Will you read this post or watch the matching video because here we see 25 signs Steem is about to leap back into the top 10 cryptocurrencies with potential to reach the number one spot within the next three years?

1: What Makes a Cryptocurrency Valuable?

True value comes from how the people participating are able to collaborate which is the same principle defining value for companies on the stock market and fiat currencies like USD. For example, everyone that buys Apple products, uses an iPhone, is employed by Apple, invests in Apple stock, and talks about Apple adds value to the idea and company we call Apple.

All the time, energy, and money I invest into Steem adds value to it alongside what millions of us are contributing from reading posts on steemit.com to watching live streams on @dlive to buying Steem and SBD on exchanges to talking about Steem with our friends and family. The more Steem helps us help each other and deepen our relationships, the more good we are doing in the world. That is why we are here together today. Steem has incredible participation and collaboration relative to the value of the blockchain.

Only Bitcoin and Ethereum have more active communities than Steem according to the data we are about to see.

2: Steem is Already #1 in Transactions!

On Steem, every transfer has no fee and is completed in just 3 seconds which is why Steem is already the top cryptocurrency in transactions every day especially for micro transactions! Most fiat currencies work the same way with the majority of transactions being one person giving another a small amount of money with no fee instantly in person or making an instant transaction with a fee using a credit card.

Steem is the only cryptocurrency today which is truly prepared for mass adoption because users with no money and little money (99% of the world) at are able to fully participate. With transactions having no fees and being completed in 3 seconds, it is not surprising that Steem already has more transactions every day than Bitcoin and Ethereum combined while having a value that is less than 1% of Ethereum as we can see at http://www.blocktivity.info/.

Every transaction on Steem is proof that we collectively are adding more to the value of our blockchain.

3: Smart Media Tokens = Massive Growth!

In the next hard fork, Smart Media Tokens on the Steem blockchain will provide new way for publishers to monetize their online content and community based on the model proven successful with Steem’s community as seen at https://smt.steem.io/. This might not seem like a big deal until we remember that this business model rapidly launched Ethereum to the number 2 blockchain in market cap and actually number one when we consider all of the token markets on Ethereum.

Smart Media Tokens will bring the proven token launching business model from Ethereum to Steem allowing for ICOs to instantly launch and trade on Steem instead of Ethereum. Unlike on Ethereum, all the transactions will have no fees allowing for infinitely scalable tokens among established communities like bloggers, newspapers, etc. When we combine this with the number of users on Steem and ability to transact with no fees, we begin to be shocked at how low the Steem price is and see the chance to get in before a few other huge investors figure this out.

4: Investors Holding Steem are Earning 30%+ APR !

Holding Steem and delegating to a voting bot and/or upvoting ones own posts every day returns several times higher than masternodes making buying Steem and powering it up an ideal long term investment where the principle consistently increases and payouts are available every day! This is possible because of delegation where the value of the stake in Steem power is effectively loaned while the actual cryptocurrency remains in the wallet with the ability to pull the delegation at any time!

I currently earn a return of approximately 36% APR in Steem on about 120,000 Steem power. As of April 23, 2018 that equals about $150 a day in payouts in Steem and SBD that I can immediately sell or reinvest while the principle continues to grow and remains under my control at all times. Watch the video below to see how it works and make the delegation at http://jerry.tips/spdelegate.

5: ~1 Million Accounts in 2 Years!

Within just two years, we already have nearly one million accounts as seen in @penguinpablo's most recent weekly Steem stats report here. At this rate, we are on our way to having over 100 million accounts on Steem within the next 3 years. When we reach that many accounts, Steem will be in position to take the #1 spot because we will have more wallets and users than any other blockchain.

6: Best Place to ICO and Promote Cryptocurrencies?

Facebook and Google both have banned advertising for cryptocurrencies which is making Steem the number one option for both launching and promoting an ICO once smart media tokens are released. As we can see on this post, I used bid bots to promote this to the top of the trending page at https://steemit.com/trending/ which is almost always leads to thousands of views a day from readers already active in the cryptocurrency world! With over 3,000 upvotes and over 1,000 comments on this post, we see how well this strategy works. To get this much attention on Google requires paying for that many clicks to a post on Google would cost anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 with targeting matching our audience here with no possibility to get any of that money back.

When smart media tokens release, we are likely to see a lot ICOs start launching on Steem instead of Ethereum because of the ability to promote the ICO directly on Steem and obtain immediate access to the millions of users here. Readers here will be able to immediately buy into an ICO without even leaving the Steem blockchain after seeing the initial post making Steem the path of least resistance.

7: Environmentally Friendly and Transparent Mining!

Instead of miners needlessly wasting huge amounts of power and computing resources competing to make new blocks as on Bitcoin, witnesses on Steem are a leap forward in the evolution of producing new blocks providing a solution based on voting which saves a fantastic amount of computing resources and power making Steem one of the most environmentally friendly blockchains. View our full list of witnesses at https://steemit.com/~witnesses.

8: The Best Free Blogging Platform?

Bloggers love posting on Steem for the instant higher ranking in Google and long term search engine optimization or SEO benefits from posting to a top 1000 or so website with steemit.com along with instant mirroring on alternative interfaces! View steemit.com's Alexa rank at https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/steemit.com.

9: Ideal for Media Attention!

Wired.com recently featured Steem in “The Social Network Doling Out Millions in Ephemeral Money” highlighting Steem being the first blockchain to also act as a social media platform at https://www.wired.com/story/the-social-network-doling-out-millions-in-ephemeral-money/.

Thank you to @andrewmcmillen for getting this article published on Wired which probably reached tens of thousands of readers on wired.com and more than likely continues to bring in hundreds every day from Google and Facebook.

What we see here is proof that as Steem grows, established writers already on Steem have a strong motivation to talk about Steem to build their own following here and have the chance to connect directly with readers in comments as well as earn upvotes from readers.

10: Competitors are Too Late!

Steem has first mover advantage for a blockchain with an integrated social network the same as Bitcoin was the first mover as a cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is number one today despite being technologically inferior to almost every other digital currency listed on https://coinmarketcap.com because it was the first. Nearly all of the competitors to Bitcoin are only a one to three fold improvement while generally to replace the #1 spot takes being 10x better. Steem is absolutely 10 times better than Bitcoin when we consider every reason listed here.

11: Live Streaming on Steem!

https://dlive.io/ by @dlive gives us the first application allowing live streaming to our blockchain along with smooth video uploads without any percentage taken in author rewards!

12: GitHub Contributions Rewarded on Steem!

https://utopian.io/ by @utopian-io and @elear enables rewards for open source contributions especially on GitHub which finally allows developers building valuable projects without a built in monetization method to fund projects. In fact, Utopian is the only platform rewarding contributions to Open Source projects by utilizing a decentralized, vote-based reward system built on top of the STEEM blockchain.

13: Best Blockchain for Musicians!

@dsound by @prc empowers musicians, podcasters, comedians, and any artist working in audio files to upload to the Steem blockchain and earn rewards without needing advertisers, publishers, or a record label at https://dsound.audio/.

14: Alternative User Interfaces!

@busy.org by provides an alternative interface to steemit.com which shows us the true power of the Steem blockchain to appear on different domains all with one Steem account as seen at https://busy.org/.

15: No Fee Crowdfunding!

https://fundition.io by @futureshock is the world’s first decentralized crowdfunding platform using the Steem blockchain to eliminate the middleman dividing founders from backers empowering a totally free way to support projects.

16: Many Mobile Apps!

Mobile apps for Steem like @esteem by @good-karma and @bsteem by @jm90mm allow us to fully experience the Steem blockchain on any iPhone or Android device!

17: Influencers Joining Steem to Earn Without Limitations!

YouTube and Facebook Are Losing Creators to Blockchain-Powered Rivals as explained in this post from bloomberg.com published on April 10, 2018 at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-10/youtube-and-facebook-are-losing-creators-to-blockchain-powered-rivals

18: Prepared for a Marathon!

After surviving a 98% price drop from release through the following year, we on Steem have absolute faith in our blockchain’s ability to endure through challenging times! I personally refuse to invest in any blockchain that has not suffered a massive drop like this in price because many blockchains have completely collapsed and many more will with the price drops massively for the first time. Board the Steem roller coaster ride at https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/.

19: Ideal for Self-Promotion and Charity!

Any author on Steem has the ability to self-promote and earn a return back from that voting bots at https://steembottracker.com/ by @yabapmatt. When we compare this to advertising on Google or Facebook, where else can we get a return at all from promoting ourselves plus more views? Steem is the best blockchain to use for purely selfish motivations because the returns are higher than anywhere else I am aware of after 4 years working with cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, giving back is easier than ever on Steem because we can upvote others without it costing us anything! I have helped readers, authors, and developers earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in my year on Steem leaving me feeling generous and charitable. None of what I have seen on other blockchains makes it this easy to help someone anywhere in the world to participate in the earnings.

20: Active Communities Supporting Steem!

Communities like the Minnow Support Project at https://minnowsupportproject.org/ help thousands of authors on Steem connect and earn upvotes on posts making Steem the only blockchain where every account has the ability to earn something without needing to buy, invest, or speculate!

21: Coming Soon to Many More Exchanges!

Exchanges will continue to have a strong motivation to add Steem/USD and Steem/BTC as the number of users continues to grow on Steem! Out of the top 10 exchanges today, Steem currently is only on 3 of them with a high probability of doubling or tripling this number within the next year.

Every time Steem has been added to a top exchange this year we have seen the price pump double or triple. We are expecting many new exchanges to add Steem this year which will likely result in price pumps each time Steem is added to an exchange with high volume as liquid Steem flows off of other exchanges onto the new exchange added. Many of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap have been completely driven by availability on exchanges. With Steem being its own blockchain instead of a token on Ethereum, adding it takes a lot more work and soon we will see the results of all of the exchange additions currently in progress.

22: Transparency!

Anyone can see the transactions for any account on Steem providing complete transparency and accountability to anyone in the world with an internet connection while reports on applications like http://www.steemreports.com/ allow us to aggregate and interpret the data! This ability to look at everything is ideal for sparking conversation and connection. Most cryptocurrencies have very little transparency which makes genuine connection and collaboration difficult as evidenced by both Bitcoin and Ethereum's struggles with forks and scaling.

23: Best Option Anywhere Online for Earning Passive Income!

In addition to what I mentioned earlier about delegating to voting bots, https://smartsteem.com/ by @smartsteem via @therealwolf provides a comprehensive set of tools for authors, curators, and investors to promote posts and earn passive income without delegating all Steem power to a voting bot! In seven years of working online, earning a return through voting on Steem is by far the best passive income system I have ever seen because we can all see it working any time! Take a look at how many transactions come into and are paid out of @smartsteem every day to see for yourself!

24: Contests on Steem are Amazing!

A list of the top 25 posts on Steem helps us see how easy it is to collaborate and help each other on Steem making Steem the blockchain where helping another person to succeed happens with the least resistance! Contests work better than ever on Steem because everyone participating can easily look the wallet of the provider and verify the funds are there for a contest along with seeing results from any previous contests.

For freelancing, Steem makes finding help and paying contractors way eaiser than using Upwork. I was able to hired six graphic designers with less work on Steem using a contest than it would have taken to hire one on Fiverr! Freelancers worldwide are already hoping on Steem for the chance to earn and authors all over Steem offer services to each other making Steem an ideal place to build the world's top cryptocurrency freelancing platform.

25: Not Everyone Agrees!

What I love about Steem is that I can share this post and in one place hundreds of people come to disagree and explain why I am wrong! Where else can we see the good, the bad, and the ugly about a blockchain all in one place directly on that blockchain without visiting an off blockchain forum or external community?

My hope with this post is that you can see the whole picture of Steem to make the most informed decision to participate. I have effectively presented the view of why Steem is awesome and in the comments you can also see every reason while Steem is awful and will fail.

Love or hate Steem, it is worth talking as much as any cryptocurrency I have seen. Friends I have with millions in other crypto holdings talk more about Steem than those they are most excited about even if it is to say how awful Steem is the entire time! Steem has some of the best haters who would be shocked to learn how much they do to promote Steem and encourage new users that disagree with them to join.

My purpose in writing this and promoting it is to help you discover Steem before everyone else does. When the price for Steem is $100 and there are a hundred million users, most of the best opportunity will have passed. Going in a little bit today with Steem has the potential for a huge return. Going all in has the potential to turn a few hours or dollars into a fortune.

That said, I have been wrong before lots of times in life. I have made plenty of mistakes in crypto as seen in the video below!

Questions and Answers

Below we see a list of questions that may be helpful for those of us new to Steem and wanting to learn more after reading the 25 reasons above!

1: What are the Biggest Downsides of Steem?

One of the big downsides of Steem is the difficulty in listing and maintaining it on an exchange which has led to Steem only being on 3 of the top 10 exchanges. This makes buying and selling it with fiat in most places challenging compared to many other cryptocurrencies including most which are inferior in almost every way to Steem other than being easy to add to an exchange.

Another is limitation of Steem is centralization. While many features are decentralized and no one user can ban another, the majority of the power on Steem is concentrated and therefore makes an easy target. This is common to many cryptocurrencies even ones that promote how decentralized they are and it is unlikely any competitor will overcome this issue without opening equally challenging alternatives.

The biggest downside on Steem as in the rest of our lives is that most of our troubles are of our own making. Many of us earn much more on Steem than anywhere else for the same work and yet we make reasons why posting on Steem is not worth it. We find imperfections or make blanket statements about how certain people are misbehaving and we miss out on our own chance at a better life here.

I have seen several authors earning good rewards quit posting and sell their Steem because of a few downvotes or negative comments only to then feel bad about missing huge earnings when the price spiked. My account is one of the top in receiving large downvotes and negative comments because it also is one of the top in upvotes, love, and support. I know how much it can hurt to lose hundreds of dollars of rewards because one person disagrees or is having a bad day and my post happens to show up or I used a word or phrase that triggered fear in the title or description. That is the cost of doing business on Steem.

Our own mindsets and behaviors tend to limit us more than anyone else. Our freedom on Steem to share whatever we want and earn opens us up to the world in a way we are often protected from elsewhere and makes rationalizing our way out of here all too easy. For those that stick around, the rewards become tremendous as the posts from those that started and left add to the total value of the blockchain. Starting, working really hard, and quitting often provides little in return to the user while providing a lot to the blockchain.

2: What Happens When a Competitor Makes a Better Version of Steem?

Reason number #10 talks about competitors and how Steem has the first mover advantage and this answer provides more detail on that. While it is possible a competitor might take off, going from zero to a million users is very difficult. Very few blockchains have made it this far and even if a competitor reaches as many users as Steem has today in a year or two, how many will Steem have then? 10 million? 25 million? 100 million?

Being first is such a huge advantage that another platform will have to be way better than Steem AND grow exponentially faster than Steem to just break even regardless of what the dollar value is of the cryptocurrency today. This will be very hard to do because a lot of the people that would join a competitor if Steem did not exist are already on Steem as we are today.

Some of the next epic failures I think we will see in cryptocurrency are the blockchains with the most speculated market value that fail to reach a critical mass of ordinary users. One of these in the next year or two will probably drop 99% within a short period of time as its top investors realize everything was just hype and there are no real users. Those investors will likely want something with proven value instead like Steem.

3: How do I Respond to the Disagreement in the Comments?

I am grateful we do not all agree because this is what makes our world interesting! When we read the replies on this post, we can see the complete picture which is very helpful. In the thousand comments below we will find every reason to doubt what I have said. As we consider all of the hundreds of unique points of view posted in reply, we gain the full picture of Steem including the good, the bad, and the ugly which is the ideal point to form an opinion and take action from.

This post is clear proof of why I think Steem is amazing because each of us has a chance to share our truth here and every time we do it, we are adding value to our blockchain alongside everyone that feels differently.

4: Easiest Way to Buy Steem with BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH?

https://blocktrades.us is the fastest and easiest way I know of to exchange Steem and Steem Dollars with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. How do I use BlockTrades.us to make these nearly instant exchanges of different online cryptocurrencies, especially for withdrawing SBD fast? Read the full tutorial or watch the video below!

5: How to Buy the Most Steem at the Best Price?

https://bittrex.com is where I buy and sell Steem and SBD because the price generally is the best, the transactions are fast, and my account is already verified for up to 100 BTC withdrawals daily. While Bittrex takes more time signing up and getting verified, it allows for trading hundreds of cryptocurrencies including Steem as explained in this tutorial with the matching video below!

6: Where to Read More About Steem?

At https://steem.guide I publish a comprehensive post of tutorials for Steem every month or two which I hope is useful for those of us new to Steem!

7: Best Way to Contact Me?

If you want to contact me, will you please visit https://jerrybanfield.com/contact/ because there I have the best ways to contact me privately?

8: Where to Ask Additional Questions?

To ask follow up questions, will you please join me on my live stream each week Wednesday from 10 am to 11 am eastern time on Steem with @dlive at https://dlive.io/@jerrybanfield or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/jerrybanfield because I am available to react live to comments and answer questions every week? Here is the replay from the stream the day after this post!

Thank you for reading this post which I hope is helpful today for seeing the big picture of what we are creating together here and how all of our contributions are making something amazing! All SBD rewards from this post will be sent to @budgets which funds growth projects for Steem.

Love,

Jerry Banfield

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Our Most Important Votes on Steem are for Witness!

If you do not know what a witness is on Steem, will you please read https://steemit.com/steemit/@gmichelbkk/what-is-a-steem-witness-how-to-vote-and-why because our votes for witnesses determine our future together here on Steem?
If you want to fully participate in witness voting and have never made a vote before, will you please set me as a proxy at https://steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-proxy?proxy=jerrybanfield&approve=1 because this help me to make all witness votes on your behalf and keep them updated?
If you already have voted for witnesses and prefer to update your own witness votes, will you please place your vote using https://steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=jerrybanfield&approve=1 because you will feel good knowing your witness vote is helping fund projects that grow Steem as explained here?

25 Reasons Steem Will Replace Bitcoin as #1 Cryptocurrency by 2021!