RE: Would You Pay Fiat To Use Steem?
With something as innovative as Steem and blockchain technology, it would kind of bug me if they had to resort to traditional means to make money like taking a cut out of your posts or paying every month.
I feel like there should be a brand new innovative way for dapps and Steemit Inc. to pay for their costs because it will just end up being like their centralized counterparts. First they will take a cut of 10% and then over time that will probably turn to 45%. Likewise, putting up ads incentivizes the dapps to collect more information about you so that the ads can be more targeted which would allow them to make a bigger profit. Paying every month is only something a dedicated Steemian would do. Newcomers will probably not like the idea of having to pay but I'd say we as a community care a lot about this blockchain more than the average person in the future that will not even know what Steem is.
I would hope something like dapps having enough SP to earn money through curation or something and then that could pay for their costs without taking a cut from its users.
You make an interesting point about the fees creeping up. That's the nature of these things I suppose. And the scenario you describe at the end - with with dApps earning via curation - that was already the business plan for many of the dApps. It works as long as the price of Steem is above a certain amount. The minute the price falls like we are now, the money is no longer enough.
You are right though, we need some innovation in that respect. I think this crisis has already triggered something in the community. There's now a lot of talk of decentralisation of the costs. - so to say. Let's hope it all turns to action too.