Every blog I start needs a few things: a custom domain, a theme and an engine to power it. Wordpress? Ghost? Why not steem? I decided create a proof-of-concept showing how it's possible to use the steem blockchain to create a personal blog.
Introducing SteemPress.io
SteemPress.io is a website for viewing steem blockchain blog posts (not comments, yet) in a traditional blog format. It is the result of a mini-hackathon over the past 24 hours and is in no way complete. It's likely there's a few bugs.
If you'd like, you can continue reading this post on my blog over on SteemPress:
It's powered by the steem blockchain, templated and routed through PHP (I know, I know), and uses a custom theme I downloaded off github.
Can you see where this could go from here? Developers can use it for software documentation, companies could use it for their blogs, prominent bloggers could have their own websites - the possibilities are endless. All while integrating into the steem ecosystem and earning rewards.
Here's a few blogs that I caught up on by using SteemPress:
- http://steempress.io/@steemitblog - I @steemitblog found some really interesting articles from a month ago that I hadn't read yet.
- http://steempress.io/@xeroc - @xeroc has been building some awesome software, I've learned a lot from looking at what he's done.
As a web developer, this kind of blockchain tech blows my mind, especially steem.
The "why" behind SteemPress.io
Yesterday I started thinking about ways to organize the tags on steemit in an effort to help people surface their blog content. If I start a blog, I want it to be easy to find. Tags are the area to address, right?
The problem was that I was a bit too laser focused, specifically on tags. Then I started thinking about what it's going to take for me to use the steemit platform for blogging. I want a few things:
- A custom domain I can give to people (instead of steemit.com/@jesta).
- A way to customize the experience for my readers.
- SEO relevance for the subject matter I'm writing.
Why not just use the blockchain? Why not let everyone?
Poof, steempress.io.
Fun fact: BYOD (bring your own domain)
Did you notice above how I used http://jesta.steempress.io? You techie/web folk out there should realize the potential in this. Any username can be used as a subdomain in the URL. Which also means that you can use cname DNS records to point your own domain to the service...
I created a cname record of blog on the jesta.us domain that points to jesta.steempress.io. Now my blog on jesta.us is powered by steempress.io, which in turn is powered by the steem blockchain! Steemception!
A warning for those interested in cname/subdomains (thanks @dasher!): Please be aware that if you use a CNAME record, the cookies you set on your domain will be passed to SteemPress.io while visiting. Please make sure you're not passing any sensitive information or session information in your cookies!
Where does this go from here?
Well, it depends on how many of you like this idea. Like I said, this is a project that's less than 24 hours old. It could go a million ways though:
- Should it be an open source thing you can install on any server?
- A commenting interface could be added
- A voting interface could be added
- The ability to create blogs based on multiple users
- The ability to create blogs based on tags
- Support for youtube videos (not working yet)
- It could load more than 10 posts (infinite scrolling)
- Custom Layouts/CSS/Themes so you could make it look however you want
I'm really excited by the potential of steem. I've been lurking in the crypto space since 2013 when the bitcoin rockets caught my eye. I haven't been this excited in a long time.
I hope this small project helps inspire you and helps everyone realize the potential here. This type of technology opens the doors to so many people who wouldn't otherwise bat an eye at cryptocurrencies.