So many things are coming to a head for Steem these days that it is hard to keep track of even most of them but, what is going to be the thing that drives Steem into the mainstream and the eyes of the investors? It is hard to say what precisely it would be but, if I was a ambling man (which I am not), I'd say that it isn't going to be one thing at all and rather, it will be multiple factors.
The beauty of Steem is that it is not limited to an interface, a genre, a community, an economic level, a geographical region or any other restrictive factor. It is open. Anyone can join, anyone can develop, anyone can run a witness, anyone can invest, anyone can do or create just about anything the choose on Steem and, they are.
The Steem ecosystem of applications is expanding in umber and usecase and the once narrow community is diversifying its resources across many more points than 3 years ago today, at the start of Steem. yes, if you haven't heard, Steem turned three years of age today, still a toddler.
There are so many millions of events taking place each day on Steem and not all of them are in the form of countable transactions. As people read an article they could start to feel different about the platform, the blockchain or the community. They could learn something that helps them dig in deeper or, explore what they haven't before. The transactions are one thing, the actions of the community another altogether.
As we speak, how many developers are coding for a Steem application? You can't tell me can you?
This the thing with the actions of Steem because while there is an immutable blockchain recording every 3 seconds, there are many, many more actions taking place around the blockchain that go unseen. This is always the way with any kind of development project, most of the actions are in the background, unseen, unrecorded and unrewarded until they are made public.
Steem is a spring that is being wound down like a trebuchet that is going to rocket it well past the moon but, there won't be Steem the blockchain getting thrown, it will be all of the applications and communities that get rocketed into the limelight of mainstream adoption. Steem the blockchain can just quietly facilitate their journey, be their energy.
Currently, Steem is getting set to go nuclear upon the world stage, it just needs the conditions to fall into place. The global economy is collapsing, social services are failing, universal basic incomes are being considered, social media is coming under fire and automation is taking jobs left, right and center.
And, here is Steem ticking away and able to offer all groups something, a helping hand or a lifeline in some way to bring back some revenue streams, offer entertainment, hobbies and of course relevancy without needing to fear censorship or demonetization by a centralized authority. As the worlds of many collapse, Steem will fill with people who are hoping that they have a chance to survive.
This survival phase is important because it will be from this rock bottom experience that people will truly start to investigate other options and understand, there are better ways than the life they have been brainwashed to live. In time, these people will be the future of Steem, the ones who are not victims, but the survivors of the centralized traps and tortures.
Volume is going to arrive and with MIRA on the horizon and SMTs to follow, Steem is going to see a great deal of transactional interaction because, there will be an even larger volume of actions and behavioral changes made off Steem that push people and communities toward Steem.
This movement toward Steem is going to start small and then, the groundswell will pick up mass and momentum and it will drive across the blockchains and the unblockchained world to become one of the go-to places for crypto and community on and off the internet. The interesting thing about Steem is that while so many of the people who are on social networks have come in through advertising, a great deal of Steemians have some in through word of mouth, through friends and family and interactions that aren't directly Steem related.
While I have millions of Steem transactions connected to my account over the last two years, much of the value is actually off chain, in chats, in conversations, meetups like Steemfest and many conversations with people face to face about Blockchain, crypto and Steem. While this doesn't translate to new accounts or Steem buys all the time, it does add to the mass of mainstreaming by familiarizing people with the vocabulary and removing the fear that some may hold.
This is a movement that takes time and it is one that when it eventually leads to mass adoption, will contain trillions of interactions that were never recorded to a blockchain at all, yet are still massively valuable to the industry. This is part of the ongoing change in public discourse that surrounds crypto and blockchain and, we are all part of it, for better or worse.
Once people are comfortable and willing to talk about crypto, they are comfortable enough to try it out and, Steem is the best place by far to get into crypto and give it a go easily as it is already so familiar to most users - No matter their age. In fact, in many ways Steem is more suited to the older generations as they already have a fair bit of economic experience to help them understand parts of the industry the younger do not.
As I see it, Steem is so wound up that when it eventually releases its energy through mass adoption and an explosion of transaction, the knock on effect is going to drive Steem into a cycle of mass onboarding where everyone wants a piece. Those dormant accounts will be back too.
People need to remember that what is happening off of Steem is just as important as what is currently happening on it as it will be the behaviors of those that are not here yet that will be the driving force of Steem's future position.
Hodl on for the ride.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
