There was a time when I thought that the introduction of vote-selling would be the death of this platform. Never before, in any context whatsoever, before STEEM, had the phrase "do you want to buy a vote" been acceptable.

However, upon further inspection of the progression of society, and the massive businesses that now revolve around paid promotion, I think steem will be just fine, given that it appears we are moving into an era where paying people to say you're cool will be the norm.

So as far as content, I expect it to continue to decline for the most part. Just consider the early days when people used to make grand claims of filling the blockchain with excellent content that will last forever. Now half of it if not more is posts that have no meaning at all beyond earning money - take for example all of these "Guess the price of x crypto at this time" posts. What the fuck value do they have at all?

This is not really a problem, however, depending on what perspective you're viewing Steem and STEEM from. Because it has become so very clear to me that this platform was never about content, and certainly not good content. It is called Steem for a reason, a word most definitely derived from the word esteem, because this platform has always been about reputation, and I might even go as far to as to speculate(put your tinfoil hats on) that it was somewhat of an experiment to see how a community would police itself within a transparent, self-governing, anarcho-capitalistic blockchain society.

I am getting off point. What I want to say is that I don't think anyone has to worry about whether Steemit is what it is supposed to be or not, or whether it is going to survive or die. It has the most transactions of any and all blockchains occurring on a daily basis, and certainly one of the most highest amounts of users. The value of STEEM is destined to rise because it is one of very few cryptocurrencies that is no longer speculative and actually has a wide range of utility, and that is why it is also one of very few that are undervalued, as opposed to massively overvalued, at this point in this time.

My advice to anyone currently within this ecosystem, is to ignore the politics and just try and make some STEEM while it's still possible to do so without selling your soul. It's not that I don't think things could be changed for the better. I happen to believe that if the majority could rise above the psychological effects of the gamification of both society and this platform, and realise they are on the same team, that together we could make unprecedented changes to this platform that would echo into the society of tomorrow and impact the lives of so many in the most beneficial regards. But, unfortunately that is too much of an ask for most, who would rather "win" than work with others, and I have seen too many with the balls to stand up for others have their legs amputated by the very people they have tried to help. It's far better - far wiser, that we just allow the few who have usurped control of the network to play their games, and be thankful for whatever we can attain before their thirst for power leads this platform to evolve into something entirely different, where earning solely for being a good author is no longer possible at all.