What if Steem dies?

Before I get deeper into the main idea of this article I want to clear out a few things since some people may misunderstand this, Steemit is not Steem, Steemit.com is a website on the internet, and regardless of what’s happening to it, your funds, content, and account would remain the same. On the other hand, Steem is the blockchain where we have plenty of application build upon it, like DTube, DLive, Steemit and Busy but all these apps are just a front end to the blockchain and Steem could live without them, but they could not live without Steem. The overall idea, Steemit is just a website, Steem is the technology behind this.

We have many people that took huge bets with Steem and have most of their money invested in this technology. Also, this is the primary source of income for many other people, and others are just earning a bonus here but regardless of that, we all want to see it succeed but, since it’s still new, many things can happen.

Possibilities

The most known theory is that Steem could be MySpace, it could have a lot of success only to die off later and make room for something better to come in, for a Facebook to get born. Considering the issues it has, and the fact that usually, the first man through the door gets shot, this theory is possible, but regardless, what’s important is that the legacy keeps on living. If someone else launches something a lot better, we would undoubtedly see a lot of people migrating there, especially the newbies and that could mean the beginning of the end, but I guess we can only wait and see what happens. One thing is sure, the more similar platforms get born, and competitiveness is being created, the more is the team behind Steem/Steemit motivated to innovate.

Another thing that could happen is either someone fucking up the blockchain, some regulations coming into this ecosystem or any other event that could crush the prices of Steem or crypto in general for a very long time. When we went from $7-8 at the peak to under $2 after the crash, many people that just joined Steem got used to the big prices and became less determined to post quality. Even other people that were here for a while felt demoralized, and that was seen in the amount of their interaction and not only on Steem but the whole internet. But, the people that understood that Steem is still great at $2 considering that it stayed at under $1 for a long time before the pump kept on working the same. The idea is that in case the prices drop dramatically, many people will either post less or just leave.

What if?

Let’s say that this whole platform gets crushed and nobody’s feeling incentivize to post anymore, regardless how that would get accomplished, what would then happen to this blockchain?

Steem isn't actually its price or technology, nor the sum of its applications like Steemit, Busy or DTube but, since it’s a social media platform, after all, Steem is its community, and the community is solid right now. In the absurd that the shit goes down, the essence of Steem would never die but would get manifested in other ways. Many Steemians spent months and some even years here, interacting with people, making real friends and some of them even met in real life so I can firmly say that we have a strong sense of community.

If Steem disappears, the community would probably just keep on developing other more projects, regardless if they are on a blockchain or on the web. Thanks to the friendships and connections most of us created here, the collaborations will keep on going, and the essence of Steem would still be alive, it almost sounds romantic.

Conclusion

Even if one of the scenarios mentioned above it is possible, I think it’s most unlikely, and Steem will probably live forever in one way or another because it truly impacted people’s lives. Even if this might turn out to be just a social experiment and will crumble down in flames, it opened the way for innovation and will probably allow people to build something even better because there’s always room for growth.

All these ideas are theoretical, I think Steem is here to stay regardless of its issues, and I think anyone should try to look for the future because five years from now on, all these problems will look like jokes. Maybe Steem will become as massive as Facebook, leading in this ecosystem or it might just die but either way, I think people should still get on this but also keep in mind, don't invest more than you're willing to lose.

The pictures are from Unsplash: 1, 2, 3.