Good article. I also can imagine steem sparking the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. The way steem and steemit drive me to want to produce great content is really something!

And I don't think I'm alone. In fact, there's something about this model that's irresistible to people. People work more when rewards are randomized to a degree. We work much harder than "makes sense", and harder than we would if we received the same payout but in regular increments instead of random. It's the World of Warcraft model applied to cryptocurrency.

Steem also benefits from the fact that people don't have to invest money directly. I think people are more willing to put time into something than money, even if the opportunity cost of the time is greater than investing money directly.