There is ALOT of negativity going around on Steem right now - and I can understand why. Prices are down, payouts are down, and then there is the ongoing drama with @ned announcing that 70% of Steemit Incs staff were recently laid off. However, I am super happy with the progress Steem (not Steemit!) has made over the last few months and feel positive for the future.

Dapps are revolutionising how we use Steem (and the internet!)

There have been so many great dapps being developed in the last few months - I can barely keep up - I have a list of a fair few that I am following but haven't got around to testing out. This is VERY encouraging - the fact that through this cryptio winter there are still many, many dedicated people who see that this blockchain has a real future.

If you aren't using Dapps on Steem then I feel you are falling behind (unless you are just happy blogging!). There are many different ways to earn Steem now, such as through excersizing daily and engaging on @actifit, hunting down cool new products and sharing them on @steemhunt, asking and answering questions on @musing, and many more.

@actifit is probably the dapp that I use and support the most. They have a great, hardworking team, and I love the constant updates and tweaks to their mobile app. The majority of people excersize daily, so why not get rewarded for it? Actifit is easy to use, and have a great community! I have recently increased my delegation, and will continue to increase my delegation as my account grows - Actifit could be a game changer and compete against popular tracking apps like Myfitnesspal, and Strava - and it has the options to integrate into many different areas. Watch this space!

Steem might be down, but so is the rest of the market

Yes, Steem might be down over 90%, but there are many other coins in the top 50 which have suffered a similar fate. Bitcoin has seen a pretty dramatic fall. However, for the moment the market moves with Bitcoin (more or less), and these markets seem to work in cycles. So once we hit the bottom, and see a reversal, the majority of the top coins should start seeing gains again. The reversal might be slow - I don't expect to see massive overnight gains again like we did in late 2017.

Infact in terms of Steem earned I have had by far the best month last month. I think it because users are down, but the dedicated ones (who often hold more SP) are still here, and thus getting noticed and getting more upvotes is easier in my opinion. It is strange and seems a bit counterintuitive.

The thing I keep reminding myself is that 1 Steem earned today could be worth $50 in the future - no one really knows....

Atleast we are getting paid something....

The reality is that we are still getting paid in Steem for our efforts, and that elsewhere such as Twitter, Instagram and Youtube you will not get paid anything (and will actually have most of your data sold on to advertisers). I don't know about you but that sounds pretty awful to me - i'll admit I still use Facebook, but I don't post, and just use it to keep up with friends and family.

Conclusion

I know it is tough at the moment and moral is very low here, but Steem has ALOT of potential, and more reasons to stick around than to leave.

As always I would love your comments or thoughts on this post