It is ironic.
The fact that STEEM is barely on the radar of anyone in the cryptocurrency world, and almost nobody outside of it, means that all FUD is coming from Steemians. It is the people who are on STEEM who are spreading the negativity.
Of late, it seems like the popular mantra is the STEEM competition. Many are pointing to other projects that are going to take out Steemit.
I just shake my head when I read stuff like this. Do people really understand what is going on here?
To start, for the umpteenth time, Steemit is not STEEM.
Steemit is the fisrt application on the STEEM blockchain and, at present, the most popular. That said, there are other interfaces now that actually, in my view, are better than Steemit.
It is also tied to the development team that is working on a host of applications and upgrades for this blockchain that are going to enable it to maximize its potential. There is little need to rehash all of them as they can be read in the developer's blog,
Blockchain is a new industry. The technology is still under experimentation. Every day we are seeing more being developed that is enlarging the entire ecosystem. Since many see projects that are similar to STEEM in that they are based around social media, we get the "next Steemit killers".
This blockchain has more than two years in operation. There was a report that came out last week that said most blockchain projects last a little over a year. STEEM is already establishing itself as one designed for the long-term.
Two years provided invaluable experience. Read through some of the posts that people who were here the entire time and you will see some of the growing pains Many mistakes were made which required a lot of adjusting. I wrote a couple posts about Minds. That is a project that has a Facebook feel to it. One of the things they are doing during their testnet is to figure out the reward system. STEEM already has that taken care of. Minds could spend the next 6 months trying to determine the best course of action with that.
Blockchain success depends upon community. Many like to talk about 1M users, a number that means little to me. A lot of people agree with me on that so they allude to the 60K who transact on a daily basis. From a long-term perspective, that also doesn't tell me much.
What is the telling sign, at this point, is the developers. That is what is the separating factor. STEEM spent two years attracting people who wanted to create applications and tie them to this blockchain. It seems there is a post on a daily basis announcing another application. The rate of development is really incredible.
Like anything else, it is a numbers game. There is really no way to tell what clicks with the online crowd. Who foresaw the success of CryptoKitties? Yet that was a game that torched Ethereum's blockchain. A simply game maxed out the transactions on that blockchain.
Many of the applications that are developed on the STEEM blockchain will not go anywhere. Failure is a part of development. That said, there will be some that do become screaming successes. That is the main attraction.
Also, the Smart Media Token protocol is going to really send things in an upward direction. From a development standpoint, that targets a completely new audience. Instead of STEEM being of interest to those who are on here, suddenly websites that create content while also being interested in giving their readers incentives are potential candidates to join this blockchain.
Does that mean there are not other choices out there? Of course not. I fully expect many social media projects to arise over the next year or two. Many will have the advantage of copying what STEEM already accomplished. Such is life in an open source world.
Even those that copy what is taking place here, they still have a huge mountain to climb. Like all blockchains, there is the issue of scaling. Even if one is a graphene-based blockchain, the back end still needs to be able to handle the volume of transactions. That is something the STEEM development team is currently working on.
Also, STEEM has a multitude of applications that spent the last 6 or 7 months doing update after update. They are far removed from version 1.0. Another blockchain not only needs to get the applications, but also get the updates going. As we know, version 1.0 of any technology is not very stable and usually full of bugs.
There will be other social media blockchains and applications that probably are better than Steemit. Heck, I am convinced that there will be many applications on STEEM that end up surpassing Steemit as we move forward. I recently read there are now 3.6B people who are connected to the Internet. Unless you are someone who thought that all 7B people would eventually be on STEEEM, the fact that people will have choices should not be a surprise. There will be other social media blockchains that have hundreds of millions of people.
The difference is track record carries some weight. I see the same FUD spread about Bitshares and the fact there are other decentralized exchanges coming online. Bitshares also has a track record of success in conducting transactions. Like STEEM, the people involved in that blockchain learned a lot over the past few years.
Speaking of exchanges, many like to point out the fact that STEEM is not listed on a ton of exchanges. That is true. What many overlook is a new social media blockchain is listed on less than STEEM. It takes a while for newer tokens to get listed. STEEM worked on it the past couple years. A new blockchain is going to have a tougher time getting recognition unless it gets the fanfare of an EOS.
One thing that I already see developing is that STEEM is starting to be able to bypass the exchanges. While we only see a couple of alternatives, the ecosystem is creating an outlet for people to use STEEM. We are at the point now where entrepreneurs need to create business on STEEM to offer people goods and services that can be purchased in STEEM. 
We are going to see more of these creations over the next year. STEEM is to the point to start building out the commerce end of things.
Another beneficial aspect to all this is that the options available to use STEEM will, essentially, be available to any Smart Media Token. Since they are all paired with STEEM, anyone earning a SMT can convert it to STEEM and spend on whatever is available on the STEEM blockchain. Hence, STEEM might soon be offering built-in commerce to the SMT package.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain are new technologies. It is best to remember that. Anyone who knows about venture capitalists and Silicon Valley understands that the failure rate is about 90%. A VC hopes to hit on 1 out of 10 projects funded. There are a ton of variables to creating a successful technological project.
The reason I bring this up is to highlight the idea that just because a project is slated to be the next "Steemit killer", that does not mean it will ever get off the ground. There is a lot that can go wrong.
Yes there will be other blockchains similar to STEEM. However, for everyone that succeeds, there will be a bunch that fail.
Keep this in mind when concluding that something will destroy STEEM. Just because it sounds good in the white paper, that does not mean that it will even come off as the founders envision. Talk to any developer, there is a lot that can go wrong.
The entire blockchain industry is only 9 years old; STEEM is operational for over two. For such a young industry, that is considered an old-timer.
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