Does Steem Need Leadership?

I've seen a few people talk about Steem's need for leaders and a common vision. The argument is that outsiders assume that Steem does must have leaders because everything has, and that in the absence of elected leaders, the community may not have any control over who appoints themselves or who the outside world takes for a spokesman for Steem. The potential that Steem has is purportedly wasted and the token price will continue to go down the toilet without clear direction and focus under some sort of an elected leader.

To assess whether Steem needs a leader it should be understood what it is. Steem is middleware. It's software below the application level. It's a blockchain, a shared immutable database on peer-to-peer network that has a native cryptocurrency built into it. That's all it essentially is.

The people it should be primarily marketed to are application developers. Those are the people who should be convinced that Steem has properties that will enable them build the kind of applications they want to build.

Because the development of the blockchain protocol is done exclusively by Steemit, Inc, it is the undisputable leader of Steem. They build the protocol and all the rest is meant to be built by others. The Smart Media Token protocol will be marketed to website owners who will to integrate it with their own products. The vast majority of users are intended to be brought on board one existing community at a time.

The existing user community is made up of bloggers who took up using the first Steem apps which were all blogging applications. These people, which is us, are not typical in any way. We're all pioneers. We are the kind of people who have the curiosity and patience to put up with a highly immature ecosystem like this with issues like key management and a user based being made up of a geographically diverse set of people with nothing but the pioneer spirit in common. All the flag wars and shit are par for the course at this stage.

This is why "marketing Steem" has been so incredibly difficult. Most people simply don't have what it takes to come on board now. They want something ready for mass onboarding. Very few Steem apps or, heaven forbid, Steem itself are not the kind of things that can go viral among the general public. How could that be when so many existing Steemians who've been around the block for years now are still confused about the whole thing themselves? What Steem is now for non-developers is a raw opportunity to be an early adopter. The product may fail but it may also become the foundation of countless apps, in which case the token price could achieve a stable value in the tens of dollars.