I have been out of the game for a little bit but 
There is no New Steem.
#34,465,686
That is how many blocks make up Steem and they run in order immutably back to the first Steem block and have gone forward from that point every 3 seconds. There is no New Steem and, there is no
Old Steem.
There is just Steem.
As said, I understand the marketing sentiment but what I would like to draw attention to is that while there is only one Steem, it is in a constant state of flux, it is continuously changing, and with every 3 second block, more data is added to it, more words, more ideas, more accounts, more votes, more opportunity.
Every 3 seconds, the Steem blockchain changes slightly under the power of thought, the laws of supply and demand and, the freedom for any individual to press a word forever into the foundation that is the Steem blockchain. There is no new Steem, it is Steem evolution.
Or revolution.
But this isn't a revolution of victors and the defeated, it is a revolution where the past shows a history and steps toward the present moment that will never be wiped away for as long witnesses keep processing blocks. The revolution is in the blockchain itself, a history of people working toward and away from each other, collaborating and undermining simultaneously to find a new path through into the next block, and every 3 seconds Steem evolves a little further.
Every 3 seconds is a new opportunity.
A new opportunity to add your voice, a new opportunity to change a mind, a new opportunity to grow. Grow an account, an experience, an education, a portfolio, a life. An opportunity to connect, cooperate, develop and influence the future. Every 3 seconds.
This isn't New. It the only way Steem can.
These 34.5 million blocks delivered 3 seconds apart contain billions of pieces of information and hundreds of millions of relationships between people, words shared, jokes shared, pain shared. The entire history of the community can be tracked in 3 second lots - every post, every comment, every vote.
And each interaction, each transaction adds to the story that is Steem and it is not a new story at all. It is a story of life as it has always been, people trying to create a world where they feel they can not only survive, but thrive - in a community of interpersonal connections. Hopes, dreams, wants and necessities pulled together to negotiate an experience through the complication that is human experience, a world filled with scarcity, greed, charity and love.
The evolution is planned.
Every agreement and argument builds the conversation toward the next 3 second block, the next account created, the next account abandoned. Every word adds to the mass that is and can inspire or turn away depending on who's eyes fall upon it. Every transaction takes us as a community a fraction closer to solutions that will spill out past the borders of the blockchain and affect the world in which we walk.
This is what decentralized governance and ownership demands, a community of people who will work toward solution, work toward a path driven by what they can offer to the market, and take from the market. Supply and demand reigns, it is a free market where undefined good and bad actors are constantly creating tensions and behaving in opposition in a power struggle that raises concern, finds answer - only to create more problems to be solved.
Bit by bit, 3 seconds at a time
We can change the entire world in 3 seconds. We just need enough information on each block to evolve the blockchain, develop experiences and provide a place for the many to build values of any kind they choose. Some may seek fortune, others fame, some may just look for a kind voice with which to spend a few words. Steem is what you make it for you, Steem is what I make it for me.
There is no old Steem and New Steem. There is past and there is future. There are the blocks that are irreversible, and there are all the blocks that are to come.
3 seconds at a time.
I invest my time on Steem.
You are free to do as you please.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]