Steemit: The Road Ahead?

The Steemit community is currently really taking it on the chin in terms of the Steem price performance and the subsequent impact on the monetary value of their accounts. The bear market has been in effect for quite some time now. I think April was when the downward trend began to manifest itself. Of course this seemed to play out in parallel to the market performance of Bitcoin.

Bankers and Institutional Speculation

JP Morgan Chief, Jamie Dimon, has often been cited as the main"villan" in spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about cryptocurrencies, often labeling them a fraud. This has particularly been the case with Bitcoin. Many have labeled Dimon as the face of the banking industry that is willing to fight tooth and nail against any threats, real or imagined, from the emerging crypto industry. His is seen as an effort to dissuade potential investors with significant resources from leaving the fold of the traditional financial institutions and joining the ranks of the new decentralized rebels who view Banks and the like as over due for history's dustbin.

Then there is the additional problem of institutional speculation which began with the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) allowing in the trading of Bitcoin futures. Some people consider this an invitation to pump and dump on steroids. Needless to say, these negative influences impact the price position of Steem as well.

Steem As A Utility To Facilitate Value

So as previously discussed, there are a number of externel market factors that are affecting the value of our Steemit accounts. The downward trend can really put a damper on the desire to maintain frequent interactions on the platform. One may also come to ponder the future health of the Steemit ecosystem if the negative market pressures do not lessen within the foreseeable future?

After spending some time contemplating these and other challenges facing Steemit and Steem, I have come to believe that Steem needs to provide its users with a utility model, perhaps somewhat akin to the DASH crypto model, especially its Digtal Cash facilities. However, the one thing that the Steem blockchain offers that DASH does not is the social Media aspect and the facilitation for DAPPS (decentralized applications). Smart Media Tokens are another unique feature that will differentiate Steem from other blockchains. If the Steemit/Steem team can synthesize all of these aspects into an integrated solution that allows everyday people to get their "stuff" done, then I can imagine that it will represent breakout technology and will allow Steemit to surge ahead and gain it a tremendous degree of adoption.

I would be very interested to have feedback these ideas and other suggestions on how Steemit/Steem could move forward and how all users can be incentivized to submit polished and compelling content. Thanks for reading.