It is with a degree of humility that I write this since I am Stem user in the form of a content creator only.
Quite frankly, us users need to get over our self-importance. I know this is going to upset some people but the simple fact of the matter is, at this point, users are secondary on the Steem blockchain.
I know this is astonishing to most but this is where things are at. Over time, that will change yet not now.
The other day I used the analogy of driving a car. It matters none how good a driver you are (writer), how nice your car is (content), or how fast it can go. If there are no roads, the construction people are of much greater priority.
Steem has very few roads at this point. That means those building them, the developers are front and center.
Too many want to approach Steem like they do the rest of the social media world. People are expecting a finished product. It is far from that. Basically, anyone on here right now putting up content is a test case. That is all we are. It is our job to try out the applications that are created. It is through our actions that bugs are found. We are the mice in the laboratory.
Everything is basically in Beta.
Few remember the early days of the Internet. Life pre-browser was a nightmare from what I hear. The average person had no chance of interacting in that arena. Circa 1993 meant we were looking at another 5 years before any major numbers started to hit the Internet.
For all the heat that Ethereum takes, do you know what they have? Developers and a lot of them. That blockchain probably has more DApps then all the other blockchains combined. I recently read their developers number in the hundreds of thousands. This includes all those working on ways around the scaling problems via layer 2 and sidechains.
I am always happy to see larger approval numbers and newer people participating. This is because I feel being an early adopter is going to be of huge benefit to each individual on here. Yesterday, I put up a post telling how I used some fiat currency to buy STEEM and power up. I truly feel the long term future of this blockchain is incredible.
However, I realize millions of accounts means nothing. I do not care about 20K daily active posters and getting that to 100K. What is most important is taking the number of developers on here and tripling it in the next 6 months. That is what will really "moon" this thing.
Having a blockchain that can transact an incredible speeds means nothing if there is nobody using it. Without transactions, the speed of a blockchain is akin to a tree falling in the woods and nobody hearing it. It matters none.
People should go back and look at the archived versions of Google and Facebook when they first came out. Then, couple that with the user rates at that time. Do you think Zuckerberg was really concerned about the fact he had only 50K when he was running it at Harvard? Certainly, what was online then was a shadow of what Facebook is today.
Of course, blockchain is infrastructure while Facebook is an application but you get the point. We are in the Geek Zone and they are the ones running they show. They need to work their magic and the rest of us get to play in their sandbox while they are building things. Every single application that is on here right now, if there is any kind of development team behind it, will be radically different in a couple years. At the same time, we have seen only a smidgen of the total number of applications that eventually end up on here.
It does not matter if one has 500K or 50 SP. Do you know what is going to make it very valuable? It is not what you and 500 of your friends post. What will make it valuable is what 500 developers create. That is what tracks the attention of the masses.
Without development this place is like a bar on Sunday morning: completely empty.
Do you want a blockchain that has 50M or 100M people on it? Then realize it is not going to happen by the users. Even if the content posted here was epic, Gone with the Wind type stuff, it would not matter. If I worked my ass off to try and get people here, I might be able to get 30 or 40 in a year. Even the most sociable person might be able to refer 100 or so in a year. 
That is the power of the applications and that only comes about from developers.
It is often posted on here how people need to be patient. That is the golden rule. Anyone who was around in the early days of the Internet knows how vital that is. That took years to get to the point where it was even somewhat able to be used by non-techy people. Steem is around 2.5 years old and people expect it to operate like other social media networks that have more than a decade under their belts.
That is completely insane.
The truth of the matter is that me, you, and the other 20K users could leave here tomorrow and Steem would do just fine as long as the developers keep hacking away at code. There are 7B people in the world with 3.4B (roughly) already online. Users are not going to be the problem as long as there is something interesting for them to use.
I feel fortunate to be here at this point. I would rather be user #318,110 as opposed to user #30,000,000. Over time, as a guinea pig for the applications, I can accumulate STEEM Power and build up my account. At some point, Minnow is going to be a tough category to break into since STEEM will keep getting harder to amass. This is why I believe those with as little as 100 SP are going to be very, very happy campers down the road.
Patience. Patience. Patience.
Steem has the potential to be one of the top blockchains. However, the only way we will get there is if the developers create some really amazing applications that gets the interest of the masses. That is how we will see user numbers into the hundreds of millions.
In the meantime, in addition to testing out all the apps to help the developers work out the bugs, we can take 30 seconds to upvote STEEM in our effort to get it listed on Netcoins.
https://busy.org/exit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcontest.gonetcoins.com%2F
Users, marketers, promoters, and everyone else will have their time. Right now, it is up to those who are creating applications that are up to bat. We can't get to the next level until they do their thing.
Patience. Patience. Patience.
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