RE: Just my recent thoughts and status
Steem is not 100% centralized but is way more than it should be because of neds giant stake and incompetence.
Yes 'community' is a vague term. Its my mistake of generalization, but it doesnt change the fact we have individuals and witnesses who are discussing possible solutions for running the api on their own.
Alternatives like @esteemapp are there even if steemit.com goes down. I think theyre running a full node im not sure. it aint perfect and i have no idea what theyll do if steemit inc disappears. but when i refer to 'community' i refer to these dapps and developers and users that can self sustain. And theres others out there too of course.
The steem blockchain does not reside on a single website like steemit. Nor does it rely on a single company to survive. Steemit is nothing more than an interface to give you a little more convenience. It just happens to be the most popular one. (how most of this community is relying on their infrastructure is a huge red flag, but if you read the comments its being addressed by many developers who clearly seem more qualified than ned)
The distributed nodes were designed to withstand censorship and control even from governments (unfortunately ned himself has been the tyranny but this might be the opportunity to change that)
If steem can achieve censorship-resistance and start distributing rewards in a fair/reasonably predictable manner, the current price is massively undervalued.
that still doesn't answer the question of how it all can influence the price of STEEM coin :)
because mainly it is dependent on peoples' trading it on Exchanges - not on the Apps and nodes :)
price increases when Demand is higher than Supply - that's trivial basics.
and not just a any demand, but an actual steady one - factual purchasing it more and more on Exchanges.
so far though it looks like STEEM is more like being dumped on those exchanges. that's usually is an obvious reason of why some crypto price drops.
(yesterday I've further elaborated on this matter here)
Demand for freedom and security which come from distributed nodes. In steem's case you have a little more utility built in.
'Apps and nodes' is a counterexample against your statement saying the community can do nothing.
Not too long ago steem was $4 at a korean exchange. I guess you can ask about your demand there? :)
Its easy to say it's 0 in a bear market, which is no different from saying that a bullrun will continue forever.