Is Steemit Going To Die?

I found out about @ned's article about cutting the costs of Steemit from the gloating tweet of a different blockchain CEO. I wont mention the name, but, this was a horrible way to find this news.

For more than two years now, I have watched the ebb and flow of Steemit and seen hardforks comitted. I have seen many users come and go. I have delved deeper and deeper into the cryptocurrency world and have learned many things.

I have seen Bitcoin fight and split, and fight and split again. All the while, I have been a spectator in the crypto arena, never a player. I have seen many things that I like and many that I disagree with. What I have seen and taken to heart is that the only way to successfully run a blockchain is the decentralized model.

Steemit has been under fire from it's inception for being centralized. Many have even called it an outright scam and a ponzi scheme. This is all due to it's centralized nature. While I do not agree with the language, I see the point. Steemit is strong because of the users, not the upper management. If we had started out as a decentralized blockchain, we would have been better off imo.

Now, the weaknesses are being seen and big changes are seemingly ahead for Steemit, again. Hopefully, we, as users can come together and save this wonderful platform. We have all of the power necessary within us to keep Steemit strong, and, make it even stronger by decentralizing completely. Can you imagine all of the support and new usership we can garner by becomimg a legitamate blockchain? Giants in the community that have called down Steemit for it's centralized nature could and probably would join if we were seen to be a real decentralized blockchain. In turn, their followers would do what they do best, follow them onto Steemit and we could be a real crypto community instead of what we have today, a divided one.

Options

• We pay.

Mathematically, if we have 250k active users, we could pay Steemit's costs at $4 per account. Of we doubled in size it would be $2, and so on. Why not charge a small percentage of the rewards to make up the money? Why not charge an admission fee? The users can make the fee back in a relatively short time.

• We Serve

I mean this in the most literal way. We, as users have made out pretty good using Steemit.Bitcoin is strong because of all the people that run full nodes. If a lot of us run nodes, wouldn't that lower the costs for Steemit?
I have only scratched the surface of running a node, and, from what I have read, it would not be too hard for a bunch of us to run one. We could even collaborate on nodes. The larger communities could come together and run nodes. They seem to do better with rewards, so, now it is time to put up or shut up.

• Advertising

I left this til last because I hate the thought of big corporate interests being involved in our little ecosystem. I come here to escape corporations and politics. I do not want Steemit to become Facebook. I dont want to be sold to the highest bidder.

That being said, advertising could be the only thing that helps move us forward from here. I hope we find a better solution, though.

Whatever needs to be done, we owe it to each other to try. Hopefully, you all feel the same.