Nevermind Voting Power & Price of SBD - THE BIG STORY is that a Cafe in Berlin Accepts Steem as Payment!!!

 "You'll find me in a Berlin bar, in a corner brooding...."
   - Kate Bush : The Saxophone Song

But at least she'll be using STEEM dollars to pay!

Sure, there's tons of internal shaking going on right now at Steemit, and yes people have legitimate reason to be concerned.

I'm concerned too, yes I am. 

And I'm keeping up with what's being written - as best I can. AND I'm really glad for the efforts of those who are chiming in with multiple in-depth analyses, critiques, and especially proposed solutions for our community's common problems. I'd spend half the day linking to fantastic articles with viable theories, if I tried, right now in fact. 

(I'm not so much a fan of the vitrol I'm seeing occasionally, but oh well, we're supposed to be a censor-free platform, and therefore whether or not "vitrol works for ya" will be judged over time by the community.)

But folks - there's GOOD news, and there's GREAT news relating to the future of Steemit that seems to be getting lost in the shuffle right now.

My purpose today is to "bring awareness" of these things to those who will read my words. Because bringing awareness is kinda what I do.

#1 - The good news, is that - drumroll please - We're Still In Beta. 

That's not exactly a newsflash I realize, but it shouldn't be forgotten. We can't even post profile pics yet - or hasn't anyone else noticed the grey silhouette thingie at top right?

Beta means "testing phase". Figuring out what works, and what doesn't. Trying highly experimental stupid stuff sometimes and wondering if it'll work out or catch on. 

This thing we call Steemit (well, we didn't call it that...) has a long way to go before our best foot is put forward to the public, and we're "ready for business". We've still got a long way to go baby. Call me naive, but I'm pretty sure those at the top know this too - and apparently way better than any of us. 

Like the California Gold Rush, instant fortunes are indeed being made here! But also like the gold rush, that factor will eventually level off. Steemit "gold" will eventually only come - consistently - to those who work long, hard days with their damn mule, use their tools, and actually become more than "squatters" but settlers, and permanent residents. 

IMAGE Source

Nobody's guaranteed to win, but those who get frustrated and leave early are guaranteed to lose, it's that simple.

California's no longer known for gold by the way, but it's an extremely large, very populated, and highly influential state. Right?

Has my analogy been conveyed well enough on that point? In less picturesque words and more simply put, Steemit will not look like it does now in a few short months, much less a year, or five years from now.

And let's not forget that Steemit is NOT an end in itself - it's a "proof of concept" for the Steem dollar, and in some ways the entire Blockchain for that matter. It's an experiment, and therefore constant change and constant experiments are the constants.

While I shudder at the thought of getting flamed if what I'm about to say seems belittling to the early failures and hard luck stories that some of us (including me) are experiencing at times here, but let's face it - Beta Testing includes the use of Crash Test Dummies.

 Wikipedia

Hate it for ya if you are one. Just pick yourself up, put the pieces back together, and keep on Steeming if you don't want to be remembered as one. Or forgotten, I should say. 

There's STILL tons and tons gold "in these here hills" yet to be mined, and the early collective experiences - good, bad, ugly - will benefit those whom we have the responsibility of mentoring in the near future. Stick around, and just telling the story of your "worst wreck" on Steemit might equal more followers than you imagined possible one day.

#2 - And my REAL point, the GREAT NEWS - is that EINSTEIN KAFFEE Bistro Potsdam @einsteinpotsdam in (metropolitan) Berlin, Germany accepts Steem as payment!

From one of their earliest posts - where they also claim that accepting Steem is EASIER than Bitcoin!

That's NOT breaking news either, to those of us on here all day every day, and especially to those that have been on here awhile. 

But for those multitudes of users who DON'T know, the very prolific @sirwinchester (800+ followers) and @mrs,steemit reported this weekend from a "Steemit Meet-Up" that @einsteinpotsdam (quoting Sir Winchester, who first "broke the story to his followers HERE" / and see mrs.steemit's story and pics here ) ... 

... got a hugely successful post by describing EINSTEIN KAFFEE as

"...a beautiful Cafe that accepts Steem Dollars as well as Bitcoin for payments! They offer great organic coffee, high quality and vegan food & more. "

Here's one photo from @sirwinchester  (many more pics and "proofs" at both articles linked above).

THIS IS HUGE! Stop the presses, stop the vitrol, and stop and THINK about just what ongoing developments like this actually mean for the future of Steemit. 

And for YOURSELF if you're "highly vested" (time and/or fiat money) in Steem/Steemit.

To say that "this means Steem is catching on" would be the understatement of the year. While the credit for the first historic Steem purchase at EINSTEIN is really due here (a month ago) ...

... there's so many new users (myself included) since one month ago on Steemit, that this actually is "breaking news". 

Again.

These newest articles by @sirwinchester and @mrs.steemit - I feel - need to be brought to the forefront of your mind. Especially if the upcoming hardfork and the (quite natural) price-drops of Steem have gotten you down this week.

Because these authors and innovators have proven to me beyond any shadow of doubt that things are looking up for Steem and Steemit, not all doomy and gloomy.

IMAGE Source

We're ALL still learning here - owners and developers included. But folks, it's way too early to give up on the platform. If you do, it will be at your own loss. If you got into Steemit solely because you looked at it as a get-rich-quick scheme, maybe you should leave actually.

Maybe you'll come back to it four years from now and discover how much the Steem you left here has become worth (like happened to this guy, with his Bitcoin).

Or, maybe you should re-think things as well nown in light of the above linked article. Maybe you should put your happy face back on, and whistle while you work your ass off to earn every micro-penny you can now, while the price of Steem IS so low (or just buy some). 

SO THAT you can cash out a few years from now (at 100 or 1,000x maybelike above?? ), instead of looking to just cash out in a few days or weeks.

Back on topic - as more and more establishments decide to accept Steem, the demand for Steem (and therefore the price) will increase, perhaps exponentially. The Steemit community (the peeps, as much as "the company") are hard at work, and almost daily creating new and innovative ways of using both the platform and the currency. I could be wrong, but really think that the combined creativity and skill of today's Steemians/Steemers (I like SteemTrekkers, but o well) will not settle for less than making "paying with Steem" easier than paying with PayPal, for instance.

The above authors have already proven that Steem purchases can be made just by using your smart phone, no debit card (or "real bank") even required! My hope in writing this today is to make sure more and more of us actually know this fact, is all. It's proof to me that things are definitely looking up, and that even in the midst of our current bumpy ride, the platform/currency still have their best days ahead, not behind.

As do those of us who stick with it for the long term (imho).

Oh and hey, finally -if you're staying around, I want to encourage you to follow @einsteinpotsdam (the cafe) and remember to upvote them from time to time. They're currently taking a loss to accept Steem, by giving the Euro the same weight as the more familair Steem/USD equation. I'm not an economist who can explain that to you, and true, maybe they're gaining more customers long term, but still - they're paying the price out-of-pocket currently to innovate and make this platform and currency better for all of us.

Please follow @einsteinpotsdam and show their future articles some of your (now very) precious "upvote love" in the days ahead, okay?

With my sincere thanks to Einstein Kaffee - Cheers guys! 

And I want to see photos if Kate Bush ever shows up!

Best, Guy   www.ibringawareness.com