Streamr – All hands on deck!
The Streamr project has come a long way over the last two years, from seeing Henri sharing his infectious enthusiasm on YouTube via Transmissions, to the excitement of Consensus where the Streamr pavilion stole the show.
We all remember the heady days of blockchain, when the world watched CNBC to see how high Bitcoin could go and listen to the pundits' puffery. Thankfully the days of hype are firmly in the rearview mirror and we are currently witnessing real-world adoption starting to happen. Streamr has delivered Core and just made a major upgrade to the Network, paving the way towards a decentralized future. It’s now up to us, as the Streamr community, to step up and help spread the word about these milestones and the first developer ideas being built on the Streamr stack.
From the discussions we’ve had as a community, it’s clear we’re all excited by how powerful and timely data unions could be. However, our excitement alone won’t be enough to drive wide-scale adoption. So I thought I’d make this call to action — an “all hands on deck” appeal — and share my own experiences with reaching out.
I ran a few tests over the last two months…
Firstly, I joined Twitter, crafted a few tweets and tried to find a balance between slightly shilling to actually just expressing info about the project that others may find useful. A few tweets a day. It all adds up.
I reached out to some publications that I enjoy reading. I stayed on message. The Great Hack documentary has struck a chord with a very diverse group; a group that responds well to the idea of data unions, a vocal group that is seeking recourse of some kind… a solution and a greater voice.
I exchanged messages with a podcast host — he’d just interviewed Professor Carol who was featured in The Great Hack — and I explained that the first solutions that would allow us to sell our data and retain a comfortable level of privacy are about to come to market. I suggested that he have a conversation with Shiv, which would make great content for their show.
Austin the host agreed. The show aired recently:
I exchanged messages with a company who currently have an app in the cloud — I don’t want to be too specific, because talks are ongoing — simply suggesting that their project would be great on the Streamr stack and got a reply. A bit of back and forth and they were happy to speak with Wei.
A well-known crypto publication had an article that aligned quite well with Streamr’s message. A simple tweet suggesting they engage Shiv in the conversation got them both talking …
Sure, there have been a few tweets that have fallen on deaf ears. Hardly surprising with all the noise in the space. But it’s also surprised me how open people are to receiving the Streamr message.
So this is where you come in. Streamr has several events in London this month to introduce Community Products like Swash. That’s a big opportunity to increase awareness prior to the official launch of Community Products in a few months. It’s this window between the London events and the Community Products launch that presents us all with an opportunity to help.
All hands on deck !
Here’s my call to action: Do what you can to get Streamr’s message out!
No shilling — just speak to what you know. If your interests lie in development/tech then getting the word out to other people like you about Core or Community Products will be powerful. You can reach out to bloggers you like or your favourite YouTube channels, podcasters, writers etc, and share the links to Streamr’s tutorial videos for example.
Likewise, if you’re less techie like me, spreading the word about data unions and reclaiming our data dignity is a great way to go. I’m sure the communications team will have more materials available as Swash gets showcased, so simply sharing those with bloggers you like (or your favourite YouTube channels, podcasters, writers etc …) will go a long way.
There are a lot of opportunities to be part of this exciting moment in Streamr’s history. Spread the Streamr word far and wide and make a difference— you may even become a community hero!
