Power to the people !
What a year for blockchain and cryptocurencies. I've been reading about the subject since almost 6 months and I've learned to understand it better which strengthened my hope in the blockchain as a powerful game changer technology applicable to a wide variety of areas: Secure archiving, decentralization possibilities and control over our own money, etc. All of this look like brand new shining tools to bring back the power to the people.
I've been here on Steemit for 4 months, living the experience, and I have seen lots of positive but also negative aspects. (Thanks to this paradoxical humanity we all shared.)
I'll keep for later a more nuanced and detailed critique of Steemit as I'm a newcomer. Anyways, here are my first impressions.
People build, people destroys
I have witnessed the profits and reputation wars on Steemit, along with the scammers, spammers and trolls. And I have seen the wonderful communities building amazing projects.
People are driven by hope as well as hate. Classic scheme...
There is no doubt about the intense effervescence that goes on over here with lots of creative and talented people who have brought things like Dtube, Dsound and Utopian.io, just to name a few. And also, the curators who work to tie Steemit communities together, especially the music one.
Openmic
As a music composer I came here to try something different from Facebook and reach a new audience. It's here with the community build over the openmic tag that I have been mostly experiencing Steemit. In the first place, I didn't come for the money, but to find a community. If it can be rewarding is the cherry on top. Beautiful music and unique gems surely can be found on Steemit. Nowadays with the ongoing democratization of music and ad-oriented social platforms, it's hard to make our music to be heard without investing bucks. Here in 4 months and 3 openmic participations, more than 50 accounts are following me and dozens of you showed their support and appreciation and it's really exciting! I'm starting slowly without interacting that much with Steemit musicians, but desire of collaborations is starting to pop in my head. I already enjoy improvising licks on songs that the people are posting. Big thanks to 
Mainstream acceptance of Steemit ?
While music is my main goal, I keep learning every time I read an article here on the different trending tags, and I'm learning a bunch of new things faster than before. Crypto, blogging, blockchain, coding, bot, etc. For now, it's too soon for me to be able to see the big picture of Steemit. Steemit is nice, but there is room for amelioration which devoted users are already working on. Nonetheless mainstream acceptance is still far away. And huge challenges are at play. I just read an article from Wikipedia that states that Steem is a «scam»
« Steemit will most likely become a failed concept as there are NO NEUTRAL moderators and no policies in place or actively enforced to prevent abuse, bullying and censorship of articles by the wealthiest members of the site. It would be advisable to avoid the platform all together if you are a hopeful blogger with interest in posting your articles without fear of reprisal or having your financial rewards arbitrarily stripped from you based upon the whims and fancies of those in power. » wiki
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steemit
I know Wikipedia is not the absolute truth but it is still a huge player in the information industry and a mainstreamely trusted media. By now Wikipedia is the second result on Google when you type Steemit! So it's quite bad publicity for newcomers. I've learned that blockchain based encyclopedia is coming and maybe it will help to solve some vandalism and politicals issues present on wiki. To go further on that topic, here's a good article talking about Everipedia from Tristan Greene, blogger for thenextweb.com
Meanwhile, I'm wondering why there is no Steemit talented writers and thinkers that are working on a Wikipedia «reviews» of Steemit in more nuances ways? Indeed it could benefit the platform.
Steemit is a new approach, a social experimentation. No one can exactly predict what will be the outcomes. Of course there are scam opportunities on Steemit, but I just can't see the whole thing as a big scam, but maybe someone knows better than me about that ?
It's true that I had noticed such things as «rewards rape», flag wars, circle jerking, etc. on the ecosystem. But there are also people trying to find solutions for this. @Lovejuice is a funny example of somethings that try to handle this. unfortunately it haven't works as intended but still turns into something interesting anyways.
« Lovejuice started as a weird joke to me. I was mad at how much circle jerking was going on and I was going to build a bot that would flag posts and spray some lovejuice on it and tell people that lovejuice is best shared between at least two consenting adults »
Learn more about it here.
Source: https://steemit.com/life/@aggroed/i-m-paying-20usd-paid-in-steem-or-sbd-to-people-who-want-to-write-for-lovejuice
What is here to come ?
Is Steemit condemned by its nature to reproduce the mainstream patriarchy warriors oriented obsolete political system? I have no greed in making the money shift from shitty hands to other shitty hands... even if it can get me rich on the run. Can steemit be hardforck into something that solves issues like these? Will it need a new application, another «Steemit» to better suit the purpose of an effective fair redistribution of wealth? Let have a read from the point of view a MIT Media Lab team. In the following article: Decentralized Social Networks Sound Great. Too Bad They’ll Never Work, research scientists analyze the idea of decentralized social networks and point out the strengths and weaknesses. As being aware of our weeknesses is a way to grows strongers, this is a worthy read despite of the provocative title.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/decentralized-social-networks-sound-great-too-bad-theyll-never-work/
Many steemit user are calling for steemit too the moon in 2018 but one thing is sure, if we don't want to see Steemit collapsing completely on itself like a supernova: It would need to become more userfriendly and more fair.
Truth is pretty hard to get nowadays both in mainstream media an alternative one. As always criticisms is needed and with Steemit we need not to fall in believing only what comes from inside the platform. Mostly that further it gets more complicated with a system like crypto that calls for huge gambling and speculation.
So ok... resuming the year sounds like waves of adrenaline, stress, ecstatic moods, uncertainty, hope, deception. So where should I invest my time and my money then? Sometime it's good not to hurry. Sit back and watch things from a new perspective. This brings us finally to the 5 most secures and worthy investments better than Bitcoin that I've found. I borrow them at Miguel Cuneta a Co-founder at Satoshi Citadel Industries.
Sorry for the click bait, hope those thoughts will help you on your path. I'll resume here the five suggestions without explanation but the article is really worth a read for it intersects value, even if it comes from out of steemit and it can't accumulate Steem. It's an objective read on the overwhelmingness of the crypto and how to invest our time (sometimes seen as money), in a very clever way.
Five Investments Guaranteed Better Than Bitcoin
Read it on decentralize.today
Source: https://decentralize.today/five-investments-guaranteed-better-than-bitcoin-92f8747a46a1
I would like to end this article with a quote from Naomi Klein talking more specifically about climate change, but still very accurate about the historical time we are living right now on so many aspects.
«Overall things are getting both worse and better. It’s a race against time to see which side is going to win.»
Source: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/brief-encounter-naomi-klein-answers-12-questions
So take a deep breath, stay calm, thinks wisely, chose your goals, work hard, be passionate about it.