In the beginning...
Much has been talked about regarding the strength and longevity of Steemit. There are quite a few users who jumped on board early (in June) and disappeared after a post or two or thirty. Regular users are fairly scared of the health of the new technology: many conversations have happened regarding Steem Inflation, the 2-Year Power Down Calendar, Downvoting, and the influence of whales.
What has been helpful and hopeful is that the developers 
All this has happened within the last 6-8 months, which is a speck of time in the life of most corporations. That's two and a half quarters, barely enough to register an earnings report.
Where We are Today
The truth is that Steemit has only begun. The one thing that Steemit has that is rare among cryptocurrencies is a large, hyper-devoted user group. In the sense of timeframes, I think it's important to remember the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle, based on the Roger's Bell Curve for psychological profiles, and how this applies to Steemit's rise.
I first believed that we were all Early Adopters. But after careful consideration, I know now that we are still in the Innovators stage of adoption. Steemit is still in Beta, with a large amount of innovation occurring on a daily basis. We have seen all sorts of different initiatives pop up, most of them by homegrown innovators and not developers like Ned and Dan. We have Curation Guilds, and mobile phone apps, and sites that take the blockchain information and packages it in a way that normal everyday folk can understand.
We are bound to see an influx -- a second wave -- of new users when the new blockchain rules launch at the end of the year. This wave might represent the start of the second stage of the adoption cycle, or the Early Adopters. Following the Early Adopters are the later stages: Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards.
If Innovators and Early Adopters are early and late Beta users, than Early Majority could be seen as the first main wave of users after the Beta, Late Majority the time at which adoption is fairly popular and known, and laggards when the most reluctant users jump onto the Steemit ship.
Currently we are only at 2.5% of the potential market for Steemit users. if that represents 100,000 or so users, then that would mean we should expect 540,000 users in the later stage of Beta following the changes at the end of the year. These users will join during the length of time of the Early Adoption phase.
This level of adoption follows the same curve as the rapid adoption of the web:
Web Adoption
and adoption of Instagram!
Instagram Adoption
And even Bitcoin and cryptocompanies!
Bitcoin companies
We are in the start of something wonderful, for certain!
I'm very excited for the future for Steemit, and will continue to join in the conversation on how to help change the way that created content benefits both readers and content creators.
@professorx
Image credit:
Product adoption curve: FPPT
Hypertext adoption curve : Nielsen Norman Group
Instagram adoption curve: ARK Investment Management LLC
Bitcoin adoption curve graphic: Crypto Hustle