The latest quarterly rankings were put out yesterday and Steem scored well in the CCID Blockchain Assessment Index. Steem pulled in at number 6, a jump from #10 the previous quarter.
This is important because we all know how large the Chinese market is. President XI just announced how he is behind pushing China into embracing blockchain as a matter of policy. He sees it as a way for China to gain a technological advantage.
I wrote a post yesterday spelling out some of the details.
@taskmaster4450/steem-with-a-big-jump-in-the-china-ccid-rankings
For quick reference, here is the latest chart.
To tangent a bit, the @wherein team just announced an English version is available for their application. This was done in a post a couple days ago. While the new version is a great addition, there was something else that caught my attention.
It’s been more than half a year of struggle, we’ve been working on different challenges. That including our core business has been facing their own challenges, so happened during that time mainland China firewall has been enforced upon Steemit and Steem API, as a result, even logging into any platform would be difficult for users in China. That is one of the main focus that point of time, to ensure everybody be able to use Steem via WhereIN.(Emphasis is mine)
@wherein/weareproudtoannounceenglishversionofwhereinisfinallyherewherein-8qfsb3lqns
I can see how this presents a problem for the China government. While President XI is all for blockchain, it is doubtful the censorship resistant part is very appealing. This creates a quandary for all involved.
It is good to see that the Wherein team is working on this, trying to become the platform that delivers the Steem blockchain to the Chinese population.
This is just the start of what this team is looking to accomplish. In my post, this comment was left.
That is a very interesting concept. SMT CN is a great idea. A platform essentially created for that region of the world with the tokenization message that is contoured specifically for them.
The application already has wallet capabilities that allow for the sending and receiving of STEEM/SBD, meaning that tying in the SMTs will not be very difficult.
It also opens up one of the largest markets in the world.
One thing I know about China is that it is one of the most diverse countries you will find. There are major economic and cultural differences depending upon where one is. From what I hear, it is almost as if you went to another country altogether.
This is where communities enter the picture. While we tend to focus upon communities as being built around a particular topic, geographic tokens (ala SAND) could have major impact. This could really be a hit in those areas where access to financial services is limited. Having their own localized token could alter the economic impact in an area.
For the most part, the Chinese population embrace mobile payments. If I am not mistaken, it is one of the leading, if not the outright leader, in percentage of mobile payments. Applications such as WeChat and Alibaba have built in payment systems that the Chinese embraced.
This means the transition to Steem-based tokens via the Wherein application is not a big leap.
It is also important to remember that one of the core ideas about Wherein is the concept of geo-tagging. Their goal is to form communities based upon the tagging of things in the physical world that are located in a particular geographic area. It is where the idea of "search" is going to blend the physical with the digital.
This means that a SMT has even a better fit. When people are going around geo-tagging, it is easy for commerce to take place. Instead of online shops, the existing ones are suddenly part of the online ecosystem simply via the tagging. Ergo, it only makes sense for these outlets to accept the SMT for that area.
It is evident that the Wherein team is going to be the gateway for SMTs inside China. This approach could yield enormous dividends since it appears to align so well with what they already were doing.
As a point of reference, AliPay does roughly 175M transactions per day which accounts for 68.7% of the total mobile payments in the country.
https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/alipay-statistics/
For those who like to play with numbers, just think of the difference it will make for Steem if this application captures just a small percentage of that total.
By the way, it does appear the @wherein account is growing. I delegated some SP to it a while back. The payouts started at around .25 for what I delegated, now they are over .40. I think it is time for me to add some more to this project.
This is just another of the Steem tentacles that has the potential to send a large number of users to this platform. It also shows the power of decentralized systems which go in many different directions without any cohesion. Ultimately, a few of those tentacles hit pay dirt with their particular areas of focus.
Wherein could be one of those that does wonders for the Steem platform.
Hang on, things are going to get very interesting over the next 6 months.
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