The State of Steem

I have had some time to digest the latest blog from Steemit team and read the views of various Steemians. Overall, HF20 seems to be targeted at scalability of the blockchain and making changes to the dynamics of SBD. The changes seem well intention especially those dealing with on-boarding new users, I am particularly interested in seeing how Resource Credits system works out.

More importantly, one of the questions I ask myself, are these changes enough to get me excited enough to dip into my pockets an buy Steem or SBD, the straight answer is "NO". Another question I ask myself, would these changes stir me or excite me to blog and interact, the straight answer is "NO".

Nonetheless, I want to thank the team for taking the time to get this ship moving in some direction with HF20. On a personal note, I believe, HF20 lack investor imagination and gamification necessary to excite traders/ speculators/ investors. I continue to read the misguided judgement of high SBD responsible for low Steem prices and the detrimental increase of the debt burden (10%). Its not a matter of if, its just a matter of when the cascading debt spiral cycle becomes the trademark of the ecosystem. Vital to any cryptocurrency project are liquidity and financial investment stream. Those two factors are the engine, especially for project like Steem that seeks to become a giant within the space. Steem in its current state and propose state(HF20) would continue to be skewed to a few and ultimately the exodus of users would continue. Authors reward return to rewardpool, again a key gamification aspect taken away while it may appear selfish, such is human nature. "A man/ woman would continue to spend his money or give his/her time because he/ she sees an opportunity to make a return, even though he/she never wins" typical lottery player. Ironically this system continues to be the most prosperous business model around, I still take a shot at the lottery even though I know my chances are close to zero.

My key challenge for Steemit team is ensuring that Steem token remains attractive, I believe any factor that increase gamification appeal is a fair tradeoff. SMT remains that sort of stimulus and I am hopeful that it works out. I would not go into SBD gamification and why it appeals to many as this has been well documented. My 2 cents remains, Steem token in its current state isn't attractive, high SBD prices aren't the problem and the current model (SBD) model works perfectly fine, speculators take advantage of scarce things. We also have to realistic to new users and explain the dynamics of Steem, given its large supply and selling pressure is primarily the reason for its depress prices. I am also reading a lot of folks hoping for SBD pump given the fact that it is no longer printed, again, if Bitcoin isn't doing anything it won't move or Steem itself moves to jump to cause the chain reaction.

The state of cryptocurrency market remains uncertain, we are either 1 factor away from misery or 1 factor away from glory. I remain hopeful that Steem continue to grow and more attractive to investors/ traders/ speculators.