The value of your network is the square of the number of people using it. - Gary Hamel (American consultant)
How many people are currently using Steem, and are they effectively defining its value ?
What is value in terms of a long-term investment decision? Would we invest in Steem if we knew that it was supposed to become the no. 1 Social Blockchain in the world?
As discussed in my recent article The Future Of Online Is Offline, some believe that the true value of blockchain technology lies in its ability to be integrated in real life scenarios.
Let us consider #theinternetofthings (IoT) for instance, a concept that is supposed to connect devices with each other in a way that they're able to communicate directly and in an autarkic way.
IOTA (currently among the top 15 coins) has already created a lot of impact in the media where large cooperations with the automotive industry were announced.
It's a concept that not only has the potential to impact how we live but also how we work. - Jacob Morgan on IoT forbes.com
How would Steem be able to create a similar impact on our lives and already existing industries?
I do think that Steem needs a hit. Something big. Something ballsy. Something out of the box. Something that kinda knocks off people socks.
I read that comment in the SteemBlast discord channel today's morning and it actually inspired me to set up this article.
Are SMTs going to be ballsy ? Will Hivemind blow our minds?
IMO the value of these addtional protocols and services will be defined by its usage.
Here's my theory: The true value of the Social Blockchain Steem lies in its integration potential.
Impact
Independently on how one effectively uses the Steem blockchain and on which purpose, what matters is the impact.
Steem is able to improve our lives and business standard in many senses; now the question is how valuable are these improvements?
The Steem blockchain...
- enables to transact peer-to-peer wordwide in 3 seconds
- hosts a community of ~50,000 active unique users daily
- offers a wide range of already operating social dApps
- rewards its users financially for interacting on the chain
- excels any other existing blockchain in transaction capacity
Is that enough?
It probably depends on who's asking.
From an investors point of view, one of the most interesting questions might be: Who else did already join the party? Does Steem have any showcases of businesses to present that took off after being implemented on the Steem blockchain?
Most of us would probably point a finger at 
It's definitely a great showcase for investors and developers as well as the games industry.
Why? Because Steem Monsters is a true innovation!
We need more of it!
As we stated in the beginning of this article, the value of a network is defined by its usage.
Steem Monsters is definitely one of the projects on Steem that provide a true (monetary) value for both its developers and those who use it.
Also, it's a project that encourages everybody (even the smallest account) to re-invest their Steem in the ecosystem.
It's something truly ballsy (as we called it above).
If there were enough demand, would we still need to worry about how much we are allowed to supply?
I'm going to shortly refer to my own personal Steem success story, since I'd like to verify if it's still contemporary.
As some of you may have witnessed, I bought a piece of land mostly financed by Steem back in January. The related video statement became my most successful blog post on Steem to date.
What you need to know is that in the earlier stages of Steem it was quite popular to leverage Steem in order to improve your own standard of living, to travel, to invite friends for dinner or even to buy cars.
Lately I've been critized a lot for having powered down ~30,000 Steem over the past 8 months and especially for having invested them into a real life project.
Considering the ~280 million Steem that are currently circulating, my 30K are not even a drop in the bucket. However, the common belief is that those who use their Steem outside Steem's boarders do not consider it being valuable.
How does that match with the vision that cryptocurrencies are supposed to change people's life all over the world?
It's gonna be hard for crypto to achieve mass adoption, if we want it to keep being a closed circle.
I'd love to get back to my initial theory now:
The true value of the 'Social Blockchain Steem' lies in its integrability - the ability to be integrated in and have an impact on industries and lives.
Thoughts? The comment section is yours :-)
Much love,
Marly -
Steem Ambassador
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This blog was created in July 2016, aiming to provide thought-provoking content for open-minded people who go on adventure, step out of comfort zones and embrace the new.
Thanks for being part of the journey!
PS: All my blog posts are created and submitted via eSteem Surfer 1.1.12 - my favorite Steem desktop client that was developed by 
Original content. Quote found on quotefancy.com