Blockchain technology is finding its way into new applications every day, but entry barrier for most of these applications is still relatively high for the average user. Developers have made great strides to close this gap in recent years, but most blockchain platforms are still very intimidating to newcomers.
For example, Everipedia, the largest blockchain-based online encyclopedia, is a project that created excitement among people who don’t even know what a “blockchain” is, but it seems they are having trouble figuring out how to contribute to the community.
As CryptoGlobe reported last month, Everipedia will be running on EOS.IO technology, and while no sign up is required to publish content or vote on Everipedia’s network, it does require users to have an EOS account and IQ tokens.
This process caused confusion for Redditor “willwrite4schlrshps,” who asked for help on the Everipedia subreddit.
I have no idea who or what a “block chain” is. However, I do know what an underrepresented minority in STEM is, and I'd love be invited so I can contribute to Everipedia by writing articles (plus, be eligible for the scholarship)! Thanks.
Moments later the redditor posted a follow-up question: “Okay, so I’ve made it to the new domain, and I’ve got the Scatter extension for Chrome. But Scatter is asking for my “key pair” and I have no idea what that is or how to generate one.”
Romiezzo, one of the moderators on the forum, posted the following response empathizing with the user’s frustration:
Unfortunately, registration on Everipedia.org is no longer available, as we've pushed our efforts towards creating our blockchain platform (iqnetwork.io). We understand that the process for the latter is a lot more rigorous right now, especially for someone who is not involved in crypto/the EOS community. However, because we are running on EOS, we believe it makes more sense to have people migrate to the IQ Network and start participating in the site's governance of content and technology.
In order to contribute to the online encyclopedia, a newcomer would have to go through many unfamiliar steps that involve spending money, submitting personal information and learning an entirely new technology. Since the initial post was made, there’s still no indication the new user was able to start contributing to Everipedia.
Everipedia and EOS both show potential, but as with any project in the blockchain space, including Bitcoin, there is still a long way to go before this technology is accessible to the average consumer.
While adoption has been slow it has been happening. As covered, leading crypto exchange Bitfinex is set to unveil an EOS-based decentralized exchange later this month, and HitBTC, another exchange, adopted EOS as a quote currency.
