You must have heard this statement in the comments sections whenever the post is about Steemit. While the statement could be a over statement, I am invested in Steem for the long term.
Steem is a platform, Steemit is an interface
While most people think of Steemit as a blogging platform, what they don't realise is that Steemit is just one app built on Steem. Think of it this way Steem is the platform and Steemit is just one interface for the platform. For example busy.org is an alternative interface for the same Steem platform. This example was just to show that Steemit is not the platform and Steem is.
Distributed content platforms
The number of services built on Steem platform will only increase with each passing day. In the next 12 months you will have websites which will claim to be
Distributed Image Hosting Service
Distributed Video Hosting Service
Distributed Facebook
Distributed Twitter
Distributed Quora
Distributed Upwork
The best part is that Steem can empower all of them. The power of Steem as a platform that can enable services is still undermined. Today we already have a POC for couple of above mentioned use cases or at-least the discussions have started.
Distributed Image Hosting Service -
Distributed Video Hosting Service - https://upload.view.ly/ and https://dtube.video/
Distributed Forums - https://beta.chainbb.com/
Distributed Facebook -
Distributed Twitter -
Distributed Quora - https://steemit.com/qa/@gokulnk/q-a-site-based-on-steem-brainstorming
Distributed Upwork - https://www.steemj.com/
Currency for user engagement
Considering all this Steem is undervalued coin/token. Steem can become the Currency for User Engagement on internet and any website or service which needs to keep their users engaged on the platform can use Steem. Even if any of these platforms doesn't take off, they will be replaced by other platforms that are better. Even if we feel that none of these platforms can complete with the existing giants, there is a fair chance that one of the popular platforms like Quora, Medium or Tumblr might adopt Steem to drive user engagement. When that happens Steem will shoot up.
Currency is undervalued
Just comparing the below two images should give you an idea of how under valued Steem is. With the number of users boarding the platform increasing on a regular basis, it will create a network effect. More people get to know about the platform as they can mine engaging on the platform. Those who see value in the platform will invest in the currency. Since many users of the platform will be invested in Steem and they will have Steem Power which they can't power down immediately it will take care of the price fluctuations in the short term and increase institutional investor confidence for the long term.
Predictions for Steem
I personally feel that in the next two months or so Steem will reach 4 USD and stay there for some time. Steem was indeed at 4 USD last July for a brief time. It might break this barrier if any of the platforms using Steem (Steemit, SteemJ, Dtube or the likes) go mainstream or if any of the main stream websites adopt Steem as the "Currency of Engagement on their site". When that happens Steem could reach to around 20 USD. For steem to go beyond that I think it should challenge Facebook and complete with it for stealing some of the revenue money Facebook is making. For that to happen I think there should be at-least 100 million users on Steemit.
fibonacci pinball is telling us we'll see much higher, like hundreds, probably 166$ this year and even more later :)
That seems way higher than what I was thinking. I wouldn't complain though :P if the price goes to 166$. Can you share some more details. I am just getting started on TA and would like to know more about how you used Fibonacci Pinball to come up with this number.
Now that we are very close to 4USD, here is my next prediction for the end of 2018.
Terrific post @gokulnk - thank you for bringing it to our attention. We were aware that there were other functions fo the STEEM platform. However, we were not exactly sure what these were - thank you for a little more clarity on this.
We have upvoted and resteemed and gladly welcome a $4 Steem Price.
COMMUNITY NEWS
reSteemed
I like the distinction you make between Steem and Steemit, and I agree that a lot of the existing social media giants might be seeing some new competitors based on the Steem platform.
The landscape is changing, and this is very exciting for software people my age that were too young to start careers during the dotcom boom. I'm researching the development side of this constantly so I can start building my career in this new age: the blockchain boom!
It is never too late!
Why do you think it will reach $4?
For the kind of traction Steem blockchain is getting I feel that it should have been 4 USD already by now. Most of the other coins have utility only for payment or their niche. But steem has the benefit of having both. It can be used as a token of appreciation for content creation or content curation. With platforms like SteemJ usage of Steem as an actual currency will also increase.
Let's hope that you are right. I still think though, that Steem will need to attract much more people in order to really grow. Because the platform here is not enough and most of the coins grow because of the people that want to buy them for investment. Like the very recent Bitcoin explosion...
yes steem could be very beneficial to existing or still to be made platforms. I love it here at steemit and can see steem as a currency really getting the engagement back into the social world here online. It would always make for a great youtube replacement. Instead of getting paid by ads you could be getting tipped by the people that actually care about your videos.
Lots of possibilities with steem! I'm here for the long haul so lets see those prices rise :)
On my last post I have talked about why did I buy a lot of Steem all at once and powered up.
While I do agree that steem is undervaluated and deserves to be at leas 1bln market cap lots of things must happen before, the main thing is a improvement in Steem apps, like Steemit itself. Will be hard to get users from Facebook or Reddit and I don't think it will happen soon, but I will keep powering up weekly, it is better to keep holding than to miss out!
Agree with you. I understand delays in the underlying platform Steem as that is complicated. But I can't convince myself why the UI changes of Steemit are taking so long. All @dan needs to do is have a team with couple of couple of UI designers and a 8 member UI team who just works on the enhancements of UI part.
There is much power in the Steem which going unutilised because of the limitations of the UI and I feel that is such a waste.
LOL. Dan is not working @ Steemit since March.
He doesn't need to he just needs to make sure that the team addresses it.
I don't think the interface needs a lot of work on, it is simple and just works, it focus on the content, but is not mobile friendly, all data from a post is loaded into the page, if a thread has 1000+ answers my phone can not handle it, my computer handles just fine but it is just impossible to follow some very interesting discussions on mobile, and we are in the age of mobile friendly.
4 USD could happen soon, but Steemit is still far from challenging Facebook.
I don't think Steemit competes with Facebook, to me it looks more like a Reddit IMO.
Regarding the 4USD I hope it does not go above 2USD this year, I have just bought my first couple os Steem and I want to buy and power up much more before it skyrockets, would be a shame to miss it :(
The point is not "Will it challenge Facebook in a year or two", the point is "Steemit the platform that can complete with facebook over the time"? And I think that the answer to it is yes, as there is a lot of untapped potential in the platform.
This post received a 2.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @gokulnk! For more information, click here!
Well, if it reaches 4 USD I will hate to tell you guys "I told you so..." ;-)
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@kapetanic/steem-consider-the-gains