And maybe it's as simple as that. Steem thoughts.

With the announcement of HF20 and SMT's the direction of the blockchain is clear and should be clear to everyone.

It's no longer about blogging it's about empowering anyone to tokenise the web through the Steem blockchain protocol.

You can see this process unfolding already before your very own eyes in all the different projects that are currently being build on the blockchain (dlive, dtube, busy.org, steem monsters, steepshot etc).

All they need now is their own token and the ability to onboard users easy and the growth will be unstoppable.

In 6 months time when SMT's are released I sort of see the first mining phase of STEEM coming to an end.

A brilliant mining phase where instead of mining with boring computers people could mine with their brain.

A mining phase that lasted 3 years and gave opportunity to everyone who was there to obtain as much STEEM as they could in any shape or form.

For me it's been tremendously fun to see people use their brains to obtain STEEM and to see the different ways they came up with to mine STEEM.

It's also been sad to see people part with their mined STEEM so easily without thinking about the future potential.

(Future potential of STEEM was basically the essence of my blog for almost 2 years and I say 'was' because the future potential 'is' now clear).

And yes, the earlier people started mining the more tokens they could earn.

The early bird catches the worm.

Now of course all kinds of things happened with that mined STEEM.

Some sold it cheap to buy goods, some might have used it to payoff debts, some bought it because they saw value in it and some just kept everything they earned.

In the end of the day it doesn't really matter.

The STEEM ended up in the hands of people that see value in it and left the hands of the people that didn't see it.

Today it's already infinity harder to acquire STEEM and you either have to add tremendous value to the blockchain or buy/have a big stake to get even started.

And it made me think about STEEM in the future.

When Steem becomes the standard blockchain that will be used in the future to create a token to empower products, communities, onboard users or basically whatever people will come up with, they will need some Steempower.

And I guess in such a future Steempower will just be seen as a business expense that will either be rented or bought by companies/communities.

Basically like electricity or gas.

Nobody will care where that STEEM initially came from if it's a needed expense that will allow them to make a better product or more profit.

And maybe in the end of the day it's as simple as that.