I was reading today, so many things; please leave comments if you disagree, or if you think my facts are not straight; I'm sorry I do not cite sources here:
1) Steem is processing more transactions per day than bitcoin or ethereum - I would think that will get noticed!
2) I read an article about how it's being enabled by the steemit web site to make it a great investment by offering so many services to go with it:
I like the future of Steem because its hovering just north of a dollar right now and has a platform anyone can interact with it, trade it to another user, vote and grow channels they like, and even transfer the tokens to others within the social network.
You can't do that with Ripple, Bitcoin, or many others. All you can do with them is either buy, hold, trade, or sell that's it.
This steemit platform lets the "common" man or woman produce and participate in intellectual ideas, thoughts, blogs, pictures, videos, jokes and on and on.
3) Bitcoin has problems right now, transactions are slow and expensive. It's very popular around the world, price is going up, but it has major problems that look like it will take years to solve them. I think it will still attract those that hear about it in the news, and know nothing about it, but it will not remain dominant.
I'm moving away from bitcoin now, while it's high and I can buy much cheaper, better tokens that provide more utility for a cheaper price.
4) Steem does not charge a fee for transactions. That's going to kill all the other altcoin (there are hundreds), in many ways. Not ETH, but most of the others, have no game like this. They pale in comparison; just pure hype in comparison.
For contracts, ETH makes sense. Forming a business, maybe writing a will, not sure, making contracts that have money associated with them, multiple signatures, this is what ETH does. It's very valuable.
For casual transactions, blog posts, kitty pictures, recipes, something more simple, designed to work faster than the speed of the fastest processors and file systems is needed. Steem seems to be headed in that direction.
Make no mistake, this enables incredible value.
5) Replaces or reduces need for advertising.
I don't need to tell anyone that advertising on the open web almost hobbles web traffic, and mobile apps are probably worse, because there is much less of a sandbox. Security is constantly challenged by mobile apps, and advertising on the web makes most sites unenjoyable. And don't forget bloggers are dying out there right now, because Google returns text answers before the link results. That has cut down on ad traffic a great deal.
When writers can write without having to sell the most newspapers compared to colleges, then they find their niche, and can write without oppressive environment coloring the process.
I'm a critic. I only like the best. This one is it.