Steem's value is far more than the value of its cryptocurrency. Its value is in its ability to tear down the barriers of entry into crypto, and by extension help seed our ongoing transition to a new era of "social capitalism".
I imagine a lot of people here are excited about the prospect of making money by creating content, but I think its important to take a step back and appreciate the real value Steem is providing right now because it stands to be bigger than simply monetizing content creation and curation.
The real value in Steem is its ability to tear down the barriers of entry into cryptocurrency by allowing average users to take part in it without requiring intricate knowledge of rather technical aspects of computers, or an understanding of economic markets and the willingness to jump through hoops to get onto the exchanges. Until this happens, cryptocurrency will largely belong to the nerds and economists as it has. After it happens however, it allows the commons to start consuming the world in what will be an incredibly transformational process of society.
I've toyed with a number of ideas of tying social to crypto and using social interactions as the basis for a currency over the past few years, and a discussion based model has always been one of my top priorities because it ties so closely with my project-in-hiatus sourced.fm. Social interactions after all are the atomic unit of economics; without them there is no economic theory to speak of. Rather than commodity backed currency, or a debt backed fiat currency (cough ponzi scheme cough), or even simply a cryptocurrency backed by the work of miners alone, social interactions are the key ingredient into unlocking our new, and maybe only way forward. Without social interactions and the capital they represent at the foundation of our digital economy, cryptocurrency will have missed its mark I feel. Capitalism as we know it is like a top that's losing momentum due the great many perversions of its core ideals that are now the norm, and as it winds down we need to be looking for a new way forward. I see that way as "social capitalism"; the dot product of the good parts of both capitalism and socialism committed to the blockchain with currencies and commodities backed by social capital created from interactions.
Its an incredibly exciting time in human history to be alive for a million and one reasons and counting, but the potential that Steem represents is far and away one of the most exciting things we can hope to come to fruition. The transition from centralized power structures and economics built on debt (a fancy word for control through coercion), to a decentralized, self-sufficient system built on social capital will be surreal, but it can't happen until the means are available to the lay person and the barriers of entry are flattened.
And this is why the real value of Steem isn't its ability to make profits for content creators and curators, though that's a huge service on its own given the state of our flailing media layer. The real value of Steem is its ability kickstart this transition to a new era of social capitalism mediated by blockchains, allowing the commons to start to take back more of society from the debt holders. And for that, we should all be much more excited than we are about any sort of financial gain. By being here, we're all taking part in the seeds of that transformation.