I think the another Dan scam is a big factor I hear as the reason people stopped paying attention even though he has been gone for a long time.

The lack of any real marketing is another factor. Dan spent 30M USD for the domain for Voice alone. I think this is a big one. We are mostly onboarding our own users in the form of alt accounts rather than new users. Steem is complicated and it is hard to quickly explain why someone should be here.

Finally I believe a lot of people see it as a ponzi even though it is kind of like a different form of mining. It’s all a method of distribution to get the token out there.

The fact a lot of witnesses are nowhere to be seen is likely a small factor but chains like EOS they make over 30x in rewards for being a block producer last time I did the math.

Technically, Steem has a lot of good qualities, rc protection (needs work), three second transaction, one of the best scalable chains if not best, easy to develop on, proposal system (which is unfortunately largely dominated by a handful of voters), escrow system (rarely ever used), multi factor security (almost never used). Instead we spend most of our time worrying about other people’s rewards or trying to get away with getting a ton ourselves with as little effort as possible.