Since STEEM is only worth about $0.13 USD right now, what is there to get excited about?

I think that there are two great opportunities that exist.

Buying Steem
Post Payouts

BUYING STEEM

With STEEM currently so cheap there is really no time like the present to consider buying some. I have not yet, but it's getting pretty enticing, and I may be thinking about it. When we consider how new of a cryptocurrency STEEM is and how new of a platform steemit is, they have accomplished a lot in their short time of existence, and I think that the future is bright. Remember, we are only in BETA mode so far and lots of great improvements have already been made.

POST PAYOUTS

Obviously, post payouts are down as far as overall value goes. Of the three options for how author rewards can be received, SD, STEEM, and STEEM POWER, nothing is even currently being paid out in SD. Personally, I like this fact.

The only thing that I have ever cashed out was SD, so I've still got all my STEEM. With the low value of STEEM, the amount that is being paid out right now in STEEM and STEEM POWER is incredible!

Consider this recent post payout that I had. The total amount at the time of the first payout was $10.82. Nothing incredible, but a nice payout these days to be sure, and one that others are capable of receiving as well. On the surface, there is nothing too stellar about that payout, especially once we consider that the author rewards were only $9.88.

With no SD payout, the amount of STEEM and STEEM POWER received is impressive though. The opportunity to gain a lot of STEEM POWER right now is incredible, even if you do not choose to be paid in 100% STEEM POWER. By the time that things change, a lot of minnows will already have become dolphins. I just topped 7000 STEEM POWER myself.

When it comes to STEEM though, I am really excited about the payouts. SD is always going to be worth around $1 USD, so there is not a lot of room to make money by holding it (other than the 10% APR), unless you use it to buy STEEM.

STEEM, however, fluctuates more.

This image above is to demonstrate that STEEM, in the recent past, was once over $4.00 USD and it is now less than $0.15 USD. The amount of STEEM on each half of the image are about the same, when we consider that over 25 STEEM at the current price are worth about what 1 STEEM once was. My example post payout would have gained me about 1 STEEM maximum before; now it paid out over 30.

If STEEM rose to $1.00 USD again, that post was suddenly worth more than $30.00 USD just in STEEM, not to mention STEEM POWER. If STEEM reached its record price again, I would have made over $130 USD from the "$10 payout" on my post.

I hope that this makes sense to you.

Basically, steemit is like a company that is giving away free stock to those who post on it. I'm not sure how low, or high, it will go, but I'm glad that I am getting some right now. If authors seeking bigger payouts have left the community, it just makes it easier for me to succeed.

Overall, this makes me very excited about steemit and the current price of STEEM.

So, from my unqualified, uneducated point of view on the subject, I would liken STEEM to these two girls here:

What does the future hold for them?

That's my guess.

They sure do look better up there (when they are representing the value of STEEM), don't they?

CLOSING

In closing, I've been having a great time on steemit and I am really glad to be here. However, I would honestly not be here except for two people. If you appreciate Hive account@papa-pepper and all that he offers, you may want to take the time to thank these two users.

The first is Hive account@noganoo. He introduced me to steemit and has helped me out a lot along the way. Since I used to spend very little time online and have no real background in cryptocurrencies or social media, I would have never came to steemit if it wasn't for Hive account@noganoo. He struggles to get posts out sometimes, but he has had some great ones in the past.

If Hive account@noganoo is the one who got me to steemit, Hive account@pharesim is the one who made me stay. Hive account@pharesim took an interest in my posts very early on, and if it were not for the encouragement that his upvotes brought me, I can honestly say that I would not have stayed very long.