Once again we are seeing the price of Steem falling, but then so are all the other cryptocurrencies. It seems the speculators are a bunch of sheep who think that an issue with one, generally Bitcoin, affects the others. Maybe the low prices will encourage a new wave of people to buy in. The general trend has been for coins to go up, but I hope that some will be more discerning and notice those that have something special to offer. Some of us remember the days of Steem at 7c and we stuck with it. We kept earning Steem back then and it's worth a lot more now. Even at the current price I've averaged over $200 each week, which is better than any other social site is likely to do for a casual blogger like me.
So I say carry on as usual and enjoy the benefits later on. I may well be totally wrong and it could all crash, but I'll have had a lot of fun. I'd have been blogging somewhere anyway and I've made lots of new friends here.
Meanwhile, interest in Steemit is growing with Steemit hitting new records for visitors. It's going to enter the top 4000 sites pretty soon.
Hypestat reckons it gets almost 100,000 visitors each day. On a more local level it's in the top 1000 sites in the UK and South Korea. It could get there in the US soon. That's still the biggest audience by far, but I know people in other countries are really pushing it, e.g. 
I am an optimist by nature, but I could be wrong. It just seems that as internet usage expands and people seek extra income Steemit has something special to offer. An influx of new users may mean more spam, but those people will soon find that it doesn't pay here. The entrepreneurs will find new business models based around this platform. They may even find it worth paying for accounts for potential customers as they will make that money back.
I will pay for accounts for any of my friends or other interesting people to get them on here. I want everyone to be able to enjoy the benefits. More users will increase the demand for Steem. It's not just an investment, it's also a convenient currency. For now I'm switching to 100% Power Up on my posts and will convert some SBD to Steem. I still plan to spend some SBD, but I can wait for the Steem price to go up and increase my spending power.
Steem on!
I'll buy guitar picks for Steem Dollars