All I would need is the ability to make posts that are hidden from appearing as blog posts on steemit / busy. That's it! A simple "system" or "hidden" tag that makes it so the blog post does not appear. With this one bit of functionality I could easily build dapps that utilize the steemit blockchain in different ways than before.
If I am able to make posts on steemit that are meant to save access and store user data for third party client applications I create I would be able to do an amazing amount of stuff almost too easily. It would basically be like storing a text file online. And if I want those things to be private all it would take is a key and cipher and I would now have the ability to make my dapp data private.
So that would be all I think I would need from the steemit dev side of things. Lets take my game for example. Lets say I had a plugin to make it so the Unreal 4 engine can read and write steemit posts messages with specific tags on them. Right away this would give me a huge boost in functionality. Almost instantly I am now able to read the steemit blockchain to find a Mygame Purchased (Correct amount of SBD for Date). after that I can search all posts with the following tags.
mygameclientthecastle savegame hiddentag
Once the dapp sees the most recent post savegame data we can parse that post so the client knows my current progress into the game. This would be really annoying for hackers who want to pirate the game as it would make it so the game is always having to search steemit for proper data.
And this comes down to why a hidden tag would be useful. These posts would be really weird and fairly spammy. They would probably just be a giant list of variables and strange things. The dapp would be effective for parsing this info but any human looking at these posts would not easily know what the hell is going on. furthermore it might even just be a bunch of data hidden behind encryption anyway so expect to see giant walls of random text.
There could be other things as well, like making sure that any post created with the hiddentag cannot be edited after its been written. The ability to upvote /downvote these posts would probably not be necessary. Maybe force posts with this tag into the decline posting mode?
When you begin the game you would be expected to input your steemit account name and posting key. The game would then be able to check your account, see proof that you actually bought the game and allow you into the game. None of this seems like it would not be doable. This kind of seems like it would work really well overall. In fact this would easily allow for paid dlc, micro transactions you name it. This could be used for players to trade items on an ingame auction house. If you can verify the blockchain for all of those variables you can cross reference other players save data I imagine. This would mean those boots of jumping can be traded and accounted for. Players could also potentially audit other players accounts to see if they have been cheating. This could even be worked into the upvote and down vote system to reward players for playing the game. Its almost too easy to get such robust functionality without having to pay for servers. Please tell me I am crazy because I feel like this is a little too good. It seems like the sky is the limit. it doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to work, but I imagine its pretty damn possible to make this work nearly flawlessly.
The unreal 4 plugin would just need to hijack the save game system already in the engine. Instead of writing a local file on the hard drive it reads and writes posts with specific tags on the steemit blockchain.
Seriously, can this be a thing? Because it has a ton of potential and I don't see it as being super insane to implement. I can easily see this working even in the case where I have the game on both steam and Steemit. Enable or disable a plugin for functionality.
Can anyone here make sure that the correct people see this? I know its a bit of a rambling post but the idea just seems like it would be fairly easy compared to the effort it would take to make it functional.