It's definitely tough being first to market, and possibly second or third to market depending on how quickly you rushed in. I don't know how many blockchains are derived from similar, restrictive technology like Bitcoin, but it sounds like there could be more like Bitcoin currently then there are like Steem.

So, beyond what Steemit and the rest of the STEEM ecosystem is able to become, the underlying blockchain technology is faster and can handle more and keep going.

And, because you can build something on it, like Steemit, that creates an instant attention economy, even a basically two-year old beta version of Steemit, along with some fledgling d-apps, some of which aren't all that great yet compared to their established Social media counterparts, the utility is there and there's up to 65,000 of us active on the site daily. (okay, that may include a bot army.)

The way technology in this field is constantly changing and improving, I have no doubt that there will be something that could eclipse STEEM in the not too distant future. The biggest potential rival that I know of is EOS, at least in the short term, because of what it allows all blockchains to do. That said, though, the older blockchain technology isn't going to keep up with STEEM even with something on top of it, and if there's anyway to further improve on STEEMs performance, that will push things down the road even farther.

So, I think the window is probably a year or more, at the shortest, and all kinds of things can happen in that period of time, including hivemind/communities, HF20 and SMTs, all of which are supposed to be, in varying degrees, game changers.

Or, patches on patches on patches. Take your pick. :)