RE: Steem must improve and the key metric for that improvement is "utility"
Thank you.
This kind of well considered and thought provoking post will always get my upvote.
Even if I don't totally agree with your premise.
Specifically, I don't see the Steem Power holders as "customers" so much as stockholders or "shopkeepers".
Without something for people to "put eyes on", what is there to attract investors?
A big shiny store with nothing on its shelves has virtually no utility.
And while I can't read the minds of anyone at Steemit Inc, I'd have to say that it appears that they consider the core of Steemit to be the Steemit blockchain.
The SP holders merely did the heavy lifting needed to fund it (and, ultimately, EOS and SMTs).
Of course they deserve a return on their investment/risk.
I would just like to see some indication that there's some kind of long term (longer than the 13 weeks it takes to power down) vision, rather than a "So long, and thanks for all the fish" attitude.
So what is the purpose behind the data on the Steemit blockchain if not to make some people happy or improve the wellbeing of some people? And if it does exist for that then it's a question of utility. If it's a question of utility then those who put dollars in will want the most bang for each buck as measured in the happiness or utility they get from every unit of value they input into the product, blockchain, machine or whatever it is.
If we think of Steem as a machine which takes in input (units of value) and outputs utility, then the Steem Power holders are the consumers or customers who must in my opinion not just get paid ROI in $. ROI in $ improves the US Dollar economy but doesn't do anything else. ROI in actual utility means people will use Steem because they actually are made happy or helped in some way by the content Steem is generating.
If it's all about the blockchain and I can even agree, then the utility comes from the data sets. Human beings cannot analyze big data using our brains. This big data once analyzed can unlock the true utility and allow for maximization of utility. What I mean to say is the ultimate benefit Steem as platform can give to the world is measurable in the amount of satisfaction the Steem Power holders are receiving. This means the blockchain would exist to improve the lives of the Steem Power holders primarily and as a side effect of being open anyone else who comes along.
So why would I want to buy Steem Power? If I know I can get content which can make my life happier, more enjoyable, or which satisfies some want or need, then as a customer I'm likely to be loyal as long as I'm getting a lot of Steem for every dollar I put in. If I'm merely being used as an "investor" then why would I care about Steem in the long term after I get whatever USD value I put in? Why would I become loyal to Steem once I got my USD money back? Why wouldn't I take my USD money and put it into something which gives me more satisfaction or more bang for it's buck than Steem?
If I can find more happiness, more satisfaction, somewhere else, then my money rationally speaking would be better spent somewhere else. If what you say is true and it's a "So long, and thanks for all the fish", then there will not be any true value to Steem as a platform beyond speculative. If on the other hand Steem focuses on building actual utility then there will be real value behind the Steem token beyond speculative. Steem Power will be valuable because Steem as an ecosystem is fun.
That, in my opinion, is the sticking point, whether or not there are enough people who truly care about the continued utility, as you do, to overcome the people merely here to speculate and who will use whatever means they can (bot armies, etc) to milk it for everything they can before moving on to the next "opportunity", leaving behind them a virtual strip mine.
These are the Wild West days of cryptocurrency, only time will tell which platforms will stand the test of time.