It is a matter of comparative advantage. For a cryptocurrency to effectively convert into global money (or money in certain regions), it must appear to people that its use offers greater advantages than the use of another currency. The main thing is to serve as a means of exchange, then as a store of value, and finally, to have other uses that do not affect these first two qualities.

It should be noted that it is not only important to have positive characteristics, but also to present the minimum number of inconveniences that may cause people to prefer similar alternatives but with slightly superior qualities.

In the end, those who choose are the people, "with their feet". The currency that wins the battle does not even have to be "objectively" the best. But we can be sure that in order to beat the fiat money and maintain a dominance over the other cryptocurrencies in a "bitcoinized" scenario, it will have to be a hard currency.

Will Steem become money in the future? I really do not know, but what I do know is that a cryptocurrency does not necessarily have to become money to survive and maintain a sustainable market niche. Surely the future will be full of tokens and decentralized applications. Let's work for it.