266 million sounds like a lot, but there are 7 billion people on the planet. I have 1500 Steem coins right now. If Steem was perfectly decentralized to my level of coins that would only leave enough room for 177,333 users to hold Steem. It's very clear that if Steem becomes mainstream in any sense of the word then coins are going to be very scarce.

Of the 266 million coins in circulation how many are users actually willing to sell? The math on this post I wrote 18 days ago shows that 71.5% of all coins are already vested. I don't want to sell any of my coins and I wouldn't even consider it until the value of a coin was $10+. Many whales have little incentive to sell. When the value of Steem rises their upvotes become massive. Why sell your stake in a currency when you directly control the inflation of it? Our 24 hour volume right now on Coinmarketcap is $1.6 million. The simple truth of the matter is that it takes relatively very little buying pressure to scoop all the supply of Steem away and spike the price.

Imagine if a billion people wanted to use Steem. This is outright impossible at this point. We currently have to delegate 15 coins to new accounts just so they have bare-minimum bandwidth. This would require 55 times more Steem than currently exists. Not only that, this platform is practically run on a single server and copied 20+ times to all the other nodes. We tout this blockchain as a solution to scaling problems but would buckle under the pressure of actual usage. We may end up having to incorporate EOS or Bitshares Bench technology in the future to keep up with demand.

What creates demand for Steem? It's just a blogging platform right? It's a platform that creates an oversupply of blogs with little demand for them. Big whoop. It's a platform where whales upvote themselves and their own garbage content. Aren't you impressed?

These are the problems that users see and become blinded to the vast potential of the platform. The development team's number one concern right now is the Application Protocol Interface (API) and the transition to smart contracts (SMTs). This is exactly where the priority should be, because with a streamlined API any programmer can come along and start creating their own apps directly on the blockchain.

I am a fledgling programmer and I can tell you firsthand that interacting with Steem right now isn't the simplest process, but the payoff is gigantic. I can create dapps here that exist solely on the blockchain. I can create dapps that allow Steemians to log in with their Steem account name and posting key. Every app I make will have the ultimate security of the Steem blockchain. Even if I made a terrible mistake you'd only lose your posting key. This creates a very low risk yet high reward atmosphere.

In a few years or less I believe that most people on the Steem blockchain won't even be trying to blog in order to earn money. That will be the least profitable and more boring thing you can do here. The real money will be on all the other platforms that have been created. Already we see Dtube and Dlive posts getting better rewards than blogs do.

I'm sure many of you are confused at this point. How could this dream come into reality? Other than content creation what other proof-of-brain concepts can be implemented on Steem? Well, here's a small list of projects that I'd like to see on the platform:

• Custom Steem filter
  The Steemit trending tab is an embarrassment. It fuels the fire of vote buying and flag wars. However, the Steem API gives us the ability to filter the blockchain ourselves. We can create our own trending tabs. We can create our own feeds. We can moderate the comments on our blogs and the blogs of others. We can create our own custom ban/nerf/buff lists. This process would be somewhat complicated and/or time consuming (proof-of-brain). Not everyone would be expected to create their own filter. Filters would be shared with the community. If you created a custom filter that other people used they would be encouraged to tip you for your troubles in the form of upvotes.

• Revolutionize the reputation system with a DEX
  I'd like to see a decentralized exchange on Steem that shortcuts smart contracts and revolves around the community trusting one another. One person takes a risk by sending resources first with the expectation that the other person will deliver their promise. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain so if anyone breaks their promise it will be immediately obvious and no one else should want to do business with that account. Reputation garnered in this way would be very much superior to how Steem reputation works. It's hard to explain why this is true without writing a lot more about it so I'll just leave it at that.

Games

I've always wanted to program video games. The blockchain seems like the perfect place to start. I can create my games to be decentralized. I don't have to pay for a web server. I get free bandwidth access by utilizing the decentralized bandwidth of the users playing the game. I also get access to an incredibly secure currency that becomes more valuable as I create more uses for it with inflation that's controlled directly by the community. It's literally a dream come true scenario.

• Cards Against Humanity clone
  People love this game. I want to create a version for Steem where anyone can make their own deck and share it with the community. Again, proof-of-brain; people who use your deck will be encouraged to tip you with upvotes. I've actually already programmed a big chunk of this project, but I used @steemj (steem java wrapper) to make the API calls to the blockchain. This broke the program and I haven't gone back and tried to salvage the project. I'm actually not that far away from completing a working Android app once Steem (or me) gets their shit together.

• Blockchain Turn-Based Role Playing Game
  I have an idea for a decentralized roll playing game that could be played directly on the blockchain. All the information is stored in text and all the randomization would be based on hashing blocks (like POW SHA-265 mining in Bitcoin). I would create a sandbox, and incentivize Steemians to join in on development with proof-of-brain tactics. Also, you'd be able to buy/sell items acquired in game, so not only could you get paid to help develop the game you could also be paid to simply play it. I have a pretty awesome and unique combat system set up that should put the Final Fantasy series to shame. I'm also thinking about buying and playing a game called Darkest Dungeon that I've seen many times on Twitch in order to incorporate whatever awesome turn-based game mechanics they've invented.

• Decentralized poker and other gambling
  Gambling requires regulation because the house always wins. What if there is no house? Well, technically (at least in America) if there is no exploitative house taking money out of the prize pools, then it isn't considered gambling. Steem can easily accommodate unregulated (but also legal) gambling. In fact, there are already Steem bots that act as a lottery. These bots are actually taking a rake and are illegal, yet they are still in operation because they haven't really caught the attention of the authorities yet. Just think of what gambling would be like if it were free. I'm guessing very popular.

What do you think now?

Seriously though, who's going to be writing blogs on Steem when you can do all this other stuff? Before Full Tilt Poker got shut down I was making $20/h there playing four tables at once at $1 no limit stakes. Without a rake I would have doubled my winnings to $40/h. Honestly, this revolution is a lot closer than you think. Put some faith in API coins like Steem, Ethereum, EOS, Tron, NEO, Cardano, Etc. now BEFORE the killer apps pop up and spark mainstream adoption. It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when".

Related article: Steem Bandwidth Extremely Undervalued Resource