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Question then is what would happen to adoption.

If SteemIt is so valuable that creating an account keeps getting more expensive, the price of STEEM probably keeps rising as well. But for now you can buy accounts for 0.2 STEEM i believe (after the first free account).

Right, so in order to spread Steem outside of wealthy/investor/enthusiast circles we might need new strategies. Facebook etc is free after all.

It's going to be interesting when Synereos Qrator becomes public and we have something to compare to.