchain and the benefits of a centralised social network. In this post I'll be going over some of these benefits and letting you know where I'm up to and where Ureka is going this year (allegedly, somehow the 2019th year - apparently...) ;).
In the case of Steem, any social network/app that uses it will benefit from:
Clearly, these are features that are rare in the world of social networks and to have them all in one place is very inspiring for anyone who knows their value and our need for them.
Ureka.org, like Facebook, Minds and others is a centralised social network. This means that currently, it runs from a private infrastructure that the public cannot participate in running (unlike Steem). This has some benefits over the decentralised model:
Steem has always been intended to be used in a variety of contexts, including niche community networks and the recent addition of Steem-Engine and the soon to be released Smart Media Tokens (SMT) - plus baked-in community features for the Steem Blockchain - mean that community integration of Steem is about to get far more exciting and possible.
The challenge facing any social network and community site in this situation is how to design a system that best meets the needs of the people involved. We want the great, cutting edge features of Steem, but we don't necessarily want to lose the 'old world' features associated with social networks, such as privacy that allows us to post only for our friends or specific groups, for example.
The future for Ureka is a design that combines these two realities, allowing both privacy and full exploitation of the public blockchain! Maybe this is a first? I'm not 100% sure on that, let me know in the comments if you've seen this done before!
In recent weeks I have roughly reached the halfway point in terms of integrating Steem into Ureka. The following features are already live at Ureka and can be used today:
To complete the initial integration of Steem, I will be adding the following in the coming weeks, as time allows:
So far, the entire development for this has been completed by me at my own expense. The current price of Steem is so low that I am even running my witness at a loss currently - so I cannot keep this up indefinitely. If you like the idea of having a social network hybrid that focuses on healing, balancing and evolving human consciousness - that uses cutting edge Steem technology and is always open to new ideas... Then please do consider delegating Steem Power to ureka.app or @ura-soul. Please also do pass this on to others who might share that vision and wish.
It would be really great to be able to build enough of a delegation that the best posts from Ureka users can be guaranteed a nice upvote from Ureka and that is definitely in my vision here too. There is no plan, currently, for Ureka to take any beneficiary cuts from posts made here - but all options are being kept open.
Thanks for reading and if you have any feedback, I'd love to read it in your comments below.
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul