Following the recent announcement from Ned that Steemit.Inc is cutting costs and will focus on infrastructure enhancements going forward, we need the community / witnesses to step up and fill the void if we want to continue enjoy this blockchain.

I see the responsibilities as follows:

Community

We need to stay positive and continue posting and commenting to keep transaction volume up. In addition we need to accept the probability that Steemit.Inc won't lead this blockchain to glory again but that we need to take things in our own hands. The key role for the community next to writing posts and commenting in my view should be on witness voting.

Witnesses

The Steem witnesses will need to become the new value drivers for the STEEM blockchain. We simply need people in the first 21 spots who do more than just producing blocks but in addition create apps or enhancements that adds value to STEEM and the community like e.g. busy.org, steem-monsters, esteem, blocktrades

I have seen a great and honest vlog from @exyle where he mentioned that he will review all top 21 witnesses and report his findings. We as the community need to do the same and be sure that going forward only witnesses who bring value are in the top spots.

Witnesses should also start to implement features and updates to the STEEM blockchain. This has been done so far only by Steemit.Inc but it need to change.

Just imagine the speed of innovation and implementation of new features to the STEEM blockchain if we have potentially 21 contributors instead of just 1.

Let's make it happen together!