24 January 2018 should be remembered as a key date in the history of cryptocurrencies.
On this day, a credible independent American rating agency - Weiss Ratings - with a 47-year-old history issued the first-ever investment ratings for over 70 cryptocurrencies.
This marks a significant milestone in the journey of cryptocurrencies - often viewed as an arcane creation by digital nerds - and will likely be remembered by posterity as the watershed event which announced the rise of cryptocurrencies from a marginalised position in the financial arena to a more respectable standing.
Members of the Steemit community will be heartened to know that Steem was awarded an investment grade rating of B-, a notch above Bitcoin which obtained a C+ rating, according to Smartereum.
In this exercise to rate cryptocurrencies, the highest rating obtained was B, meaning that Steem was awarded the 'second highest' rating!
Having said the above, I still feel that for cryptocurrencies, much work remains to be done on the road from 'marginal to dominant'. The champagne bottle can be opened only when cryptocurrencies transit from being a speculative tool and prime target of hackers to a stable, credible and safe alternative to fiat currency.