Bitcoin has been around for a while now -- a long while. Despite the never ending press (good and bad), the general public still fails to grasp the basic blockchain concept. And guess what? They never will.
The general public will never fully grasp the technical complexities of distributed ledgers, hashrates, and private keys. Just like most people don't know how their credit card works or what causes interest rates to flucuate or what drives inflation. What the general public wants to know is that they have a store of value that they can trade in exchange for goods and services. Period.
The cryptocurrency ecosystem remains relatively small despite the press because, as it now stands, the barrier to entry is a superficial technical understanding. You have to know at least a little bit about how crypto works in order to buy a coin. One could simply go on Coinbase and stumble through opening an account but this isn't happening at scale. The risk simply feels unwarranted and unnecessary without the requisite knowledge. When coins can be stored on a credit card and spent at McDonalds without a second thought of keys and blockchains, then and only then will we see mass adoption. The barrier of understanding must be removed because most people aren't willing to take the time to cross it.
And that's we're Steemit comes in. Steemit doesn't require an understanding of the blockchain. It requires a Facebook or Reddit account and a desire to hear and/or be heard. Everyone meets those criteria and, as a result, Steem has the ability to reach a slightly larger set of users -- literally everyone with the internet.
Even with only a minuscule fraction of the total addressable market signing up for Steemit thus far, we've seen a huge spike in value. Why? Because Reddit gets 20 million unique visitors per month and each and every one of those people can join right now. No scary exchanges. No wallet verifications. Just a simple platform to share your thoughts.
Bitcoin, Eth, and the rest of the reigning champs in the crypto world have seen very limited adoption. But don't write them off just yet. When my mom can load coins on a card, the value of these currencies will 10x, 20x, 100x seemingly overnight. Steemit has given us a small taste of what mass adoption looks like. The future is bright.