Exploratory Analysis Shows World of Opportunity with JSON and STEEM

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·@paulag·
0.000 HBD
Exploratory Analysis Shows World of Opportunity with JSON and STEEM
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<p>The use of Custom JSON field on the STEEM Blockchain is becoming more and more popular. &nbsp;From discussion I have read, this field can do almost anything from creating Tokens to holding game information.</p>
<p>JSON data is a way of representing objects or arrays. &nbsp;It is easy to read, and it is easy to parse. &nbsp;Many API calls will return JSON format and many web apps use JSON to easily move information around the internet.</p>
<p>Its is therefore no surprise that developers are now using the JSON filed on steem to move data between an app and the blockchain.</p>
<p>Initially the Custom JSON field was used for holding follow information, where one account on the blockchain follows another. &nbsp;However, over time, this has expanded to holding information from multiple sources for multiple reasons.</p>
<p>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWuF5qnRbyQog6Rrkjf14KeF5J4ycuFGPMaxQniesoBiU/11.png</p>
<p>With that in mind I wanted to take a quick look at the Txcustoms table in the STEEMSQL database to just get an idea of what and who is using this JSON field. &nbsp;This type of analysis is commonly called exploratory analysis.</p>
<h2>Repository</h2>
<p>https://github.com/steemit/steem</p>
<h2>Aim of Exploratory Analysis</h2>
<p>- Get a feel for the Txcustoms table in STEEMSQL.</p>
<p>- Establish if there was growth in the use of this field from 2018 to 2019</p>
<p>- Establish what app is using this most</p>
<p>- Get an idea of the type of data held&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Analysis</h2>
<p>The table below shows the custom JSONs for the first week of January 2018. None of the Custom JSONs required additional posting or other authorities. &nbsp;As we can see, most of the transitions using this field were Follows, however there were a few others too.</p>
<p>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXFXXqpRJKpFHL4JFG3JXEkEpym3JoUVRsFz4EHa8LJGU/3.png &nbsp;</p>
<p>Pacman-live seems to be one of the first games to host data on the blockchain. &nbsp;Looking at this further the data sent to the blockchain was the username, the score, the game level and a timestamp.</p>
<p>&nbsp;https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTJakW7xST84xHCSrdyaQfy8mASHZeL2DBEJacLfmYc8J/4.png&nbsp;</p>
<p>Chainbb seem to have been using the JSON field to store details of Forum objects, such as forum configurations and forum posts.</p>
<p>&nbsp;https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVgzxL1C4dPDKrmcAoCcZa31MRJqrKoNo9c8i6ns1uxf7/5.png&nbsp;</p>
<p>Distribution is an interesting one and seems to be holding information about distributions from randowhale</p>
<p>&nbsp;https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNXmE4HyL3ufaxGJsi1WNxF9Ur7jNKoUrnpxPnQ6zHCSX/6.png&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;And we can also see some testing of STEEMMonsters under TEST_sm_pre_sale_packs</p>
<p>&nbsp;https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcwQiuqDf24ZYNJrtKyD679srxz84oGDaXZvxfHNADw7C/7.png&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jumping on now to the first week of January 2019 and things are looking rather different. 980162 custom JSON fields were used, down 58% on the same time last year. &nbsp;However, this is not bad news because in 2018 99.8% of these related to follows and unfollows. &nbsp;With the downturn in activity on the blockchain, for the same period in 2019 follows and unfollows make up only 9.8% of the custom JSON transactions. &nbsp;The was a reduction of 95% in the actual number of follows and unfollows.</p>
<p>&nbsp;https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQ51hNeayP6zrkbr1yX8wpDQtPnnVsfDXiY9wun5bCNqs/8.png&nbsp;</p>
<p>The table above shows the number of transitions of each time with custom JSONS. I have split this list in two. &nbsp;On the right we have all the STEEMMonsters custom JSONS. &nbsp;This makes up 88% of all custom JSONs. &nbsp;On the left we have others such as Follows, DiceHash and Dlux.</p>
<p>The table below shows a sample of the data contained within some of the JSONs.</p>
<p>https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmebZia6NFqhrXTJQxGMtnBN49wyK1wjVjUnRYF2wckFb2/9.png&nbsp;</p>
<p>Also changed considerably since 2018 is the user of authority to post and this is also recorded in the blockchain and the SQL database. &nbsp;Looking at this for STEEMMonsters in the table below, by doing a count of the required_posting_auths we can see that for this period there were 366,192 find match and by carrying out a distinct count of the same field, we can establish this was by 2379 different accounts.</p>
<p>&nbsp;https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmewa4WUfLjYbvm6nLkwZ5UqNZ1Qgtv3Na9NBXRnU86ycx/10.png&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Although there was a reduction in the number of custom JSONs used from Jan 18 to Jan 19, this is a reflection on the downturn in social activity on the block and not development activity.</p>
<p>The social activity, follows and unfollows is down 95%. &nbsp;However, in 2018 non-social activity recorded in JSON was only 0.02%, in 2018 this was 90.2%. &nbsp;This is an indication of development on the block and a sign in the shift of the platform from being a content/social platform to something more.</p>
<p>By looking at the data contained within the JSONs my eyes have been opened on how simple it can be to really make ‘ANY’ app a DApp on the STEEM Blockchain and I hope it gives you that sense too. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Obviously STEEMMonsters are well out there in terms of usage compared to other apps using JSONs but many apps are only being to test this feature. &nbsp;Some of this comes from the shift away from Steemit.Inc as the only developers on the block. &nbsp;STEEM is coded in C++ which is a skill many do not have. &nbsp;However, there is no shortage of App developers with JSON knowledge.</p>
<p>Now that I have a better understanding of how this table in the SQL database is kept and what data it contains, it opens up a new world of analysis.</p>
<h2>So, who will be first to have a D+ site ready to replace G+ communities using our new friend JSON?</h2>
<h2>Data and Query</h2>
<p>The data for this post was taken from the STEEMSQL database held and managed by @arcange.</p>
<p>The query used for 2019 was</p>
<pre><code>select *</code></pre>
<pre><code>from Txcustoms</code></pre>
<pre><code>where CONVERT(DATE,timestamp) BETWEEN '2019-01-01' AND '2019-01-07'</code></pre>
<p>and for 2018 was</p>
<pre><code>select *</code></pre>
<pre><code>from Txcustoms</code></pre>
<pre><code>where CONVERT(DATE,timestamp) BETWEEN '2018-01-01' AND '2018-01-07'</code></pre>
<p>As always, I used PowerBI to</p>
<p>- Connect to the data</p>
<p>- Transform the data</p>
<p>- Carry out calculations</p>
<p>- Visualise the data</p>
<p>If you want to learn more about using PowerBI or Excel do follow @theexcelclub</p>
<p><br></p>
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