Power UP, DOWN or HODL? Steem... Remember, It's Still a Cryptocurrency!

Is Pay To Play Coming?

As I sat here this morning watching Bitcoin pursue a steady decline from recent new highs, I couldn't help but wonder why the price of STEEM is still hovering around $1.00. While many Alt coins have been posting gains (some more than others) in this Bull market, Steem just plugs along without much fanfare. Since before coming to Steemit, I have watched the price of Steem falter, falling from its high of $2.62 earlier in the year near to near $0.78 cents in July of this year... when I joined Steemit. Since that time it has floundered (for a lack of better terms) from a high of near $1.67 in September, reaching lows of around $0.81 just 3 weeks ago. No more, no less. Yet, many of us Steemians simply plug along, almost oblivious to price supports. (I did say almost!) That in itself says a lot about Steemians... the real creators are here mostly for community and not the money (although the money is nice).

Bitcoin Down, STEEM... Not So Much!

And all the while us Steemians mostly complain about the perceived unfaireness of revenue distribution (I'm not going there in this post), most Steemians never seem to complain much about the flat price of STEEM as compared to the market cap as a whole. That's not to say there is no shortage of "Why is Steem Price So Low" posts. When you look at the STEEM market cap one year ago, you will see it was around $70 million USD. Today, that market cap is about $277.5 million USD. That is phenomenal in and of itself, right? I will say this... with that kind of growth, you would think it would be reflected in the price of STEEM, right?

After lunch, I took a break from watching Bitcoin's sufferance and happened across a new post on Steemit (one that should be trending!) by @aggroed titled Steem 2.0 is coming like a big wave.... (Read it later, okay?) @aggroed speaks about his frustration that with all the hard work that has gone into Steemit, and the market price is still around $1.00. He also summarizes the good things that are happening and ends his post with a hearty "Personally I think you have about 3 more months of cheap steem. So get'em while you can. Cause this shit's hot."

And I Couldn't Agee More.

Personally, I can understand the substantial growth in market cap with little or NO correlating increase to STEEM's market price. Without digging further into how many new accounts have been added recently (and all the delegated startup SP that this consumes), I do know that newcomers to Steemit are not showing on the Steemit doorstep with their own investment (nobody does actually). We all know that new Steemit accounts are given a satchel full of delegated SP when they arrive, then when many learn that Steemit does not live up to their get-rich-quick overnight fantasies, they pack their bags and leave, leaving a lot of orphaned SP behind. I guess it is safe to say that Steemit has a lot of "dead-wood" SP so to speak.

But my simple (non-techie) mind does understand one thing. All Steemians must all remember that Steemit is STILL in beta. Although Steem has basically matured as a cryptocurrency with somewhat low volatility, platform adoption overall has been strong as evidenced by the current market cap. And the continued decline in power-down numbers in recent weeks indicates (to me anyway) foward looking confidence in Steemit's viability. When Steemit exits beta and takes off, it is at this time I expect the Steemit Devs will introduce an entry fee of sorts... If you want to board this rocket ship, you will need a ticket! "Pay to Play!" (a common American political axiom of late). Steemit 2.0 should see the end of the freebies - No More Handouts! And then, as SMT's begin to reach a popular state of adoption, the Steemit platform will be the next boom across the blockchain universe. Generally speaking, Steemit is beginning to make an impact on the cryptocurrency scene. These are my hopes anyway.

So, when will Steemit 2.0 come about? Your guess is as good as mine, but know this - don't wait around for it to happen (caught with your proverbial pants down) because when Steemit does exit beta and go live, it will be too late. You will wake up one morning and before you even get to your first cup of coffe you will exclaim very loudly... WTF? You will be heard all over the neighborhood... and then the world will know.

Is this a FOMO scare tactic? Well, not so much a tactic as it is more like an emperical observation backed-up with some apparently obvious statistical truth. And after reading @aggroed's post, I was further encouraged to trade-in more bitcoin today for STEEM. Where my thoughts go, my money follows!

Steemit... It's not just a cryptocurrency anymore... It's a way of life.